Why Hinduism Appeals To Me

By Rajan Pradhan

Why Hinduism Appeals to Me is a book by a novice writer and I’m not ashamed to admit it. The book is the result of my quest to find answers to the very existence of man. It answers many important questions at the same time. For instance, why religion, religion is important because it forms the building block of society, and without it, there would be no morality and only chaos. My religion is Hinduism, I have dealt with it at length. I must admit, Google searches came to my assistance as well as YouTube lectures by Advaita Vedanta experts like Swami Sarvapriyananda whose words I have shamelessly used to explain some very complex non-dual philosophies in as simple language as possible. I have dealt with great Hindu epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana and learned a great deal about the human condition and why it is as it is. To conclude, writing this book has been a revelation to me about my own spirituality and I am sure it will be an interesting read for people who are invested in Sanatan Dharma which is the correct terminology for Hinduism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
• Release date: Nov 15, 2023

Book preview

WHY HINDUISM APPEALS TO ME

PROLOGUE

I am writing the prologue to my intended book of the above title before I begin to even write the book itself. Well, that’s how it should be, no? I’m going to confess I’m no scholar of Hinduism nor of any religion for that matter but being born a Hindu, I do have certain advantages over others in that I will know snippets from my religion which I must have gathered in this quite a long time I’ve been on this earth; for instance from the festivals, pujas at home or in temples, birth rites, death rites, marriage ceremonies- my own and of my children and of relatives that I’ve attended.

What I’m going to follow as I go along will be my simplistic views on topics varying from the existence of God or his non existence there off. I’ve to pause here a while because a memory of a long time ago comes to my mind. We spent our childhood in Darjeeling which is a hill station in eastern India and where at what is known as the Observatory hill, there’s an ancient temple of Shiva Ji which doubles as a Buddhist monastery so both Hindus and Buddhists come to worship in that temple. In our language it’s called Mahakaal mandir. I would accompany my mother who was a very religious person almost every fortnight to the temple but would rather stand outside of it than be inside not partaking of the puja she would perform together with the Hindu priest there. Out of desperation at my behaviour, she would call me a naasthic or an atheist. Well, I didn’t seem to mind, I suppose because I myself in that impressionable age didn’t quite understand the meaning of pujas, worship and their purpose.

Some of the topics I have in mind which I will talk about separately as chapters will be if Hinduism is a monotheistic or a polytheistic religion and if it is a religion at all. I’ll talk about the origins of Hinduism and the theories put up. I had plans to discuss about the vedas and upanishads but it doesn’t look likely I’ll be able to in any satisfactory way because I’ve not read any of these scriptures dissuaded by their sheer intimidating contents and vast, almost impossible volumes so I have the excuse already that I’m not a scholar but only someone who finds Hinduism appealing. Well, with this brief preface or prologue, call it what you may, I think I’m ready to dive in into the book itself.

CHAPTER 1

HOW OLD IS HINDUISM?

Actually, no one knows. Guessing by the dates of the old Hindu texts like the vedas, puranas and others, scholars say Hinduism, being one of the oldest religions could be safely said to be about five thousand years old or thereabouts. But, archeologists, on a regular basis have been unearthing, remains of Hindu temples and shiva lings some of which have been found to be more than 10, 20 or 30 thousand years old. Where have these artifacts been found? You’ll not believe it. They have been located all the way from present day Afghanistan in the west to Bali, Sumatra, Java, Cambodia in the east. I was reading the other day that shiva ling like structures have been unearthed in Central Asia. Some even argue that the Aryan race when they invaded india from the steppes of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, they brought their religion with them and spread it over the Indian subcontinent. Now many scholars debunk the theory of the Aaryan invasion of india but are of the opinion the religion also known as sanathan dharma developed in India itself and its futile to look for its origins elsewhere but to give credit to the rishis of ancient India for establishing it.

When it comes to the question of the time period Hinduism originally came into existence, no one really knows so even the learned scholars, rishis and thinkers put it simply that Hinduism or sanathan dharma as they prefer to call it, has always been there; therefore it’s eternal. Just like the vedas which have no human authorship so are attributed to the hand of God; however far fetched, this may sound, that could be one of the plausible explanations, otherwise who could have authored them? Well, well, this is a difficult one to explain. While on the other hand, the Abrahamic religions, especially Christianity and Islam have their holy texts to prove the dates of the beginning of their religions, for instance, Jesus of Nazareth walked on this earth 2000 years ago because our calendars are also marked time with his birth. The time before that is called BC or before Christ and then onwards it’s AD also called Anno domini or in the year of our lord. We know almost for sure that Jesus walked on this earth because there are historical sites like the Mount of Olives, the Via Dolorosa or the path of pain through which he was led to the Golgotha or the place of the skulls where he was crucified. There’s even a church of the Holy Sepulchre built at the site and which still stands today where devout Christians go to worship. The Jordan River where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist also exists. Then Nazareth where he spent his childhood and Bethlehem where he was born are historical places that exist today in present day Israel and Palestine. About the holy prophet Mohamed of Islam, his life’s story has been recorded in the Holy Scripture, the Quran. The Muslims also follow their own calendar as per the holy text. Both these great religions emerged within the past two thousand years so are considered as historical facts while everything described in Hinduism happened so long ago that they are not considered to be historically proven and so are labelled mythological; quite unfair to the Hindus.

The Hindu epic, Ramayana, the story of lord Ram, an awatar of Vishnu, happened so long ago that it’s mythological to everyone in the west and to those of other religions but to the devout Hindus, this story about the victory of good over evil is something that happened 100, 000 years ago and we even know Ayodhya to be the birthplace where a temple used to be until the invading Moghul emperor Babar had it demolished and built a mosque over it, some five hundred years ago. The Hindus never relented but fought for all of five hundred years until they got back what belonged to them in the first place after a landmark Supreme Court judgment. Now, a glorious temple is going to come up at the place where Ram was born. The Muslims have been allocated another place in which they may build a mosque. Everything happened amicably.

Ayodhya is an ancient Indian city which has existed for several millennia and Ram and before him his father King Dasharath had been the rulers of this kingdom. This is not mythological. Ram along with his wife Sita and brother Laxman were sent on an exile for some unfair reason, which I may deal with when I shall discuss The Ramayana as a chapter. They went to Chitracoot which stands today somewhere straddling Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. All other places mentioned in the Ramayana, the routes taken by the exiles exist today and there are shrines devoted to Ram everywhere. After Sita was kidnapped by Ravana, the king of Lanka, today’s Sri Lanka, the paths followed by Ram and Laxman are all there as if a real path had been carved out. Then you have the holy pilgrimage site of Rameshwaram in the coast of Tamil Nadu, which is also the nearest point to reach Sri Lanka across a stretch of the Indian Ocean. Here, Ram was supposed to have prayed to Lord Shiva and performed a puja before he embarked upon the journey into Lanka to finally kill Ravan and rescue Sita. The temple exists until today. So how did Ram and his army cross the ocean? They didn’t fly. A submerged pathway of rocks, man made as per the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) stands today which links India with Sri Lanka and is called Ram Setu or bridge since time immemorial. Of course, the British used to call it Adam’s bridge for reasons best known to them.

What is worth pondering over is the intellectual capacity of Valmiki and Tulsidas, the authors of The Ramayana is their almost telepathic vision through which they have described the places in India from north to south with such precision which I’m sure would have been impossible for them to have traveled on foot to have actually been there. It would not be wrong to surmise that they must have certain divine powers which must have helped them in their narration of this epic.

The practice of Hinduism can be as easy as you want or as difficult as you may want it to be. It depends on you. While the Abrahamic religions make you believe in a monotheistic God who is all powerful and pervades all aspects of your life and even in death you do not become liberated. They believe there will be a day of judgment which every mortal will have to face and depending on how you have lived your life, you will either be rewarded with an everlasting heaven or if you have lived a life of sin, you will be banished to hell forever from where there’s no relief. It’s Jannat or Jamnum for you; in Arabic. Hence Christians and Muslims live in fear all their lives because they are supposed to have been born sinners and God who is all merciful is the only one who can save you from the eternal fires of hell. In the case of the Christians, it’s the original sin which their ancestors, Adam and Eve committed by eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge that which makes them sinners; therefore they have to ask god for forgiveness all the time, do penance, go to church every Sunday, lead a virtually sinless life and pray to Jesus Christ who took upon himself the sins of others by letting himself be crucified so that all the rest may be forgiven. The Muslims too have to live by the book, pray five times a day, observe the fasting month of Ramadan, celebrate Eid, pay jakkat and make a pilgrimage to Mecca among other penances before you’re qualified to be allowed into Jannat or heaven after judgment day.

For the Hindus, it’s not all that regimental. One is not labelled a sinner the moment one is born but considered a part of the supreme consciousness which you may call God or parmatma or the Supreme Being that which pervades everything in the universe. The body is only a receptacle for the soul which is eternal unlike the body which you change every time you take another birth.

The soul is considered immortal and eternal by the Hindus. It cannot be burnt by fire, cut by a sword or washed away by water. Just like the supreme consciousness that pervades the universe, the soul itself is eternal and it’s considered to be energy which even science has proved that it is something which is neither created nor destroyed. Unlike the Christian belief of the soul which has to be saved, the Hindus believe that it is pure and incorruptible. The only reason we have rebirths is because our base nature is governed by our mind and intellect which have worldly desires that cannot be fulfilled in one lifetime therefore we are forced to be reborn until such a time when all our desires are fulfilled. This is when the soul is liberated and becomes one with the supreme consciousness. In a sense, we live happily thereafter as a part of the supreme consciousness.

Then there is the law of karma which governs our lives like nothing else, according to the Hindu belief. The good we do in this life will be rewarded in the next by being born into a good and moral family who will love you and look after you well. The more good you do and less you desire for material things will be like climbing up the ladder towards moksha. If, on the other hand, you’ve sinned in this life and lived a wasted life giving trouble to others, the wheel of fate will come back to drag you into bad births from which it becomes difficult to get out of. This is believed by Hindus.

So, we have talked a little about what it’s like to be a Hindu. Basically if you’ve lived a moral and relatively sinless life, it’ll be easy for you all the way. The beauty of being a Hindu is that you don’t have to be overly religious, praying to god all the time, offering sacrifices, going on pilgrimage, giving alms to the poor etc… You can refrain from doing any of these duties and still live like a good Hindu but the one rule to keep in mind is above all do no harm. You don’t even have to believe in god if you lead a pius life which will act as a force multiplier to propel you towards your goal of moksha. Did I say, not believing in God, makes you an atheist? Yes, being an atheist is better than being a sinner. A pure heart is a thousand times better than an evil heart. Now, after many decades I am able to make some sense of why my mother would call me a naasthik. She knew I had a good heart but I was finding it difficult to believe the puja she performed in the temple would add merit. My mother did think so because she followed the Bhakti path of worshiping god. She never doubted the existence of a supreme being therefore it never posed a problem to her in performing the Hindu pujas in the temple which she believed would benefit not only her but the entire family, in getting God’s blessings.

There’s an Indian school of philosophy called Charvaka, the followers of which do not believe in the laws of karma, immortality of the soul and even that there’s a supreme being. For them, whatever is there is here and then full stop. This philosophy gained popularity in the medieval times and there is no such movement going on in modern Hinduism. They’re also called the atheist school of thought. I mentioned this only to illustrate how forgiving Hinduism is. You may be an atheist but you will be included in the fold without questions asked.

As for my being called a naasthik by my mother didn’t go to that length and it must have been for want of a better word to describe my ‘outstanding’ behaviour. After many years that have passed, I’m beginning to understand everything better. Unlike in the Abrahamic religions where God is watching your every move, whether you’re following his commands by the book or whatever, Hindus have been given more leeway as to how best to follow Hinduism. My mother’s way was devotional which means she had not even an iota of doubt of the existence of a supreme being. She was 100% sure of the existence of God to whom she was devoted like an obedient daughter is devoted to her father; no doubts, no questions asked. Father is always right; if he is wrong, refer to rule number one. So that’s how my mother’s devotion to God was.

CHAPTER 2

WHAT IS HINDUISM.

Hinduism, like I pointed out, is never rigid and gives you other ways to love God or to do his bidding. The way of devotion is called the Bhakti path; again Bhakti means devotion and the devotee is a Bhakta. The other way of seeking God is through the path of knowledge or gyan. For instance, in the battle of Kurukshetra in the epic Mahabharata, the idea that he has to kill his cousins and teachers in order to win back his kingdom, Arjuna becomes despondent and lays down his weapon and declares he will not fight. Shree Krishna, the Lord of the universe has come to his assistance by choosing to become his charioteer. The eighteen chapters in the Bhagavad Gita or the song of the lord are the words spoken by Shree Krishna to his disciple, Arjuna explaining to him why he must fight because this is no ordinary battle but a battle of good over evil. The path of evil was chosen by the Kauravas, Arjuna’s cousins and with him, out of compulsion or obligation a lot of good men also had to be there. Shree Krishna tells Arjuna that by siding with evil for whatever reason, these good people have also become evil so killing them to establish goodness is not a sin but will reserve a place for him in heaven. The lord further adds that the body is just a garment to be discarded at death to acquire a new one in your next life therefore it’s futile to weep over a dead body because you are the eternal soul which never dies and cannot be killed. Therefore killing an evil man doesn’t incur bad karma but instead you’ll be rewarded for having released his soul trapped inside his body mind complex.

Before I discuss more about the path of knowledge to acquire moksha, I must talk a little about a young Jewish man from the Chicago suburbs who was pulled as if by a celestial force all the way from America to India in the early 1960’s where he became a devotee of Shree Krishna or the blue god he was drawn to as duck to water. Many of you must have read The Journey Home by Radhanath sSwami (his adopted name). He narrates the hardships he faced for several years in quest for what he was looking for. In the beginning, he didn’t even know Krishna’s name so he called him the blue god. He became attracted towards him like iron fillings become attracted to magnet. It was his abject devotion or Bhakti that drew him towards Krishna. Today Radhanath Swami is an internationally reputed spiritual guru and social activist in the ISCON order and the good he has done for the poor of India is well known. This is one living example of knowing God through devotion or Bhakti.

Another path of finding god described in the Bhagavad Gita is through work as in work is worship. A person seeking God through work is known as a karma yogi. In the history of India, there are many such people and the most renowned one is Narendra Dutta of Calcutta who later became Swami Vivekananda. He believed more on working and doing well for the poor than worshiping an unseen God that would bring about moksha. He believed verbatim what Shree Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita that one must work for the good of humanity without expectation of reward but the goodness that man does in it is the reward. Swami Vivekananda was the blue eyed disciple of Shree Ramakrishna Paramhansa who was a self realised man and an ardent devotee of Godess Kali. The two different paths these two men chose would frequently lead to quarrels but both the teacher and disciple were stubborn to a fault and never switched paths which stood in their stead in the end.

Shree Ramakrishna Paramhansa lived in the nineteenth century Bengal in Dakshineswar, near Calcutta like a recluse. He was appointed the priest of the Kali temple there and his exceptional devotion to mother Kali led him to finally become self realised or enlightened. When people would ask him if he saw godess Kali, he would reply yes, I can see her as I see you. He would be heard talking with her as two people chat. This led many to believe that he was a mad man. He was married to Sarada Devi but they never ever lived as husband and wife and he would worship this woman as his mother or ma Kali. He had a lot of respect for all women. Once, a disciple of his took him to a brothel in Calcutta but the moment Ramakrishna saw the prostitute, he prostrated at her feet because he had seen mother Kali in her also. What followed was the woman kicked him out saying that this man would ruin her business!

In his later years, Ramakrishna Paramhansa suffered from throat cancer which made it difficult for him to swallow food. But being an enlightened being, he could easily separate the suffering of his impermanent body from his eternal soul. I’m sure it must have helped him immensely to bear the pain of cancer. The story goes that a disciple once asked him how he’s feeling to which he replied that he’s suffering, cannot swallow food and the pain is unbearable. But seeing the master’s cheerful countenance, he retorted but you’re so cheerful on the outside. To this Ramakrishna Paramhansa is said to have replied, ‘the rascal has caught me out’ and everyone in the room laughed.

Before he took samadhi which means sitting in a meditative position and not waking up ever again; enlightened souls have been known to have acquired this power- be they Hindu saints or Buddhist rimpoches, he called Narendra and instructed him to spread the word of god around the world. Today almost two hundred years of the master’s passing; there are Ramakrishna missions in India doing exemplary works in alleviating sufferings of the poor. And there are numerous Vedanta societies in the west, the first one was founded in the late 1800’s by Swami Vivekananda in New York City after he had spent a number of years preaching the gospel of God to westerners. At the Chicago World Conference of Religions, after listening to Swami Vivekananda’s almost immortal speech, a Christian delegate is said to have remarked that this man didn’t come from India to represent Hinduism only but all the religions of the world. That is some credential.

Swami Sarvapriyananda is the minister at the Vedanta society of New York. This young monk of the Ramakrishna Mission order has such a cheerful and guileless countenance and his spiritual knowledge, especially of Vedanta is unmatched. I am sometimes led to wonder whether he’s the reincarnation of Swami Vivekananda himself and has returned to the west to continue his vedantic ministries which he could not deliver in totality because death robbed him away at a tender age of 39. He also is said to have given up his body while in samadhi.

Swami Sarvapriyananda’s symposia are focused on Advaitha Vedanta which believes in one supreme consciousness, and the law of cause and effect. He’s also a proponent of the Upanishads which he has read and understood like a master. He believes in doing yoga, a contribution of India to the world, the correct way because it has the potential to change you as a human being. A very smart monk, contributing to the world the timeless knowledge of Advaitha Vedanta. We will wish him well and may his knowledge help the world to become more understanding, peaceful and caring.

We did digress a little because I got carried away by the magnificence of Shree Ramakrishna Paramhansa’s personality and thought someone has to tell his story.

Yes, we did talk a little about the path of devotion in seeking god as one of the other paths prescribed by non other than Shree Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. Then there is the path of knowledge and of course, the next one is the path of work. It has not been said for nothing that work is worship. It definitely is. Without work there would be hardly anything worthwhile for man to do. What would he do, tell me? Many of us would answer, why work if you are independently rich? Better to enjoy life and squander away your riches.

Suppose you have several million dollars with you which apparently puts you above your working class contemporaries. You don’t need to work because of the funds you have at your disposal. You can buy a big house to live in and entertain guests, fancy cars which will become your neighbors’ envy, send your children to the best boarding schools in the country where they’ll turn into little brown sahibs, posses wardrobe full of designer clothes and have other materialistic ambitions which will satiate your cravings. Then of course go on a world tour with your family visiting places you must see before you die. Then what? You’ll find yourself doing all of the above repeatedly like a deranged monkey until nothing pleases your senses anymore. This will be your time to realise that excess material wealth will never give you happiness. ‘I want happiness’ will not work but if you remove the ‘I want’, then there is happiness only. One more thing. A selfish and self-centred person cannot ever achieve happiness because happiness is like something nice which you cannot get yourself alone without giving some to others.

The imaginary rich man’s life which we talked about a little is what I call a wasted life. What could he have done differently? First of all, money is not something to be squandered away. We Hindus believe money is a gift given by God so we must treat it as a friend and not something to waste on materials which will bring misery because no amount of wealth or material possession can satisfy the human greed. This is for all to see in this capitalism driven world where the 2% of the population own the 98% of the world’s wealth and it is believed that the Internet driven wealth distribution is going to make things worse. Those few who control the Internet knowledge will control the world no different from the dictators of the past. I call this phenomenon extreme capitalism. Again another diversion but a relevant one.

We spoke about anything extreme being detrimental to happiness which has been proved correct again and again. Hinduism has been reiterating the same thing since eternity. That is the reason when people take sanyas or renunciate the worldly life and choose austerity; they leave their credit and debit cards behind and so also the Ferrari, if they happen to own one. The sanyasi takes with him a change of clothes and a begging bowl because that’s all he’s going to need in the journey he’s chosen to embark upon. Begging? You may ask, a little surprised but begging has been given a high status among Hindus and Buddhists. Even Gautama Buddha begged for his food and it is believed he died of food poisoning after eating the food he had begged for earlier in the day. Why you are clubbing together Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, you may ask. Please be informed that Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism therefore there are numerous similarities between the two Indic religions.

We were talking about work being one of the paths leading to find God. The one who follows this