Hindu Ideas

Notes on Hindu Ideas

Science recognizes only the body as atoms without any individuality holding the body together. As far as a scientist is concerned there is no difference between a thief slitting the throat of an innocent victim and a doctor doing a surgical operation on a patient. Both are slicing up the body. There is no Pyschological entity or spirit holding the body together or an entity which connects all the atoms together. What Hinduism refers to as Pranic force.

The psychological entity in a human recognizes emotions, pain associated with actions, a conscience that differentiates between the action of a doctor and a thief. There are varying degrees of the Psychological order in animals. It stands at near zero for plants and is completely present in humans with animals displaying varying degrees of the Psyche being present. Even dogs manifest an attachment to their owner. A dog also experiences pain due to isolation on the streets. A dog made to fend for itself on the streets on suddenly becoming a pet displays great amount of attachment to it's owner. Recognition of this psychological order should stop us from killing or hurting even animals unless required for self defense.

There is a Hindu argument that animals acting as food for human beings attract positive karma since they are sacrificied for a human being's pleasure. The law of karma is extremely complex and Buddhism goes a litte deeper into these laws than does Hinduism. Any positive karma involves a certain measure of sacrifice, effort and pain. The Human being eating an animal does accrue some negative karma. The animal even if it has been sacrificed without its consent or action gets the positive karma.

According to Hinduism there are different lokas:Bu, Bhuvah, Suva etc The lower lokas below a Human being are all filled with greater degrees of unhappiness in their existence. The loka in which we live has on an average 50-50 happiness and unhappiness levels. The indra loka is where happiness is much more than any other loka. Finally all lokas are temporary and come to an end. The interesting thing in Hinduism is even the lowest loka called the patala loka has 1% happiness persent and recognising this the jiva(individual) has a chance to come out of it.