From a western point of view, the concept of "Hinduism" seems extremely broad. A few hundred years ago, Catholics and Protestants routinely warred against each other, and many present-day Christians still deny that other self-identified Christians are "really" Christian. When hatred between Christians and even Jews started to ebb, conservatives had to invent the bogus "Judeo-Christian" identity to create a new viable "us/them" distinction and revitalize religious xenophobia in the US. When an American such as myself looks at the amazing variety of Hindu beliefs, his first thought is to suspect that Hinduism, too, is a political invention to unite a diverse group of people against the "other." I don't know of any evidence for this theory, though, and the idea of Hinduism as a common tradition seems to be pretty old. (Hinduism is certainly used to foster us/them thinking by the BJP now, but they seem to be capitalizing on the Hindu identity more than creating it.)
Yes, Hinduism is one of the most difficult of religions [ cultures, really] to pigeon-hole. The depths of yoga [Sanatan Dharma: Raja yoga] are nothing like the common conceptions of the multi-god-ed worship seen in travelogs. When you get beneath the surface and see the open-mindedness of the roots of Hinduism you may find it most understandable why great such minds in astronomy, physics, computing, etc. have been been birthed in Hindustan culture.
I liked the comment on the submitted source about intercaste marriages. It seems that there isn't any unified "Hinduism" until there is social equality and social interaction among the various castes.
* There is NO H!ndu!sm **till** 85% of all registered marriages in India are inter-caste.
* Till then the truth is there are only Castes and NO H!ndus in India.
I'm probably with you on the relevance of this on HN; By the way if you really don't care about people downvoting you, then you won't bother mentioning it :)
It's true that you cannot convert someone into Hinduism but that's only because there's no concept of a ceremony or some such thing after which you become a Hindu. If you believe you're a Hindu, then you're a Hindu. There's no religious/governing authority which overlooks the conversion. Some temples (especially the really old, famous ones) in India allow only Hindus to enter the inner premises of the temple. So it might be tricky to prove that you're a Hindu if you're not Indian-looking :)
As someone who was raised as a Hindu in India, I can tell you that Hinduism is way too complex, confusing and deep to grok. If someone asked me to summarize Hinduism in a few sentences, I could never do it. Also as the article says the religion survived through thousands of years in spite of so much change happening within India (India was invaded several times by foreigners) largely because Hinduism has adapted itself over time. Hinduism has evolved to appeal to different kinds of people & their needs - you could go from something as simple (and probably silly if you don't believe in it) as idol worship, animal sacrifices, elaborate rituals, etc to something like `yoga` where you're trying to unite your mind and body through physical exercises, and to even higher `meta` things like meditation, realizing one's self. There's loads of Sanskrit literature on all these things if you want to actually explore. Buddhism sprang from Hinduism at one point because Gautama Buddha who was born as a Hindu prince wasn't satisfied with the then existing form of Hinduism.
Unfortunately an average Hindu family in India doesn't delve beyond the usual temple visits, rituals on auspicious days on the Hindu calendar, and celebrating festivals lavishly. Hinduism is one of those things I would like to explore deeper but just haven't found the time or the right person to teach me which is largely because I'm chasing that dream career and all the comforts in life :)
After twenty years studying yoga/Hinduism, that seems to me a strange proposition. Perhaps it comes from the fact that there is no "Hindu church" - no central authority.
Consider the fact that almost anyone who considers self "Hindu" considers reincarnation a natural way to look at human (and other) lives. Any "thinking Hindu" will be aware that it is only a temporary state (of any given lifetime) to be born in a Hindu culture, or Moslem culture, or secular culture. To me, that is a humbling thought: and counsels against the natural human tendency to be proud merely for having been born into a family of a particular culture or religion.
See, the Chirstianity or Islam is based on some Dogma which you just cant refuse. There is some authority that defines that Dogma. Care to remember Church's stand of use of contraceptives? Or Khomeni's fatawah against Salman Rashdie?
Such is not the case with Hinduism. You are a hindu as soon as you start proclaiming one.
Call yourself a hindu and criticize Hinduism still the right wing Hindu organizations will accept you as hindu just as any common hindu.
Yes dude. The link blog is owned by me :) I wrote that blog in the first place. And I am not kidding. I have elaborated extensively on that blog why I like Hinduism
