i think i understand this god thing

the first god was death. the prayer was 'don't kill me!'

the second god was to preserve the soul while the body died and give good rebirth

the third god was to free the soul from rebirth itself

then buddhism came and said we don't need gods, just meditation will do

tibetan religion is shamanism with a buddhist adapter on top

best part is the shamanism still works

tibetan shamanism and kashmiri shaivism came at the same time ?

this form of religion involves deities worship,  invoking deities, etc 

tibetan book of the dead documents bardos

a bit south-east, garuda purana appears with a similar storyline

similar stories, logically made whole, to satisfy the brain ?

at some time, something happened, then buddhism, Patanjali's yoga, emerged. 

someone said religion is the opium of the masses. 

then they discovered anandamide. 

vedanta named it sat-chit-ananda. - what you get at the end of successful practice and 'deliverance' - eternal bliss

buddhist texts list  'blissful breath' as one of the milestones on the way to deliverance

bhakti traditions report devotees lost in bliss and dancing with joy , as a typical effect of the practice

so...

hinduism moved from fire sacrifices, to deity worship inside the house, and then to chanting and meditation - actually, hinduism still has it all, it hasn't 'moved from' , rather it has 

the insanely pragmatic japanese don't hold much with  blissing. zen practice is reported to quieten the noise in your head, the constant replay of past, simulations, scenarios ....  gallwey came up with a hack for this for tennis but zen supposed goes the whole hog

btw, sadhoos go into a soundless light less cave/ room and fast and meditate for eons, and come back regenerated (not rejuvenated) . apparently the stem cells kick in ? 

sadhguru probably refers to this as  inner engineering

my favourite, and most delicious 'conspiracy theory' comes from terry pratchett's 'thief of time' - which says the universe is created anew and destroyed in every 'tick'