What
is Hinduism ?
Definitions from Prominent Hindus
I n our magazine and books we have offered this
dictionarystyle
definition of our faith: India’s
indigenous religious and
cultural system, followed today by nearly one
billion adherents,
mostly in India, but with large populations
in many other
countries. Also called Sanatana Dharma,
“eternal religion” and
Vaidika Dharma, “religion of the Vedas.” Hinduism is the world’s
most ancient religion and encompasses a broad
spectrum of philosophies
ranging from pluralistic theism to absolute
monism. It
is a family of myriad faiths with four
primary denominations:
Saivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism.
These four hold
such divergent beliefs that each is a
complete and independent
religion. Yet, they share a vast heritage of
culture and belief—
karma, dharma, reincarnation, all-pervasive
Divinity, temple
worship, sacraments, manifold Deities, the
guru-shishya tradition
and a reliance on the Vedas as scriptural authority. Great minds
have tackled the thorny challenge of defining
Sanatana Dharma,
and we would like to share a few of their
efforts here.
Dr. S.
Radhakrishnan, renowned
philosopher and president of
India from 1962 to 1967, states in The Hindu View of Life: “The
Hindu recognizes one Supreme Spirit, though
different names
are given to it. God is in the world, though
not as the world. He
does not merely intervene to create life or
consciousness, but is
working continuously. There is no dualism of
the natural and the
supernatural. Evil, error and ugliness are
not ultimate. No view
is so utterly erroneous, no man is so
absolutely evil as to deserve
complete castigation. There is no Hell, for
that means there is a
place where God is not, and there are sins
which exceed His love.
The law of karma tells us that the individual
life is not a term,
but a series. Heaven and Hell are higher and
lower stages in
one continuous movement. Every type has its
own nature which
should be followed. We should do our duty in
that state of life
to which we happen to be called. Hinduism
affirms that the
theological expressions of religious
experience are bound to be
varied, accepts all forms of belief and
guides each along his path
to the common goal. These are some of the
central principles of
Hinduism. If Hinduism lives today, it is due
to them.”
Bal
Ghangadhar Tilak, scholar,
mathematician, philosopher and
Indian nationalist, named “the father of the
Indian Revolution”
by Jawaharlal Nehru, summarized Hindu beliefs
in his Gitarahasya.
This oft-quoted statement, so compelling
concise, is considered
authoritative by Bharat’s courts of law:
“Acceptance of
the Vedas with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means
or ways to salvation are diverse; and
realization of the truth that
the number of Gods to be worshiped is large,
that indeed is the
distinguishing
feature of the Hindu religion.”
Sri K.
Navaratnam, esteemed Sri Lankan religious scholar,
enumerated
a
more extensive set of basic beliefs in his book, Studies
in
Hinduism, reflecting the Southern Saiva Agamic
tradition.
1) A
belief in the existence of God. 2) A
belief in the existence
of
a soul separate from the body. 3) A belief in the existence
of
the finitizing principle known as avidya or mala. 4) A
belief
in
the principle of matter—prakriti or maya. 5) A
belief in the
theory
of karma and reincarnation. 6) A belief in the
indispensable
guidance
of a guru to guide the spiritual aspirant towards
God
Realization. 7) A belief in moksha, or
liberation, as the goal
of
human existence. 8) A belief in the
indispensable necessity of
temple
worship in religious life. 9) A belief in graded
forms of
religious
practices, both internal and external, until one realizes
God.
10) A belief in ahimsa as the greatest dharma
or virtue.
11) A
belief in mental and physical purity as indispensable factors
for
spiritual progress.
Mahatma
Mohandas K. Gandhi: “I call myself a Sanatani Hindu
because
I believe in the Vedas, the
Upanishads, the Puranas
and
all
that goes by the name of Hindu scriptures, and therefore in avatars
and
rebirth. In a concrete manner he is a Hindu who believes
in
God, immortality of the soul, transmigration, the law of karma
and
moksha, and who tries to practice truth and ahimsa in daily
life,
and therefore practices cow protection in its widest sense and
understands
and tries to act according to the law of varnashrama.”
Sri
Pramukh Swami Maharaj of the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar
Purushottam
Sanstha (Swaminarayan Faith) propounds: 1)
Parabrahman,
one,
supreme, all-powerful God: He is the Creator, has
a
divine form, is immanent, transcendent and the giver of moksha.
2) Avatarvad,
manifestation of God on Earth: God Himself
incarnates
on Earth in various forms to revive dharma and grant
liberation.
3) Karmavad,
law of action: the soul reaps fruits, good
or
bad, according to its past and present actions, which are experienced
either
in this life or future lives. 4) Punarjanma,
reincarnation:
the
mortal soul is continuously born and reborn in
one
of the 8,400,000
species until it attains liberation. 5)
Moksha,
ultimate
liberation: the goal of human life. It is the liberation of
the
soul from the cycle of births and deaths to remain eternally in
the
service of God. 6) Guru-shishya sambandha,
master-disciple
relationship:
guidance and grace of a spiritually perfect master,
revered
as the embodiment of God, is essential for an aspirant
seeking
liberation. 7) Dharma,
that which sustains the universe:
an
all-encompassing term representing divine law, law of being,
path
of righteousness, religion, duty, responsibility, virtue, justice,
goodness
and truth. 8) Vedapramana,
scriptural authority of the
Vedas:
all Hindu faiths are based on the teachings of the Vedas.
9) Murti-puja,
sacred image worship: consecrated images represent
the
presence of God which is worshiped. The sacred image
is
a medium to help devotees offer their devotion to God.
Sri
Swami Vivekananda, speaking in America, proclaimed: “All
Vedantists
believe in God. Vedantists also believe the Vedas
to
be
the revealed word of God—an expression of the knowledge
of God—and as God is eternal, so are the Vedas
eternal. Another
common ground of belief is that of creation
in cycles, that the
whole of creation appears and disappears.
They postulate the
existence of a material, which they call
akasha, which is something
like the ether of the scientists, and a power
which they
call prana.”
Sri
Jayendra Saraswati, 69th Shankaracharya of the Kamakoti
Peetham, Kanchipuram, defines in his writings
the basic
features of Hinduism as follows. 1) The concept of idol worship
and the worship of God in His nirguna as well as saguna form.
2) The wearing of sacred marks on the forehead. 3) Belief in the
theory of past and future births in
accordance with the theory of
karma. 4)
Cremation of ordinary men and burial of great men.
The
Vishva Hindu Parishad declared
its definition in a Memorandum
of Association, Rules and Regulations in 1966: “Hindu
means a person believing in, following or
respecting the eternal
values of life, ethical and spiritual, which
have sprung up in Bharatkhand
[India] and includes any person
calling himself a Hindu.”
The
Indian Supreme Court, in 1966, formalized a judicial definition
of Hindu beliefs to legally distinguish Hindu
denominations
from other religions in India. This
list was affirmed by the
Court as recently as 1995 in judging cases regarding religious
identity. 1)
Acceptance of the Vedas
with reverence as the
highest authority in religious and
philosophic matters and acceptance
with reverence of Vedas by Hindu thinkers and philosophers
as the sole foundation of Hindu philosophy. 2) Spirit
of tolerance and willingness to understand
and appreciate the
opponent’s point of view based on the
realization that truth is
many-sided. 3) Acceptance of great world rhythm—vast periods
of creation, maintenance and dissolution
follow each other in
endless succession—by all six systems of
Hindu philosophy. 4)
Acceptance by all systems of Hindu philosophy
of the belief in
rebirth and pre-existence. 5) Recognition of the fact that the
means or ways to salvation are many. 6) Realization of the truth
that numbers of Gods to be worshiped may be
large, yet there
being Hindus who do not believe in the
worshiping of idols. 7)
Unlike other religions, or religious creeds,
Hindu religion’s not being
tied down to any definite set of philosophic
concepts, as such.
Swami
Shankarananda of
Melbourne, Australia, offers this
definition: “In the late sixties when spirituality
arose within me
for the first time, I could have said (had I
enough awareness),
‘I’d like a path that is as spacious as the
universe. A path that
includes everyone and every possible belief
system. A path that
is as tolerant and forgiving as a mother, yet
as precise and onpurpose
as a brain surgeon. A path whose mode of
thinking is so
broad that no thought or idea is left outside
of it. A path of inner
transformation and self-development. A path
of truth that is also
a path of kindness. A path whose love is so
deep and all-embracing
that no sinner is excluded from its mercy. A
path whose
source is Universal Consciousness.’ Had I
been able to formulate
those thoughts that were in me in an inchoate
way, perhaps the
sky would have parted and a voice from on
high might have said,
‘Your path is Hinduism.’ ”
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My
humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya
Subramuniyaswami
ji, Hinduism Today dot com for the collection)
May 3, 2015 at 10:27 PM
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