HINDUISM

I believe it started largely in the 1950s and 1960s, Americans and I would suppose Europeans as well....went into craze for Eastern Spirituality.....the Beatniks were into it, the Beatles fired it; it became a pop thing in the 1990s really with highly publicized pilgrimage-like trips by the likes of Richard Gere to the Himalayas.

I wonder what it is that makes Americans believe those Indians and Himalayan peoples have such a right-on knack for spiritualism? (It certainly doesn't seem to be helping them much in my opinion, but I guess we are focusing on lives that come sometime later after this one....Forget not living in the moment, don't even live in the lifetime....but well that does depend upon which caste you are born in really when you get down to it.)

I suppose it was part of the 60s feel-good self-help need and mentality that select facets of Eastern Spirituality served a special place and purpose.

So we have very actively in this day, a great conception that India is just this incredibly beautifully positively spiritual place and culture, the height of it all in many ways. I know many people who's dream it is to make pilgrimage like trips to India. I want someone to really explain to me what it is they think they're going to find there and get out of this on a spiritual level, because when I ask them they really don't have anything very concrete that they can come up with.


Here's some lovey dovey reality about Hinduism for you, http://bit.ly/4IZrNm, and animal treatment and sacrifice by the hundreds of thousands in a mere one day religious fest; Because "The goddess needs blood."
Sounds like quite the enlightening experience. And but also they (the people not the animals, assuming) get all their dreams and desires fulfilled within five years for partaking in this. (And so the obvious question is, do they all just continue asking for the same lifestyle they've always had at each and every one of these?)

 ...and again, I'm sorry but no I DON'T have to have tolerance for your religious beliefs.

And another thing which should be understood by Westerners is that of the good old 'caste system' which though technically illegal, is still alive and well in India today. National Geographic did a stunningly revealing episode on the horrors of this inhumanity which are a normal part of contemporary Indian society to this day, in an issue about six years ago.

India is considered by many to be one of the most anti-gay and homophobic country in the entire world. Amazingly their parliament legalized homosexual contact this last year in 2009. But don't think that's done a lot to change the popular view of the populace.
And as far as Hinduism is concerned....major Hindu groups groups like Sri Ram Sena and Sri Shiv Sena would never accept the gays’ rights, as they immediately officially proclaimed.

Gandhi, one of those universal obligatory love bunnies we must all revere...completely said amazingly little against the caste system all things considered; because it was so intertwined with Hinduism. So much for one of the supposed greatest all timers of human rights. He did have some nice things to say about African blacks being akin to the "untouchables" lowest 'caste' of human being, wow now there's some food for thought and re-consideration of the values of this so incredibly 'spiritual' of cultures.
Religion actually equals idiocy, and thus making sense that India is also considered the most religious country in the world, right along with its prevalent humananity-horror of the caste system flourishing alive and well today.