Hi,
While I was browsing through this forum, I came across many instances where people said things like " Hinduism is not...Hinduism is...Hinduism does not...Hinduism refers to..." etc etc. So here is MY outlook on Hinduism. In one simple sentence, Hinduism is a way of life. This is the undeniable truth, it is an axiom. Hinduism has something to say about how a child should be born, how a person should eat, how a person should dress, how a country should be run, how war should be waged, how surgery is to be performed etc etc. It has a clear and defined instruction on everything. Thus it is beyond a RELIGION. It is a manual to human existence. I do not claim that it is the only one, Islam and Buddhism and Christianity, all resemble Hinduism to a major extent (Islam resembles it the most, even the differences are polar differences) However, i BELIEVE, it is the FIRST such manual, and as such is the most vast and extensive one, by virtue of its sheer longetivity.Infact, I maintain, that Hinduism is a religion like no other. Apart from a natural sense of pride in my religion, I have some arguments to support this. I shall make some references to other religions, but I sincerely do not wish to offend anyone, And apologise if I do. I do not prefess to be an expert on ANYTHING, and am completely open to constructive criticism. My first analogy will be that Hinduism does NOT foster BLIND FAITH at ALL. I believe that Hinduism is a UNIQUE amalgam of SICENCE and GOD. Infact, the only NON-EXPLAINABLE concept of Hinduism is the axis of Hinduism itself. A concept of Infinite Intellgence. This Infinite Intelligence is known by many thousands of names around the world. You may call it Allah, Bhagwan, Shakti, Buddha, Ra, Zeus, etc etc. It is just knowledge. There is no comprehension, there is no judgement, there is no opinion. Its intelligence and knowledge. If we assume this to be correct, everything else falls into place. We believe that all our scriptures came directly from this source of knowlegde to specific people who devoted themselves to finding this knowledge. Once they had access to it, they wrote it down on paper or passed it down in words, to the rest of humanity. This example itself shows the similarity of the Ten Commandments in Christianity to my analogy. Moreover, everything in Hinduism has a rational explaination for it. However, the sad part is that Modern Science is at such a level, that it cannot even begin to comprehend the magnitude of this Hindu-Science. Mind you, most hindu's know that all the current science of mathematics, medicine, music, language, geography, and even engineering, was known to the ancient Hindus. However, due to misfortune, or carelessness or destiny, it was lost to the modern world.Hinduism is a science that goes fathoms deeper than todays science. Kundalini is a biological function. Prana is a biological concept. However, modern science does not recognize it because it's still not old enough to understand it. It is indeed our misfortune that we Indians run aaway from our own roots, and seek shallower, briefer knowledge else where, because this western knowledge carries with it the tag of "Advanced, Futuristic and Revolutionary." The West is the world's most amazing marketing outfit. They have marketed themselves so effictively that all their faults get covered by their sales pitches. Yoga is older than time itself. However, most of us only started taking notice when Madonna and Michael McLaughrin started endorsing it. (Thank god for Swami Ramdev)....I feear that this topic has wandered far from what it started out to be, however these are my thoughts, and I would love to hear your opinions on them.
Peace
Aryavansh Shukla
