Hinduism

By Dinesh Chandra

This book is, thus, an effort to compile the history, development and the basic tenets of Hinduism which guide the way of life of one fifth of humanity on earth. Effort has been made to include only the basic information that has helped a Hindu to choose a desired path from amongst the many that have been lighted up by Hindu sages to achieve their goal, that of attaining ‘Moksha’ or ‘Mukti’, which means that he or she obtains relief from the cycle of birth and death through good Karmas. This is the central precept of Hinduism. Interaction with people in foreign countries, other than Hindus, reveals that they have little knowledge about Hinduism. It is learnt that British schools have a period or two, in class eight, to deal with all religions which is obviously insufficient to make a child of that age to even understand the actual meaning of the word religion. Hindus who migrated abroad from India at a young age and those who were born abroad, except for Mauritius and Fiji islands where Hindus have lived as a cohesive community for over a century, and those who have continued to maintain their links with their original faith, many have started losing touch with the basics of their religion. Generally, there is a perceptible lack of authentic knowledge about the beginnings of Hindu religion and its evolution over the ages into what it represents today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Release date: Oct 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9789385975431

Book preview

Bibliography

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

Defining Hinduism has remained an enigmatic exercise for even the ablest of thinkers and philosophers. There is no Hindu book or scripture that refers to Hinduism as a religion. Yet, Hinduism is not a mystery that cannot be solved with an enlightened approach to the purpose of ‘religion’ in a man’s life. Hinduism, in its present form, is the culmination of thousands of years of progressive thinking and intermingling of ideas, customs and practices; of hundreds of tribes which got assimilated into the larger fold of Vedic culture in the Indian sub-continent.

This book is, thus, an effort to compile the history, development and the basic tenets of Hinduism which guide the way of life of one fifth of humanity on earth. Effort has been made to include only the basic information that has helped a Hindu to choose a desired path from amongst the many that have been lighted up by Hindu sages to achieve their goal, that of attaining ‘Moksha’ or ‘Mukti’, which means that he or she obtains relief from the cycle of birth and death through good Karmas. This is the central precept of Hinduism.

Interaction with people in foreign countries, other than Hindus, reveals that they have little knowledge about Hinduism. It is learnt that British schools have a period or two, in class eight, to deal with all religions which is obviously insufficient to make a child of that age to even understand the actual meaning of the word religion. Hindus who migrated abroad from India at a young age and those who were born abroad, except for Mauritius and Fiji islands where Hindus have lived as a cohesive community for over a century, and those who have continued to maintain their links with their original faith, many have started losing touch with the basics of their religion. Generally, there is a perceptible lack of authentic knowledge about the beginnings of Hindu religion and its evolution over the ages into what it represents today.

This information has been compiled in a simple and easy to read language, without the usual mumbo jumbo that often clouds religious statements, so as to familiarize both Hindus and non- Hindus about the basics of Hinduism. It may well be considered a primer on Hinduism, hoping that the book would induce the reader to seek more information about this glorious way of life, called religion.

Generally, people of other faiths conceive of Hinduism as a heathen polytheistic religion whose followers worship idols and devote their time to strange rituals; that they are ignorant, superstitious and are still living in the dark ages. The people of the ‘Books’ consider Hindus as pagans and consider it their moral responsibility to redeem them and to enlighten them about the true God and His word as contained in their holy ‘Books’. Like they did in the Dark Continent and continue doing so there. They consider it their bounden duty to convert them to their own faith through zealous missionaries.

This impression has gained ground since Hindus are unable to produce just one ‘Book’ which can be claimed as the basis of their beliefs and religious practices. Hindus generally quote Bhagvata Gita as their prime religious book whereas there are numerous other scriptures that emerged in tandem, from time to time, which also store a wealth of spiritual thinking that has moulded the Hindu religious mind.

There is no hierarchical organization of Hindus with a head priest, like the Pope or Ayatollah, who interpret their religion for them. On the other hand, there have been a number of sages and seers who have interpreted Hindu philosophy through logical discussions on subjects like the existence or otherwise of the Supreme Being, His nature and the cause and effect of the various activities that take place in our lives. All statements found in their scriptures have undergone severe tests of common logic and their understanding by a common man. The canard that Hindus continue to live in the dark ages was deliberately spread by those who were determined to show Hinduism in poor light in order to spread the tenets of their own religion. On the contrary, Hindus are the only people who have continually evolved spiritually ever since the beginning of man’s quest for knowledge about the unknown power that must be controlling the happenings in this vast universe.

We must, at the same time, acknowledge that there are some corrupt social practices that have dogged Hindu society under the mistaken notion that they have religious sanctity. These are perpetuated by the interested class of priests who tend to fleece the ignorant and gullible people in the name of religious rituals that, in fact, have no religious sanctity in the form they are practiced by the priests. Such practices are highlighted by non-Hindus to show the negative aspects of Hindu religion. But, then, people of other faiths suffer from equally, or even worse customs and practices that are not only inhuman, cruel and barbaric but are stagnant since the middle ages; even repugnant to modern times, after universal human values have undergone a drastic change with the progress of civilization. But they are glossed over under the misguided notion that some of them have religious sanctity.

Therefore, social evils prevalent in any society cannot be attributed to their religion unless they are perpetuated as currently practiced religious rituals. It’s a matter of time when social evils afflicting some parts of Hindu society would be eradicated since Hindus are always ready to accept changes for their uplift. Many ancient rituals, like animal sacrifice to deities have already become extinct and, if carried out surreptitiously, they are frowned upon by a majority of Hindus.

With greater awareness and education, Hindu masses are slowly, but surely, moving forward in the social field. Frankly, the Hindu way of life is like a democracy, where everyone has the liberty to think and act for himself. And, as is well known, bringing about a social change in a democracy does take long. But the change, when it comes, is lasting; unlike changes brought about by an autocratic or dogmatic dictum which last as long as the ruler lasts.

The tolerant attitude of Hindus towards other religions seems to have contributed to the impression that they are equivocal about various religions and are ready for ‘redemption’ by the people of the ‘Books’. It is in this context that a need was felt to rummage through the vast amount of literature that exists on Hindu religion to collate the basic information about Hinduism, as it evolved over several millennia, as a ready reference for the uninitiated. This includes commentaries by several western scholars on the Vedas and Upanishads.

Hinduism represents the way of life of people who have been living in the Indian sub-continent continuously for several thousand years. The people of the region evolved over this long period progressively, gaining deep understanding of human behaviour; especially about man’s aspirations for maintaining his individuality while remaining part of the society he lived in. They discovered good practices that helped them in becoming good citizens, yet retaining their freedom to choose their spiritual paths. Over time, they metamorphosed into a liberated group of people; well known for their liberal and tolerant views on matters of spiritual leanings of different people who joined them from time to time. They hold a common view that there is only one Supreme power that controls the universe; and the wise ones call Him by different names.

Some western scholars have described Hinduism as ‘Henotheism’ which is quite an inappropriate word to describe Hinduism. The nearest description could perhaps be that Hindus believe in only one Supreme Being, while identifying (designating) the various aspects of His godly activities as various gods and goddesses; that are seen as mere manifestations of the Supreme Being, the Paramatma. They do not see such gods and goddesses having a separate entity; other than representing different facets of His overall personality.

Hinduism has not received the same kind of attention from people of the world as other major religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam have. Many, that comprise a large majority of Christians in the western world and Muslims in Africa, have not even heard of Hinduism. The reasons are not far to find. One of the reasons is that Hindus are a passive lot; even introverted about their metaphysical beliefs. They are not vociferous about their religious concepts and do not preach them with a missionary zeallike the others do. The other major factor is that Hindus have not been part of a religious conflict anywhere in the world; thus not drawing attention of the world media. Many do not even know the geographical location of India that is home to world’s second largest population after China.

There is an urgent need for bringing about greater awareness and understanding of the precepts of Hinduism in the present state of affairs that are afflicting our society at large. Hinduism represents a way of life that alone can bring about peace in this war torn planet of ours. The intellectual community of the world, that has the responsibility to provide leadership for germinating and flowering of new ideas must, therefore, delve deeper into the Hindu way of life to discover its innate strength that has made it cope with terrorism for a millennium. The world needs to find viable ways to cope with, the so called ‘clash of civilizations’ through peaceful means. Armed crusades are no longer an answer.

One may wonder why this oldest of all religions has such an obscure image. Hinduism was not propagated as a religion because it cannot be termed a religion in the strictest sense of the word. Hinduism is a way of life. People who inhabited

Indian subcontinent, since ancient times, acquired the teachings of Vedas, brought by Indo Aryans some four to five thousand years ago, amalgamating their own customs and practices with the overall spiritual concept of Paramatma being the Almighty God. Somehow, they never thought of codifying their concepts in a dictatorial fashion, binding people to remain within the parameters of dogmas and edicts as word of God and declare it as their religion.

Hinduism grants full freedom to all individuals in its fold to pursue any spiritual path they like, which is based on a deep philosophical understanding of the fact that every man has his own perception of the Almighty, the One who can never be seen by anyone to describe Him to others. Hindus, therefore, do not believe in proselytisation. In fact, anyone who is not born into a Muslim, Christian or a Parsi home in India would qualify to be called a Hindu. That has been the practice so far. Yet, surprisingly, in recent years, after it came to be recognized as a religion, Hindus declined to accept people of other faiths to enter their domain and become Hindus. In retrospect, this resistance on their part to allow induction of others into their fold also became their weakness. The absence of effort on their part to convert others into their fold is, perhaps, the main reason for its remaining in the background, even when a very large percentage of the world’s population subscribes to its way of life. For ease of reference, we shall refer to Hinduism as a religion hereafter.

Hinduism has been continually moulding itself to meet the needs of time and upgrading its knowledge with fresh inputs, debates and exchange of ideas and personal experiences; a never ending process that is needed for man’s real progress in any field. It does not represent any specific religious dogmas. The core values are similar to what others believe in; that there is one supreme God who is seen as the creator of the universe, besides being its sustainer and destroyer as well. Perhaps, this is where the similarity ends. Because, there is endless freedom for people to juxtapose their individual interpretations of the Almighty and His nature, and ways that He operates in. Some do not even recognize His existence. But, interestingly, everyone likes to address the Almighty as a male Being.

This might give an impression that Hindus are pagans or atheists. That is what had been propagated by the colonialists in the past couple of centuries because they could never fathom the depths of their spirituality. All colonialists were Christians, who were also deeply involved in propagating their own religion besides capturing territories. Persian and Arab invaders, who were Muslims, dubbed Hindus as idolaters and proceeded to destroy them with religious fervour. They neither had the inclination nor desire to understand the Hindu concept of God since their main aim was to capture territory and convert others to their faith.

One of the major factors that made the Hindus getting overwhelmed by other faiths was lack of political unity in their land. Hindus had never ventured out of their lands for territorial gains or to proselytize people to their faith. At least not after India came under the influence of Buddhist philosophy of non violence in the middle of the seventh century BCE. Thus, they lost on both counts. The world at large saw India as the easiest target for expanding one’s domain, both politically and for their religion. Perhaps, their fate was the result of the passive leanings of their faith which had started talking of Ahimsa Paramo Dharma’ i.e. ‘non-violence is the highest form of religion’, a dictum that was so ‘post modern’ two thousand years ago as it is now. But, then, it is the only panacea for the ills that are dogging the world today.

There are numerous reputed works on Hinduism by renowned orientalists and scholars. Deep interest shown by some western scholars in the mystical teachings of Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas and their commentaries on these scriptures are treats by themselves. Great Hindu saints like Shankar and Ramanujam have written comprehensive commentaries on Upanishads which are supposed to contain the essence of Vedas. Several modern philosophers have explained the inherent truths of epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata and stories from the Puranas are recited on a never ending basis at ‘pravachans’ and satsangs, (community gatherings for religious discourses) by Hindu priests in India. The spiritual grounding a Hindu receives ever since one’s childhood, in the cradle, in one’s mother’s lap or at night before going to sleep from one’s grand parents, leave a deep impression on one’s mind to make one follow the ‘right path’ all through one’s life.

So what makes me write about Hinduism? Do I have anything new to convey to my readers about this great and glorious religion which, despite having faced serious attempts to write it off the world’s map, has survived for over four millennia. My effort is to familiarize both the Hindus and non- Hindus about the origins of this great religion and the course of its development to its modern form. While doing so, I have tried to study the views of other major religions on subjects of universal interest that affect human life on this earth; especially those that affect world peace and harmony; and their influence on Hinduism.

, Hinduism, as it stands today, is the way of life of billions of people who are at liberty to imbibe progressive ideas from across the globe, from whatever source they come from. The famous Hindu statement ‘Let the light come from all directions’ is a living Hindu belief which modulates their thoughts and actions. There are no dogmas, no edicts, and no commandments from their God except for His advice to human beings to make continuous effort to overcome one’s baser animal instincts through tapas (self sacrifice), contemplation and reflection about righteousness, and to implement righteousness in their deeds (karma) which, alone, would lead to individual peace, spiritual growth and harmonious living with all the living beings and elements created by Him on this earth.

Hinduism gives us the freedom to live and let others live in a free, fair and harmonious environment; considering the whole world as one’s family (Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam). Most of all, it provides one the most significant freedom, the choice of worshipping one’s chosen spiritual godhead (or not to worship anyone) and to be open to reason and debate on any religious issue, a kind of right that a Hindu cherishes and would not like to surrender at any cost.

This brings out an outstanding feature of Hinduism. Hindu religion is an individual’s personal religion as opposed to other religions being community religions. A Hindu does not require a formal gathering to worship his God like others who are obliged to come together at their designated places, at least once a week, to pray to Him collectively as a community. One finds individual satisfaction in addressing one’s God whenever and wherever one likes to. The negative aspect of this kind of individualism is that, as a community, they feel less connected with others, even when it comes to their collective safety in the face of a physical aggression by an outsider. This has been a major cause of Hindus having suffered military defeats right through the second millennium CE. Unfortunately, the liberal religious attitude of the Hindus made them look naive, passive, even cowardly, in the Middle Ages when some aggressive religions took to mass scale proselytisation of the world. It is, therefore, extremely necessary that the world understands about this liberal aspect of Hinduism and not just carry on with the absurd idea of their being a community of snake charmers and performers of rope tricks, a canard spread by the colonialists to subjugate their spirit.

As for communities that seem to have a religious bond, they tend to feel secure, physically, hoping that others of their ilk would come to their help in need; like members of a tribe would get together to ward off attacks by other tribes in olden days. But, in real terms, it remains a chimera in modern times. Every nation tends to look after its own interests and does not like to involve itself, physically, in the affairs of others. It requires tremendous human and financial resources that weigh down on one’s exchequer. However, they are quick to offer lip service which only hardens the attitudes of ones directly involved in the conflict. It is a common feature in today’s world to find people reacting to some event taking place thousands of miles away from them in the name of religion. This, perhaps, gives a semblance of religious solidarity but, in fact, it is difficult to say that it is so. The amount of bloodshed taking place between people of the same faith, around the world, that too in the name of their common religion, beats imagination when one reflects upon the show of solidarity put up by them just a few days or hours prior to shedding blood of their own ilk.

A communal bonding tends to reduce one’s individuality to a very large extent. Tribal customs of bringing people together in the face of threat from another tribe came into being due to this need for collective security; and some very strong rules were laid down that restricted individual discretion; the punishment for dissent could even be the life of the dissenter. India seems to have got over this phase of tribal behaviour several millennia ago. People had started feeling comfortable with individuality and had reached a stage when they could express themselves freely, especially in the spiritual field, when the rest of the world was still going through the primitive stages of development of human mind.

It is a known fact that a person acts more rationally when acting individually than when he forms part of a crowd. Mass mentality, as is known, dampens an individual’s discretion. He tends to flow with the stream without allowing his own thinking process to take precedence. We see several instances when a crowd develops at a scene of accident and, soon, even passers by join the fray, siding with the one perceived to be the aggrieved party. They also join the show of anger by pelting stones and vandalizing anything and everything in the vicinity as if they themselves were the aggrieved party. Similarly, mass hysteria over a religious issue also tends to draw everyone into frenzy where individuals tend to lose control over their rationality. Recent research has shown that mankind suffers as much from the ‘herd instinct’ as many of the animals do.

Just visualize for a moment -the saga of meek submission of six million European Jews to their sorry fate; some of whom were made to dig their own graves and the following row of doomed ones made to bury them and, in turn, dig their own graves. This happened a mere seventy years ago (1940s). The perpetrators of these crimes were supposedly sane people, belonging to a religion that talked of mercy, compassion and humanity. But the mass hysteria turned them into ghastly criminals; they were robbed of their individual discretion and most of them joined the ‘game of annihilating millions of Jews as an act of solving the Question of Jews’ One does not find their religious heads having come out with any serious statements of rejecting the ‘holocaust’ as unreligious then; or an apology for the inhuman acts by the followers of their religion later; because, perhaps, the Christian church itself denounces the Jews who are held responsible for the death of Christ.

The transformation of Jews into a cohesive community by coming together in one place, Israel, has led them into becoming a force to reckon with. They acquired substantial military might to defend their religion and their way of life in a proactive manner. Now they do not wait to react to a threat to their nation but take preemptive action to deal with any potential threat. Nevertheless, this has also resulted in another volatile situation where they are embroiled in confrontation with Palestinians, in fact the whole Muslim world, who feel that the Palestinians have been short changed by western powers who carved out Israel by displacing them from their homeland.

The scenario is fraught with mental tensions all around and existence of a constant danger of mass scale destruction of people and property in the region. The very Christians who were perpetrators of the holocaust are now supporting Israel to remain in conflict with Muslim Palestinians who are aggrieved to have been made outsiders in their very homeland. The Jews who flocked to Israel after its creation from all over the world were not the original inhabitants of the land. This, indeed, is a glaring example of confrontation between peoples who believe in their God being different than the God of others.

The cycle has turned full circle now. The world has come to realize the wisdom of keeping religion as one’s private affair. One may have one’s own perception of spirituality but there is no need to impose it on others, least of all by coercion or through threat of violence.

Seen in the light of such a confrontationist scenario, we find that it took Hindus over a thousand years of subjugation and suffering to realize that their tolerant attitude promoted cowardice in their minds and that they must stand up to defend their way of life or else they would be doomed to live like slaves who are denied any emotional or intellectual liberty of thought and action in their lives, leave alone the liberty of professing one’s spiritual views openly. Hindus, therefore, have started a serious introspection into their philosophy of non violence. They were led into this introspection by the towering personality of the twentieth century, Mahatma Gandhi, who showed the intrinsic strength of non violence to the world; the spiritual strength required to follow the truth; that truth alone would prevail; that no one can force any one to continue to follow any doctrine, any path, religious or otherwise, unless one is convinced of it’s righteousness. But, for achieving victory of Truth over Un-truth, people must come together to protest against the perpetrators of Un-truth.; and not act as bystanders; something the Mahatma displayed through his actions. This, by the way, is also the foundation of democracy that many in the new world profess but haven’t yet understood the manner in which it is to be practiced. Democracy, to succeed, requires presence of spiritually enlightened leadership on the top.

It is significant to note that in the face of such global turmoil in present times, Hindus have not taken up a militant attitude to defend themselves or to avenge the inhuman treatment meted out to them at the hands of marauding barbarians for almost a thousand years in the name of their religion. Instead, a great number of Hindus have come out of their inward looking approach to life and have learnt to face the world as equals, something they had failed to do thus far. The results are for every one to see. They have regained their honour and dignity as free thinkers in the modem world. Their philosophy of life is being recognized as the only way for this world to survive the present day conflicts.

The basic conflict that is creating havoc in the lives of people around the world today is a resistance to change by the orthodox, conservative and tradition bound people living in the Middle East and their fear of the (immoral) influence of western culture on their society. This, to some extent, is a valid fear; as any dilution of values that have been acquired over several centuries, is likely to affect their way of life. They are bound to resist the (immoral) influence of an invading culture which indulges in crass materialism as the guiding force of their lives.

The Christian west, now seen to be represented by Americans as their leaders, is gradually re-engineering itself; acquiring new values of consumerism that, among others, result into slackening of the traditional bonds of social relationships and emotions that kept families together during times of stress. There, one’s worth is seen from what one has; and how much does he consume. Emotional and spiritual values have taken a back seat, as virtues of a bygone era. Creation of wealth and self-gratification is acquiring greater importance; social responsibilities are being limited to formal duties like keeping the environment neat and clean and maintaining relationships with others at a formal level; even with their neighbours and near ones. There is no show of emotional sympathy in times of crises which, when expressed, sounds so formal, businesslike and even artificial at times. One could hardly expect genuine empathy, compassion, politeness or respect for the other’s sensitivities in times of crises; emotions that are generally associated with higher values of humanity; for such emotions invariably imply a feeling of personal loss for the person expressing them. People who tend to remain self centred often act in a highly impersonal manner, often verging on indifference. This attitude is also exhibited in their economic and political policies where assistance in any form is to extract some political advantage from the other. Their main objective is to create situations around the world which can be exploited for their trading advantage, for selling arms and exporting technical expertise for rehabilitation of areas they destroyed in the name of establishing ‘democracies’ around the world, as champions of human rights etc.

This kind of attitude exhibited by western nations towards peoples of the Middle East and South Asia is one of the major reasons for the chasm that is not bridged. It cannot be bridged by pouring in economic assistance alone. Americans are bewildered at the show of what is perceived as ‘ungratefulness’ by the people of such nations where they have pumped in tons of money to help them come out of ruinous depression.

They do not exhibit any feeling of thankfulness