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I agree with you. One culture's horrifying misuse of a symbol should not censor it for all and forever. My roommate for the first two years of college was rais
by Alexqw85 10y ago
I agree with you. One culture's horrifying misuse of a symbol should not censor it for all and forever.
My roommate for the first two years of college was raised as a Jain[1], and a swastika with four dots is an important symbol for them. He liked to sketch, anything and everything, but also this swastika.
As his art was all over our walls, the expressions people had when they entered our dorm room for the first time were priceless. Sometimes it took some real explaining to convince them that I'm not a Nazi, and it was my Indian roommate who was drawing them and not me. ;-)
Beautiful artwork though.
---Alex
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism
- piyush_soni 10y agoIt's not just Jains (it's almost all Hindus as well), and the original Swastika [1] really doesn't have anything other than a positive connotation. It's considered to be an auspicious symbol, something which brings luck, prosperity etc. Even now if we buy something big (like house/vehicle etc.), the first thing religious Hindus do is get the ceremony done for making it 'auspicious' (by a Hindu priest), and drawing Swastika on that property is an important part of it. The people in US, if you visit any famous Hindu temple there, you might observe a priest doing the same ceremony with someone's new flashy car. The symbol is also used in almost any important life event in Hindu culture. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
- rangibaby 10y agoYou'd be surprised at how many times I have had to explain that it was for good luck and not some kind of evil logo
- ralfd 10y agoSo ... this was what made the Nazis lucky initially in the War?
- Mtinie 10y agoI know you probably meant that tongue-in-cheek, but the early German success wasn't luck, but the results of a hyper-focused industrial base and technically superior weapons (amongst other things).
- virtuabhi 10y agoActually, we (Indians) say that Nazis lost the war because they rotated the Swastika symbol
- newyankee 10y agokuch bhi, khudka anecdote country pe mat dal
- piyush_soni 10y agoEven if they think Nazis' symbol is bad, ideally they should easily be able to see the difference between that and the Indian symbol which is almost always red, vertically upright, and with four dots.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- antihero 10y agoAww the Jainism tenets looked great until they got to chastity. Why do so many religions and movements associate sex with sin? It is a beautiful, wonderful thing.
- stelonix 10y agoIt's not exactly with sin, but sexual activity is correlated with the power of creation. So "misusing" a "big bang" is often painted as something "bad", be it a sin or simply considered an act of layman's ignorance.
- maverick_iceman 10y agoYou may like Tantrik Hinduism. ;)
- antihero 10y agoDoes it have the caste system? To be honest I'm happy just figuring out my own beliefs.
- magic_beans 10y agoBrahmachary is often translated as chastity, but an alternate translation widely accepted in other spiritual traditions, like Bhakti, is fidelity within a committed relationship and conservation of sexual energy. So that might mean not masturbating every day, but conserving that sexual energy to bond with your partner (sexually or otherwise).
- mkaziz 10y agoIslam, actually, does not. Sex between a husband and wife is considered worship.
- reitanqild 10y ago> Islam, actually, does not. Sex between a husband and wife... So far true for Christianity as well according to my reading and what I have been told. The worship part however I can't relate to.