HINDUSIM,IS IT A COMBINTION OF CULTURES, RELIGON OR SCIENCE?

Can we classify 'HINDUSIM'as a religion or culture, I would opt out for the latter, because we do not have a "unified system of belief encoded in declaration of faith " like other major religion like Christianity Islam or Buddhism. Hinduism is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder, it is a combination off various cultures with 'highly' contradicting views, scriptures and stories.. It has two main divisions 'Shivasism' (Shiva followers) and ' Vaishanvism', these kinds of divisions can be found in Christianity and Islam...

During 'Iron age of India' ShivLinga worships been the eldest practice known to man kind, it has been proved by many archaeologists and scholars alike. The introduction of Vaishnavism was introduced later after the invasion from 'Eastern Europe/ Persia' etc... In time, two of these cultures merged together to form tradition called 'Hinduism'...

We (Hindus) have all the scientific proofs about the creation of the universe, life,etc.. from our ancient ‘Rishi’s and techniques for self realisation using Yoga and meditation to achieve such gaols, as far as I know, 'No religion or sect has proved this before'. , yet we have enormous amount of contradiction stories, puranas etc...

Most Hindus don’t have clue about the tradition it self, unlike the Christians and Muslims.. We simply go to the temple to fulfil our ‘own’ needs and mourn about ‘our grief’ which is created by human itself, not by GOD. Majority of us have no clue about the ‘Shiva puran’ skanda purana;’ or Gita’.. This is not the case with Christians and Muslims. It is the responsibility of the authorities of the temple to preach the scriptures daily like in the church or mosque.
What are your thoughts on this…
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Sudhama sir

Pradheep

Rohit

where are you guys??

Hi Raghu..

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Originally Posted by Raghu

[tscii]Can we classify 'HINDUSIM'as a religion or culture, I would opt out for the latter, because we do not have a "unified system of belief encoded in declaration of faith " like other major religion like Christianity Islam or Buddhism. Hinduism is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder, it is a combination off various cultures with 'highly' contradicting views, scriptures and stories.. It has two main divisions 'Shivasism' (Shiva followers) and ' Vaishanvism', these kinds of divisions can be found in Christianity and Islam...

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Did you mean 'can't' here?

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We (Hindus) have all the scientific proofs about the creation of the universe, life,etc.. from our ancient ‘Rishi’s

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Scientific proofs? I am not sure if we have scientific proofs for the creation of the Universe etc. Could you be more clear here?

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Most Hindus don’t have clue about the tradition it self, unlike the Christians and Muslims.. We simply go to the temple to fulfil our ‘own’ needs and mourn about ‘our grief’ which is created by human itself, not by GOD. Majority of us have no clue about the ‘Shiva puran’ skanda purana;’ or Gita’.. This is not the case with Christians and Muslims. It is the responsibility of the authorities of the temple to preach the scriptures daily like in the church or mosque.

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One problem is that there is too much literature. Where does one begin? Ideally the starting points are the Itihaasas, Ramayana and Mahabharatha (more importantly). A lot of people know these stories, but inspite of all that even an iota of real understanding seems to be missing from our lives. There exist very few people who grasp the totality of just these Itihaasas, let alone the esoteric treatises of Hinduism. Also, we have the problem of language, where few people hardly ever learn Tamil or Sanskrit deeply enough to appreciate these ancient texts. And then finally there is the problem of over dependence and indoctrination.

Moreover, Hinduism has not 'required/forced' people to do any special activities/rituals or develop a belief in anything. Ultimately each sect seems to stress of viewing all beings with equanimity and compassion. So a 'preaching' seems rather unnecessary. However, awareness of the foundational elements of Hinduism should be developed as you say.

There are several avenues in Hinduism even in this modern world to hunt individually for knowledge, and for the deeply motivated seeker, the Guru himself shows the way to true freedom, which IMHO should be the sole aim. Honestly I think few people really understand or care for such a life (including among those who have a wide knowledge of the scriptures).

Love and Light.

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NO "ISM" LABEL... as Saivism or Vaishnawism or the like... EXCLUSIVELY APT ...

..Even as HINDU-ISM.!...

...for this LARGE-HEARTED... VEDIC-CULTURE of Human-Values.!

Religions or various pursuits of God-Realisation are intended to BROADEN the HUMAN- OUTLOOK....

....and UPLIFT the Mankind alone possessing the invaluable SOUL... by means of Applied Wisdom and Cultured Mind...

....towards EMANCIPATION OF HUMAN SOUL....

....to ensure that Supreme Earthly birth... TRULY ENJOY his ROYAL OPPORTUNITY by all Senses...

...and NOT TO NARROW DOWN.... nor DIVIDE the One Global Humanity.!

This Vedic-Religion... is the COMPRHENSIVE plus INTEGRAL FORM of ALL THE POPULAR WORLD RELIGIONS.!

The Name of Vedic-Religion lablelled as HINDUISM... is in fact called as SANAATHANA-DHARMA... by its followers.

..which means ETERNAL RELIGION of God-stipulated COMMON Order for the sake of ENTIRE MANKIND... of any Age and Era..

How.?

Better we approach and UNDERSTAND...Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Dr Annie Besant, Sri Krishna Chaithanya... and so on...

...to TRULY KNOW... what is Vedic-Culture...

.... intended for EMANICIPATION OF HUMANITY.


This Religion alone renders FULL LIBERTY to the devotees to worship and follow any God....

...through any means amongst the wide options provided to avail...

.... by Ones own choice and perception

Although the different means may cause varied sorts of experience.... All the Results will be almost EQUAL...

....because the ultimate GOD IS ONE.!!!

That One Supreme God... takes up several forms and shapes... in the manner the devotee believes and follows... say Vedas.

Who is that ONE GOD... Hiding behind several Gods.?

First of all... Such a logical Question and Thought on SUPREME GOD... are unnecessary for a Layman- Devotee.

However if anyone is anxious to know... then let him / her just think awhile... and OBSERVE...

...why at the beginning and end of Vedic chanting... it is prayed as...HARIHI OHM.!!!

Who is that Hari.? Why chanted so..?

That will clarify and answer all our Doubts and Questions....

.... as well as on One and all the Questions on ANY GOD and FORM....

....meant for SUPER-HUMAN Protection and Surveilence for Mankind.!!!

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Originally Posted by Raghu

Can we classify 'HINDUSIM'as a religion or culture, I would opt out for the latter, because we do not have a "unified system of belief encoded in declaration of faith " like other major religion like Christianity Islam or Buddhism. Hinduism is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder, it is a combination off various cultures with 'highly' contradicting views, scriptures and stories.. It has two main divisions 'Shivasism' (Shiva followers) and ' Vaishanvism', these kinds of divisions can be found in Christianity and Islam...

During 'Iron age of India' ShivLinga worships been the eldest practice known to man kind, it has been proved by many archaeologists and scholars alike. The introduction of Vaishnavism was introduced later after the invasion from 'Eastern Europe/ Persia' etc... In time, two of these cultures merged together to form tradition called 'Hinduism'...

We (Hindus) have all the scientific proofs about the creation of the universe, life,etc.. from our ancient ‘Rishi’s and techniques for self realisation using Yoga and meditation to achieve such gaols, as far as I know, 'No religion or sect has proved this before'. , yet we have enormous amount of contradiction stories, puranas etc...

Most Hindus don’t have clue about the tradition it self, unlike the Christians and Muslims.. We simply go to the temple to fulfil our ‘own’ needs and mourn about ‘our grief’ which is created by human itself, not by GOD. Majority of us have no clue about the ‘Shiva puran’ skanda purana;’ or Gita’.. This is not the case with Christians and Muslims. It is the responsibility of the authorities of the temple to preach the scriptures daily like in the church or mosque.
What are your thoughts on this…
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Dear Raghu
I think the Vedic view has a Unique "Single Universal Concept". All the branches are different flavors of that single concept giving a feeling of multitudeness, adding to its beauty. All the off shoots of it including Jainism and Buddhism also carry that Universal Concept.

Last week I had a discussion with my sister on this same topic and this is how I explained. I told her, Morning when I reached your home, you offered me coffee, and I did not say the sugar in your kitchen is sweet, instead said the coffee is sweet and good. For breakfast you made the traditional coconut milk dipped aappam, with the same sugar you had in your kitchen and I praised the sweetned coconut milk. At 11.00 you gave a rasna-drink again sweetned with the same kitchen sugar. At lunch you gave me milk-payasam sweetned with the same sugar.

It is "one sugar" that you gave me all the time trying to please my sweet-taste buds, only the flavors and additional ingredients were different. Without sugar none of them would be enjoyable. At the same time, whether it was coffee, rasna-drink or coconut-milk or payasam, you added only one sugar from one bottle. But each tasted different. The reality is I was only tasting the same sugar everytime. Without Awareness of Sugar I can keep seeing the difference of sweet-items.

Same way is Vedic Culture, there is one Fundamental Truth offered in different flavors in Shaivism, Vaishnavism and other isms. The fundamental concept is one and the same, like the single sugar giving sweetness all the time in different foods. All rituals , festivals of Vedic tradition has only one Fundamental Truth to Impart.

Hinduism was practiced in Kazakhstan (remains of idols were found) in fact all the countries ending with 'stan' (like Hindustan), like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, takistan, Kyrgyzstan all have had major Hindu influences... in fact Buddhism had influences in Afghanistan and Kazakhstan , these countries border each others.

I left Pakistan here, as it was part of Hindustan before

I am aware the Hinduism was spread across Indonesia , Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, but did it ever spread into china like Buddhism did???

Hinduism has historically been a non-missionizing religious tradition. It has, however, spread to many parts of South and Southeast Asia, and to the West, and in the process has adapted to the cultural of these regions.


Hinduism was not originally a unified religious tradition. Rather, it consisted of a wide range of practices and beliefs that were only loosely linked. There was from the beginning wide regional variation. Local traditions existed almost independently, linked by some basic principles-karma, say, or samsara--or a basic understanding of the power of the divine. But the Indian subcontinent is a huge and diverse landmass, and the people who inhabit India differ sometimes quite radically depending on where they live. There are hundreds of languages, and thousands of local cults and local traditions that may be unknown outside of a particular region or even a particular village.

Early western scholars posited a geographical and ideological divide in Hinduism, one that was characterized as a split between the north and the south. The north, these orientalist scholars argued, was characterized by the religious ideas of the Vedas, which, they argued, were brought from outside of India by ancient Europeans, the Aryans. These outsiders invaded northern India and pushed the indigenous peoples to the south. The northerners spoke variations of Sanskrit. The southerners, this theory held, were known as Dravidians, and spoke variations of Tamil. The southerners were said to be darker than their light-skinned Aryan neighbors, and were also less educated, less pure, and their religious traditions less evolved.

This is a typically slanted and perniciously biased colonialist history. In fact, pre-Vedic religious traditions mixed with Vedic ideas and practices from the beginning, and what emerged as what some call "classical" Hinduism is a complex intermingling of a whole range of local and pan-Indian traditions. Some aspects of Hinduism are truly pan-Indian: the Vedas, for instance, are the basic underlying foundation for virtually all forms of Hinduism; the great epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, are mostly pan-Indian, although even they-particularly the Ramayana-have regional variations. The great gods and goddesses-Shiva, Vishnu, Devi-are worshipped everywhere, but regional variations are the norm rather than the exception.

Hinduism has historically been a non-missionizing religious tradition. This is specifically linked to the fundamental theological worldview that all schools of Hinduism share. Human beings are reborn into the world according to their past deeds in prior lifetimes. This is the basic law of karma. Thus being a Hindu is not a matter of choice or cultural circumstance; it is a reflection of the workings of the cosmos. Thus many (although not all) Hindus have held that one cannot convert to Hinduism. You are either born a Hindu, or you are not. As a result, to be Hindu has traditionally meant to be a Hindu in India.

Hinduism has, however, spread to other parts of the world. It has spread as a result of Hindu kings conquering non-Hindu lands; it has spread as a result of colonization and then globalization; and in the modern period it has spread as a result of westerners adopting, and converting to, Hindu practices and beliefs. Hindu kings began to make forays into Sri Lanka and parts of southeast Asia as early as the 7th century C.E. Hinduism was a major cultural force in much of Southeast Asia, as evidenced, for example, by Angkor Wat or contemporary Balinese Hinduism. The Srivijaya kingdom, established on the island of Sumatra in what is now Indonesia, was a huge Hindu kingdom. In this context, Hinduism took on a distinctly local character, both in terms of the forms of the gods and goddesses and their associated ritual practices. This kind of political expansion outside of India is the exception rather than the rule, however.

Hinduism has become a far more international religion in the modern world, first as a result of colonialism and second as a result of globalization. There are Hindu communities in the West Indies, for instance, because British traders captured and enslaved Hindus, taking them off to work in the tea and coffee plantations in their West Indian colonies. After the collapse of the British Raj, many of these former slaves stayed, cultivating a distinctly local form of Hinduism. The collapse of the British Empire also meant that Hindus, as citizens of the former colonies, could travel outside of India to other former colonies, most notably Great Britain and Canada, where large communities of so-called "Diasporic Hindus" continue to practice traditional forms of Hinduism that have, nonetheless, taken on local characteristics. There are impressive Hindu temples serving substantial Hindu communities throughout England, in Canada, and in the United States.

A question that remains is, given the incredible internal variations and diversity, how has Hinduism come to be understood as a single religious tradition? In some ways, it is not and never will be. That said, however, there are certain pan-Indian (and, in the contemporary world, international) practices and traditions and beliefs that have, over the centuries, spread throughout the Hindu world and that unite the many variations of the tradition.

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Originally Posted by PARAMASHIVAN

I am aware the Hinduism was spread across Indonesia , Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, but did it ever spread into china like Buddhism did???

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I guess no, the Himalayas might have been a deterrent.

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Originally Posted by PARAMASHIVAN

Hinduism was practiced in Kazakhstan (remains of idols were found) in fact all the countries ending with 'stan' (like Hindustan), like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, takistan, Kyrgyzstan all have had major Hindu influences... in fact Buddhism had influences in Afghanistan and Kazakhstan , these countries border each others.

I left Pakistan here, as it was part of Hindustan before

I am aware the Hinduism was spread across Indonesia , Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, but did it ever spread into china like Buddhism did???

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These places were influenced by a pre-Vedic civilization (and therefore not 'Hinduism' strictly) in the distant past, the one that arose near Mesopotamia (the regions around Iraq - Iran), which might be considered the starting point of all religions/civilizations. Of course, the Tamils seemed to have relations with this civilization, don't know how the chemistry of culture and religion worked out between these two.

Love and Light.

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Originally Posted by anbu_kathir

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Originally Posted by PARAMASHIVAN

I am aware the Hinduism was spread across Indonesia , Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, but did it ever spread into china like Buddhism did???

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I guess no, the Himalayas might have been a deterrent.

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Hmmm, but then again Nepal is at high altitude as well, if that is so then how did buddism get spread in china?

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Originally Posted by PARAMASHIVAN

Hmmm, but then again Nepal is at high altitude as well, if that is so then how did buddism get spread in china?

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http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...8181000AAZmiP2

Might be a better answer than mine, I think.

Love and Light.