What is Hinduism? by Swami Krishnananda

The word ‘Hindu’ is of foreign origin. It has no association with the principles which are psychologically compounded by habit and tradition with what one vaguely feels when the word ‘Hindu’ is uttered. The history behind this word seems to go back to the time when the Greeks and the Persians came to India, maybe somewhere around the time when Alexander, king of Macedon, invaded India. The barrier which these people from outside India had to cross was the river Sindhu, which today goes by the name of Indus. The letter ‘S’ gets transformed into ‘H’ when it passes through the Persian tongue, and into ‘I’ in the Greek tongue. The word ‘Sindhu’, which is actually the name of the river, got somehow associated with the very people who lived across the river, and ‘Sindhu’, dropping the letter ‘S’, got converted into the word ‘Hindu’, and further on into the word ‘Ind’ in Greek. Thus, even the word ‘India’ has its roots in the word ‘Sindhu’. From this one can gather how both the words, ‘Hindu’ and ‘India’, do not have any real connection with either the beliefs and faiths of the people so called or even the original name of the country itself. The country is traditionally known as ‘Bharatavarsha’ or, simply, ‘Bharata’. This is something about the name itself.

Now, what does one really mean by the word ‘Hindu’, whatever be its origin? To state simply and plainly, it would mean a person who follows or lives according to the canons and principles of the religion known as ‘Hinduism’. But this would raise the question, "What is Hinduism?"

Many definitions have been given by stalwarts like Lokamanya Tilak, and such leaders of Hinduism. The area which the religion called Hinduism covers is so large that it is not easy to give an off-hand definition of it at one stroke, as any such attempt is likely to carry with it a flaw of inadequate characterisation. However, broadly speaking, a Hindu is one who holds and lives according to some of the following essential principles:

• that the ultimate reality of the universe is one and not more than one
• that the nature of this reality is spiritual in the sense of Intelligence or Consciousness
• that therefore this reality is Universal, Omnipresent, and hence at once Omniscient and Omnipotent
• that creation is a veritable Body of this All-pervading Almighty Omnipresence
• that the relationship between this reality, which is called God, and the created universe is intrinsic, organic and vital, and not external or mechanistic
• that there are several planes in this creation, broadly classified into fourteen realms known as ‘Lokas’, all which are inhabited by different categories of beings, right from the lowest level of the physical elements up to the Region of the Creator Himself
• that in the sense stated above, the whole universe and all beings are vehicles of divinity and radiant with the immanent Godhead, all potentially having the birthright of attaining union with the Supreme Almighty through gradual evolution
• that the human being is one such created species among the many others which are said to run to 84 lakhs in number
• that man, thus, occupies a stage in the process of a still higher ascent and he is not the end of creation or evolution
• that human life is to be organised by the integrating principles of Dharma (moral value), Artha (material value), Kama (vital value) and Moksha (spiritual value), the last one mentioned being in fact the infinite value of existence
• that society is also to be brought into a united force of hierarchy through mutual cooperation by the application of what is known as Varnasrama-Dharma, which means the arrangement of society into the classes of spiritual power, political power, economic power and man-power, known usually as Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra, and the order of life into the levels of education, the performance of the duties of life, withdrawal from personal attachments and attainment of spiritual illumination, which stages go usually by the names of Brahmacharya, Garhasthya, Vanaprastha and Sannyasa
• that every faith, cult, creed, belief, religion or outlook represents a facet or phase of the evolving consciousness in the process of the universe, thus transforming life in the world, nay, life in the universe itself into a wide family of internally related and mutually co-operating members who have all a system of obligations and duties, excluding nothing but including everything, finally with the purpose of universal spiritual realisation.

There is no necessity to go into further elaborate details of what the word ‘Hinduism’ may suggest, because it would be clear that what is stated above would be enough to provide necessary guidelines to draw the requisite conclusions in matters of detail.

However, it has to be added that the religion known as Hinduism accepts the supernatural origin and final authority of the Word of the Veda, which consists of the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas and the Upanishads. Hinduism also accepts the validity of the ethical and legal codes known as the Smritis, the Epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Puranas, the Agamas and Tantras, and also the six schools of philosophy known as Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta. The word ‘Vedanta’ suggests and includes also its variations known as the Advaita, Visishta-advaita, Dvaita, Dvaita-advaita, Suddha-advaita, and Achintya-bheda-abheda. It also includes the religious doctrines of the different schools of Vaishnavism, Saivism and Saktaism. Hinduism accepts and provides for the worship of the accepted Divinities of Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Ganesa, Durga, Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Surya and Skanda among many others which are all included in the all-embracing pantheon.