The objective of this article is to
provide some basic information about Hinduism and to encourage
people of all ages to conduct further studies in related subject
matter.
Hindu.
Hindu
is not the real name for the people who follow Sanatana Dharma.
Instead it was given to the people, who lived near the Sind (Indus
river of today) and Ganga (Ganges river of today) during the 5th
century BC, by a combination of the occupying forces of Greek and
Persian empires of the day. They were unable to pronounce the word
Sindu because of the difficulties associated with their mother
language. So the people who were the followers of Sanatana Dharma
became known as Hindus, a derivative of the word Sindu. Thus the
Persians, later the Huns, and the Turks started referring to the
people, who lived in the region of today's India, as Hindus and they
also named the belief system of the Hindus as Hinduism. There is no
reference to the word Hindu anywhere in our scriptures. The same
Greeks and Persians gave the name Hindu Kush to the northwest
mountain ranges of the mighty Himalayas and arbitrarily established
these mountains northwest boundary for this region. Thus came the
words Hindu and Hinduism. The real name for Hindus should have
been Sanatanavadis (followers of Sanatana, meaning eternal, Dharma),
Aryans (people from Arya Varta), Vedantees (followers of Vedas), or
Bharateeyas (children of King Bharata). Again the word Hindustan
(Hindu place) was attached to this area.
Hinduism.
Just as
no one is able to find any reference to the word Hindus in the Hindu
Scriptures, so is one unable to find any reference to word
Hinduism. Hinduism is not an 'Ism' in the same context as the
Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. Unlike these contemporary
religions of modern times, Hinduism can be defined loosely as a
philosophy- a philosophy of life or a way of life, or a path to and
in search of Truth or a set of Eternal Values or God. According to
the holy Rig Veda 'ekam sat, vipraha bahuda vadantihi' (there
is only one Truth and sages call it with different names). The
search for this Truth is the goal of ones life and our people refer
to this system or more accurately the process of seeking this goal
as 'Dharma' (loosely translated as righteousness).
Dharma vs.
Religion.
Hinduism is more than a religion. It was not started
by any one individual, nor depends on the historicity of any one
individual's actions, experiences, doctrines or the revelations that
he or she might have received from some super natural being. For
example, the Christianity finds roots in Jesus Christ and the New
Testament of the Bible. It states that the only way to salvation or
reaching God is through Christ, the only Son of God. The
Christianity is traced to around 30 AD. Similarly, the Muslims
inherited their religion from Mohamed and from his teachings in
Koran and is traced to 621 AD. But one does not see such features
in Hinduism. It declares divinity in every thing and sees God in
everyone. Hindus do not believe that there is only one individual,
or only one book, or only one way to salvation. 'Aakashat
patitam toyam yata gachhati sagaram, sarva deve namaskaraha Keshavam
adi gachhati' (Just as the clouds form and the rains come down
and flow in the form of rivers and reach the ocean, so do all the
worships and salutations reach the same God). This is where lies the
true universality, the real democracy or the true secularism. For
Hindus the religion is based on certain eternal ethos, principles or
values that are common to all. This we call 'Dharma'. The
definition of 'Dharma' is found in our scriptures as the actions
that sustain one. This Dharma is equated to a sustaining power - 'dharanath
itihi dharma'. The full meaning and the significance of Hinduism
can only be expressed in the language of the Hindus. Sanskrit was
and is the language of all the Hindus and they consider it as the
language of the 'Devas' (Gods). Many scholars have proved that
most of the languages of the mankind can be traced to Sanskrit.
Even today one can see the reference in the Webster's dictionary
under Indo-European languages. For example, the Sanskrit has 52 and
the English 26 letters in the alphabet. Each letter such as 'a'
and 'aa' of Sanskrit has corresponding vowel 'A' in English. The
English is a derivative of German and which in turn came from
Sanskrit. The word 'Sanskriti' (civilization or culture) is
derived from Sanskrit (which means civilized or cultured).
Scriptures.
Our scriptures are grouped into several layers. The top layers is
the holy 'Vedas' (knowledge) - the 'apara' (intellectual) and 'para'
(intuitive). The 'apara' has secular and sacred components. The
sacred is divided as 'Sruthis' that which deals with eternal
principles and these are the Vedas and the Upanishads. The 'Smrithis'
deal with practical applications of the eternal principles (see
Hinduism by R. S. Nathan, a Chinmaya Mission publication). The 'Sruthis'
were handed down from the Supreme called the "Brahman' to our 'Rishis'
(sages), through mind to mind transmission. There are four major
branches of the Vedas - Rig, Yajur, Sam, and Atharva. In Vedas,
the God is worshipped in 'Sakar' (in a particular shape or form),
while in the Upanishads the God is 'seen' as 'Nirakar' (formless).
It is said that over 99% of the original Vedas were lost over the
millennia. The 'Smrithis' include 'upa Vedas' such as arts and
sciences; the 'Vedangas' such as phonetics and grammar; 'Darshanas'
of sage Gautama, Kapila, and others; the 'Dharma Shastras' of Manu
(compiler of the laws); the 'Puranas (the stories); and the 'itihas'
(the history) such as Ramayan and Mahabharat. Our 'Tatwas'
(philosophy) include both 'Astika' (theism) and 'Nastika'
(atheism). The later manifested in Jainism, Bhudhism, and the 'Charvakism'
(the materialism). From Manu came the Manu Dharma or the Manava
(humans) Dharma and is the basis for Hindu Laws, just as the Jews
follow the laws of Moses. The laws last for the entire 'Manvantara'
(a period of over 300 million years). Our scriptures talk of many
Manus for each time period between the creation and desolation.
There are countless such periods during the life cycle of the
universe.
The Geeta.
The holy book 'Bhagavad Geeta' (song of the God) is part of the
Itihas and is considered to be the essence of the Upanishads in a
concise form. In the Geeta, the world can see the universality or
the true secular spirit of Hinduism and is narrated in the most
simple and elegant way. Here, Lord Krishna says 'yo yo yam yam
tuam bhaktah sraddhaya architumi icchati.' (Whatever form any
devotee with faith, wishes to worship, I manifest in that form) to
emphasize the spirit of universality.
Hindustan -
The place or the land of the Hindus. There is lot of misinformation
in the world about Hindus. Their origin and their beliefs are
questioned. The Western world, because of its origin in the
Judeo-Christian beliefs of the Bible would like to tie the Hindus to
a time period close to that of the Old Testament (the early parts of
the Bible) and land of the Hindus to the existing pre-partition
boundaries of India. The fact is that the country of Bharat
(today's India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Burma,
Tibet, and parts of Afghanistan, Samarkand area, and the parts of
today's Iran, and all the way to today's South East Asian countries)
extended from river Harirudra (Harirud) and Saraswati (Harahvati)
(flows in Afghanistan) to Mekong (derivative of Ma Ganga) of Indo
China. This was the 'Stan' (the place of the Hindus, the Vedantees,
the Aryans, the Sanatanis, or the Bharateeya - the children of
Bharata). Today's land mass of India was created when an
island was broken off, a few million years ago, from today's
southern tip of Africa which in turn was broken off from a huge
continent. This island crashed into the southern part of Asia thus
forming the Himalayas (where the snow rests). We see the references
of 'Jambudweep' (island of Jambu) and 'Gondavan' (land of Gondwana
forests) in our scriptures. We also see Himalayas in the context of
'Bal' (child in age). The great poet Kalidas, in his immortal poem
on the birth of Kumara, the son on Lord Shiva, begins his poem 'Asyottaram
nishi devatatma, Himalayo nama naghadi rajaha' (in the north
there is the king Himalaya representing the Gods). By these and
other references we can trace back the Hindu history and their place
of origin to a few millions of years and also one can prove that the
Aryans did not have to come from anywhere, because they were already
there in the first place.
Contributions
of Hindus.
History has proven that the Hindus have contributed richly to the
human civilization. This covered every known field of human
knowledge and was performed in the true spirit of the Geeta. "Nahihi
gnanena sadrusham.' (There is nothing like true knowledge).
Hindus gave the decimal system, the tools of brain surgery, the
calculus, the trigonometry, the astronomy, the chemistry, many
branches of medical sciences, logic, physics, entomology and so on.
Then one could ask that how come one does not seems to find the
names and references to Hindu contributors. The answer lies in two
parts. The first concerned with our belief of not establishing the
authorship. This spirit permeates throughout the Vedas, where no
one is claiming any credit of authorship. The second is concerned
with the influence of the foreign aggression over the centuries-from
nomads, to Alexander, to Huns, to Mongols, to Muslims, to a
combination of Dutch, French, Portuguese, and English. The later
systematically destroyed our contributions in one form or the other
to keep us at bay.
Relevance.
The relevance to the Hindus, in general and to the Hindu children
living outside Bharat in particular, is profound. The inner strength
and the self-confidence in human being can be traced to a feeling of
belonging. This feeling of belonging is a prerequisite for his or
her contributions to the society as well as to the over all growth
of the individual. So the message to Hindus, is to be a true
representative of their great heritage. This is essential to excel
in any chosen field of life.
