Hindu or Hindon't

Thoughts on Hinduism from Huston Smith’s The World’s Religions. First of all the notion of grasping an entire religion in a chapter is quite overwhelming.

Like
-4 different routes to finding God- Reflection, Love (which is what Christianity is seen as to the Hindu), Work, Scientific steps
While one can incorporate all four, one is recommend to stay with one route.

-Atman- God within- A yogi trys to connect w/ the god within (Atman) by losing every trace of former separateness.


Don’t like
-The world is doomed to disappointment and the world is just “a training ground for the human spirit.”
-It is a just world in which everyone gets what is deserved and creates his or her own future. (This one is really tough to swallow, I must be seeing a different world than them)
-Bodies are not connected to the soul (jivas)- (unlike the Christian God who saves wholes not souls)-

“Worn-out garments, are shed by the body; worn-out bodies are shed by the dweller.” Bhagavad-Gita II:22

-The final stage of life wherein the goal is actually reached is the state of the sannyasin- “One who neither hates nor loves anything.” (To live without love is not really a life worth living, right?)