Hindu Samskriti - The Nature of Hinduism -2
Posted in Labels: Hindu Samskriti - The Nature of Hinduism -2
The Nature of Hinduism
Hinduism, the Greatest Religion in the
World
A Satguru’s Penetrating Insights
on
the Earth’s Oldest Living Faith
Hinduism’s
Fathomless Diversity
Hinduism
has a grand diversity among its many sects. That diversity
is
itself a strength, showing how broad and encompassing
Hinduism
is. It does not seek to have all devotees believe exactly
alike.
In fact, it has no central authority, no single organized institution
which
could ever proclaim or enforce such sameness. There
is
an immense inner unity, but the real strength and wisdom of
Hinduism
is its diversity, its variety. There are so many sects within
Hinduism
that you could spend a lifetime studying them and never
begin
to assess them all. More is there than any single human being
could
assimilate in a single lifetime. Hinduism, therefore, has the
magnetism
to draw us back into its immensity life after life. Each
sect
may be said to be a full religion in its own right, with all the
increments
of faith, with no necessary part missing. Therefore, each
sect
works for the individuals within it completely, and each tolerates
all
the other sects. It does not totally divorce itself from the
other
sects, denying their beliefs, but simply separates to stress or
expound
a limited area of the vast philosophy, apart from all others,
to
be understood by the limited faculties of man.
These
various sects and divisions within Hinduism all spring
from
a one source. Most Hindus believe in the transcendental God
as
well as the personal Lord or God, and yet there is within the
boundaries
of the faith room for the non-believer, for the atheist or
for
the agnostic who is assessing and developing his beliefs. This
brings
another unique asset to our religion—the absence of heresy.
There
is no such thing as a heretic in Hinduism, for there is no
single
right perspective or belief. Doctrine and sadhana
are not
considered
absolutes, but the means to an absolute end, and they
can
be tailored to individual needs and natures. My satguru
would
say
that different prescriptions are required for different ailments.
In
Hinduism there is no person or spiritual authority who stands
between
man and God. In fact, Hinduism teaches just the opposite.
The
priests in the temples are the servants of the Deity, the helper,
the
keeper of the Gods’ house. He prepares and purifies the atmosphere
of
the temple, but he does not intervene between the devotee
and
his God—whichever of the many Gods within our religion that
he
may be worshiping. Without a mediator, responsibility is placed
fully
upon the individual. There is no one to intercede on his behalf.
He
is responsible for his actions, for his thoughts, for his emotions,
for
his relationship with his God. He must work out his beliefs from
the
inside, without undue dependence upon external influences. Of
course,
there is much help, as much as may be needed, from those
who
have previously gone through what he is now going through. It
is
not enough that he adopts an authorized dogma. He must study
and
bring the teachings to life from within himself.
Within
the philosophy, each philosopher proclaims that God can
be
found within man if man practices the proper precepts of yoga
and
delves within himself through his kundalini force. The guru
himself
teaches the awakening of that force and how God can be
realized
in His transcendental as well as His personal aspect within
the
sphere of one’s own personal experience in this very lifetime if
he
but pursues the path and is obedient.
Hinduism
is unique because God and man, mind and God, instinctive
mind,
intellectual mind and superconscious mind, can merge as
one,
according to the evolution of the individual. Each one, according
to
his own self-created karma, has his own fulfillment. Those
in
the first stages of evolution, whose interests and experiences are
basically
instinctive, who possess little intellect or mental prowess,
are
guided by their emotions and impulses, are generally fearful.
They
have a personal experience of the Deity in the temple, but it
is
generally a fearful experience. They are afraid of God. Alongside
of
them during a puja is a great rishi who has had many hundreds
of
lives on this planet. He has his own personal experience of God,
but
it is an experience of love, of oneness and of union. There they
are,
side by side. Each experience of God is as real to one as to the
other.
There is no one in-between, no arbitrator of the experience to
compel
the one to see God exactly as the other one does.
Within
Hinduism Is a Place for Everyone
Hinduism
is as broad as humanity is, as diverse as people are diverse.
It
is for the rich and the poor, for the mystic and the materialist.
It
is for the sage and the fool. None is excluded. In a Hindu
temple
you can find every variety of humanity. The man of accumulated
wealth
is there, supporting the institutions that have grown
up
around the temple, seeking to spend his abundance wisely and
for
its best purpose so that good merit may be earned for his next
life.
The pauper is there, begging in hopes that perhaps he will eat
tomorrow
and the God will inspire some devotee to give him a coin
or
two. So, a Hindu temple is a reflection of life, set in the midst
of
the life of the community. It is not making an effort to be better
than
the life of the village, only to serve that life and direct it to its
next
stage of evolution. The same Hindu mind which can consume
within
it all the religions of the world can and does consume within
it
all of the peoples of the world who are drawn to the temple by
the
shakti, the power, of the temple. Such is the great, embracing
compassion
of our religion.
The
greatness of Hinduism cannot be compared with other religions.
There
is no basis for comparison. Hinduism, the Eternal Way
or
Sanatana Dharma, has no beginning, therefore will certainly
have
no end. It was never created, and therefore it cannot be destroyed.
It
is a God-centric religion. The center of it is God. All of
the
other religions are prophet-centric. The center of those religions
is
a great saint or sage, a prophet, a messenger or messiah, some
God-Realized
person who has lived on Earth and died. Perhaps
he
was born to create that particular sect, that particular religion,
needed
by the people of a certain part of the world at a certain time in
history.
The Hindus acknowledge this and recognize all of the world’s
religious
leaders as great prophets, as great souls, as great incarnations,
perhaps,
of the Gods, or as great beings who have through their realization
and
inward practices incarnated themselves into, or transformed
themselves
into, eminent religious leaders and attracted devotees to
them
to give forth the precepts of life all over again and thus guide a
tribe
or a nation or a race into a better way of life.
The
Hindu mind can encompass this, appreciate it, for it is firmly
settled
in a God-centric religion. The center of Hinduism is the Absolute,
the
timeless, formless, spaceless God who manifests as Pure Consciousness
and
as the most perfect form conceivable, the Primal Soul.
He
radiates out from that form as a myriad of Gods and Goddesses
who
inhabit the temples and bless the people, inspire the scriptures,
inspire
the spiritual leaders and uplift humanity in general. It is a one
God
in many forms. We recently heard a sannyasini at the Ganesha
Temple in New York describe this in a most wonderful
and profound
way,
“Siva is the fire. Shakti is the heat of that fire. Ganesha is the red
color
of that fire. Murugan is the light of that fire.”
There
are nearly a billion Hindus in the world today. That’s roughly
four
times the population of the entire United States. Every sixth person
on
the planet is a Hindu. Hinduism attends to the needs of each
one.
It is the only religion that has such breadth and depth. Hinduism
contains
the Deities and the sanctified temples, the esoteric knowledge
of
inner states of consciousness, yoga and the disciplines of meditation.
It
possesses a gentle compassion and a genuine tolerance and appreciation
for
other religions. It remains undogmatic and open to inquiry.
It
believes in a just world in which every soul is guided by karma to
the
ultimate goal of Self Realization, leading to moksha, freedom from
rebirth.
It rests content in the knowledge of the divine origin of the
soul,
its passage through one life and another until maturity has been
reached.
It offers guidance to all who take refuge in it, from the nonbeliever
to
the most evolved maharishi. It cherishes the largest storehouse
of
scripture and philosophy on the earth, and the oldest. It is endowed
with
a tradition of saints and sages, of realized men and women, unrivaled
on
the earth. It is the sum of these, and more, which makes me
boldly
declare that Hinduism is the greatest religion in the world.
Where Hindus Live
While India is home to 94 percent of the world’s
nearly one billion Hindus, nearly 57 million
are scattered widely across the globe.
This map shows larger communities,
with smaller ones listed to the right,
and world populations below.
World Population 2002
Hindus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
billion
Catholics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4
billion
Hindus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
billion
Catholics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4
billion
Muslims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3
billion
Nonbelievers . . . . . . . . 900 million
Protestants. . . . . . . . . . 600 million
Confucian . . . . . . . . . . 400 million
Buddhists . . . . . . . . . . 360 million
Tribals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
million
Taoists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
million
Shintoists . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
million
Jews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
million
Sikhs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
million
Jains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
million
Zoroastrians . . . . . . . . . . . 125,000
Other Faiths . . . . . . . . . . 77 million
Total . 6.25 billion
Algeria...............600
Barbados...........100
Brunei................500
Cameroon...........60
C. African Rep..20
Czech Republic
and Slovakia..... 150
Chad....................20
Chile...................20
China.............. 170
Congo.............100
Colombia.........60
Cuba...............100
Ecuador.........600
Finland...........100
Gabon..............100
Ghana...............600
Guinea.................50
Hungary..............50
Iceland................... 7
Ireland.................20
Israel................. 200
Ivory
Coast....1,000
Zambia..............600
Jordan.............1,000
Lebanon........... 100
Liberia...............500
Laos....................600
Libya..................500
Mexico.................50
Morocco..............60
Mozambique ...600
Panama..............600
Poland................100
Qatar..................500
Senegal..............100
Seychelles ........600
Sierra
Leone ...500
South
Korea........60
Sudan.................500
Syria...................100
Tunisia...............100
Turkey...............100
Upper
Volta......100
Yemen, North...100
Zaire (Congo)..500
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My
humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya Subramuniyaswami ji, Hinduism Today dot com for the collection)
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