God (Part 2 of 3)

  

2.4 God: Part Two–Introduction

We will continue our exploration of God’s nature in Part Two of this chapter. In Part One, it was explained that in Hinduism our wise gurus have thought us that there are three unique Aspects of God. The Aspects of God are Paramatma, Parashakti and Parabrahman. We learnt that Paramatma is the Personal God who creates, loves and cares for His creation. We also learnt that Paramatma can take on various human-like or animal-like forms to communicate or relate to His or Her devotees. In Part Two we will explore God’s nature as Parashakti and Parabrahman. The experience of these two Aspects of God, are crucial achievements in our spiritual evolution toward moksha.

In this part about God you will find the sanskrit word samadhi appearing quite often. Samadhi is the term for two meditative states that are related to Parashakti and Parabrahman that are the goals of yoga practice. The states of samadhi occur when the awareness of the meditator, becomes so attuned to God consciousness that the meditator's awareness merges in undifferentiated union with God. When a meditator achieves the state of samadhi, he realizes his unity or oneness with God and the process of enlightenment begins to take hold in his life. 

Click here to Read the rest of this Chapter on God.

God (Part 1 of 3)

 

2.1 God: Part One–Introduction

Have you ever experienced or realized God? 

Perhaps you are thinking that this is a question that is above you. Perhaps you believe in God and have faith in God's existence. Whether you have had a personal direct experience of God–well, isn't that the realm of prophets or a select few lucky people on Earth? If this is what you think, than I have good news for you. 

The goal of Hinduism is to guide its followers to have personal experiences of God. Such experiences of God Realization, which is also known as enlightenment or samadhi in yogic circles are the precursor to achiveing salvation, which in Hinduism is moksha. Moksha is freedom for our soul from having to undergo the continuous cycle of reincarnation on Earth, thus enjoying eternal life in the heavens. This is the destiny of all souls on earth, yours and mine included.

Click here to Read the rest of this Chapter on God.

Hindu Philosophy Chapters

 

Hindu Philosophy Chapters Content

 

To understand Hinduism one must start with its philosophy. Hindu philosophy is the source of all its practices. Even basic knowledge of Hindu philosophy will shed a deeper light in the understanding Hindu practices such as meditation, hatha yoga, puja and Hindu culture. 

For instance, hatha yoga, the Hindu system of exercise is very mainstream. People all over the world are learning it mainly for its benefits of reducing stress and other health benefits that have been researched and promoted by the medical profession. However these benefits are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. When you learn Hindu philosophy you will find out that Hatha Yoga was devised essentially as a preparation for deep and profound meditation. It is an important practice in the path of God-Realization and enlightenment. The health benefits are by-products of the practice and not the ultimate goal.Armed with this knowledge, if you are interested in pursuing deeper aspects of meditative practices such as achieving God-Realization, you might look for a yoga master who is also a spiritual guru. Then you will be able to learn a richer, deeper and more subtle level of the pracitce that you would otherwise have missed if you learned Yoga from a master thought to think of it only as physical exercise. This applies to all aspects of Hindu culture. The study of its philosophy makes the practice of Hinduism to a deeper and more profound level of experience.

This presentation of Hindu philosophy is divided into 12 chapters listed below. These chapters will provide a general overview of Hinduism. Keeping in mind that Hinduism is actually a collection of sectarian cultures, these chapters draw on the common beliefs and practices of the 4 main Hindu Sects. The subtle differences in Hindu philosophy among the main Hindu sects are addressed in the final chapter.

Go to the Philosophy Lessons Chapter Listings @ MyHinduPage

Hindu Lessons Homepage

 

Welcome to the Hindu Lessons Homepage 

This is the master directory for all of My Hindu Page’s knowledgebank. The lessons in these pages are grouped into a list of topics. Each topic contains lesson chapters or articles. Currently the the topic in construction are Hindu Philosophy, Stories, Insights into Hinduism and the Glossary. More topics will be published in time. Please check this page for updates. Below you will find a short description of what you can find in each topic.

Go to the Hindu Lessons Home Page

Participate in My Hindu Page

Coming Soon: Avenues of Participating in MyHinduPage include submitting your name to the Hindu Names list, submitting articles in My Hindu Views or submitting your organization or temple for listing in the Community Pages.

Make an Annual Donation

My Hindu Page is a Hindu Resources Service Website that is open for public viewing without need for registration or subscription. If you have benefited from this website and would like to contribute in its growth and as a gesture of appreciation, you may contribute a small amount annually. As a recommendation, a contribution of between US$1 and US$30 is a sufficient yearly contribution. You may contribute to the growth of My Hindu Page securely through Paypal by using the Paypal button below. If you wish to contribute financially through check or by other means please contact me through this email: guhaswami@myhindupage.org 

Donate Using Paypal

 Click the Button Below

Use MyHinduPage's Custom Web Search Engine

Search the web using MyHinduPage's Web Search Engine. Make this Search Engine your browsers Home Page.

 

MyHinduPage Web Safe Search

 

 

Bookmark or Make This Page Your Web Browser's Home Page

MyHinduPage Web Search Engine URL: http://www.safesearch.myhindupage.org 

Click Here to Find out more about the benefits of MyHinduPage Custom Web Search.   

 

Share Your Comments about Articles and other Material

on MyHinduPage

About Sannyasin Guhanathaswami

 

That is me, the webmaster of this site, Guhanathaswami, sitting in the middle, with students around. This picture was taken in May of 2007 when I was on a 5 day religious mission at a rural oil palm estate Tamil School in Lenggeng, Malaysia. I am a lifelong renunciate Hindu monk and missionary (a swami), an initiate of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001). 

Gurudeva, (as Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami was affectionately known by his disciples) was an American born enlightened spiritual master of Hinduism. He was initiated into the Nandinatha Sampradaya, as a Guru of the lineage, by Satguru Yogaswami of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in 1949 when he was only 22 years old. Satguru Yogaswami sent Gurudeva back to the USA after his initiation and gave Gurudeva the mission to teach Hinduism, especially Saivism globally, and to guide yearning souls to God Realization. Gurudeva setup the ashram, Kauai Aadheenam in 1969, in the ‘Garden Island of Kauai, Hawaii,’ where he lived with and personally trained young men who came to him with the desire to Realize God.

I joined and began studying and training under Gurudeva in February of 1991. After 8 years of challenging training Gurudeva initiated me as a renunciate Hindu monk  on May 28, 1999 and gave me the name Guhanathaswami. Following Gurudeva’s Mahasamadhi–his passing to the Feet of God on November 12, 2001, I returned to Malaysia (the country of my origin) with the well wishes of Gurudeva’s current successor, Bodhinathaswami.

On my return to Malaysia I founded the Center for Hindu Studies on January 5th 2003 and began giving personal yoga, meditation and Hindu philosophy classes. This website is an outgrowth of five years of Hindu missionary work that I have been doing in Malaysia.

My Hindu Page Mission Statement

Dear friends,

Namaste, Vanakkam, Hello, my name is Guhanathaswami. I am the webmaster of MyHinduPage.org. Thank you for taking the time to go through the purpose behind the publication of this Hindu website. I pray that your experience here at My Hindu Page will be an inspiring and enriching Hindu experience.

Click here to read My Hindu Page's Mission