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Philosophy/religion

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Any Hindu mumsnetters out there? I need your help

12 replies

Kimi · 28/03/2009 17:27

Hello, my eldest DS is learning about the Hindu faith at school (he is 12) and said the teacher had told the class that Hindus beleive that if you do a bad think in this life you will come back with A disability in the next.... this was not elaborated on nor discussed. Can anyone enlighten me please so as I can help DS1 understand better.

OP posts:
faeriefruitcake · 28/03/2009 19:15

The teacher has over simplified the Law of Karma. That in this life your actions build up good and bad karma and that in your next life you have to make amends as it were.

It can be used to explain why some people are born into the situation they are in but it's not that simple. The Samsara cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

You really need to have a chat with the teacher it has been known for both students and teachers to get the wrong end of the stick.

madlentileater · 28/03/2009 22:04

this is the trouble, teachers do over simplify, usually from a position of having a superficial understanding in the first place. I was in an RC school the other day kids had been learning about Buddhism, what they had learnt was that Buddhists don't believ in God (shock!)
true enough but not the main feature of the faith that Buddhists themselves would want remembered, I'm thinking.

Peachy · 29/03/2009 10:27

Can I help? Not a Hindu but covered this during my RE degree as an area of interest: I ahve 2 sn kids.

The issue is that there are levels of Hindu faitrh. There is tre highly learned brahmanical version which I will explain later and which is the definitive variant, and this view isn;'t what they say. As with any massive faith though there has developed a version called 'Village Hindusim' which is a simpified version in some ways. See if I can explain- well you have a trinity in Hinduism, and all gods are spects of one big Brahman God. That's th pure Brahmanical faith. Village Hinduism tends to be the sort that sees the gods as separate though,: its no small difference, it effectively has a part polytheistic branch and a part monotheistic branch.

Monotheisc is the one that relates to the Bhagavad Gita etc.

Anyway karma.

karma means different tings in different religions and theat has led to confusion: some people for instance see the Jainsm beleif that akrma is like sticky stuff that actually glues to yu.

but it isn't.

AKrma is about fully developing our personality, learning all aspects.

So you might say a disabled eprson was very independent in a past life and needs to learn dependence, or somesuch.

there is however no court of karma where mr and mrs karma sit down and decide who ahs been bad and to punish: that'sa view held by opeople who have no business to be teaching the subject IMO.

karma is about thw hwoleeprson, about eprsnal development. It's a beautioful notion, not a cruel one- eventually and with different timescales it enable us all to develop our potential to be whole, and thus released from this world to become part of that absolute Brahman light from which we originated.

(I am not Hindu btw).

Peachy · 29/03/2009 10:28

MLE even taht's not quite right is it? They may not have God but they have (depending n their branch) Boddhisattavas etc, Amhitabhaa dn the Tara's...... not strictly gods but some scholars liken to Jesus charaters with good reason.

chimchar · 29/03/2009 10:32

was directed here on another mn thread. fab resource!

www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/beliefs/moksha.shtml

Peachy · 29/03/2009 10:36

Ah yes the BBC sites are wonderful.

Chimchar are you Hindu or a teacher of RE? (just being nosy really, applying for myN PGCE in October).

chimchar · 29/03/2009 10:42

errrr no

just was really chuffed to find a website with nice, concise, easy to read info.

Peachy · 29/03/2009 10:46

LOL

seen this one?

Kimi · 29/03/2009 13:17

Thank you all very much, I have been looking at links and had a chat with DS1 who feels the teacher should have explained in more detail.

DS1 is C of E but likes learning about other faiths, he did not buy in to the whole disabled = bad past life thing thankfully but I am sure some will as it was not explained in depth.

Thank you peachy I shall show this to DS and mayby he can enlighten his teacher a little and see if the teacher is willing to explain better to the class.

OP posts:
bloss · 29/03/2009 14:01

Message withdrawn

KimiWantsAnEasterEgg · 29/03/2009 14:26
Sad
Peachy · 29/03/2009 18:12

No Bloss, people beleive it but that doesn't make it the true message from the religion.

Would you argue everyhthinga Christian beleives is true Christianity? Or the same in Islam? it's the same thing.

Certainly it's easy to beleive: ther but for the grace of God go I is far easier to bear if it's reinterpreted as 'they must have done something it's all their fault' and a rudimentary understanding would indicate that- but none of the reading or research I have doen suggests that's the original meaning of karmic destiny, just common interpretation.

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