It is difficult to
define Hinduism precisely. Hinduism is all encompassing and very dynamic. Yet, I will make an attempt to explain Hinduism for the benefit
of those who are curious to know about it.
Hinduism is a ‘’Dharma” and not a
religion. In fact, there is no word equivalent of “religion” in the Indian
tradition. The word Dharma would correspond to “righteous path” in English
language. Hence anyone with a righteous conduct can be defined as a Hindu. Thus
a good Muslim or a good Christian would also qualify to be a good Hindu. What
to say of a Muslim or a Christian, even an atheist with righteous conduct would
be a good Hindu. Yes, even atheism can be accepted as a valid path under
Hinduism. In fact one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy (Samkhya Shastra)
deals with the atheistic world view. Thus there is no concept of a believer or
non-believer and everyone is equal in the eyes of a Hindu.
Hinduism prescribes us to be
non-discriminatory (samadarshi) in the way we perceive all living beings
irrespective of their personal qualities, belief system, value system etc. This
is because we must see every living being as the manifestation of the same
Supreme-being. Hence a thief has to be dealt with the same way as we may deal
with a virtuous man. Does that mean we should not condemn the evil? Here we
must distinguish between the action and the actor. We must condemn the evil
actions but not the evil doer. If we hate the evil doer we will ourselves bear
the consequences of that negative sentiment.
The essence of Hinduism revolves
around a few key concepts. One of them is the concept of Karma and the cycle of
life and death. Karma is the consequence of an action that may become due. The
accumulated Karma is the sum total of the due Karma of all our actions in all
past and present lives. The ups and downs of our lives are the result of our
accumulated Karma. The life in Human form presents an excellent opportunity to neutralize
our accumulated Karma by pro-actively engaging in righteous deeds.
Another concept is that we are not a
body but a soul. The body keeps changing from the childhood to old age. The
body is material and that material keeps changing every moment. When you eat a
fruit, the material which was body of the plant, after absorption through the
digestive system becomes your body. When you exhale molecules of carbon dioxide
and those carbon dioxide molecules are absorbed by the tree in your garden,
essentially a part of your body becomes body of the tree. Thus we are
exchanging our bodies with various living beings in our surroundings. Hence you
are not a body but something else and that is what we call a soul. Soul is what
you are and that same soul on death migrates to another body. Depending on our
karma, we may acquire any type of body a man, a woman, an animal or even a
plant. Through this cycle of life and death and soul migration, we keep
shedding our accumulated Karma and gradually rediscover our divine character.
How the soul has a divine character?
As a glass of ocean water has all the qualities of the water inside the ocean,
the soul has all the qualities of God and thus divine. The purpose of life is
to discover this divinity through righteous deeds and spiritual evolution techniques.
It is like refining a raw material in a factory by making it go through various
refining operations till you obtain 100% pure product. After going through
various cycles of life and death and performing righteous deeds, the soul
gradually achieves more and more refinement till it becomes like God and
ultimately succeeds in uniting with the God and thus attains a state of
ultimate bliss. That union with God is our ultimate goal and the only purpose
of life.
How do we expedite the process of
refinement of soul towards divinity? There are many techniques towards that end
including Ashtang Yoga, Meditation, Pranayam, Nama Japa (chanting the holy
names of the Lord), Mantra Japa (chanting a sacred Mantra), Satsang (communion
with enlightened beings), Swadhyaya (reading holy scriptures) etc. However, the
repository of techniques for spiritual elevation are not limited and new
techniques are being added to the list every now and then. This is because
Hinduism is an open source platform (like Linux) and any enlightened person is
free to add to the body of knowledge. Thus if after years of sadhana (spiritual
rigour), you become enlightened enough to prescribe your own method for
spiritual development for your disciples, you may establish your own sect
within the umbrella of Hinduism.
Thus there are multiple sects with
multiple models for explaining the phenomena of existence. Most of these can be
categorized into three categories: (a) Advaita (non-duality) (b) Dvaita (duality)
(c) Vishishtadvaita (qualified non-duality). The Advaita model prescribes that
the creator is not separate from the creation.
The Dvaita model prescribes that the God and the Universe have separate
existence. The Vishishtadvaita model sees the Supreme-being as an eternal
oneness, but also as the source of all creation, which is omnipresent and
actively involved in existence. There are many schools of philosophy developed
around these three models of which six (Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, Nyaya, Mimansa
and Vedanta) are main. (Google: Hindu Philosophy).
That is philosophy. Don’t Hindus
worship God? Of course they do. The God for Hindus may be a formless being or
also having a form. The formless God can be worshipped by performing Yajna
(fire sacrifice) or Mantra Japa (Chanting a sacred mantra) or saying a prayer.
The God with a form can be worshipped as a deity in a temple or as an image at
home by offering flowers, incense or sweets etc. Singing devotional songs and
dancing is also a popular mode of worship. The ISKCON is best known for this
kind of worship.
But that is idolatry. How can you
worship an idol or something you make with your own hands? Well, Hindus don’t
worship the idol but use the idol as a medium to focus on the God. The God is omnipotent.
Therefore, he can be formless and also acquire a form at will. When we offer
our prayers before an idol, we are communicating with the omnipotent Supreme-being
using the idol as a medium. After all, the God is present everywhere. So, why
not inside an idol? God does not care how we worship Him. He only cares for our
love and our emotions. He is omniscient and therefore he knows what is there
inside our hearts.
Thus there are many modes of worship
in Hinduism. Everyone is free to choose his preferred mode of worship as per
his liking, philosophical inclination and intelligence. This world is plural in
nature with people of different intelligence, different spiritual enlightenment
and different emotional disposition. Therefore Hinduism allows plurality in
modes of worship. Various modes of worship can be categorized mainly into two
categories: the Gyan Marg (the path of rational contemplation) and the Bhakti
Marg (the path of absolute devotion). The Arya Samaj is an example of the Gyan
Marg and ISKCON is an example for the Bhakti Marg.
What about scriptures? Which
scriptures are sacred to the Hindus? The four Vedas (Rigveda, Samaveda,
Yajurveda, Atharveda) are the foundation of Hinduism and it is believed that
the Vedas were revealed to various seers more than 5000 years back and have
been preserved since then by memorization and recitation. But Vedas are
difficult to comprehend for the uninitiated. Therefore the Vedic concepts have
been explained through the Upanishads (108 in number) by way of discussion
between the spiritual teachers and disciples in the form of questions and
answers. The Upanishads contemplate about the nature and qualities of the God,
the nature of Soul, nature of this creation and the relationship between the
God and the Soul etc. Two important epics Ramayana and Mahabharata and also the
eighteen Puranas explain various facets of theology and philosophy through
various stories. These scriptures are important but a Hindu is not bound by
what is written in scriptures. He is free to question what is written in
scriptures and reject whatever does not seem reasonable to him. There is no
concept of blasphemy in Hinduism.
Well, all that seems to be quite
complex. Isn’t there a simple way to understand Hinduism? Of course, there is a
very simple way. Shrimad Bhagvadgita is the concise summary of whatever
Hinduism stands for. By a superficial reading of Gita, one may easily
comprehend the essence of Hinduism. Not only Hindus, many non-Hindus also hold the Gita in very high esteem. To quote Wilhem von Humbolt
(1767-1835):
"The Bhagvadgita is
perhaps the loftiest and deepest thing that the world has to show"
In this world, characterized by religious hatred and violence, Hinduism gives a hope to mankind.
Resources:
