Hindu Samskriti Who Is a Hindu? Insights from Saints and Scholars on What Makes One a Hindu
Posted in Labels: Hindu Samskriti Who Is a Hindu? Insights from Saints and Scholars
Who Is a Hindu?
Insights from Saints and Scholars
on What Makes One a Hindu
Few
people today ponder the significance
of belief. Nevertheless, convictions
constitute the foundation for every action.
Webster’s defines belief as a “confidence in the
truth or existence of something not
immediately
susceptible to rigorous proof.” But ask a
Hindu what
his all-important beliefs are, and the answer
may
well elude him. He is not accustomed to
thinking of
his religion as a clearly defined system,
distinct and
different from others, for it encompasses all
of life
Hinduism is so vast, so generously tolerant
of conflicting concepts
that to condense a brief list of basic
beliefs might seem a vain enterprise.
Some would assert that Hinduism could never
be limited
by such an ideological inventory—and they
would be right. Still,
an answer is required. Inside India, a clear
answer prevents the
erosion of “Hindu” into a mere geographical
concept no different
from “Indian;” elsewhere, it provides the
necessary demarcation
from other faiths in a pluralistic setting.
The need for a precise
list arises with the cognition that beliefs
forge our attitudes, which
determine our overall state of mind and the
feelings we are predisposed
to, and that these, in turn, directly
determine our actions.
Strong religious beliefs induce actions that
weave uplifting patterns
of daily conduct, furthering our unfoldment.
In India,
the definition
of who is a Hindu is critical in legal
deliberations, and belief is
the keystone of such determinations.
Therefore, it is meaningful to
catalog the convictions that all Hindus hold
in common.
In 1926, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
eloquently elaborated the nature
of Hindu belief in a series of lectures in Oxford, later published
as The Hindu View of Life. “Hinduism
is more a way of life
than a form of thought. While it gives
absolute liberty in the world
of thought, it enjoins a strict code of
practice. While fixed intellectual
beliefs mark off one religion from another,
Hinduism sets
itself no such limits. Intellect is
subordinated to intuition, dogma
to experience, outer expression to inward
realization. Religion is
not the acceptance of academic abstractions
or the celebration
of ceremonies, but a kind of life or
experience of reality.” By emphasizing
conduct, Radhakrishnan did not deny belief.
In fact, he
provided one of the best extensive lists. His
emphasis is on the
absolute freedom of belief allowed within
Hinduism—where the
questioning mind is known as the seeking
mind, rather than the
errant mind.
The following definitions of Hinduism’s
shared central beliefs
were garnered from prominent Hindu
organizations and individuals
of the 20th century—evidence that the imperative to
formalize
conviction is a recent phenomenon. Overall,
the lists and descriptions
are surprisingly similar, echoing certain key
concepts—generally,
that it is conduct, based upon belief in
dharma, karma and
reincarnation, which makes one a Hindu. Some
of the beliefs listed
are not shared by all Hindus—most prominently
the concept of avatar,
divine incarnation, which is a distinctive
Vaishnava belief. We
shall now cite what has been collected from
distinguished scholars
and saints .
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:
“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.”
This
oft-quoted statement, so compelling concise, is considered
authoritative
by Bharat’s courts of law.
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. Above all, I call myself a Sanatani
Hindu,
so long as the Hindu society in general accepts me as such.
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 sambandh, 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) Ved pramana, 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,
said: “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.
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.”
The
Vishva Hindu Parishad declared
its definition in a 1966
Memorandum of Association,
Rules and Regulations: “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.
The
historic intermingling of myriad races, cultures and religions
has
exposed us to a kaleidoscopic array of beliefs and practices;
yet
threads of sameness and agreement bind them together.
Taken
as a whole, the definitions above, emphasizing the Vedas,
dharma,
karma and rebirth, can help us gain clarity and insight
into
our inmost convictions, offering the opportunity to freely and
ably
choose the same as our progenitors—or not. That “or not” may
be
the greatest freedom a seeker ever had or could ever hope for.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My
humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya
Subramuniyaswami
ji, Hinduism Today dot com for the collection)
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