Arguments against Christianity - Part 3 - Hinduism

Lesson Transcript

Today we're picking up in this series arguments against Christianity, specifically the arguments that there are thousands of different gods and thousands of different religions for us to choose from. So let's recap some of these arguments that we've been looking at. Now, I know that this next part is a little bit difficult to hear. There's nothing that feels good about some of this stuff, but you must remember that the world hates you. It hates you, and it hates your Christianity.

The hatred is real, and there's nothing constructive that comes from sugarcoating these things for our entire lives.

The argument against you is this: that Christianity is the vestigial tale of humanity, that humanity has actually arrived through science, and we no longer need religious nonsense to know how the world ticks, what makes it tick, that religion is for the naive and ignorant people who blindly believe whatever it is that their parents spoon-fed them regarding this invisible sky daddy who is bizarrely and obsessively concerned with what we do when we get naked.

Your parents spoon-fed that to you, and you took a hook, line, and sinker without a single critical thought passing through your little brain, and then you've turned around and put it into the mouths of your toddlers, your children. You believed what you're told, you verified nothing, then you fed the same thing to your toddlers, and you're comfortable with that. You were born in America, so you're a Christian. If you were born in India, you'd be a Hindu. If you were born in Pakistan, you'd be a Muslim.

That's a coincidence, isn't it? You're always born into the right God. Isn't that lucky? You were born into the right God. All those other people, they're going to hell, but no, not you. You were born into the right religion. Strange how we hold on to medieval beliefs like this. And all of that were quotes that we looked at over the past few messages on this series by this gentleman, Ricky Gervas. And here's another one that we've been looking at.

There have been nearly 3,000 gods so far, but only yours actually exist. All the other ones are silly made-up nonsense, but no, no, no, not yours. Yours is actually real. These are the arguments that we face, and this is part three of the series. And if you've stumbled upon this teaching and you really want to know what's going on, you need to go back and watch part number one and part number two of this series.

What we are doing in this series is we are digging into some data that was put out by the Pew Research Center. This research tells us all about the five to seven major world religions that actually exist in our population today, not the thousands that we're told that we have to choose from. There are thousands of churches and denominations and religious bodies within these major religions, but only a few handful of umbrella religions.

And based on the current population between Christianity, Judaism, Islam, the unaffiliated Hinduism, Buddhism, and folk religion, those seven, this constitutes and makes up 99.2% of the current population, leaving just this small sliver right here to contain all of the other religious options that we're told that we have. And 50% of these people practice something called Sikhism, leaving a whopping 0.4% to cover all the options that we're told that we have.

And what we've been doing in this series is we've been digging into all of these major world religions and seeing what each one of these have to offer us. How do these religions answer the critical questions in life? We've been putting them to the test. Two tests: the test of correspondence and the test of coherence. Do they correspond to truth either through the empirical forms of measurement or through the logical reasoning process?

That means where it can be tested, does it line up with what we know to be a reality? And are the answers that they provide coherent? Do they hold together through the logical reasoning process? For all of these religions, what we're doing is we are looking at how they answer the critical questions of origin, meaning, destiny, and morality. Origin, meaning, destiny, and morality. We are also looking at how each one is categorized. Which ones believe that only the universe exists?

Which ones believe that only God exists? And which ones believe that both God and the universe exist? Every religion fits into one of these three categories. We are also looking at each one's sacred text. What are their scriptures? And we are also looking at how their sacred texts are connected to their view of morality or how they are not connected. In the last message, we covered the reasons why we're not going to investigate folk religions. We investigated atheism/naturalism, and we also covered agnosticism.

So let's review those real quickly here. We'll start with naturalism/atheism. The category is only the universe exists, only matter exists. The sacred texts are the science textbooks and research papers. The origin is the Big Bang. Ultimate meaning is none. We've been talking about in this series about how in order for there to be an ultimate purpose or a transcendent meaning in life, it requires a mind behind creation. And the naturalists say there is no mind, so there can be no ultimate meaning.

Useful meaning is doing good and wholesome things that produce pleasure. Morality is subjective. It's subject to the mind of man. It's not subject in any way to the mind of a God. And the relationship between morality and the sacred texts is there is none because the sacred texts are the scientific papers and research, and science does not make moral judgments, and their destiny is extinction. When you die, you cease to exist.

I want you to take note of origin and morality because it's really going to tie into today's message. Origin is the Big Bang. Morality is that it is subjective. Now let's review agnosticism. The category is unknowable. Origin is unknowable. Ultimate meaning is unknowable. Useful meaning is self-determined. It is up to each individual. Each person can find a useful purpose for their own life. Morality, maybe it's objective, maybe it's subjective. Can't know. Destiny is unknowable.

Relationship between morality and sacred texts is none. We talked about how agnosticism is not where people turn to to get answers because by definition, the answers can't be found there. If the answers were found there, in some ways, it would cease to be agnosticism, and that is under the definition that agnosticism is these things can't be known. So that's what we covered last time.

And if you want to know how we thought through these things in a systematic way, you can go back and watch message or part one and part two of this series. Today, we are continuing this journey, and we are taking a deep dive into the religion of Hinduism. Hindus make up about 15% of the world's population. Now, regarding how Hinduism is categorized, they believe that only God exists. In my opinion, this particular aspect of Hinduism is the most difficult for Christians to comprehend.

I'm going to touch on it briefly here, but I'm going to continue to build on this concept as we go through this because it is so incredibly difficult to wrap your head around this when you have had no exposure to it. My first exposure to Hinduism was not when I was preparing for this message. For me, it all began about 20 years ago. I was a manager at a grocery store by the name of Publix in Bethesda, Georgia. And there was a Hindu named Leni who worked in the meat department.

And Leni and I had two things in common. We both loved talking about spiritual things, and we both had a love for Chinese buffets. Two types of people in this world: those who think that Chinese buffets are the greatest thing since sliced bread, and those who think that Chinese buffets are nothing more than breeding grounds for rodents and disease. Me and Leni were the sliced bread kind of guys. Kevin Breckbell, on the other hand, is one of the rodents and disease kinds of guys.

If you ever want to feel spiritual, but you're not really in the mood to do anything, invite Kevin to fellowship with you over a Chinese buffet. He will magically have plans, I'm sure, somewhere else. So once per month, at least, me and Leni, we'd get together. We would gorge ourselves at a Chinese buffet, and we would hash out the mysteries of life. I was a zealous Christian, and he was a happy Hindu. And I was diligently trying to convert him.

I would systematically lay out argument after argument, asking him question after question, and all of his answers seemed to be leading me to believe that he was actually becoming converted. He was so agreeable, and he would listen intensely, and he would say, "Yes, I see what you mean. I guess I can believe that. I can agree with that." All that makes sense.

He would have this look on his face like he was actually pondering and interested in what I was talking about, and there was hardly ever any pushback or resistance. In fact, he was so agreeable that so much about so much of what I had laid down before him that I was convinced that he was almost already a Christian. All he had to do was be baptized. I always got the impression that he was on the verge of conversion, but no.

In the end, no matter how well I crafted the conversation, no matter how much he declared that he agreed with me about what I believed, in the end, he would say, "You are a Christian. For you to change, no good. You should remain a Christian." I'm a Hindu. For me to change, it's no good. I should remain a Hindu. I was so perplexed. How could he agree and believe all of that stuff and him not be a Christian?

Decades later, I finally realized why speaking to him about God and religion was like beating my head against the wall. It was because our premises were fundamentally different at a core level. You see, to me, both God and the universe existed, but to him, only God existed. We were operating from two totally different worldviews, and I did not even comprehend that his worldview even existed, and I'm not sure if he comprehended that mine existed.

He told me all sorts of things about Hinduism, and never once did he give the slightest hint that he had any desire for me to be converted, for it was good for me to be a Christian. The years following that, I continued to try to study Hinduism, but I simply couldn't get it. Not for lack of trying, I simply could not find anyone separating the mystical symbolism that saturates the religion from Hindu doctrine and practice.

I couldn't find anyone who was communicating in a systematic way, "This is how Hinduism works." I couldn't find it in a way that at least I could comprehend. That was until I stumbled across Mr. Jay Lecani. He's a theoretical physicist and a speaker who passed away a couple of years ago back in 2020. There's an article written about him on a website called iGlobal. It's an Indian publication. And for those who don't know, India is largely a Hindu population.

The slogan of this publication is "The Voice of Global Indians." The article was titled "Tribute to Jay Lecani. British Hindus Reflect on His Enduring Legacy as That Will Live On for Generations." The article itself said, "A theoretical physicist and global speaker Jay Lecani passed away peacefully at home on December 4th at the age of 72.

It was a sad day for the British Hindu community as they bade farewell to their adored and well-respected scholar and pioneer of Hindu studies in the United Kingdom, author of Hinduism for School 2005, Primary Hinduism 2006, Special Times Hinduism in 2009, and A Journey Through Life in Hinduism in 2010.

Lecani was the first Hindu tutor at Eton College and was known for his popular GCSE and A-level Hinduism classes, which he taught up and down the country." Now, I am not sure if Jay Lecani makes for a good representation of Hinduism. I looked to try to see if I could find any Hindu sources speaking against what Jay Lecani teaches about Hinduism, but everything that I found from the Hindu community was only praise and glory.

So to cite my source, the majority of what I will be teaching to you today and saying regarding Hinduism comes from what I learned from this gentleman. He was the director of an educational organization called the Hindu Academy, which was based in the United Kingdom. Mr. Lecani gave a series of lectures. They're all on YouTube. It's somewhere between 8 and 10 hours long, and I sat and I listened to all of them.

And if I had been able to study his teachings back in the late '90s, I would not have been so utterly confused trying to relate with my friend, Hindu friend Leni. So what I'm going to do is attempt to teach you what I wish I had learned decades ago. Let's dive into Hinduism. We've already covered that Hinduism, the framework is that only God exists. But before we look deeper into that, we're going to cover three different concepts, and these three concepts apply to both Hinduism and Buddhism.

They are Dharma, Karma, and Reincarnation. Dharma, Karma, and Reincarnation. Jay Lecani says this about Dharma. Pay close attention to this. The word that we use to define our religion, it's not really a religion, really, is Dharma. Did you catch that? He said the word Dharma is the word that's used to define Hinduism. He then goes on to say that religion is not really a good word to describe Hinduism. The word that we use to define our religion, it's not really religion, really, is Dharma.

Religion is trying to associate the ultimate reality called God with humanity, associating God with humanity. That's religion, but Dharma is different. Dharma is simply saying making sense of this human condition and resolving it ourselves, sorting ourselves out. It is simply saying, "Who the heck are we? And what are we doing here? And how do we sort ourselves out?" These things are not as easy as we thought. How do we sort ourselves out?

And this sorting ourselves out is the enterprise of Dharma, coming to terms with the laws in this world that we see around us and the laws that operate within us, our emotions, our drives, coming to terms with them and harnessing them for our embeddment. This is Dharma, and this is shared by the four Indian religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. So far in this definition of Hinduism, the concept of God doesn't even appear. That's his direct quote.

So the core of Hinduism is not understanding the relationship between God and humanity. The core is Dharma, sorting out the human condition. Next, we have Karma. Things are connected by cause and effect. What you set in motion will catch up to you, but it is important that you don't oversimplify it. And he kept saying that quote, "It's important that you don't oversimplify." Over and over, he would say that, and he actually explained what he means by that.

He says that you contribute to what happens to you, but not everything that happens to you is directly connected to something that you did or didn't do. Now, after listening to his lectures, I realized that we, at least definitely me, have a wrong and Westernized idea of the concept of Karma. We think that if you do good, then good things happen, and if you do bad, then bad things happen. We kind of inject those ideas into that, but that is not what Karma is.

Karma is simply understanding that things are connected by cause and effect, and he gives an example in his lectures. He says, "Say you have a leaky pipe in your attic. It's a small leak, though. You say, 'I'll fix it when I return from my vacation.' One week later, you return to a flooded living room." That is Karma. It is not that one decision was morally good or morally evil. It's just that actions have consequences. All things are connected by cause and effect.

In this case, the flood in the living room and the homeowner's insurance claim. And there's another incorrect way that Westerners view the idea of Karma, that if you are good overall in your life, then overall your life is going to be good, and if you're bad or evil, then overall your life is going to be bad. Lecani says that you contribute to what happens to you, but not everything that happens to you is directly connected to something that you did or didn't do.

He says the terms he uses is things are connected by cause and effect, but a lot of other things gang up on you, is how he would say. A lot of other things gang up on you. Just because a bunch of bad things happened to you does not mean that you have done a bunch of equally bad things to deserve this. For example, Wes's cousin, he was hit by a truck while he was checking the mail. If he hadn't have been standing there, then that wouldn't have happened. That is Karma.

Be standing right there on that day at that time, be hit by a truck. But that does not mean that Karma was following him around and keeping tabs of all the bad things that he was doing and just chose to pay him back for all of them at that moment. Lecani says that there are a lot of things that happen to a person that have nothing to do with their own karma. A lot of things gang up on you. And that's what it means when he warns that we should not oversimplify the concept of Karma.

So we have Dharma, sorting yourself out. Karma, things are connected by cause and effect. And third, we have reincarnation, the belief that after you die, your soul is born again into another body of some sort. What do you suppose that means? People don't have memories of past lives. So what exactly are the things that pass on from one life to the next? He answers the question.

The things that you set in motion, such as your intellect and your emotions and your character, these things will follow you from one life to the next. So not everything passes from one life to the next, certainly not your thoughts. What passes is a person's intellect, their emotions, and their character. A rational question at this point might be, is there any evidence to this? Jay Lecani says there is actually evidential proof of reincarnation and action.

He gives three examples in his lecture that we can look at today that point to as evidence that reincarnation does actually describe reality. Example number one is the child prodigy. Every so often, a child is born with seemingly superhuman abilities like comprehending college-level mathematics or physics at the age of six, or who can masterfully play the piano at the age of four. And we've all heard of stories of child savants.

This happens according to the doctrine of reincarnation because that person had been very disciplined in these fields and had practiced them for many hundreds and hundreds of previous lives. Over many, many lifetimes of discipline and intellect have been compiling and compounding and has been passed on from lifetime to lifetime. This is how the child prodigy is born. The second example that he points to, irrational fears, phobias, and other psychological issues.

Say someone who is frightened of heights, not in the normal butterflies in the stomach sense, but someone who is frightened in a debilitating way. Reincarnation says that this person may have fallen to their death in a previous life, and that fear created has passed on into their next life. And the third example that he points to that reincarnation actually describes reality is homosexuality and the LGBT community. Remember, a man's character is what follows him.

Say a man has very many rewarding sexual experiences in his life, and in the next life, the same. And in the next life, he pursues sex with a woman even more and more, and he becomes one of those who lives for this type of lustful pleasure. After many lifetimes, this person has become defined by this lustful passion, and then in the next life, he is born into a female body. According to the doctrines of reincarnation, this is how the lesbian is made.

Hindus say that the LGBT community is strong evidence that reincarnation actually describes or is what is really going on. So Dharma, Karma, and reincarnation, these are fundamental in both Hinduism and Buddhism. With that being said, the rest of what we talk about today will only apply to Hinduism. So we mentioned that only God exists, but let's look a little bit deeper at the Hindu concept of God. God is spirit. All things are spirit. I am a manifestation of God. You are a manifestation of God.

This pulpit is a manifestation of God. All things living and all things dead are manifestations of God. Only God exists. And the name of this God is Brahman. Brahman is the ultimate reality. And the reality is that all things are one. Now, before I go further, let me explain something about the term God in Hinduism. If you don't get this, then you will be utterly confused if you ever choose to study Hinduism in the future. In Hinduism, there are three different distinct concepts of God. The first is Brahman.

Brahman refers to the ultimate reality, the ultimate consciousness that underlines all of existence. It is often described as the supreme, eternal, and infinite reality that is beyond the material world and beyond all dualities. According to Hindu philosophy, Brahman is the source of all creation and is present in all living and dead things. It is considered to be the unchangeable and eternal essence of the universe that goes beyond time and space and causation.

So Brahman is the closest thing in Hinduism that might parallel with God the Father. There's still a lot of differences there, but that's the closest thing that we get. Notice that Brahman was the only thing outside of causation. Remember Karma. Everything is connected by cause and effect. Brahman is the only thing outside of Karma, the only thing that's outside of cause and effect. So that's the first concept of God.

The second concept of God in Hinduism are deities that are inside of Brahman, or a better way to say this might be expressions of Brahman or certain attributes of Brahman that have been personified and deitized. The most widely worshipped of these in Hinduism are Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. They are often referred to as the Trimurti. We've got a little Trinity parallel there. Hindus notice something. When a Hindu looks at the world, they see cycles.

They see cycles of creation, cycles of preservation, and cycles of destruction. These three gods represent these attributes of the big God Brahman. Brahma is the God of creation. Vishnu is the God of preservation, and Shiva is the God of destruction. So that's the second concept of God. The third concept of God are gods that are created by humans.

When you research Hinduism, you will find a lot of things that say things to the effect of, "There are more than 33 million gods in Hinduism and more being created each day." That was very confusing to me. More being created each day? Like, how does that work? You see, the same word is being used here, God, but in a very different sense of God, different from the lower deities, different from the Brahman. Let me explain how this works and how more are created each day. Let's say I have two goals.

I want to do good in school, and I want to be wealthy. And I'm a Hindu. So what I do is I create a God of knowledge, and I create a God of wealth. I decide that they exist. I personify education, I personify wealth, and I name these gods. So after I've created them and named them, now I worship them. A little bit of time before my classes and after my classes, I will pray to them and I will worship them. These gods that I have created, that's how it's more created each day. But what's the point of this?

The purpose of this, the best that I can tell, is much like the modern-day concept of the laws of attraction, which say that if you put out certain thoughts or if you put out certain energies or certain vibrations, then those same types of thoughts and energies and vibrations will be attracted to you. In Hinduism, I create the God of education, I create the God of wealth, and I worship them. And by doing this, I am attracting success in my education and money to myself.

So these are three very different concepts of God in Hinduism. So if you choose to study Hinduism, anytime you hear the term God being used, if you don't want to be utterly confused, you need to ask yourself the question, which type of God is being referred to here in this statement? For our purposes, when I refer to God, the God of Hindu, I'll be referring to Brahman, the ultimate reality behind all things, the ultimate consciousness behind reality. In the end, all other gods are Brahman.

Every good, every god, every person, everything that exists, according to the doctrines of Hinduism, in the end are all manifestations of Brahman. Now, before we move on from the concept of God, let me introduce one more term, avatar. On occasion, throughout history, one of these higher deities here, one of the Trimurti, is said to take on the form of human. Kind of similar to when a Christian says that Jesus is God incarnate. Obviously, not quite the same. Same similar concept, though.

The Hindu equivalent to Jesus becoming incarnate would be closer to saying Brahman, the ultimate reality becoming incarnate. But in Hinduism, an avatar is when one of these lower deities takes on a human form. For example, nine different times in Hindu history, Lord Vishnu became a man. And so when one of the deities becomes a man, it's called an avatar. And there are actually Hindu scriptures that are the teachings, and some of the Hindu scriptures are teachings of when Lord Vishnu has taken on the form of man.

So let's move on to origin. Hindus, like the atheists, subscribe to the Big Bang. Now, obviously, thousands of years ago, thousands of years ago, Hindus didn't say that the world was created by a Big Bang. But when modern science presented the theory, according to Jay Lecani, the Hindus said, "Yes, yes, that's what we describe as reality. We've known that for a long time." But there is a slight difference. The difference is that modern science sees the Big Bang and sees time as linear.

It has a beginning, and it's moving towards either an eternity or towards an end of some sort. But in Hinduism, time is secular. Time has a beginning, then it comes to an end, and then it comes to a beginning again, and then it comes to an end again. In the same way that when you die, you are reincarnated into another body of some sort or as another object, in that same way, they believe that time and space and matter also has a cycle like that.

It comes to an end, things come into existence, then they are destroyed, and then they are recreated with a new Big Bang. And the word for this they use is kalpa. It means the cycles of creation and destruction. Time itself begins, it ends, it disappears, it reappears. If my memory serves me correctly, and you can't quote me on this, I'd have to relook it up again. But if I'm correct about this, it is said that each kalpa, each Big Bang cycle, is about 4 trillion years.

There's actually a way in the Hindu scriptures that lays out how you calculate how long a kalpa is. So every Big Bang cycle lasts about 4 trillion years. So naturalist and atheists believe in the Big Bang. Hindus believe in the Big Bang. On the same concept of origin, let's look at another similarity between atheism and Hinduism. Like the atheists, Hindus also believe in the evolution of species.

According to Hindu theology, first there was a fish, then came from fish, came amphibians, from amphibians came wild boars, then half man and half animals, and then from the half man and half animals came a dwarfed man. Now, at this point, it's a human, but it's left the half man and half animal stage behind. The next stage is a fully fledged man. But at this stage, the human is an emotionally volatile man, a barbarian of a sort.

This is followed by a peaceful man, then followed by a loving man, then followed by a meditative man. And this is where we currently are in this cycle of kalpa. You know how critics of evolution say, "Well, if evolution is true, then where's all the in-between stages? Shouldn't we see in-between stages?" In Hinduism, the in-between stages do exist. We have not all evolved to the same degree yet. At this time, the half man and half animal, we've evolved from that. There's no more examples of that. Those are extinct.

But we have barbaric men and peaceful men and loving men and meditative men. So there are all the in-betweens in Hinduism. The next step of evolution is said to be the mystical man. This stage in human evolution hasn't happened yet in this particular kalpa. Or if it has, we're mostly unaware of it. Now, before we move on from the topic of origins, let's look at one last thing, specifically regarding the origins of the universe. The Bible is clear and precise in its language. In the beginning, God created.

We are all familiar with that. But in Hinduism, scriptures are not so clear or precise when it comes to the beginning of creation. In the Rig Veda, it is a Hindu scripture containing different hymns regarding creation. So let's read one of these and pay attention to the differences in the language. And also look for the similarities that are interwoven in there between the creation story of the Bible. There was neither non-existence nor existence then.

There was neither the realm of space nor the sky, which is beyond. So this is before anything existed. There was neither non-existence nor was there existence then. There was nothing. There was neither a realm of space nor the sky, which is beyond. What stirred? Where? And whose protection? Was the waters bottomlessly deep? Notice the biblical parallel there. The waters are involved there somehow in the beginning. There was neither death nor immortality then. There was no distinguishing signs of night or day.

This says that there was no life. There wasn't death, nor was there immortality. There was no life. There was no distinguishing signs of night or day. Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning with no distinguishing signs. All was water. Again, we see the water. Desire came upon that one in the beginning. That was the first seed of a mind. Now, notice, there's no mind behind the creation. The first seed of a mind is when this desire arose upon the one. I don't know who the one is.

Seeking in their heart from wisdom, found the bond from non-existence and existence. Their cord was extended across. Was there below? Was there above? Who really knows? Who here will proclaim it? From where was it produced? From where did this creation come? The gods came after the creation of the universe. Who knows where it has arisen? Perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not. The one who looks down on it in the highest heavens, only he knows. Seems here to be referring of God.

Only the one looking down on the highest of heavens, only God knows. But the passage continues, or perhaps he does not know. Now, if you think back to our first lessons in this series, we thoroughly explained how ultimate meaning is dependent on a mind. It is dependent on whether or not there was a mind behind creation. We talked about how if a man wakes up in this existence and looks up and says, "What is the meaning of this?" He always goes to those who came before him for the answer for that. And this continues.

We see generations coming from generations coming from generations all the way back to when the first human existed. And when that first human came into existence and asked the question, "What is the meaning of that?" If any answer came, it had to come from a mind of some sort. A mind is required before the creation in order for there to be a purpose. We explored how a mind is, how the meaning is dependent on a mind.

If humanity was a fluke, if there was no mind behind creation, then we can find a use for our lives, but there can be no transcendent meaning, no ultimate meaning. I'm not going to rehash all of the logic behind that thought process. We covered it in both of the previous messages.

At that critical moment in time, at the beginning of time, where we can learn if there is any ultimate purpose of life, that moment when we find out, "Was there any mind behind creation?" Christianity says, "In the beginning, God." Hinduism says, "Perhaps it formed itself. Perhaps it did not. Only God knows." Or perhaps God doesn't know. So origin of the universe is the Big Bang. Origin of man is that we evolved from fish. There was no mind behind, was there a mind behind creation? Maybe, maybe not.

This is what Hinduism offers us in answering the question of origin. Next, let's look at morality. As Westerners, we have a very, we are very familiar with religions like Christianity and Islam. We see that morality, or what we view as either good or evil, comes from what is defined within the religious sacred text. But this is not so in Hinduism. Hinduism, again, is very similar to naturalism in that morality is subjective. It's completely up to the individual.

Remember Dharma, the word that's used to define Hinduism, sorting out the human condition. Morality is one of those things that's worked out by the individual. Morality, in its nitty-gritty details, is something that we must sort out for ourselves as we go through the process of Dharma. So the question arises, how exactly then do you determine what is good and evil in Hinduism? Mr. Lecani, he said there's only one filter that you need.

If you filter everything through this, you can know the difference between good and evil. And that filter is, if an action or thought causes harm to yourself or is bad for yourself, then it is bad. But if it is good for yourself, then it is good. Now, I know that sounds a little bit self-centered. If you're good, then it's good. If it's bad for you, then it's bad for you. Then it's bad. But you must remember that in Hinduism, I am you and you are me.

When I look out of these eyeballs into your eyeballs and you look out of your eyeballs into my eyeballs, we're not looking at each other. You are looking at yourself and I'm looking at myself. We are the same being. All are one. All is Brahman. There is no other. So if I do something that's harming you, I'm actually doing something that's harming myself. Therefore, that would be bad. In Hinduism, defining the boundaries of morality is almost identical to how morality is defined in naturalism.

It is not determined by what is recorded in a sacred text. Morality is determined by each individual self. On the topic of morality, the concept of good and evil are very difficult to talk about when only God exists. You see, in Hinduism, when one man loves his neighbor, that's a manifestation of God. When one man hates his neighbor, that's also a manifestation of God or Brahman. To be gay is a manifestation of God. To be straight is a manifestation of God. To rape someone is a manifestation of God.

To not rape someone is a manifestation of God. To love is a manifestation of God. To hate is a manifestation of God. All things are God. There is no other. So whether you call something good or if you call something evil, it doesn't change that it's still God. So this is morality in Hinduism. Next, let's look at ultimate meaning. Again, we pointed back to previous lessons.

For there to be an ultimate meaning or an ultimate purpose, there had to be a mind behind creation to give that purpose or to decide if there was going to be one. This framework that only God exists also makes thinking about transcendent purpose very difficult to think about. Because in Hinduism, you are the mind behind creation. Whether your life goes in one direction or your life goes in another direction, you are still me and I am still you and we are both still God. And maybe that's the reason why J.

Lecani teaches that the word that they use to define Hinduism is Dharma, working out your life. For working out your life is your meaning, regardless of what it ends up looking like, because you are God. So ultimate meaning is that you are the mind behind creation, Dharma, work your life out. Useful meaning. What Hinduism teaches is that there is a natural state of humanity. And this natural state is that we are all trapped in a delusion. Interesting parallel there.

This delusion is that you think that you are your mind and your body, but you're not. In reality, your true nature is that you are the thing observing your mind and your body. You think that this is you, but this isn't you. You are the thing observing this. Maybe similar to the Christian concept of a soul. Not really sure about that, though. And the Hindu word for this is the Atman. The real you is the Atman. Now, to the Hindu, there is a concept of hell, but it is different than your concept of hell.

To the Hindu, this life, this existence is hell. Because to live as a human is to suffer. To live is to suffer. And to be trapped in an endless cycle of reincarnation, of living and suffering and dying and living and suffering and dying and living and suffering and dying, this is hell. This life is hell. In Christianity, hell is a place of fire and brimstone created for the future containment and punishment of fallen angels. But in Hinduism, hell is this life and it's caused because of reincarnation.

You keep coming back to it. And reincarnation is caused because of this delusion. This delusion that you are your body and your mind causes you to remain trapped in the cycle of reincarnation. The belief in Hinduism is that once a man can break free from this delusion, he can break free from hell and reincarnation. And this raises the question, how do you do this? This is accomplished when this is accomplished when a man becomes fully aware of his true self, the Atman.

And to become fully aware of the true Atman and break free from the delusion, a man enters, when a man does that, he enters into moksha. To put an end to the cycle of reincarnation is said to enter into moksha. I guess the Christian equivalent to heaven. This is the hoped-for and sought-after destiny of the Hindu. Those who do not obtain moksha are destined to continue to be reincarnated and continue to live in this hell.

This is the most useful purpose for the Hindu, to break free from the delusion and to become fully aware of the Atman. And this raises the question, if it is possible, how is it possible? How does a man fully become aware of his true self and break free from this delusion? Now, remember that in the evolution of man, the highest level that we have reached is the meditative man. This idea of meditation is central in breaking free from this delusion. This is how they do it.

So if you've ever wondered what is the deal with Hinduism, with Hindus always meditating, this is what it's all about. It is through meditation that a man can understand his true self, his Atman, and escape the delusion. But it shouldn't be oversimplified. This is not as easy as it might sound. Shedding the delusion and entering into moksha is said to take lifetimes of meditation. Remember, a man's character follows him from one life to the next.

Through lifetimes of meditation, a man can finally become fully aware of his true self. I am Atman. And when a man becomes fully aware of his true self, when a man reaches that state of understanding through lifetimes of meditation, then on his next death, instead of being reincarnated, he will enter into moksha. The man who enters into moksha attains eternal peace and happiness and is in a state of liberation from all suffering and bondage and is considered the highest achievement a human being can achieve.

So useful meaning is to enter into moksha. Next, we have destiny. Either you remain in the delusion and you're reincarnated into this hell, or you break free from the delusion through meditation and you enter into moksha. One way or another, that's going to be your destiny. Next up, we look at the Hindu sacred texts. We have the Holy Vertice, a collection of hymns, rituals, and philosophical discussions that are considered to be the oldest and most sacred Hindu texts.

We read one of those earlier, composed between 1500 BC and 500 BC. According to Hindu belief, the Vertice, which are considered to be the oldest and most sacred of the Hindu texts, were not composed by humans. See another parallel there. But were rather heard and revealed to sages while they were in deep states of meditation. Next, we have the Upanishads, philosophical texts which discuss the nature of reality itself. They were composed between 800 BC and 500 BC, and the authors are unknown.

Next, we have the Bhagavad Gita. A part of an epic Mahabharata is a dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and Lord Krishna. In my next message, we're going to be talking more about Lord Krishna. Remember earlier when we talked about one of the lower deities becomes a man, they were considered to be an avatar. Krishna was considered to be one of those times where the god Vishnu became a man. And the teachings about Lord Krishna are in this Hindu scripture right here.

Composed between 200 BC and 200 AD, and the authors are unknown. And finally, we have the Vishnu Purana. It is a collection of hymns, legends, and historical accounts. They were composed between 300 AD and 1500 AD, and again, the authors are unknown. Relationship between morality and their sacred text. There is none. As we've already covered in Hinduism, morality is subjective. It is determined by each individual as they exercise Dharma. Morality is not derived from any sacred text. So recap.

The category is the only God exists. You yourself are God, and you are the mind behind creation. Origin is the Big Bang. It's not linear. It's secular. Humans have evolved from fish, and maybe God knows how all this happened. Maybe God doesn't even know. Ultimate meaning is that whatever happens is your ultimate meaning because you are God, regardless of what it ends up looking like.

Useful meaning is that through lifetimes of meditation, you can break free from the delusion, understand what your true self is, and by doing so, you can escape this reincarnation cycle and enter into moksha. Morality is subjective. You get to decide what is good, and you get to decide what is evil. Destiny is to keep reliving this life or keep reliving this hell or escape into moksha through meditation.

The sacred texts are the Vertice, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Puranas, and the relationship between morality and sacred texts is there is none. If you think that an action causes harm or is bad for you, then it is bad, but if it is good for you, then it is good, keeping in mind that every other person is also you. So in regards to these questions of origin, meaning, destiny, and morality, this is Hinduism. This is what Hinduism has to offer us.

In my next message, we were going to dive into how Buddhism answers these questions.