America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation founded by Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of us continue to identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest percentage in American history). Of course, we are not a Hindu—or Muslim, or Jewish, or Wiccan—nation, either. A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity.
The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: "Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names." A Hindu believes there are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal. The most traditional, conservative Christians have not been taught to think like this. They learn in Sunday school that their religion is true, and others are false. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."
Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 percent of us believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life"—including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group most likely to believe that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the number of people who seek spiritual truth outside church is growing. Thirty percent of Americans call themselves "spiritual, not religious," according to a 2009 NEWSWEEK Poll, up from 24 percent in 2005. Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, has long framed the American propensity for "the divine-deli-cafeteria religion" as "very much in the spirit of Hinduism. You're not picking and choosing from different religions, because they're all the same," he says. "It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever works. If going to yoga works, great—and if going to Catholic mass works, great. And if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist retreat works, that's great, too."
Then there's the question of what happens when you die. Christians traditionally believe that bodies and souls are sacred, that together they comprise the "self," and that at the end of time they will be reunited in the Resurrection. You need both, in other words, and you need them forever. Hindus believe no such thing. At death, the body burns on a pyre, while the spirit—where identity resides—escapes. In reincarnation, central to Hinduism, selves come back to earth again and again in different bodies. So here is another way in which Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent of Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris poll. So agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we're burning them—like Hindus—after death. More than a third of Americans now choose cremation, according to the Cremation Association of North America, up from 6 percent in 1975. "I do think the more spiritual role of religion tends to deemphasize some of the more starkly literal interpretations of the Resurrection," agrees Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion at Harvard. So let us all say "om."
I think we'll see this change more and more over time. The fact that we are able to connect with one another from all over the world and exchange ideas plays a huge roll in this.
Say you are in some small town somewhere and everyone (on the outside) claims to think one way about religion/politics/whatever. You can easily go on line and connect with others who think however you do. You are no longer so isolated, and I think people are gaining more and more confidence to go against how they were raised.
Why cremation? Any specific and unique explanation (other than perhaps such notion as e.g. to save the planet of some space)?
A possible explanation for cremation
At the moment of death the Linga sarira (subtle body) of the dead person separates from the physical body. If the person has not realized God while living then that subtle body would have to be born again. What happens is that even after death the subtle body feels an attraction towards the old physical body which is not a good thing. It is better to start with a clean slate in the new birth. Hence the physical body is cremated.
Why cremation? Any specific and unique explanation (other than perhaps such notion as e.g. to save the planet of some space)?
A possible explanation for cremation
At the moment of death the Linga sarira (subtle body) of the dead person separates from the physical body. If the person has not realized God while living then that subtle body would have to be born again. What happens is that even after death the subtle body feels an attraction towards the old physical body which is not a good thing. It is better to start with a clean slate in the new birth. Hence the physical body is cremated.
Hi! Gangajal, long time no see. I sense incoherency in your explanation. What decides starting a clean slate and a new birth? Another thing does the vibrational wave of flame of the cremation fire within a range to destroy the vibration of the subtle body? Wouldn't the sunlight (wherever it is available) is sufficient to cause the vibration of the subtle body to decay? Where does consciousness/soul/spirit figure in, in your explanation?
Why cremation? Any specific and unique explanation (other than perhaps such notion as e.g. to save the planet of some space)?
A possible explanation for cremation
At the moment of death the Linga sarira (subtle body) of the dead person separates from the physical body. If the person has not realized God while living then that subtle body would have to be born again. What happens is that even after death the subtle body feels an attraction towards the old physical body which is not a good thing. It is better to start with a clean slate in the new birth. Hence the physical body is cremated.
Hi! Gangajal, long time no see. I sense incoherency in your explanation. What decides starting a clean slate and a new birth? Another thing does the vibrational wave of flame of the cremation fire within a range to destroy the vibration of the subtle body? Wouldn't the sunlight (wherever it is available) is sufficient to cause the vibration of the subtle body to decay? Where does consciousness/soul/spirit figure in, in your explanation?
Hi! visio,
Yes, long time no see!
There is no incoherency in my explanation. By clean slate I mean that the subtle body of the dead person should not harbor any attraction towards its old body. I was not talking about karma. That may be the reason for cremating the body. Nothing decides starting with a clean slate.
The flame is material while the subtle body is made of non-physical matter and so there should be no effect. Similarly sunlight is material and should not affect the subtle body.
The subtle body consists of manas (mind), buddhi (intelligence), chitta (mind) and ahamkara (I-ness). It is the Atman bound by the eight fetters, i.e. it is the Atman that animates the subtle body. The eight fetters are the bonds that keep a person bound to samsara.
There is no incoherency in my explanation. By clean slate I mean that the subtle body of the dead person should not harbor any attraction towards its old body. I was not talking about karma. That may be the reason for cremating the body. Nothing decides starting with a clean slate.
Yes, agreed, the astral component of the soul facing the Universe & Earthly existence posseses strong affinity to remain anchored to the remains of the physical body. And it will do so. But that facing towards the Divine existence does not. It is indestructible. Now, a potential problem with cremation is that by doing this you are also denying the former of an anchor upon which it can work out it's natural decay, the rate of which is by some margin slower than that of the physical remains/body. Denied of this, it will find another compatible body to hook up be it of Man and animal depending on the character of the departing person/personality. It thus may become wild and many possibilities could then happen. The foundation of any ghost stories is based on this principle. Yet, the worse could happen that certain knowledgable individual would "arrest", "maintain and sustain and refine" this astral energy and use it as evil spirit to manipulate on people with all it's inherent subtleties. The fundamental Divine Command, both in the Al-Quran and the Torah, to observe certain simple ritual in th epreparation of the Halal/Kosher meat/food, was set to drain of any astral energy that could have taken residence in the animal bodies.
The flame is material while the subtle body is made of non-physical matter and so there should be no effect. Similarly sunlight is material and should not affect the subtle body.
Non physical matter is material, as seen in the cosmological context. You are talking in term of a classical explanation of the ancient people. In to-day's technology, speaking in term of wave function spectrum across all matters, we know how effective and penetrating the sun radiation is, although it is not as apparent as the glamorous flame. The fire of the pyre is only effective the lower strings of the body astral - perhaps at the foot bone and flesh level.
The subtle body consists of manas (mind), buddhi (intelligence), chitta (mind) and ahamkara (I-ness). It is the Atman bound by the eight fetters, i.e. it is the Atman that animates the subtle body. The eight fetters are the bonds that keep a person bound to samsara.
Regards
Gangajal
As I said above the subtle, or astral, a term I sometime prefer to call it, body has two sides to it. One facing the earthly/universal existence and the other facing th eDivine existence. And therefore you'll have 2 sets of eight fetters/bonds, one on each side. At death, that set of eight fetters facing towards the Divine existence is broken or released.
Frankly, I think both cremation and burial are a big waste. There are many sick people around the world who need human body parts. I wish more people would donate their bodies and body parts after they die.
As for the article, having lived in the US for a long time, I was surprised that most Americans are christian. From my experience most americans are very nice people, treat others with respect and yet follow a religion that to me, teaches backward ideas. Obviously I can't see anyone having a problem with christ (not much is known about his anyway) but the Bible and their God is another matter.
There are a lot of americans who freely admit that they find certain parts of the Bible "hard to read" as they put it. That to me is sad, as I believe that the real God is the Truth and following something just because it is written in a book is idolatry.
A lot of Americans dislike working in the state of Utah, as they say that the mormons discriminate against others unlike them. My Catholic colleague laughingly told me that they belive that only catholics go to heaven. Even when faced with this kind of discrimination a lot of christians have no problem telling non-christians that they are going to hell! A real puzzler!
If I were a hiring manager and were to discriminate against another because of their religion, I would be hauled into court! Yet, the christian God does exactly the same thing, his heaven is for his followers only! Non-followers get hell! It is not surprising that they are moving to a Hindu point of view, which states that all good souls are welcome by God Rama.
Another way Americans are becoming Hindu is the freedom they give to religions. For a long time, any person trying to form his own religion risked life and limb in these countries. It is not a coincidence that religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and the countless tribal religions flourished in Hindu India. Unfortunately the christians are at their old game in India, tribal religions are disappearing fast in India as they have done in Africa.
