An Introduction to Hinduism: part 2

From the editors of Hinduism Today magazine (www.hinduismtoday.com),
a team of Hindu swamis and yogis living in a monastery in Hawaii who have
been publishing the story of Hindus in modern times since 1979.

Photos Courtesy of Hinduism Today. www.hinduismtoday.com

Continued from last month - Click Here for previous Article

Hinduism in Daily Practice

Hinduism’s three pillars are temple worship, scripture and the guru-disciple tradition, around which all spiritual disciplines
revolve. These include prayer, meditation and ritual worship in the home and temple, study of scripture, recitation of mantras,
pilgrimage to holy places, austerity, selfless service, generous giving, the various yogas, and following good conduct.
Festivals and singing of holy hymns are dynamic activities.

Hindu temples, whether they be small village sanctuaries or towering citadels, are esteemed as God’s consecrated abode. In
the temple Hindus draw close to the Divine and find a refuge from the world. God’s grace, permeating everywhere, is most
easily known within these holy precincts. It is in this purified milieu that the three worlds—physical, astral and causal—
commune most perfectly, that devotees can establish harmony with inner-plane spiritual beings. Traditional temples are
specially sanctified, possessing a ray of spiritual energy connecting them to the celestial worlds.

Temple rituals, performed by Hindu priests, take the form of puja, a ceremony in which the ringing of bells, passing of flames,
presenting of offerings and intoning of chants invoke the devas and Gods, who then come to bless and help the devotees.
Personal worship during puja may be an expression of festive celebration of important events in life, of adoration and
thanksgiving, penance and confession, prayerful supplication and requests, or contemplation and the deepest levels of
superconsciousness. The stone or metal Deity images enshrined in the temple are not mere symbols of the Gods; they are
the form through which their love, power and blessings flood forth into this world. Devout Hindus adore the image as the Deity’
s physical body, knowing that the God or Goddess is actually present and conscious in it during puja, aware of devotee’s
thoughts and feelings and even sensing the priest’s gentle touch on the metal or stone.

Hindus consider it most important to live near a temple, as it is the center of spiritual life. It is here, in God’s home, that the
devotee nurtures his relationship with the Divine. Not wanting to stay away too long, he visits weekly and strives to attend
each major festival, and to pilgrimage to a far-off temple annually for special blessings and a break from his daily concerns.

For the Hindu, the underlying emphasis of life is on making spiritual progress, while also pursuing one’s family and
professional duties and goals. He is conscious that life is a precious, fleeting opportunity to advance, to bring about inner
transformation, and he strives to remain ever conscious of this fact. For him work is worship, and his faith relates to every
department of life.

Hinduism’s spiritual core is its holy men and women—millions of sadhus, yogis, swamis, vairagis, saints and satgurus who
have dedicated their lives to full-time service, devotion and God Realization, and to proclaiming the eternal truths of Sanatana
Dharma. In day-to-day life, perhaps no facet of dharma is as crucial as the spiritual teacher, or satguru. These holy men and
women are a living spiritual force for the faithful. They are the inspirers and interpreters, the personal guides who, knowing
God themselves, can bring devotees into God consciousness. In all Hindu communities there are gurus who personally look
after the spiritual practices and progress of devotees. Such preceptors are equally revered whether they are men or women.
In few other religions are women allowed such access to the highest seats of reverence and respect.

Within the Hindu way is a deeply rooted desire to lead a productive, ethical life. Among the many virtues instilled in followers
are truthfulness, fidelity, contentment and avoidance of greed, lust and anger. A cornerstone of dharma is ahimsa, noninjury
toward all beings. Vedic rishis who revealed dharma proclaimed ahimsa as the way to achieve harmony with our environment,
peace between people and compassion within ourselves. Devout followers tend to be vegetarians and seek to protect the
environment. Selfless service, seva, to God and humanity is widely pursued as a way of softening the ego and drawing close
to the Divine. Charity, dana, is expressed though myriad philanthropic activities.

Hindus wear sectarian marks, called tilaka, on their foreheads as sacred symbols, distinctive insignia of their heritage. They
prefer cremation of the body upon death, rather than burial, knowing that the soul lives on and will inhabit a new body on
Earth.

Perhaps one of this faith’s most refreshing characteristics is that it encourages free and open thought. Scriptures and gurus
encourage followers to inquire and investigate into the nature of Truth, to explore worshipful, inner and meditative regimens to
directly experience the Divine. This openness is at the root of Hinduism’s famed tolerance of other cultures, religions and
points of view, capsulated in the adage, Ekam sat viprah bahuda vadanti, meaning “Truth is one, the wise describe it in
different ways.” The Hindu is free to choose his path, his way of approaching the Divine, and he can change it in the course of
his lifetime. There is no heresy or apostasy in Hinduism. This, coupled with Hinduism’s natural inclusiveness, gives little room
for fanaticism, fundamentalism or closed-mindedness anywhere within the framework of Hinduism. It has been aptly called a
threshold, not an enclosure.

There is a false concept, commonly found in academic texts, that Hinduism is world-negating. This depiction was foisted upon
the world by 19th-century Western missionary Orientalists traveling in India for the first time and reporting back about its
starkest and strangest aspects, not unlike what Western journalists tend to do today. The wild-looking, world-renouncing
yogis, taking refuge in caves, denying the senses and thus the world, were of sensational interest, and their world-
abandonment became, through the scholars’ eyes, characteristic of the entire religion. While Sanatana Dharma proudly
upholds such severe ways of life for the few, it is very much a family oriented faith. The vast majority of followers are engaged
in family life, firmly grounded in responsibilities in the world. Hinduism’s essential, time-tested monastic tradition makes it no
more world-negating than Christianity or Buddhism, which likewise have traditions of renunciate men and women living apart
from the world in spiritual pursuits. Young Hindu adults are encouraged to marry; marriages are encouraged to yield an
abundance of children; children are guided to live in virtue, fulfill duty and contribute to the community. The emphasis is not
on self-fulfillment and freedom but on the welfare of the community, as expressed in the phrase, Bahujan hitaya, bahujan
sukhaya, meaning “the welfare of the many and the happiness of the many.”

Definitions from Prominent Hindus

In our magazine and books we have offered this dictionary-style 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
on-purpose 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.’”