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This is a chapter from The Baha'i Faith and Abortion Baha'is count Hinduism as among the world's Divinely-Revealed religions. Yet there really is no such religion as "Hindiusm". The term "Hinduism" is a term that Western scholars gave to the amalgamated religions and rites of India (Hindustan). There are some laws and beliefs in "Hinduism" that Baha'is would agree with, but many they would disagree with. Baha'is certainly don't believe in worshipping many gods, or worshipping creatures instead of the Creator. Baha'is don't believe in worshipping idols. It is perhaps better to say that it is not "Hinduism" that is considered by Baha'is to be a Divinely-Revealed Religion, but rather Vaishnavism; the Hindu religion which is based upon the worship of Vishnu, and the Vishnu Revelations which is collectively referred to as Vaishnava. The main sects of Hinduism are the Vaishnavas (worshippers of Vishnu), the Saivas (worshippers of Shiva) and the Saktas (worshippers of Sakti, the wife of Shiva). Mandy Hindus worship all three, or worship one for some things and others for another; even though the Vaishnava scriptures are clear that Vishnu alone is to be worshipped. Sometime between 3000 B.C. and 1400 B.C. the worship of Vishnu was introduced to the Aryans; an ancient Indo-European tribe of people from northwest India and Pakistan. The chief scriptures of the Vaishnava was the Mahabharata ("Great Epic") which is a huge epic poem that recounts a war between a polytheistic Aryan clan named the Kauvaras and a monotheistic Aryan clan named the Pandavas. Part of the Mahabharata is called the Bhagavad Gita ("Song of the Lord") where Krishna reveals to Arguna (a Pandava Knight) that He is the incarnation of the Supreme Being (Vishnu). Krishna tells Arguna:
For the protection of the good and the destruction of the evil-doers, and for the reestablishment of dharma [righteous/order/religion], I descend myself from age to age." (Bhagavad Gita, 4:8) Baha'is quote this verse in the Gita because it appears to agree with their doctrine of the Manifestation of God; that the unknown and unknowable God manifests Himself via perfect and sinless supermen called "Manifestations of God". Baha'is accept Krishna as one of those Manifestations; although Baha'is do not believe that everything Krishna allegedly said in the Gita is historically true. After all, the Gita is a poem, and Krishna and Arguna probably weren't communicating in poems at the great battle. The oldest reference to abortion in the Aryan scriptures is in the Vedas; where it says:
"Whpe off, O Pushan [Lord], the sins of him that practiseth abortion." (Sacred Books of the East, 42:165) The Hindu scholar S. Chandasekhar in his book Abortion in a Crowded World writes:
"As for induced abortion, the Hindu scriptures from the Vedic age down to the Smritis (100 B.C. to 100 A.D.) called it bhrunahatya ("foetus murder") or farbhahatya ("pregnancy destruction"), and condemnedit as a serious sin. According to Vishnu Smriti (c. 100 B.C. to 100 A.D.), 'The destruction of an embryo is tantamount to killing of holy or learned person.'" (Abortion in a Crowded World, p.44 Historian Julius J. Lipner writes:
"We may begin by simply pointing out that the earliest sruti texts attest that the embryo in the womb is specially deserving of protection and that, indeed, abortion is a morally intolerable act. In the Rig Samhita (which embodies some of the earliest canonical scriptures of the Hindus, possibly before 1200 B.C.) the deity Vishnu is referred to as 'protector of the child-to-be.' *** The Atharva Veda (equally old, possibly older in parts) expresses the same attitude towards the unborn child, with the added implication that abortion counts amongst the most heinous crimes." (Hindu Ethics: Purity, Aboriton, and Euthanasia, p.43) In the Mahabharata (which includes the Bhagavad Gita) abortion is referred to as "embryo murder".(Abortion in a Crowded World, p.44). Vainavism did create a 'Book of Laws' called the Vishnadharma Sutra ("Sacred-Law-Book of Vishnu) which reads:
"Killing a Kshatriya [knight] or a Vaishya [Merchant] engaged in sacrifice, a menstrating woman, a pregnant women...[and]..the embryo (even) of a stranger is tantamount to killing a Brahmin [Priest]." (Hindu Ethics, p.45) S. Chandrasekhar (who is pro-choice) writes that not only do the most ancient Hindu scriptures condemn abortion, but so do the books of laws which were formulated from those scriptures:
"Hindu scriptures apart, the Hindu lawgivers of a later age treated abortion as a crime and ranked it among other crimes such as murder, incest, adultery with the wife of a guru, etc." (Abortion in a Crowded World, p.42) In the Apastambadharmssutra ("Sacred-Law-Book of Apastamba)--written by a successor-prophet of Krishna--it reads:
"Now these lead to a fall from caste: stealing...murder...abortion, sexual union with women with whom one is related materially or paternally..." (Hindu Ethics, p.45) Julius Lipner concludes:
"We may conclude from out study then, that from the earliest times, especially in the formative classical period described, both in the cannonical and collaborative orthodox Hindu literature, abortion (viz., deliberately caused miscarriage) at any stage of the pregnancy, has been morally condemend as violating the personal integrity of the unborn, save when it was a question of preserving the mother's life. No other consideration, social or otherwise, seems to ahve been allowed to override this viewpoint." (Hindu Ethics, p.60 emphasis added) Notwithstanding the clear anti-abortion stance of Vaishnava scriptures and holy laws, abortion and infanticide has been a fact in India for many generations. In 1887 W.J. Wilkin wrote:
"Abortion and infanticide are not confined to the larger towns, but are also rife in the villages." (Modern Hinduism: An Account of the Religion and Life of Hindus in Northern India, p.161) Wilkin then quotes one Dr. Chevers, who writes: "The murder of female children, whether by the firect employment of homicidal means, or by the more inhuman and not less certain measures of exposure to privation and neglect, has for ages been the chief and most characteristic crime of sex-sevenths of the inhabitants of British India." (Modern Hinduism, p.168) One reason that abortion and infanticide is still common in today's India (2001 A.D.) is because of poverty. Parents or mothers will often kill their female children (as far up as 5 years old) by crushing their heads with a grinding stone. This is done not because they cannot feed the child (there are hundreds of agencies in India from all over the world that feed hungry children), but because the parents fear poverty in old age. In India, only men can earn enough money to help support their parents when they become too old to work. Once girls and women get married, they become part of the husband's family, and cannot help support their own parents in their old age. Female children are often killed until a family has at least one or two sons; to help support them in old age. There are other ways that female infants are killed. BBC journalist Jyotsna Singh writes:
"The methods adopted to kill unwanted children in India are often cold-blooded and cruel. The ritual is performed by a family member or a professional killer, by swaddling a new-born in a wet cloth or simply giving her a spoonful of paddy grain with milk. It simply cuts her throat, suffocating her to death." (India's Unwanted Girls, BBC News Online, Tueday, 11 July, 2000, p.1 online) Because of the killing of female infants, there is a huge surplus of single Hindu males in India, and this surplus (in the tens of millions) is growing each year. This often results in Hindu males between 25 and 35 marrying young girls as young as 11 years old, and the parents of these young girls agree and even seek out these marriages; especially if the man can give them a good dowery (bride-payment which goes to the parents) and would be a good provider. Most of the killing of female children are done by worshippers of Shiva or Shakti. One of the images of Shakti is Kali; the black goddess who dances upon a Brahmin's (Aryan priest) dead body, and has a necklass of severed human heads and aborted fetuses as ear-rings.
 Kali with two aborted fetus' as ear-rings Researchers Eric Holberg and Jay Rogers write: "Kali is a frightening figure, the goddess of war, death, darkness, and violence. She is depicted with blackest tone of skin, she is naked; and wears human fetuses as earings." (Massacre of Innocence: The Occultic Roots of Abortion, p.3 online) Patricia Baird-Windle, founder of the Aware Woman Center for Choice, also openly worshipped Kali, and is quoted as saying: "My religion is a holy ritual child sacrifice." (Massacre of Innocence, p.1 online) Regardless of abortion and infanticide in India, the most ancient Vaishnava texts condemn abortion. "Abortion: The deliberate termination of pregnancy. From the earliest times, Hindu tradition and scriptures condemn the practice, except when the mother's life is in danger. It is considered an act against rita and ahimsa. Hindu mysticism teaches that the fetus is a living, conscious person, needing and deserving protection (a Rig Vedic hymn for protection of the fetus). The Kaushitaki Upanishad (1.2 UpR, 774) describes abortion as equivalent to killing one's parents. The Atharva Veda (6.113.1 HE, 43) lists the fetus slaver, brunaghni, among the greatest sinners (6.113.2)." (Hinduism's Online Lexicon, p.2 online)In the Puranas there is a prophecy concerning the coming Kali Yuga ("Black Age"). This is an age of evil; where lying, cheating, disease, and misery would be rampant. According to the prophecies, the Kali Yuga would be a time when sinyassins ("renouncers" of the world and material pleasures) would wear red clothing, and when abortion would be rampant.
"All kings occupying the earth in the Kali Age will be wanting in tranquillity, strong in anger, taking pleasure at all times in lying and dishonesty, inflicting death on women, children, and cows, prone to take the paltry possessions of others, with character that is mostly tamas, rising to power and soon falling. It may only be a coincidence that today abortion in India is common (as it is in most countries), and one of the most prolific advocates of abortion is the modern free love guru the Bhadwan Shri Rajneesh (now known as "Osho"). Rajneesh called his disciples "Sinyassins", but had them wear red robes instead of saffron robes as true sanyassins ("renouncers")do. They engaged in orgies, gambling, and the use of drugs. Rajneesh came to the United States in the early 1980s and started a commune in Antelope, Oregon. Eventually, however, Rajneesh was deported, and some of his main disciples were arrested for planning the murder of people who had criticized Rajneesh, and for planning to poisonthe water-supply of the city of The Dalles Oregon; which may have resulted in the murder of thousands. Along with the prophecies concerning the Kali Yuga are other Hindu prophecies concerning the coming of the Kalki Avatar. The Kalki Avatar was to be the 10th and final descent of Vishnu. He was to come riding upon a white horse, and defeat the forces of darkness (literally "Kali") and establish righteousness. Of the 2 million Baha'is that live in India, almost all of them are former Vaishnavas who came to the Faith because they were told that Baha'u'llah is the Kalki Avatar: the Destroyer of Kali and the works of Kali.
Kalki: Destroyer of the works of Kali |
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The Bahai Faith and Abortion |
