Hindu God's

Most people know that there are many gods in the Hindu religion. The lists of "major deities" that I have found often include somewhere between 15 to 25 gods. I have no idea how many minor or lesser gods there are but it must be quiet a few. I am going to talk about a few of the major gods. What their purpose is, how the fit into the religion, the overall importance of the god, and interesting things I find about them.

First up, Brahma

Brahma is the creator, he is responsible for making the earth. The changing of day to night is also his responsibility. He is part of the holy trinity consisting of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Brahma created many lesser gods with his mind and many more with his body. To create the human race he split himself into two people, one being a goddess, the other a god. Brahma called the girl part Gayatri, and together they created people. Brahma has four heads and four arms, he used to have five but one was lost after a conflict with Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma holds in his hands a sacrificial tool, knowledge, a water pot, and a rosary.

Bramha is a complicated god with many tales and back stories. Having multiple gods makes it much easier to create tales of how the gods interact, which makes them easy to characterize and relate too. Brahma is the first piece in setting up the aura of factuallity of

existence.

Vishnu

Vishnu is the preserver, lord of protection, sustenance, and maintenance. He is the second part of the trinity. He is responsible for sustaining the human race. He does so with the help of his consort Lakshmi, the goddesses of wealth. Vishnu needs Lakshmi's wealth to continue supporting and protecting the human race. He has dark skin the color of clouds. He carries in his hands a conch shell, a disk ( to represent the wheel of time ), a lotus

flower, and a mace ( to show the power and punishing capabilities if discipline in life is ignored). He rests on a bed made out of a 1000 headed serpent.

Shiva

Shiva is the god of destruction, the third part of the trinity. He destroys the world so Brahma can create a new one. Shiva is also responsible for the changing of people, destroying old habits and making change possible. He is covered with ashes, carries a poisonous snake to show he has mastered death, a trident, he is often shown with some sort of tiger representing the mind, he has the goddess Ganga captured in his matted hair. Ganga is the goddess of the Ganges river, he captured her to prevent the flooding of the world. Shiva lives on top of Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas. He has had two

wives. The first was Sati, and the second was Parvati. He is the father of Ganesha, and Kartikeya.

Ganesha

Ganesha is the god of knowledge and remover of obstacles. He earned this position by racing his brother around the universe. While his brother took off to travel the universe, Ganesha walked around his mother and father whom he considered the source of all existence. He won and earned the title of Lord of all existing being. There are many stories regarding how Ganesha got an elephants had instead of his own. One was that his mother created him to guard her doorway, when Shiva demanded entrance and Ganesha refused he was decapitated. Later on Parvati (his mother) restored him to life and gave him the only available head around. That of an elephants. Ganesha is a fat ugly man with the head of an elephant, he shows that inner beauty is more important than physical appearances.

Lord Rama

Lord Rama is the hero of the tale Ramayana. He is one of the most commonly worshiped

gods in all of Hinduism. Lord Rama carries a bow and arrow and destroy evil. The monkey god

Hanuman is his loyal devotee. A brief of the Ramayana can be found here. He is married to Sita.

Lord Krishna

Lord Krishna is loved by all people. He is one of the commonly worshipped gods in

Hinduism. He is know for his ability to spread love through music, and for destroying evil. He is

often portrayed with a human child that was his friend. This image helps bond man and god

together. He is also often shown with his childhood pet cow. He is the 8th incarnation of Vishnu.

Lord Kartikeya

Kartikeya is the god of war, very similar to Ares from Greek mythology. He is the second

son of Shiva, with Ganesha being the first. He has six faces each with its own name: Kartikeya,

Subramaniam, Skanda, Guha, Shadannana, and Sanmukha. He is also the god of fire. He works

with Ganesha to help people. While Ganesha helps clear the path ahead, Kartikeya gives power

to the individual in order to help them complete their goals. He carries a spear to destroy bad

habits in humans.

As you can see from just seven of some of the major gods of Hinduism, there is an abusrd

amount of back story. Every god has its own stories with many of them being intertwined,

and some being contradictory. Many of the stories get to be elaborate and allow for the gods to

be well personified. Painstaking detail has gone into the creation of these tales. All to provide

an explanation for the world around us. To explain things and provide meaning for existance.

The stories provide the solid base for a religion to be built around. Stories that are interesting

and easily told quickly spread and convert new members. The stories can be used to give reason

for certain rituals, and can add significance where there was none before. The stories about the

gods are a fundemental part of Hinduism, used to teach lessons and provide examples to

emmulate. The stories and gods themselves are not the religion, they are means in which taught,

spread, and understood.

A temple full of

various Hindu gods. There are many.

Baha'i

This week I spent some time reading Baha'u'llah. I also took a peak at a Baha'i website, and viewed a few videos on the religion.

I learned that Baha'i believe that most major religions share some core values. Baha'i focus on the shared parts of the religions and unite them as one super religion. They believe that many of the create prophets shared by different religions are all just prophets of Baha'i and that Baha'u'llah is the newest of them. I am happy to see such a diverse multicultural religion exist. Because they draw from so many religions it is easy for people people to convert and focus on the core morals.

I discovered that talking about someone behind their back is forbidden in Baha'i. While it is somewhat childish and impoliet in American cultural I am still surprised that it such a strong rule. They call it backbiting. There are no real punishments for breaking the rule, but all Baha'i do thier best to avoid it and try to help others avoid doing it as well. They often find a positive thing to say to help counteract the negative things said about the person.

The Baha'i are organized into commitees and are controlled at different levels. Each place of worship is run by a commitee, each region, each continent, and finally one that is comprised of nine people they admister the religion as a whole. This is a very different structure than say Cathalocism with its single leader and large buracracy of cardinals and bishops and other clergy.

Baha'i has is very own calender! It consists of 19 months named after the attributes of god. Each month has 19 days, and there are four or five extra days to keep it in place with the solar year. The year dating is based on the founding of Baha'i in 1844. One month out of the year from march 2 to 22, the Baha'i fast from sunrise to sunset.

There is obviously much about Baha'i that I still do not know. I plan on continueing my learning adventure into the world of Baha'i.

Cult vs Religion

By our definition in class most if not all cults count as religion. They have systems of symbols creating lasting beliefs and work to explain the world. Most cults obviously have symbols and create beliefs and most likely have a back story of origin. So does it work the other way around? Do all religions count as cults?

Wikipedia has a nice article on cults. Including a collection of dictionary definitions. The definitions include a system of religious beliefs and ritual, A religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader leader, or a small religious group with excessive control over members.

So depending on which definition you pick either all religions are cults, all are cults expect a few major religions, or very few cults exist. In my personal opinion I consider cults to be the groups who seclude themselves from society, either in complexes, monasteries, or some other form of isolation. I only have problems with cults if they brainwash people into joining or have dangerous or destructive beliefs. From what I understand there are very few cults out there that actually brainwash or are destructive, but they do exist.

Nobody should be forced into believing anything. Sometimes when I talk to my religious friends I feel like they have been brain washed into believing in Christianity, and some of the more far fetched parts of the bible. I just can't seem to understand why people are so willing to believe that communion can be considered to literally be the body and blood of christ. My cousin was an alter boy. He showed me the giant package of "Communion Waffers" the ingredients list did not actually contain Jesus. When I listen to people who try to convince me they are eating Jesus, I can't help but get the feeling that all religions are brainwashing people.

Either way, I still consider a cult to the creepy little secluded groups of people, but major religions brainwash people too, just more openly.

New religion

What goes into making a new religion? Is it a fast or slow process? How important is a founder?

One of the key elements of creating a new religion is some sort of social tension. Be it a racial conflict between groups, core disagreements amongst peoples of a religion such as the Lutheran Catholicism schism, or some sort of other major issue. Racial tension was one of the reasons for the creation of the Bahai. Conflict between the Kurds and the Shi'i along with some of the other groups provide ample disagreements to break off from one another entirely.

Fast or slow is a question of perspective. It could take the better part of a person's lifetime to get a religion started at all, and chances are it wouldn't really get going until after the death of the founder. Religion is a constantly evolving and changing beast. Rapid changes are possible, but most changes are slow taking place over hundreds of year. The Lutheran schism is an example of a rapid change, while the gradual evolution of Catholicism has taken place over thousand of years.

A strong founder is crucial to the success of a religion. Without a founder there will be no set direction for the religion to evolve. People need someone to unite under, a figure they can relate to. Without a figure head there is no easy way to interact with other religions or political leaders. The Catholic pope while not a founder is an obvious leader. He controls which way the church evolves and maintains the beliefs of the founder. Many founders are considered prophets and ultimately hold a special place in the mythology of the religion.

Christian Rock

When most people think of christian rock, they think soft rock with overt christian messages. However there are lots of bands that have been breaking out of that mold to get their message out. Lots of them have gotten some heavy radio play. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus has less obvious christian undertones but they are still there.

Christian rock has been breaking into all sorts of different genres. Screemo bands are one of the

newest mediums to spread the message of god. It can be difficult to understand them and pull

any meaning or words from it but the under the screaming and electric guitar the message is still

christian. One example of a christian screemo band is The Devil Wears Prada.

Rastafari music in my mind still counts as christian music. It spreads a religous message through music and Rastafari is more christian than anything

else. Granted the messages are of a very different nature than the average christian rock band. While christian rock focuses on how God is good,

and will help you out, Rastafari music spreads the word about the Rastas and encourages people to rebel against the western power structure and to get in touch with African roots.

What was once a very narrow and niche genre of music has spread into all sorts of genres.

Many people listen to the music our of catchiness or popularity and are oblivious to the strong

messages and undertones that lie beneath the music. I can't help but wonder when another major

religion will break into the American music scene. Buddhist rock could be interesting.

Rastafari take two

I watched this video today and learned about a very different group of Rastafaris than I have

learned about so far. These Rastas still share the Dreadlocks, the colors red green and yellow,

the flag, and many of the same views. The biggest distinction I found were the differences in

attitudes toward "Babylon." Both the book Rastafari and Bob Marley have very strong feelings

white culture, and the west as a whole. They spread messages of how bad it is and how evil

Babylon is. The Rastas from the video don't appear to nearly as violent towards Babylon. They

just want to go back to Africa, and live simple lives filled with prayer in an effort to save up the

means to return. The turban and the regimented praying are two differences that are easy to spot.

While Marley spreads messages of rebellion, the simple Rastas awake early in the morning

to pray. I have a much easier time relating to the peaceful Rastas. Being a part of Babylon I

can't help but feel like some of the Rasta's hatred toward Babylon includes me, and everyone I

know. The peaceful Rastas do not seem to share the same hatred of Babylon, they just want to

go to Ethiopia. Its much easier to get along with people when neither side openly expresses

dislike of the other. I think the Marley Rastas would more easily further their cause if the message

wasn't quiet so anti Babylon. Granted that is a big part of their identity.

Rastafari

I have started reading the book Rastafari by Ennis Edmonds, and after two chapters in I still have no idea what Rastafari is about. I gathered that it orginated in Jamaica and that Haile Sellassie is the both the leader of the movement and possibly the second coming of christ, but other than that I don't anything about what they actually believe. The media has associated Rasta culture with smoking marijuana, and doing drugs.

I spent a little bit of time digging around the web to find out a little more. The Rastas believe that Haile Sellassie is a manifestation of god, and that they will be returned to the promised land of Ethiopa. Some still believe that Haile is still alive and his death was a hoax. Many Rastas believe that the white people are to blame for most everything and refers to them as Babylonians. The smoking of "ganja" is a means to cleanse the spirit and to heal the world.

There is still much I do not know or understand. I hope that the book on Rastafari moves away from long winded speeches on charisma and focuses on what the religion actually is. I want to understand the religion, not some dudes theory on how charismatic people and events change the world.