people with experience with indian religions?

[Jason.Wike]

Does anyone here have experience with Hinduism, Vaisnavaism or any of that?

This semester at school I got involved with Vaisnavas a bit, but ultimately got severely weirded out by them. Something that bothered me the most was that they encourage other people to do japa while just presenting it as a  means to relax, concentrate, meditate or whatever have you. They don't tell people what it is. Of course, I knew and did it anyway since I wasn't sure I really believed in Christianity any more. Now I wish I had pointed out to them that they are being deceptive and misleading people by not being completely frank about what it is they are doing.

After the end of the semester I suddenly realized it seemed demonic. The Bhagavad Gita, alone, sounds so good, spiritual and everything. But when you find out all the other things they believe (and leave out) it starts to seem evil. Making idols out of cow dung, believing God has intimate relations with endless wives, on an endless number of planets that he manifests on... Of course, none of it is in the introductory literature. I guess they hope they will have people in it deep enough that by the time they get to those books they will overlook it or something.

[Jetavan]

believing God has intimate relations with endless wives

This is symbolic of the deep intimacy God has with each of us; not to be taken literally. Of course, if you hang out with ISKCON Vaisnavas, they may indeed take such symbols literally.

[Jason.Wike]

believing God has intimate relations with endless wives

This is symbolic of the deep intimacy God has with each of us; not to be taken literally. Of course, if you hang out with ISKCON Vaisnavas, they may indeed take such symbols literally.

Well, the descriptions of the different planets definitely seems very literal. Last thing I read about it was something about Radha being Krishna's main consort and doing something horrible to another one because she got too close to him. That was probably one of the main tipping points where they started looking like demons.

[Jetavan]

believing God has intimate relations with endless wives

This is symbolic of the deep intimacy God has with each of us; not to be taken literally. Of course, if you hang out with ISKCON Vaisnavas, they may indeed take such symbols literally.

Well, the descriptions of the different planets definitely seems very literal. Last thing I read about it was something about Radha being Krishna's main consort and doing something horrible to another one because she got too close to him. That was probably one of the main tipping points where they started looking like demons.

Yes, they seem very literal, if you read them literally.  Similar symbolism can be seen in the Radha-Krishna relationships.

[JamesR]

I don't know. But being honest, out of all the heathen non-Orthodox religions, I would say that Buddhism is probably the very best and closest to Godliness.

[Jetavan]

believing God has intimate relations with endless wives

This is symbolic of the deep intimacy God has with each of us; not to be taken literally. Of course, if you hang out with ISKCON Vaisnavas, they may indeed take such symbols literally.

Well, the descriptions of the different planets definitely seems very literal. Last thing I read about it was something about Radha being Krishna's main consort and doing something horrible to another one because she got too close to him. That was probably one of the main tipping points where they started looking like demons.

Similar to the way that the Church Fathers re-interpreted -- in the Light of Christ -- the Old Testament texts concerning Israelites killing Canaanites, many Hindus also re-interpret texts that speak about violence and other morally reprehensible activities, in the Light of the higher teachings of Krishna, Rama, Ramakrishna, etc.

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