It’s high time Hindus must stop using Abrahamic terms for Vedic Concepts and give up the fantasy of looking for similar terms in Christian theology to somehow fit with Sanatan Dharma concepts in persuit of making the language common for everyone. This attitude has unfortunately made Hindus pay a lot. Therefore Hindus must think of throwing away this habit and unapologetically start using vedic terms to describe vedic concepts.

Word needs to be understood with its meaning and connotation.”Soul” and “Atman” are very different from each other. The term Soul has an underlying Christian connotation which traces it’s roots to Christian theology whereas the concept of “Atman” embarks the Vedic school of thoughts. Both the concepts doesn’t have a bearing with each other but still the term “Soul” is repeatedly being used in place of Atman. The concept of “Atman” goes on to become the foundation stone for the concept of Reincarnation which starkly lacks in Christian theology.

Similarly should we continue to keep devsthans (Mandirs) under the bracket of ‘places of worship’??Place of worship overlaps with the idea of Abrahamic sacred places. The sacred places of Abrahamic religions are built in order to provide a space to the proponents of Abrahamic faiths for praying to their Supreme God. By contrast, the Mandirs or Devasthans are only a place of worship but a home to our deities. Deities in the Garvgriha are offered food daily by the proponents of Vedic faith, they are made to bath, sleep and do daily life practises.In Sanatan Dharma concept of reserved spaces exist. Some spaces are reserved for masculine energy and some for feminine. But if we continue to look at Mandirs (devastans) with Christian lens, will we do justice to the Vedic institutions or vedic concepts?? If we continue to look at the Vedic faiths with Christian lens, we might end up with unconsciously laying down Abrahamic foundation under Sanatan Dharma. We all saw how Sabrimala Case ended with !! Because we used the term ‘denomination’ in place of Sampradayas, the states by founding the loophole very conveniently seperated Mandirs with Matts and undermined the Shirur Mutt judgement. Today Temples are under state control and using Abrahamic terms for vedic concepts is the major reason behind it.

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