An antiquated religion: Hinduism is mankind’s oldest religion still in existence today with all its grandeur. It has seen civilizations rise and collapse. It has seen great souls and dreadful tyrants rule this earth and pass away. It has seen wars among Gods and men. It has weathered natural disasters. It has been through the best and worst of times over the last several millennia. All through history, whenever its ideals were questioned and its existence threatened, it had come out unscathed and even more glorious than before. The pyramids of Egypt built around 4500 BC is in ruins today but Hinduism, which is older than the Egyptian civilization, is still being followed by millions in India and around the world
A religion without a founder: Jesus Christ founded Christianity. Gautama Buddha founded Buddhism. Prophet Mohammed founded Islam from the revelations of Allah. Who founded Hinduism? The answer is that no specific individual founded Hinduism. This religion is based on a set of Divine Principles between man and God that were revealed to the enlightened and liberated seers of pre-Vedic times. These principles were later handed down to successive generations of seers who not only received them with great humility but also added more to these principles by way of their own knowledge gained through enlightenment. So, Hinduism could be summarized as “a religion that is founded by enlightened seers based on their direct experience of the Absolute”
A religion that is in perfect harmony with nature: The purpose of birth of a human on this earth is two-fold: one is to give birth to offspring and the other is to seek salvation in God. The first is the materialistic duty and the second is the spiritual objective of our existence. To meet these ends, Hinduism compartmentalizes the life of a man into 4 stages: Brahmacharya (student life), Grihastha (family life with wife and children), Vanaprastha (retirement life) and Sannyasa (renunciation or wanderer life). Each stage of life is well defined with principles and practices. Each of these principles and practices ensure that the individual carries his duties in harmony with nature and never incurs its wrath. Principles like righteousness and practices like yoga are stressed. Yoga, by itself, is the purest form of natural union of mind, body and soul. Even very minor acts like using the right leg first when entering a new home, etc have been meticulously observed and codified for the benefit of the individual.
A religion that emphasizes man and woman as equal: The Gods in Hinduism are always shown as couples – Lord Brahma and Saraswati, Lord Vishnu and Sri Lakshmi, Lord Shiva and Parvati, Lord Rama and Sita, Lord Krishna and Radha. No other religion has a Goddess. By defining husband-wife relationship at the level of God, Hinduism categorically states the equality between man and woman and goes further to stress the importance of woman in every man’s life.
A religion that gives freedom in life: There are a number of practices that need to be followed by a Hindu according to scriptures like surya namaskar, yoga, meditation, morning prayers, etc. However, the number of people following these practices as per the Hindu dharma is very few. Then do the others who do not follow incur sin? No. Hinduism offers various practices to help an individual tread on the path of righteousness. When that individual deviates from their path, these practices when followed bring them back into the right path. Hinduism is one of the religions that give freedom to the individual to choose their way of life. It does not compel one by force to follow its practices. An instance of this freedom can be pointed to in the epic Mahabharata. In the battlefield of Kurukshetra, when the battle is about to start, Arjuna drops his Gandiva (the mighty bow) and says to Lord Krishna that he cannot fight against his own kinsmen (brothers, friends, grand fathers, teachers, their children), kill them for the kingdom of Hastinapura and incur the sin that can never be cleansed. Lord Krishna dispels Arjuna’s ignorance through His discourse of the Bhagavad Gita and encourages him to fight. At the end of His speech, Lord Krishna, instead of forcing Arjuna to fight, gives him the option to either fight the war or surrender to the enemy. He only persuaded him to fight by revealing the profound wisdom to His friend.
A religion that gives right to disagree: Hinduism never advocates blind belief. Rather, it encourages one to ask questions, disagree, debate and understand the truth. It strongly believes that there is no other way to gain wisdom than to be free to agree and disagree. If not for this quality, there would not be 3 major schools of Vedanta which are Advaita by Adi Sankaracharya, Dvaita by Madhvacharya and Vishishtadvaita by Ramanujacharya. Another testament to this quality is the well known debates around who is great, Shiva or Vishnu and Shiva or Shakti. Any Hindu can point a finger on any scripture and challenge its merit on a truthful basis. This is not possible with any other religion
A religion whose cornerstones are knowledge and truth: Foundation of Hinduism is the Vedas. The word “Veda” means ‘knowledge’. It’s the knowledge about the divine, the man himself and the path to reach the divine. There are different paths to reach the divine but in any path, the truth is the guiding principle. This truth is Sanātana Dharma or Eternal Law, the unchanging one. Simply put: whatever is changing is not truth, whatever is unchanging is the truth. Hinduism is all about to understand this Absolute Truth by way of knowledge. This knowledge is spectacular, powerful and very difficult to comprehend. But, Hinduism wants everyone, educated and the illiterate, to gain this knowledge. So, it gave Vedas, Upanishads, Brahma Sutra, Bhagavad Gita to the educated while it gave Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas which are in the form of stories to the less qualified or illiterate. This is a unique feature of this religion which differentiates it from the others
A religion that offers more than one path to God: Christianity preaches the path of love. Buddhism preaches the path of non-violence (ahimsa). Islam preaches the path of surrender to Allah. Hinduism offers not one but three paths. Why? All humans are not bestowed with the same qualities like intelligence, courage and compassion. Some people might be more intelligent than the others but less courageous. Some people display a lot of compassion but might not be intelligent or even illiterate. Due to these differences in the nature of the people, everyone cannot follow the same path to God. Bhagavad Gita offers three paths – path of “bhakti” or devotion to God, path of “karma” or action and path of “jnana” or knowledge. An individual, depending on their nature, is free to choose any path or a combination of them to seek liberation. Example: Annamacharya chose the path of devotion. Mahatma Gandhi chose the path of action. Sri Raghavendrar chose the path of knowledge.
A religion that extols service and sacrifice: Service and sacrifice are the profound values of Hinduism. Without these values, an individual cannot progress towards God. Service is ‘desireless work’. Blood donation is an example. Here, one does not expect anything in return from the beneficiary not even their goodwill or blessings. An act of service is performed purely for the good of the society at large. Sacrifice is ‘giving up for the good’. It is spoken about in various degrees in different scriptures. Vedas extol yajna to the Gods like Agni, Indra, Varuna, etc as one form of sacrifice. Upanishads extol renunciation of all attachments including family, children and wealth as another form of sacrifice. Bhagavad Gita extols any work done in a spirit of sacrifice as an ultimate form of sacrifice. A well known example of sacrifice is in the epic Ramayana. Lord Rama along with wife Sita and brother Lakshmana sacrifice their princely life and live in the forest for 14 years to uphold Dasharatha’s promise to his second wife Kaikeyi. These values of service and sacrifice are deep rooted in the Indian culture through Hinduism.
A religion that offers heaven on earth: Christianity and Islam offer heaven after the Judgement Day (after one’s life). But, Hinduism offers heaven on earth, that is, in one’s current life and not after death. The path to this infinite bliss or paramānanda is detachment from desires and self restraint of the senses that are the seats of desires. When one remains even minded in pleasure and pain and controls their lust, greed and anger, one attains bliss in their current life. This bliss is enlightenment and freedom as was achieved by Buddha and many more sages before Him like Narada. This is what Hinduism wants everyone in this world to achieve and ordains it in the scriptures like Vedas and the Upanishad
An all embracing religion: The purpose of this religion is to help an individual realize the divinity in them and guide them to God. Divinity in oneself can be realized when the divinity in others is appreciated. This happens through faith and belief. When a man regards a stone, a tree or even a piece of wood as divine and offers prayer to it sincerely, Hinduism says that his prayers will be answered as a result of his faith. Hinduism does not hesitate to embrace that stone or tree or that piece of wood as a God for two reasons (1) God is present in everything and everywhere and (2) the faith reposed in it by people. It does not shatter the faith of people but includes them in its mainstream. This unique aspect of this religion led to the emergence of so many Gods from Vedic Gods to the village Gods and so many different practices. To the ignorant, Hinduism is polytheism but to the learned, it is practical monotheism