It is called the "Kumbh Mela". This event alone reported 300,000 Covid cases over a week. The country's prime minister, all cabinet ministers and government officials participated not caring for their own Covid health guidelines.

So may Gods?

330 Million to be in the neighborhood and a new God is being invented every day.

@astralmax
this is spot on . All truth and no lie.

@TimeOutForMe

This guy has given a very logical explanation of how the caste system developed in India with invasions and migrations.

@St-Sinner yes Dr Velu Annamalai sure does give a logical explanation on the caste system and also where brahminism emanates from.

I said below that I don't into the spiritual India myth, and I have also never bought the mythologised Ghandi myth, let alone the corrupt family after him. I'm not an expert on this history but note that the criticism of some that Ghandi's role in Indian independence is overstated; i doubt his non violence would have worked against say the Russians or Chinese. As so often happens he has been mythologised. I don't do mythology, apart from Game of Thrones, and that's TV. Many aspects of his personal behaviour have come under scrutiny as well. Not in any way a hero for me.

@David1955
I fully agree with you

@David1955
...and they see them coming with donations too.

An accurate observation.

Seeing as the poster is from India, I'd say he knows far more than you.

not if he thinks a majority worship Laxmi he doesn't.

I'm an Indian and was born in a Hindu family. I'm very sure about what I'm talking.

@Monty13 you're "very sure" that a majority of Hindus worship Laxmi? I am gonna hafta throw a bullshit flag on that. Had you said Brahman I might agree with a caveat or two - but not Lakshmi.

@JeffMesser @David1955 @Monty13
You're so religiously delusional.
Whatever rocks your boat, keep happy. I've read plenty of your comments. You pretend or act like you know all about Hinduism. You've picked up on some fancy and ridiculous $#! somewhere in the middle and you're running with that like a chicken without a head. We've had run-ins before where you study from one particular book. ...whether old $#! or new $#! it's still $#! .

@JeffMesser
I know you YOU DON'T KNOW what you're talking about.

@TimeOutForMe you don't know me at all. get over yourself.

You are an idiotic Westerner who romanticizes Hinduism in a Western Country, a religion that is 10,000 miles away, that you do not live in the middle of, that you do not understand and are going on talking rubbish claiming that you know it better than Hindus who are born in India, born Hindu, have practiced it?

Gods mean exactly the same thing as in every other religion. Declaring yourself an idiot in so many ways especially in a topic that know really very little about is not cool.

@JeffMesser

"not if he thinks a majority worship Laxmi he doesn't." ???

Every single Hindu which is 86% Indians worships the Goddess of Wealth - Laxmi. No exception whatsoever. When he is referring to India and Laxmi, he is referring to Hindus you imbecile.

@St-Sinner oh it's you ... the guy who keeps talking when he hasn't a clue about the topic! Well, I know exactly where I will file any trash you have to spew. putz.

@JeffMesser

Yes, it is me you stinking rat. I am the dragon slayer but also burn rats like you.

You have no understanding of Hinduism, no point in a discussion, but instead continue to display your ignorance every time. What are guys like you called? Imbecile is a mild word. Will "asshole" be good for you stupid fucking idiot?

@St-Sinner oh no! an accountant from whornland thinks I know nothing about advaita vedanta!! How will I possibly go on? I guess I will be forced to keep reading the Upanishads and meditating without his blessing. But it so troubles me. sad.
damyata datta dayadhvam

@JeffMesser
Reading scriptures is not understanding Hinduism and certainly not India. That is exactly what the problem is with the Westerners. They read something and think they are enlightened. What should trouble you is you.... yourself. You don't need Upanishads, you do not need Vedas, you need a fucking mirror you shallow self thinking wise ass.

@St-Sinner you approach your "understanding" of sanatana darma with the same bias that you lay upon abrahamic religions - that's your folly. you don't see the inherent difference between someone who worships a god as if it was a material reality and others who offer puja to an assemblage of ideas and heuristic concepts they group under the personified identity as any deity. plus you definitely don't understand the jnana path to moksa - especially given the tripe you posted above. yours is a classic example of someone whose preconceived bias and hate kept them from comprehending. continue to wallow about in your tiny little mind. it suits you.
jagatmithya viveka
satyambhaja kalpitamkuru adharmamtyaja
atmana atmaneva tustah
ayam Brahmasmi
Om shanti shanti shanti

@JeffMesser you've swallowed the vomit others have spat out. Not even dogs go back to their vomit. You remain delusional. Sad!

@TimeOutForMe until you can explain the existence of quantum entanglement in your discussion of reality your opinion means little. now hurry along and lie to yourself some more!

@JeffMesser

You are like a garbage truck, it collects garbage from everywhere, carries it and throws it somewhere. Nothing more. You are a shame to humanity you poor ignorant despicable ass.

@JeffMesser you sure are saddled and riddled with these spiritual enlightenment terms called rigged hinduism. What a sucker for new-range crap.

@St-Sinner I fail to see how your name calling equates to an explanation of the jnana path to moksa. maybe a few more insults will do it. or perhaps you could loosen your fixation on materiality and understand that there is no matter? thats fine though. you'll be back. maybe you'll learn in your next life.

@St-Sinner you've take the words from my mouth.
Ditto from what he utters, it's no less the height of ignorance at best.

@St-Sinner, @TimeOutForMe mmmmmm no, thats not how quantum entanglement works. try again.

@JeffMesser
What a truckload of garbage utterances
@St-Sinner he is sooooo very delusional in his utterances. Rigged enlightenment

@St-Sinner you've hit it on the nail with
@JeffMesser

@JeffMesser It would seem that your brain has been addled by the inhalation of weed and your comments here are nothing more than effluent mental sewage, nuggets of shite.

@JeffMesser
Name calling is the only way to respond to you because you are void of logic, sense, meaning and reality. And you still have the audacity to come here and teach Hindus what Hinduism is about? Learn some humility to know that you do not know enough and certainly not more than Hindus in India, especially more than a born Brahmin who had a sacred thread ceremony, chanted shlokas for 15 years and could speak Sanskrit in high school. Priesthood is all what previous generations and forefathers did. Nothing that you said here is true or makes sense. Scriptures is not practice. Selective scriptures is utter ignorance. And not knowing that is sheer stupidity. You ignorance is really pathetic.

@St-Sinner when you can explain quantum entanglement in your material view then I will consider what you say. otherwise you're just another materialist. jnana path? I think your knowledge is lacking. now run along and peddle your materialist hate elsewhere.

@JeffMesser

You are not the person to be explained to. You have demonstrated that you are not a good student. You have the tendency to pick garbage from what you read. Regurgitating what you read is not knowledge. Knowing buzz or flashy words is not understanding the context. Learn how to be a good human being ... which you are not currently. The goal of all theologies, scriptures is how to become "a good human being". You have failed to understand that. Throwing some buzz words at people does not make you a learned man. Learn how to be simple, be modest, not poke nose where you have no knowledge, keep feet on the ground and learn from the environment around you. You are here and you are in the present. That is more important that what somebody said 8,000 years ago.

All the religions around the world with all that boasting of scriptures and ancient so called wisdom have not been able to achieve one thing - make people good human beings and that includes you.

What you need is not scriptures but you need "Aesop's Fables". The wise man Aesop taught us how to observe the environment around us.... the trees, animals, birds and humans to understand life and behaviors. It is not more difficult than that.

The atheists here who have understood what religion is about and they are freethinkers, that is why they are the enlightened people. Learn from them. Show some humility. You have long ways to go.

@St-Sinner you still havent explained how quantum entanglement works from your position of materiality. perhaps if you just keep typing insults and posting graphs and charts you'll strike upon something I guess ... in a million monkeys, million typewriters sort of way. keep plugging away though!

@JeffMesser
Quantum Entanglement means someone twisted your balls too tight and now your head is up in your ass. That is quantum entanglement. It makes you think and talk and walk like cookoo. It is a pity that you have not understood it.

@St-Sinner Oh bless your heart! . "if you can't explain it, decry it"
When you come up with an explanation I will be all ears. I suspect it's just over your head.

@JeffMesser
I will not go into garbage and find or explain anything for you. I asked you to come out of the garbage and learn some sense but it seems like you like dirt. It seems like you like to rot. You cannot be helped. Just don't come and shit stinking Hinduism here.

@St-Sinner bless your little hardened heart! keep plugging away little trooper.

@JeffMesser
You need to be slapped, spanked and kicked that you probably missed from parents. It is easy to block you but that would be too kind since you are a grown up. You need continued spanking and slapping for your stupidity and if it is must be I to do it to protect other good atheist members on this portal, so be it.

@St-Sinner thats so cute! well you just keep up your efforting and perhaps someday you'll realize the folly of your materiality. given your limited mental capacity I don't see you ever understanding the quantum entanglement issue - but you can still live a meaningful life. We'll just call you "lenny". namaste!

@St-Sinner Like many westerners he seems to be mesmerized by buzzwords like nirvana, mokshka samadhi etc etc...
Wee messed up mesmerized messer will remain in enshrined and enshrouded in a cloud of his own mental stench.

@JeffMesser it is clear your mental capacity is limited. Your fancy hindu terms is like rainbow sprinkling on a cake you. You know nothing about hinduism and besides the greeting "namaste" only represents just one language your supposed book of reference is based on. Flushed out sprinkling which settled on your brain. Go weed up now, the same way those priests do before and after temple prayers. Goofed up and in a trance of their own.

@ASTRALMAX

LOL... More buzzwords... Easy to look up on the internet. Anyone can debate anything by just looking up on the internet. But these buzzwords are from the top of my head, I had Sanskrit up to my eye balls growing up.

Shakti
Bhakti
Vikruti
Prachi
Antaryama
Sansara
Atma
Balaprashthashram
Brahmacharyashram
Gruhathashram
Vanaprasthashram
Nabhi
Kundal
Kamandalu
Jalapan
Bhog
Tyag

These mean nothing special. It is just a different language that is totally dead, so dead that the Hindus have been trying to resuscitate for centuries but she don't want to wake up no more. Completely dead and useless to anybody. But the messed up messner is fucked up too.
Lol

@St-Sinner I made sure to go back and take some surveys and ask some friends if I was correct. and I am. but your point is taken to a degree. I get in disagreements with Hindus quite often about the difference between practice and the academics of advaita vedanta. these were the same disagreements I came into with the Sri Lankan and Vietnamese Buddhists. I know things starting from an academic perspective whereas they do from their culture, life and general practice. My understanding and my own practice came from my perspective.

In terms of ishta devata - I am still pretty confident that Laksmi and the sisters are not the main source of devotion by a majority of those in the orthodox Hndu beliefs. But that doesnt mean she is not a source of bhakti and devotion for many. She's just not their source of moksa. BUT, most people aren't to their old age yet either so moksa isn't their main goal atm like it is my own. This was also the reason for my argument against Laksmi and saying that the worship was not the same. Abrahamics worship the god of their salvation (being monistic) while polytheistic cultures mat worship a variety for different reasons. The OP's complaint suggested that their main source of devotion was a god of wealth and they were all poor. In the western monistic culture that's not how the wealth "gospel" works. They only have the one god to pray to.

As for all your little angry tirade about Hinduism - thats your choice. I had angry years post christianity. I grew past it.

Apparently MIA......

@barjoe
None - Look at the population .