According to the Hindu faith, the present state of the human condition is Samsara, where humans are so preoccupied with materialistic things that they have no clue what they really want out of life and this cyclical pattern keeps repeating over and over again. Most people in this condition experience Maya, in which they live in an illusion and can’t comprehend that it is all just an act. In this condition a man does not really know what he wants, nor can he become filled with the material things the world has to offer. So long as that person does not realize that it is an illusion, he remains in that condition for as many lifetimes it may take until he becomes aware of this reality.
The Hindus claim that a person must reach Moksha, or liberation, in order to move on from that state of illusion. When a person reaches the realization of that reality, he will become god-realized. A person who becomes god-realized is a person who has finally come to believe that he is god, or Brahman. It is not that he suddenly became god, but in fact he has been god the whole time but did not know it. After becoming god-realized a person can finally have pure being, pure consciousness, and pure bliss, or Sat, Chit, Ananda.
To move from the problem to solution a person must practice yoga. The four different yogas, Karma, Bhakti, Jnana, and Raja, are the pathways for man to help him move from the self to the Self. According to Huston Smith, each person can choose a yoga which best fits his personality in order to let him reach the Self. A person who likes to use logic may choose to practice Jnana yoga, another who wants to be proactively involved in his religion may choose Karma yoga. The ultimate goal of yoga is to essentially help man let go of the self and become acquainted with the Self.
To live the solution in our own lives is to first realize that we are the product of Karma. The condition in which each person is at is the product of his actions over the many lifetimes he has had before. If a person lived a good life in the past, his condition will be better in the life to come, but if that person did not live a good life and did bad things, the just universe will set his consequences in his next life. The present life is a mere reflection of past lives. A person must do all that he can in order to reach a higher ranking in the next life. Once a person has become god-realized he has fulfilled the goal of his life. For some this may only take a couple of lifetimes but for others it may take many thousand lifetimes in order to reach the ultimate goal of man—to become god-realized.
Reflecting on these philosophical religious ideas, I see that Hinduism is probably one of the most appealing religions to man. The idea that there is always another chance to make up for one’s mistakes, that there is no such thing as sin, and that everybody is essentially god—these are the things people are looking for in a religion. No one likes to be called a sinner and everyone wants to be god. At the end everybody wins. As great as this may sound, there is a question that remains unanswered. If I am god, how would I not know it? Wouldn’t not knowing who I am violate the very meaning of ‘god’ and negate one of the main attributes of god—knowledge?
Good question. You have to keep in mind that when the Hindu says you are God, they are not referring to the egoic you but the soul, the Atman. The ego is a role the Atman plays. The challenge is to realize you are playing a role and remember who you really are.
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