Tonight I was talking with a friend about Hinduism (and also Buddhism) and the whole essence of the religion. I told him that I really like Hinduism and I really feel like I can agree with many of its idea and thoughts. Not that I do, but you know, the compatibility.
He says, well the idea with Hinduism is you work and work and work hard in this life, just so you can come to a point of nothingness. Who strives towards nothingness? I like Islam and Judaism because they are more like us (Christians), but Hinduism sounds a lot like the purposeless existence..
But what if we don’t know what we know? What if we were born in the context where you knew nothing about the individualism that Western and Christian thought so emphasize on? The idea of humanism, about the uniqueness and purposefulness of our existence? It is not necessarily the absolute truth that man was born for a ‘reason’ is it?
People have to not look at Hinduism from a certain tinted glass. As much as people can wrong Christianity by looking at it from their own standpoint.
In fact I think that the ‘nothingness’ of the ultimate state is a great idea (if I may use the word). The idea of harmony with oneself, and the world around us, is just what many people get to get a grip around. The idea of neutrality would lead to more peace.
Well, I am not trying to win you over to Hinduism, haha. All I am saying is don’t judge anything by your own eyes and mind.