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5. HINDU GODS
Fear of Nature has given way to Bhakthi (Faith) or personal relationship with an anthropological godhead. God as a person was a totally new idea. During the Vedic period god was something to be feared and propitiated. Instead now we have a god who is compassionate and human with empathy. It is certainly not an outgrowth of the Vedic gods. Historically an external interference of a personal god entered India between third century BC and first century AD.
http://www.aasianst.org/EAA/welbon.pdf
What does Hinduism owe to "Vedism?"
"The legacy of the Vedic religion in Hinduism is generally overestimated," responds Axel Michaels in an excellent new study, Hinduism: Past and Present:
The influence on the mythology is indeed great, but:
• the religious terminology changed considerably: • all the key terms of Hinduism either do not exist in Vedic or have a completely different meaning.
The religion of the Veda does not know • the ethicized migration of the soul with retribution for
acts (karma), • the cyclical destruction of the world, or • the idea of salvation during one's lifetime (jivanmukta,
mok.sa, nirva.na); • the idea of the world as illusion (maya) must have gone against the grain of ancient India, and an omnipotent creator god emerges only in the late hymns of the .rgveda.
Nor did the Vedic religion know • the caste system, • the burning of widows, • the ban on remarriage, • images of gods and • temples • Puja worship, • Yoga, • pilgrimages, • vegetarianism, • the holiness of cows, • the doctrine of the stages of life (a'srama) or knew
them only at their inception. Thus, it is justified to see a turning point between the Vedic religion and Hindu religions
Axel Michaels, Hinduism: Past and Present (p. 38).
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