Hello everyone! This is my first post here and I'm excited to get started.
Before I talk about the topic, I want to give a brief overview of my upbringing: I was born into a Hindu family and raised in the "traditional" way. We regularly had poojas, consulted astrologers, memorized sholakas (which I didn't understand because I don't know Sanskrit), prayed to Shiva, Vishnu, and Krishna, watched the TV adaptations of the Ramayana and Mahabharata on repeat, and all the other things you would experience being raised in an Indian family. By the time I went to high school, I was honestly fed up with the whole experience. All I saw was ritualistic practices repeated ad nauseam with no rhyme or reason. Whenever I asked about reasons or anything philosphically substantial, I would either get hushed up or told that someone far smarter somewhere in the world had the answer. At this point, I had basically become agnostic. I knew I totally disagreed with the western religions because of their dogmatism, and the only "religion" that held my interest was Buddhism. Thankfully, after taking a few religion classes in college, I was exposed to Indian philosophy and my "Hinduism" was rekindled. It's a shame that Hindu temples aren't equipped with people who can adequately teach about Hindu philosophy (in English), because I feel like the ritualistic aspect of Hinduis is profoundly unsatisfying: but that's another topic.
Right now, I'm reading the book "Indian Philosophy" by Dr. Radhankrishnan, which is a highly informative take on many of the different Indian philosophies. The question that bugs me the most is that since Hinduism offers so many different interpretations of the world, and of dharma, how is morality determined? Furthermore, in a framework that has no fixed definition of dharma, how is morality determined in a way that doesn't lead to moral relativism? In other words, what is the objective standard by which one can determine what results in good karma and what results in bad karma?
I have some ideas that I've been toying around with, but I'd like to hear all of your opinions first. Any thoughts?
Patanjali's Yoga Sutra gives a list of ethical precepts called yama and niyama. Practice of yama and niyama, like truthfulness, is necessary to make spiritual progress.
"Duality is bondage before moksa and wisdom after realization. The duality accepted for the purpose of bhakti is sweeter than even non-duality." (from mangalacarana to Advaitasiddhi sara sangraha by Madhusudana Sarasvati, former advaitin)
Morality, whether in the Judeo-Christian religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, or in Hinduism or Buddhism is very similar, if not virtually the exact same.
Do good, be good, don't lie, cheat or steal, don't harm others, don't use violence, do overt works of good/charity, work on all the spiritual virtues - compassion, kindness, love, humility, honesty, sincerity, etc. etc. etc.
