I always considered myself a hindu - since I was born in a hindu family; observed all hindu festivals, believed in god etc.. Suddenly, I found a sudden urge within myself to turn my status into "hindu atheism". To most, atheism means lack of belief in deities or lack of belief in god. Atheism according to wikipedia means; "followers of philosophies such as humanism, rationalism, and naturalism, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere". I relate myself mostly to naturalism, since I believe nature to be the most powerful force in determining many aspects of our life. In other words, I can say nature is god to me..
Large part of our society is god believer and some fear god none the less. God for us is the supreme power who comes to rescue us when we are in trouble. Having declared myself an atheist, I would miss god the most when I am in trouble, not the other way round... Well, this sounds little bit crude, but how many of us really sit and thank god for everything we have or have not?? That number can be counted in fingers. We always have certain type of expectations from life/circumstances/universe. To achieve it, we pray to god, and if does not happen then we get mad. In one of the management training seminars I attended, the best thing I captured was "Everything that happens to us is an event - there is nothing good or bad about it. It is upto you how you take it". At the very outset, I did not appreciate it. Thought how can everything be just an event? We always associate everything with good or bad, it is almost impossible to take things as events. But, now slowly, I am realizing that yes, everything is indeed an event and it is upto us how we take it. Now, if you know everything is just an event, and it is upto you to take it the way you like, so it is most certainly in our hand to take it positively rather than negatively. We get confused, when things don't happen as per our expectations then we call it as a bad thing. Now when, we are ready to accept everything as a good thing, why do we need a god? Because in any case, we remember god when we need something or expect something to happen in a certain way. Now when that inhibition is not there and you are ready accept every event as a positive event, is there a need for god? That is exactly a transition I am going through. As it is written in our vedic scriptures, "everything happens for a reason and for your own good". Once we accept it whole heartedly, we don't need to take shelter in god, we become fearless. So, in other words atheism is deeply embedded in hinduism than the other way round..
According to wikipedia, " Hinduism holds atheism to be valid but difficult to follow spiritually". So, for me the difficult part would be to accept things as they come. Once you overcome it, you are a proud hindu atheist. I have not reached that higher consciousness on rejecting god completely, but with acceptance to things the way they come will eventually lead to that path. I am a big believer of "Karma" theory. Somebody has to prove it, but in my own experience, I have seen "whatever you sow, so you reap". I will give here an eye witnesses example; There used to be a person X, married to person Y. Person Y has 2 sisters A and B. A , the elder one is not nice towards X or X's family(does not do so publicly, but shows body language evident enough to show repugnance). Y's other sister B marries. B's husband's sister behaves much more aggressively towards A than A was doing to X's family. Now at the outset, it looks unfair that why X is being treated like that - for no fault of hers. But looking closely, I found X is not nice towards her own brother's wife(Not at the face value, but holds lot of grudges). Now viola! everything came a full circle. This only strengthens my Karma theory.
For me, everything does not run probabilistically, things do happen for a reason and who controls it - is beyond our comprehension. We all as physical entities do impart positive, negative forces on each other. The good Karma or positive energy does come back to us in a good/positive way!!
Large part of our society is god believer and some fear god none the less. God for us is the supreme power who comes to rescue us when we are in trouble. Having declared myself an atheist, I would miss god the most when I am in trouble, not the other way round... Well, this sounds little bit crude, but how many of us really sit and thank god for everything we have or have not?? That number can be counted in fingers. We always have certain type of expectations from life/circumstances/universe. To achieve it, we pray to god, and if does not happen then we get mad. In one of the management training seminars I attended, the best thing I captured was "Everything that happens to us is an event - there is nothing good or bad about it. It is upto you how you take it". At the very outset, I did not appreciate it. Thought how can everything be just an event? We always associate everything with good or bad, it is almost impossible to take things as events. But, now slowly, I am realizing that yes, everything is indeed an event and it is upto us how we take it. Now, if you know everything is just an event, and it is upto you to take it the way you like, so it is most certainly in our hand to take it positively rather than negatively. We get confused, when things don't happen as per our expectations then we call it as a bad thing. Now when, we are ready to accept everything as a good thing, why do we need a god? Because in any case, we remember god when we need something or expect something to happen in a certain way. Now when that inhibition is not there and you are ready accept every event as a positive event, is there a need for god? That is exactly a transition I am going through. As it is written in our vedic scriptures, "everything happens for a reason and for your own good". Once we accept it whole heartedly, we don't need to take shelter in god, we become fearless. So, in other words atheism is deeply embedded in hinduism than the other way round..
According to wikipedia, " Hinduism holds atheism to be valid but difficult to follow spiritually". So, for me the difficult part would be to accept things as they come. Once you overcome it, you are a proud hindu atheist. I have not reached that higher consciousness on rejecting god completely, but with acceptance to things the way they come will eventually lead to that path. I am a big believer of "Karma" theory. Somebody has to prove it, but in my own experience, I have seen "whatever you sow, so you reap". I will give here an eye witnesses example; There used to be a person X, married to person Y. Person Y has 2 sisters A and B. A , the elder one is not nice towards X or X's family(does not do so publicly, but shows body language evident enough to show repugnance). Y's other sister B marries. B's husband's sister behaves much more aggressively towards A than A was doing to X's family. Now at the outset, it looks unfair that why X is being treated like that - for no fault of hers. But looking closely, I found X is not nice towards her own brother's wife(Not at the face value, but holds lot of grudges). Now viola! everything came a full circle. This only strengthens my Karma theory.
For me, everything does not run probabilistically, things do happen for a reason and who controls it - is beyond our comprehension. We all as physical entities do impart positive, negative forces on each other. The good Karma or positive energy does come back to us in a good/positive way!!
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