why was there a need for reform of the Hindu religion which lead to Jainism and Buddh

why was there a need for reform of the Hindu religion which lead to Jainism and Buddhism?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ahsi0Y3ieF3NOrvbAmbT2gwjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid =20080913120924AAQurlT

Hmm

I'm not sure about that one, it seems that the Christians and Musulmans are the only ones who need reforming...

I can't wait to here an answer to your question!

Hinduism is not a closed religion. There is no last chapter. Messengers keep coming to guide the people. According to Hare Rama Hare Krishna Gautham Buddha is an incarnation of god.

Religion has to be continuously new. Otherwise it becomes stale and rotten. If no new blood is infused into religion it becomes just meaningless rituals and a way of exploitation. Religion is a continuous exploration. There are so many people in Hinduism who open up a new path or a new system. It is not depend ant on just one figure in the past. If someone realizes the truth it accepts it. It can not say that the last chapter was sent thousands of years back. God is so impotent or what? He can not produce one messenger in thousands of years?

All 'isms' are creations of followers. Lord Vardhamana Mahavira and Lord Budha were enlightened souls. Propagation as I learned in the case of Budhism was in the eyes of King Ashoka the Great (as he is known) to the extend that it became a wide spread religion. If at all there was a need, that was visible for King Ashoka and may not be visible now. The difference was between knowing, believing and practicing. If anyone practiced, they will never become followers, they all raise to the level of enlightened souls. Each person in the world then would be a religion in himself.

There were 2 concepts that needed reformation.

1) The Caste System

2) The Brahma system in which one would buy a reading from a holy man thereby enriching the Priestcraft and impoverishing most others.

The corruption of the priest craft was somewhat similar to the system in Europe that led to Luther's Protest and Protestantism.

I think the same might be said of mega churches in America.

Buddhism and Jainism were not offshoots of Hinduism. Hinduism is an offshoot of Buddhism & Jainism.

Buddhism and Jainism were a threat to the oppressive Brahmins (priests of Hinduism). Brahmanism (which evolved into modern Hinduism) was based on one thing only: the caste system, with the Brahmin's on top and the others beneath their feet. The Brahmins didn't care what the religion was, so long as they could keep their privileges. This is why Hinduism kept changing to suit the Brahmin's needs. Buddhism and Jainism taught universal brotherhood based on merit not birth, so Brahmins did everything they could to destroy them.

So the Brahmins came up with a number of ways to firstly attract people to Brahmanism and secondly to destroy Buddhism and Jainism. This included turning Buddha into an avatar of Vishnu (while some Puranas still maintained that it's bad luck to see a Buddhist monk), supporting despots that persecuted Buddhists, ending the Vedic animal sacrifices which Buddhism and Jainism had always condemned (yet the Brahmins still made non-animal sacrifice essential to religion), incorporating popular stories into Brahmanism like the Kshatriyas' Bhagavad Gita into the Mahabharata, and turning popular folk heros like Shiva into gods themselves.