Below is an awesome story I read on the net. I am so impressed with its simplicity and its profound message that I thot I shud share it with you.

A sobbing little girl stood near a small church from which she had been turned away because it was too crowded. "I can't go to Sunday school," she sobbed to the pastor as he walked by. Seeing her shabby, unkempt, appearance, the pastor guessed the reason and, taking her by the hand, took her inside and found a place for her in the Sunday School class.

The child was so touched that she went to bed that night thinking of the children who had no place to learn about Jesus.Some two years later, this child lay dead in one of the poor tenement buildings and the parents called for the kind-hearted pastor who had befriended their daughter to handle the final arrangements.

As her poor little body was being moved, a worn and crumpled purse was found that seemed to have been rummaged from some trash dump. Inside was found 57 cents and a note scribbled in childish handwriting that read, "This is to help build the little church bigger so more children can go to Sunday School." For two years she had saved for this offering of love.

When the pastor tearfully read that note, he knew instantly what he would do.

Carrying this note and the cracked, red pocketbook to the pulpit, he told the story of her unselfish love and devotion. He challenged his deacons to get busy and raise enough money for the larger building.

But the story doesn’t end there! A newspaper learned of the story and published it. A business man who read it offered them a parcel of land worth many thousands. When told that the church could not pay so much, he offered it for 57 cents.

Church members made large subscriptions. Checks came from far and wide. Within five years the little girl's gift had increased to $250,000.00—a huge sum for that time (near the turn of the century).
vidyaganesh
Her unselfish love had paid large dividends.When you’re in the city of Philadelphia, look up Temple Baptist Church, with a seating capacity of 3,300, and Temple University, where hundreds of students are trained. Have a look, too, at the Good Samaritan Hospital and at a Sunday School building that houses hundreds of Sunday scholars, so that no child in the area will ever need to be left outside during Sunday school time.

In one of the rooms of this building may be seen the picture of the sweet face of the little girl whose 57 cents, so sacrificially saved, made such remarkable history.

Alongside of it is a portrait of her kind pastor, Dr. Russell H. Conwell, author of the book, Acres of Diamonds.

Goes to show what God can do with unselfish love for others and 57 cents

Are the Scriptures (Vedas) Scientific?

Scientific Enquiry

Till recently, people accepted the Vedas, ritualistic and followed a religious lifestyle. But today religious lifestyle faces a threat in the form of scientific inquiry. People with inquiring minds want a scientific explanation for religious activities and practices – even the existence of God.

People question any and every religious practice and, in the absence of convincing scientific and logical explanations, consider performance of religious activities such as rituals, to be blind belief. A superstitious person is considered inferior to a rational or scientifically oriented person.

This has become such a big issue that people well-versed in the scriptures (Vedas), including religious leaders, have started offering “scientific explanations” for various religious practices. For example, while performing Rudra abhishekam on Sivarathri, why do we offer 11 dravyams (materials), why not 10 or 12? What is the significance of 11? Invariably some religious leader offers an explanation.

A Major Mistake

We must understand and realize that in trying to give scientific explanations for religion, scriptures, rituals and God, we are making a major fundamental mistake.

Why this is a mistake? The scriptures say so. We should understand that we should not give scientific explanations to the contents of the scriptures.

When a subject matter is introduced, the scriptures make a fundamental statement that is usually either not noticed or is ignored by most people. The scriptures say many aspects of religion are beyond scientific explanations or scrutiny.

Then, Why Accept it?

Why must we accept the claim of the scriptures that there is something beyond science? In the past, scientists believed that anything and everything could be explained by science. But today scientists are discovering that there are fields which are not available for scientific investigation.

Creation of Universe

An example is the creation of the inverse. How did it all begin? Not only can science not answer this question, but scientists also say that science could not even approach this issue. Great scientists such as Newton, Max Planck, Einstein and Stephen Hawking (an atheist) say there are certain areas which were found to have religious implications beyond the scope of science.

Is It a Blind Belief?

Again the question arises: why must we accept that which is beyond science, which cannot be scientifically proved or verified? If science cannot prove the scriptures, will not our acceptance of the scriptures become blind belief? And, if we take to blind belief, will we not become unscientific and irrational persons?

New Source of Knowledge

We have five sense organs – ear(sound), skin(touch), eyes(vision), nose(smell) and taste(tongue). Each sense organ can function only in its field and is therefore, an exclusive and limited source of knowledge. The ear cannot sense “colour” or the nose cannot sense any “sound”. So one sense organ cannot verify (or disprove) what is revealed by the other sense organs.

Now consider a blind person. Throughout his life, he has lived with only four sense organs. When he is told about colour, he says “I cannot accept colour unless I can verify with my (four) sense organs! At best I will accept colour only as a BELIEF and not as a fact. I will accept something as fact only if I can verify with my (four) sense organs!”

But we know that colour can be never be proved or disproved by the four sense organs other than the eye. We have lived with five sense organs. And science has lived only with sensory data. The scriptures point out that other than sensory data, we have a new source of knowledge – the scriptures themselves!

The scriptures may be considered the sixth sense organ that reveals facts not provable or disprovable by the sense organs or sense organ – based science. If we use the five sense organs – loukika (worldly) chakshu (eye) – we get knowledge pertaining to the fields of the sense. If we use the “sixth sense organ” – shastra (scriptural) chakshu (eye) – we gain the knowledge pertaining to a totally new and different field.

Drop Scientific Approach

What the scriptures reveal is a fact and not a matter of belief. We accept it as knowledge without verification from sense organs or sense-organ-based science. The scriptures are not scientific; they are not designed by science or proved by science. So, we drop the scientific approach to prove or disprove the scriptures.

Scriptures are neither logical nor illogical but trans-logical. The scriptures are neither scientific nor unscientific but trans-scientific.

What do the scriptures reveal? They reveal God! The scriptures say God is beyond science. So, science can neither prove nor disprove God. The scriptures are the ONLY source of knowledge of God.

For worldly and materialistic living we do need science. But for religion and God we turn to the scriptures! One should remember that man is just not a bundle matter but is a combination of material + spirit.

DOES HINDUSIM ALLOW ATHEISM ?

There are many religions in the world and they usually have a propounder i.e. a person who has started the religion like, Prophet (Islam), Christ (Christianity), Guru Nanak (Sikhism) and many more like Jain, Zarasusthra. But Hinduism does not come into this class as it has no propounder. It has come into existence through time suiting the lives of the people of the land.

And many of these religions have been founded on few steadfast rules. ONE who obeys them shall be a part of that relgion. You need to abide by few rules to be it's follower. IF you go against it you are thrown out. One of the steadfast rules in most of the above relgions says that you should definitely believe in a particular person, idol or an icon to be it's follower. It has few axioms. Hence are not debatable.

For exapmle: Islam doesn't allow any atheist nor does it allow any person who believes any person other than Allah. It goes on to say that others are kafirs (vermin), and hence should be eliminated.

Many Hindus though they are Hindus seldom understand the basic concept of Hinduism. It's because many misinterpretations have been surrounding them without any authenticity being regarded. It's also because Hinduism had to undergo little stress facing alien religions which tried to subdue it or completely eliminate it. For it's survival it did undergo few changes momentarily trying to face the chellenge. But it has at the same time allowed many architects to redesign it leading to many a misconception of it's true form.

Hinduism is not founded nor propunded by a single man or a group of people. It has been formulated nor designed in one day or over a lifetime. It grew slowly and gradually through time allowing all the changes and INCORPORATING ALL NEW IDEAS brought in from people pouring down from distant lands.

HINDUISM AS SUCH IS NOT A RELIGION which many do not understand.

Hinduism is just a way of life. It is characterized only by the way of life of it's people. It is open to criticism. NO talk is profane. NO debate is blasphemous. It accepts ideas at all times. It allows changes at all times. It does not dictate terms to people. Any person who lives in Indian sub-continent and thus lives accordingly to it's life style is a HINDU.

We seem to be fascinated by the extreme devotion people show in our country. But we are at the same time concentrating on few principles written by few people who only contributed to the 'religion' in facing the challenge from the alien religions (Alien religions are 'Islam' and 'Christianity'). They are no propounders of 'Hinduism' which has been exisiting for over thousand years.

One may start arguing taking 'Gita' as basic guide. But one doesn't ever notice that never does it mention that you should definitely believe in a god to be a Hindu. It only talks of a supernatural being who shall always be there to guide you, Karma, Moksha etc. It guides a man on how he should live, rather it expounds on an ideal life. But never does it talk of rules to be followed to be a Hindu. It is a big blunder if we start considering 'Gita' as a religious book. It is not similar to 'Bible' or 'Koran'. They are religious books but 'Gita' isn't. as such it is just a part of a big epic 'Mahabharatha'.

We may go on to say that Vedas are our religious books. But again we are wrong. Vedas again expound on life style of the people. Vedas never talk of an atheist nor does it consider an atheist to a heathen or a heretic nor does it outcast any atheist. Vedas only talk of a way of life by which you attain certain higher things in life. It does not at all talk of any God. They have been misinterpreted by so many people through ages that we have a completely different society altogether resulting in a deep-rooted class based society.

ATHEISM IS A SUBCLASS OF HINDUISM. Hinduism does not hold any person to a particular God. You can choose any god as your idol. Hence you can choose no god as your idol. It doesn't ever say that you heve to choose some god definitely. You may take anything as god or nothing as god. But in other religions you do not have any choice. You have to follow a particular idol to belong to that religion.

HINDUISM IS VERY FLEXIBLE. It doesn't set any rules in choosing your god. If you are well off without a god It does not bother you (But people shall). Our people usually correlate it with other religions that have come up - and hence seem to think that fanaticism is the identitiy of being a follower. (Remember - Hinduism never had any holy Wars) Hinduim doesn't expect any fanaticism from it's people, rather it discourages such dogmatism and fanaticism.

For example: Let's talk of the most misinterpreted term in our sub-continent. The concept of 'Brahmin' -- It is defined as ANY person who who performs certain rituals and leads his life in a particular fashion. But never does it mentin that a son of Brahmin is a Brahmin, nor does it say that education should be carried out only by Brahmins. It does not even say that any other person can never become a Brahmin.

But it has been changed, distorted so much so that the basic structure suffered a great deal resulting in a completely different picture of Hinduism.

And when do the scriptures talk of Untouchability and Sati.

I just wish to say that on comparing our 'religion' with others, we seem to get the notion that 'Hinduism DOESN'T allow Atheism'. But to get the proper answer one should start with the basic foundation of Hinduism and not get carried away by what people have preached in many ways at various periods to meet the needs of that time.

It sudenly appears ridiculous that our 'religion' doesn't bind one to a god, when so much devotion and so much religious activity is seen, but it is very much true that it is the only 'religion' which allows debate on 'existence of god'. It was the only cult which let people go into the realm of Creator and thus explore into the metaphysics. But of course following the footsteps of other religions even we seem to put a hold on ourselves.