Original Religion

Vedanta is the philosophy that has evolved from the teachings of the Vedas, which are a collection of ancient Indian scriptures -- the world's oldest religious writings.

According to the Vedas, ultimate reality is all-pervading, uncreated, self-luminous eternal spirit, the final cause of the universe, the power behind all tangible forces, the consciousness that animates all conscious beings. This is the central philosophy of the Vedantist, and his religion consists of meditation on this spirit and prayer for the guidance of his intellect along the path of virtue and righteousness.

From the philosophical standpoint, Vedanta is non-dualistic, and from the religious standpoint, monotheistic. The Vedanta philosophy asserts the essential non-duality of God, soul and universe, the apparent distinctions being created by names and forms which, from the standpoint of ultimate reality, do not exist. Vedanta accepts all religions as true and regards the various deities of the different faiths as diverse manifestations of the one God.

According to Vedanta, religion is experience and not mere acceptance of certain time-honored dogmas or creeds. To know God is to become like God. We may quote scripture, engage in rituals, perform social service, or pray with regularity, but unless we realize the Divine spirit in our hearts, we are still phenomenal beings, victims of the separative existence. One can experience God as tangibly 'as a fruit lying on the palm of one's hand,' which means that in this very life we can suppress our lower nature, manifest our higher nature, and become perfect. Through the experience of God, one's doubts disappear and the 'knots of the heart are cut asunder.' By ridding himself of the desires clinging to his heart, a mortal becomes immortal in this very body. That the attainment of immortality is not the prerogative of a chosen few but the birthright of all is the conviction of every follower of Vedanta.

Vedanta asserts that Truth is universal and all humankind and all existence are one. It teaches the unity of Godhead, or ultimate Reality, and accepts every faith as a valid means for its own followers to realize the Truth. The four cardinal principles of Vedanta may be summed up as follows: the non-duality of the Godhead, the divinity of the soul, the unity of existence and the harmony of religions. On these four principles the faith of the Vedantist is based.

The essential teachings of Vedanta, as stated by Swami Vivekananda is: "Each soul is potentially divine, the goal is to manifest this divinity within by controlling nature: external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy -- by one, or more, or all these -- and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details."

[Edited on 5/26/2004 by DivineSoma]

Since religion means any system of faith in and worship of a Supreme Being, then if would have to be the worship of the God of the bible. There was no name for the religion when Adam and Eve were on earth, the name came generations later when God wanted Himself know to His chosen ones. The pagan worship of other Gods came when the Fallen Angels taught divination amongst other things to the people of God (Book of Enoch).
After the flood paganism began with Nimrod, we don't read much about him in our Bible as it is but in the Book of Jasher (as referred to in Joshua 10:13 & 2 Samuel 1:18) that he worshipped other gods and caused all his people to do so.
Nimrod was married to Semiramus, after Nimrods death she became pregnant and to explain this to their subjects she said that she was empregnated by a sun beam, which was Nimrod who at death became the sun-god, and that her child (Tammuz) is a reincarnation of Nimrod.
This religion spread throughout the world. Semiramus (middle-eastern) is known as the Scandinavian Freya, also Ishtar, Dianna...
The Christian holidays come from the worship of Semiramus and her son Tammuz/husband Nimrod.
Good Friday- Good Freya day and Easter-Ishtar, is the worship of the fertility goddess, that's why there are easter eggs, rabbits, etc. They are symbols of fertility. When they celebrated the pagan festivals, they would eat huge feasts, drink, have sex...anything to please the senses.
The pagan festival of fertility was a spring rite at the time of the summer solstice when the sun was highest in the sky.(Easter)
Christmas is at the time of the winter solstice when the sun is lowest in the sky. This is when the worship of Tammuz took place, christmas tree is a phallic symbol, the yule log, mistletoe, etc all have meanings related to worship of the sun-godthe star on the top symbolizes the outraying of the beam which empregnated Semiramus to be son of (sun) god.... sound familiar? This is Satan's look alike. The prophecy had already been made that salvation would come out of the seed of a woman, so Satan jumps in and makes his copy of the prophecy to throw man off.
The chinese pictographic writing has in it stories from the bible, the flood, boat, 8 people, etc among other words like creation has a man and a woman and a serpent....interesting eh?

Christmas is at the time of the winter solstice when the sun is lowest in the sky. This is when the worship of Tammuz took place, christmas tree is a phallic symbol, the yule log, mistletoe, etc all have meanings related to worship of the sun-godthe star on the top symbolizes the outraying of the beam which empregnated Semiramus to be son of (sun) god.... sound familiar?

To learn about the true origin of Christmas...

Check out my posting here

or check out:

www.Pharmacratic-Inquisition.com

[Edited on 5/26/2004 by DivineSoma]

I'll toss in my 2 cents along with the others who say the first religons were probably based on either nature, animals, stars, moon, sun or ancestors. Maybe some mix of all of those..

is it just me, or is every religion there is based on someone ELSE'S ideas and interpretations of life? is every religion not based on someone's word? arent most religions just an adoption of another's beliefs? and werent these people we now idolize and try to mimmack human just like us? im just sayin.

think about it.

why believe in someone else's perception of life? why not create our own "truths", our own reality. we have been programmed since birth to adopt to society, all its wrongs and rights -the acceptable ways to live and the unacceptable. this also includes adopting how to think soley according to what is acceptable and what isnt in the eyes of the people who teach us (mom, dad, teachers, the media), and most importantly what to believe is true.

but all of humanity's general concurrances, what you can call certain "golden truths", are just the passing of knowledge and ideas throughout history between webs of people. all of humanities ideas are just stemming from previous beliefs already in place.

since the majority of society sets a certain level of understanding amongst eachother, does this mean it is neccessarily the "truth"? is the "truth" we were forced to adopt when we were children by the people we idolized the only way to perceive and live life? if society says its true, is it? this has been proven to be incorrect. take the Holocaust, for instance. society's views and judgements should be questioned by you.



until God himself, herself, itself (what ever it may be) comes to me and says,"this is the truth. this is the way. this is what was meant to be. this is what you should believe"...i will continue to adopt my own "truths". and i will refuse to idolize the messengers because their perception of life differs from mine. and their reality is not mine.

and once we break free of the control in our lives caused by other's beliefs and standards, it is within ourselves, the power to create any "truth" our soul desires.

-just one of my ideas. a little food for thought by Mel of austin, texas