Shiva At Mount Kailash: Where Is He?
In the Hindu belief system, there is one god above all, he does have a name, Parameshwar, but he does not have a body, he does not have a face, he is not even described as formless.
Right beneath that one Parmeshwar is the Hindu trinity: Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the nurturer, and Shiva, the destroyer. Vishnu has showed up in nine incarnations so far, the latest three being Rama, Krishna and Buddha.
It does not seem to matter that The Buddha himself will have nothing to do with it. He was pretty explicit that he was a human being. In his teachings he never talks about any of the Hindu gods and goddesses, although he was born a Hindu. Apparently The Buddha was a Vishnu incarnation who was not even aware he was. The Hindus also claim a Jesus who had fainted was taken down from the cross and smuggled to India where he lived to a ripe old age. Resurrection? What resurrection?
The first Vishnu incarnation looks like a fish, was a fish. The second could live on both land and water. The third had the body of a man but the head of a lion.
I get the impression the ancient Hindus not only managed to crack open quantum physics in the Upanishad, they also hinted at a theory of evolution long before Charles Darwin.
Beneath the trinity are 330 million gods and goddesses. Their king is Indra. There is a god for everything. The Greek mythologies are not richer.
But the third member of the trinity, Shiva the destroyer, is said to reside at Mount Kailash. We know where Mount Kailash is. It's in Tibet. Hindu pilgrims throng there in large numbers every year. But where is Shiva? Where at Mount Kailash is Shiva the destroyer? He seems to be missing in action.
Homer wrote Iliad. Vyasa wrote Mahabharata. Valmiki wrote Ramayana. Veda, Purana, Upanishad were also written by ancient learned men. Some claim some concepts in the Upanishad mirror quantum physics.
But is god like gravity? A force of nature to be discovered? Some individuals or some cultures might do a better job than others of discovering? Or many cultures or civilizations might do an equally good job?
Or is God a Living God, someone who reveals Himself? An all knowing, all powerful God, one God, the Creator? The Eternal Being?
Indians have not done anything the Greeks also did not do. In some ways Indians did more and achieve more. Ancient Hindu philosophies stand out. Yoga stands the test of time and is unique and is timeless wisdom. The Buddha has done the best work on the mind. The Buddhist meditation techniques stand out. But so do relativity and quantum physics. But all knowledge rests in the domain of the mind. Science can and has discovered the laws of physics. But science does not create the laws of physics. There is someone who did. That Creator is God, the one true Living God.
There is but one God, there always has been but one God. There are concrete earthly implications to not being able to see who that true Living God is.
The biggest argument against the elaborate Hindu belief system is the caste system. Is there a Hindu religion that can survive without the caste system? I don't think so.
People in every part of the world have misunderstood God. Jesus, Son of God, was rejected by his own people, the chosen people. Many who have claimed to be followers of Christ over the centuries have misunderstood and misinterpreted God. Indians don't stand out in their misunderstanding.
The one true Living God is worth knowing. For He is the one Creator, the only God that ever was. He is a Living God you can talk to. The one Eternal Being. A loving God, kind and forgiving.
If ancient Hindu philosophies have gems, translate them into all major modern languages and take them to all world, translate them into Hindi and take to the masses in India. I am for taking yoga and the Buddhist meditation techniques into every town on earth. Just like I am for taking the one true God's message into every town in India. India has to ditch the caste system if it wants to become a First World Country. First liberty, then prosperity. There's no way around it.
Jesus created the person on earth, the person of one person one vote democracy. You can not accept Jesus Christ as your Personal Savior unless you realize your soul is unique in the history and future of time. And there is no need to accept Jesus Christ as your Personal Savior unless you wish to secure your place in Heaven. For he only deals with your soul. And when you secure your place in Heaven, you conquer death and exceed the likes of Alexander and Napoleon in rank, for they never conquered anything greater. After you conquer death, you become a person. That person is capable of participating in complex political, social, economic processes. There are concrete earthly implications to securing your place in Heaven.
Could Indians who are Hindu today accept Jesus Christ as their Personal Savior and keep the festivals of Holi and Diwali? For cultural reasons? I don’t see why not. Thanksgiving in America is a cultural festival, nothing to do with Jesus, and most people who celebrate it don’t really know of its origins. Thanksgiving is the American Diwali. About cultural festivals everywhere I say, the more the merrier.
God is no argument against cultural diversity. God is the Creator of cultural diversity. Cultural diversity is natural, it is healthy. Take God's message to the masses in their own languages.
