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Five Basic doctrinal aspects of

Saivism and Vaishnavism

As St.Thomas brought in the gospel of  Maheswara (Parameswara) into the Indian culture, it took forms that are native in its interpretations with native symbolisms as its expression.  The Indian Catholic Way simply translated would be “Hindu Sanadhana Dharma”. The name used by the modern Hinduism.  It displaced Vedism, Buddhism, Jainism and almost all local religions of India at that time from the Northern India to the Southern Most India even unto Sri Lanka.

In time various denominations began to evolve with emphasis on specific aspects of god and gospel.   Two such denominations were Vaishnavism and Saivism.  Saivism emphasized the love of god and the Sacrifice of God for the redemption of Mankind, while Vaishnavism emphasized the glorious almighty God of the Skies.  In Kerala Christians were called  Nasranees (One who follow the Nazarene) and Isanees (or Isanuvadikal – one who are followers of Isa)

Saivism is considered by many to have been born in Tamilnadu, the southern most part of India where the Dravidians are concentrated.  So even today Tamilnadu continues to be the home of Saivism.  It became a distinct religion and took the name Saivism only during the period between 3rd century A.D. to 10th century A.D.

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Saivism

 Siva is considered to be the supreme God.

He is worshipped in two forms. One as a lingam and the other as human form. The human form has several varieities. The most important of them are Nataraja - the dancing posture and Dakshinamoorthy - the teacher instructing the four sages on the absolute truth.

It is interesting to note that in Hinduism, the only God who took the poison so that the creation may be saved is Shiva.

The purana story of churning the milky Way:  

The gods (suras) and demons (Asuras) churned the  milky  way  with the mountain Mandra as the  churning rod and the snake Vasuki as the churning rope to obtain the elixir of immortality (Amrit).  During churning, many things  emerged.   But as the churning continued for the  Amrit or Nectar and just before the elixir came out,  poison flowed out of it.  The whole creation was in danger of being destroyed by the poison. To protect the creation, Lord Siva received the flowing lava of poison and drank it all so that none of the creation will be dead in an act of  self-sacrifice. Seeing this act of Siva, his consort pressed his throat, not allowing the poison to go down. Thus the poison got held in the neck and became blue.  Siva is also called Blue Necked – Neela kanda

Vaishanvism on the other hand was concentrated in the Northern India. It was dominated by the Aryans and emerged by the third century AD as an independent religion opposing the Savites

Vaishnavism

Vaishnavas believe that God is ultimately personal and that the ultimate goal is to return to our eternal position as a servant to the Supreme Lord.  The way back is Faith (Bhakthi) and absolute surrender to God.

Modern Vaishnavites believe that Vishnu – which is today identified as Krishna – takes incarnations every eon.

Thus Thomas transformed the religious scenario of India and all of India practically was Christianized.  Majority of the population were Christians alongside the other religions of Buddhism, Jainism and Vedism.  Vedism was most affected as most followers of Vedism became Christians.  But they were not called Christians.  The name “Christians” is a term that was created in Antioch  after the Greek word “Christos”.

Act 11:26   For a whole year they met with the church, and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians.

Five Basic Doctines of  Christianity

 The five Christian Doctrines

 Doctrine of Trinity
Doctrine of Incarnation
    Doctrine of Fulfillment of Sacrifice
Doctrine of Forgiveness of Sin
Doctrine of Salvation through Faith.

Five Basic Doctines of both Saivism and Vaishnavism

Doctrine of Trinity

Doctrine of Incarnation (Avtar)

Doctrine of Fulfillment of Sacrifice

Doctrine of Forgiveness of Sin

Doctrine of  Salvation through Faith
(Bhakthi Marga)

All these five doctrines which are common to both Saivite and Vaishanavites were never known in pre-Christian era and are definite indications of the form of Early Christianity in India.   Hindu Sanadhana Dharma of first century AD was indeed the form of Christianity that St.Thomas established and central doctrines were indeed Christian. 

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These denominations evolved out of specific emphasis on aspects of God.   They all started as Christian Churches but became heretic through syncretization and Gnostic influence from Babylon.   We will now look into the forces that transformed Indian Catholic Church to modern Hinduism as it is today.