It's a religion that originates out of India, it's polytheistic, they believe in reincarnation, karma. They celebrate a popular Indian holiday called Diwali.
All religions do not point to God. All religions do not say that all religions are the same. At the heart of every religion is an uncompromising commitment to a particular way of defining who God is or is not and accordingly, of defining life?s purpose.
Anyone who claims that all religions are the same betrays not only an ignorance of all religions but also a caricatured view of even the best-known ones. Every religion at its core is exclusive.
But the concept of ?many ways? was absorbed subliminally in one?s life as a youngster. One is conditioned into that way of thinking before he or she had found out its smuggled prejudices. It takes years to find out that the cry for openness is never what it purports to be. What the person means by saying, ? you must be open to everything? is really, ?You must be open to everything that I am open to, and anything that I disagree with, you must disagree with too. ?
Indian culture has that veneer of openness, but it is highly critical of anything that hints at a challenge to it. It is no accident that within that so-called tolerant culture was birthed the caste system. All-inclusive philosophies can only come at the cost of truth. And no religion denies its core beliefs.
Within such systemic relativism one tends to drift and float with the cultural tide and give no thought to the unforgiving nature of reality. That is how life is lived out in pantheistic cultures.
Polytheism is a central belief in Hinduism Different gods perform different functions, and not one is personal. This belief opens the door to relativism, meaning that the truth is what you decide it is. Just like Hindus can choose the god or gods they want, they can choose what they want to believe.
At the core of Christian belief is the concept of one true God, who is eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, holy, and personal. Because God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, He is responsible for the unseen as well as the material world. Furthermore, God exists independently of His creation and the universe is completely depend ant on Him. God fills the universe with His presence and power, but He is not the universe. God is not everything, and everything is not God. A rock is not God, and neither are you.
It's interesting that from its polytheistic roots, Hinduism developed the concept of Brahma, the impersonal creator of the world, and Brahman, the universal Soul and ultimate reality.
This concept of pantheistic monism (all is God and God is one) contradicts polytheism "Both of these positions cannot be true at the same time. If all is God, then there cannot be many different gods."
Please tell me what exactly you are expecting about Hinduism? Hinduism is a vast religion and it can?t be explained in few paragraphs. You can find some details of Hinduism in below links
The earliest evidence for prehistoric religion in India date back to the late Neolithic in the early Harappan period (5500?2600 BCE).[21][22] The beliefs and practices of the Prue-classical era (1500?500 BCE) are called the "historical Vedic religion". Modern Hinduism grew out of the Vedas, the oldest of which is the Rigveda, dated to 1700?1100 BCE.[23] The Vedas center on worship of deities such as Indra, Varuna and Agni, and on the Soma ritual. Fire-sacrifices, called Jana were performed, and Vedic mantras chanted but no temples or icons were built
Present day Hinduism is what is left of the once great Science of the Vedas and the Sanathana Dharma.
Present day Hinduism is divided into two Major denominations - the Vaishnav and the Shaiv, followers of Vishnu, the Preserver and Shiva, the Destroyer; among whom they have many other sub sects.
The original Sanathana Dharma did not recognize any such thing as a Supreme Being living in the Sky that Created all things called God. There was no Heaven nor Hell and Angel or Demon.
It clearly answered the questions about the Beginning and End of Days with the simple Truth that no one knew as yet and was very unlikely that anyone would ever really know in the future.
It postulated that all things possess a Soul, or the Atman which gives them Life by being in them and by leaving, leaves behind Death. They also postulated that there was a Collective Universal Consciousness of the sum total of all Souls on this Temporal Plane which were connected with the Universal Soul of the Absolute Plane, called the Parama Atman. This was proved in a Logical Process of Elimination in the first stage and then with mathematical computations accurate up to 16 decimal points in a series of exercises that one did to arrive upon the conclusion.
However, as you can see, this Methodology became the preserve of the Scholars as the common man couldn't grasp these intricacies and therefore, for the common man, the Scholars created an abstract form of Gold called the Hiranya Garbha or the Golden Fetus which was mounted upon a vagina shaped platform called the yon Perth and this was given to them to understand that Creation is the Essence of Birth and Life.
Though this form was found too complicated for the common man, again, and they had to dumb it down again and again, the present name for the sanctum sanctorum of any Hindu Temple is still known as the Garbha Gruha and the yoni peetha is still the platform for the main Deity.
Anyways, the Scholars then created a series of 27 Trimurthys or Hindu Trinities to explain the basics of Science starting with Bhoomi or Earth, Varuna or Water and Surya or the Sun to explain germination of the seed, photosynthesis and Plant Life. These were given in the form of simple folk tales called the Puranas.
The last of this series was the present Hindu Trinity - Brahma, the embodiment of infancy to youth, Vishnu the mature adult and Shiva - dotage. They were also used to illustrate the fact that we are born, shall live and shall die. This is where they got, later on, transformed into the Creator, the Preserver and the Destroyer when India, and therefore Hinduism, came in contact with many foreign cultures and philosophies.
You see the earliest influence of the Greeks under Alexander leaving behind their men who chose to stay behind and brought in their Pantheistic ideas in the Indra, the Hindu Zeus, Varuna, the Hindu Poseidon, Surya, the Hindu Helios etc etc.
We later see the influence of the Jewish Culture in the Creation of Swarga, the Hindu Heaven and Naraka, the Hindu Hell.
The largest influence would, however, be St. Thomas [the Apostle of Christ known as the Doubting Thomas] who fled on a merchant ship to India and then landed there and began the first Christian Church - the Mar Thoma Catholic Order there.
He was responsible for the present day sari which he designed to make the local women dress in a covering manner since their earlier bare breasted appearance was disconcerting for him and his kind. Many other things like the over simplification of the Theory of Karma which is actually a Predictive Science, from the earlier simplification by Krishna into the "good things happen to good people and bad reaps bad" and many other such things that came into Hinduism, but, the most major contribution of St.Thomas to the metamorphoses of Hinduism was his creating their Orders or the Mutts and organizing Hinduism on the lines of the Christian manner.
Hinduism then went into ritualization and being controlled by Pontiffs, the Caste System which was a relic of the old Guild System of the Jews and early Christians and Hinduism went on a tangent from the original Science of the Sanathana Dharma.
The subject is too large to deal with here, unfortunately.
Hinduism is the oldest , greatest, the most profound and universal religion in the world. Nothing more greater in spirituality is ever said in world than what is told in Hinduism.
The most basic difference of Hinduism with other religions is that there is no founder for Hindu religion . It existed from the time immemorial , from the beginning of existence. It consists of thousands of teachers and thousands of practices for reaching God. Compared to Hinduism all other religions are only a few thousand years old. Hence trying to understand Hinduism with a western approach will be a difficult task
It says you can reach God in any way you choose.That is the most unique aspect of Hinduism. But all other religions claim God can be reached only through their own particular paths or beliefs. Ancient seers have said: Ekam sat copra Buddha Vedanta ? "'So many religions, so many paths to reach one and the same goal.
Earlier it was known as "Sanatana Dharma". It is not a religion in the western way of thinking.It is a way of life. Hinduism was a name given to it later on.It does not fit in any kind of definition like polytheism or monotheism etc.
If you want to understand Hinduism , you should have an understanding of Yoga and Vedanta . Otherwise you will be never able to understand it.Without understanding Yoga and Vedanta , you can never reach to the core of Hinduism.
The core of Hinduism lies in Vedanta, the belief in the undying soul.It tells that in essence you are God.Unless you reach to Vedanta, you are only dealing with the peripheries of Hinduism. Most of the times when people talk about Hinduism , they talk about the ritualistic aspect of Hinduism. When you know about the Vedanta ,all gods, goddesses and rituals vanish and you remain as the omnipotent Soul.
Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras has systematized an eight fold path through which you can reach the ultimate state of existence ie Samadhi or Godhood.
The greatest tragedy with Hinduism is that more than 90 per cent Hindus themselves do not understand the greatness of this religion.Then why should you blame others. It is so great, that it eludes the grasp of a common man.
Many other religions try to box God and existence in their scriptures or their holy books. But Hinduism does not do it. It gives freedom for everyone to experiment with it and understand the true essence of life.It even allows others to criticize it.For one who is keen on understanding oneself, there is nothing comparable to Hinduism anywhere in the world.
Can you explain Hinduism?
