Rebuttal to some of the alleged contradictions of the Hindu Vedas

Yelling Wayne, As Prashanth told there is no need to get worked up, about how a non-Hindu[A non SD-ite] perceives Hinduism. That is because unfortunately Hinduism is understood only by practice and not by reading. You are either born in a Hindu family, and brought up with the various practices current in the application of its principles. It requires a lot of contemplation, after going through the rituals and practices and as your understanding grows you know how and what practices or thought processes could be dropped without losing the message. Hinduism is perhaps the only religion that doesn't forbid you from questioning, refuting, and accepting in parts and slowly graduating to a total wonder-filled surender to the Rishi who "saw" the Mantra, and the inexplicable reality that Brahman is! For, a religion to be perfect if its book has to talk of some mundane stuff that is accessible to the senses, then what to speak of the loftiness of it all. Well,then that is meant just for the plebians, the lay and the ordinary. Just step out of the limitations of the senses you run straight into contradictions. The contradictions come about because one is using a tool like language which even at its best can capture only some shades of meaning. That is why metaphor is extensively used by all people who have experienced what is called God or Brahman. The Vedas abound in such imagery, and the words are so picturesque that anyone getting into literal meaning will get nowhere near the intended meaning. On this very forum, I had begun a discussion where one fizanali brought up this very same "Bull in the sky or Pillars holding the sky aloft" sort of some such crazy statements. Now, I understand that was all borrowed intelligence, Bah!. I neither have the time nor the inclination to work on translations. In that discussion I had told him that, The Veda cannot be translated into any other language without compromising its meaning to the extent of making it sound like nonsemse. This is why even the best English translations made by self-styled intellectuals of the British Raj made them conclude that The Vedas are some kind of pastoral poetry! Unfortunately, today what is available in print is the offset copies of these the Raj Days editions. I was afraid a ot of damage must have done by Max Mueller in traslating the texts. Thankfully, when I opened the text, Max Mueller hasn't hazarded a Mantra by Mantra trnslation. Instead he had left the sAyaNAcArya's original Sanskrit commentary untouched. Today, I can simply afford to staple the pages of the longish Introduction by Max Mueller and engage myself with the rightful trained master like sAyaNAcArya. What others would scarcely understand is I could read the whole of sAyaNa, and reject the verudite and scholarly AcArya's "interpretation" which is that of a yAjnika. I would still admit reventially to his scholarship. He is right in his place. I could still extract my consistent set of meanings basing it on an epistemology I declare and here I am with a yet another interpretation! This why Maharshi Dayananda differed from sAyaNa on the samhitas and Shankara on the Upanishads[shrutis to be precise]. This is also the reason why,I believe in reading, contemplating and understanding the Original Word, by experiencing it till we are able to assimilate the truth, as is the wont in Hindu religious experience! How could anyone convey this to Zakir Naik or fizanali, that the yardstick of understanding Al' Koran will not help. Hence the uninitaited commit,the second error that which comes to the, stay-on-the-bank and learn-to-swim, kind of non-native-to-the-faith, "students" of Hinduism, who keep quoting out of context, like this. That is the difference between a rank outsider and the one who is well groomed in the Vedic Religion. People must understand that even within Hinduism, people tread the path of The Veda very gingerly. Most rest content with the simplified and ready-to-use Essence Texts[Smritis} like The Bhagavad Gita! Who should tell the outsiders that in The Veda every statement is embedded into a context, and drop the context and you have lost the message! That is the way of The Veda! Silence is Golden! This post has gotten long now. I would like to dwell on the Monism Vs Monotheism a never-ending debate in Hinduism, in another post. Before that I would pause for a response to this post of mine from you, Wayne!

Of all the things to get worked up over, religion is probably the least worthy of a rapid heart beat.

hi, hinduism cannot be understood without the intrest from heart,those who not hav tht intrest will see it a funny,full of contradiction religion.i too was angry in seeing these craps,but now i know tht there is no need of trying to make thm understood, the thoughts of a person is not the original thing,it is his view from his mind about the thing,thing never changes,it is his view about the thing changes {confused?,it was the words frm veda} let me merge this to the current situatio, the thoughts of zakir naik about the hinduism is not the way hinduism is,it is the way zakirnaiks mind see it and transalate it. hinduism will not be affected by his way of seeing,everyone sees with there own interpretation.

Islam Preaches the Way he speaks ................. You Cannot Blame hIM ............. dONT Worry These THings Keep Happening ......................... Ignore People Who Affect Your Way of thinking ........... Happy LOTTING ON MYLOT ......