If you ask about the origin of Hinduism to a person who has perceived the essence of Hinduism, the answer will be a simple smile. This is because Hinduism has no history, it believes in the present. This might be hard for a common man to digest because we live in a world which gives so much importance to history. If you are looking for dates and other facts you can find it in these articles – Year of origin of Hinduism and History of Hindu religion and Origin of the term Hindu.
The great sages who gave us the Upanishads, Vedas and other Holy Scriptures, never talked about the history of their clan or kingdom. This is because history is of no use to the mankind. But the great thoughts found in Upanishads are eternal and have practical use in everyday life. They knew very well that history creates nothing but wars and tension.
Our world is dominated by monolithic religions. These religions have a proper beginning and founders. But Hinduism has no founders. Simply because it is not a religion but a way of life. It talks more about day-to-day problems. It deals with questions that every human being ask at sometime in life like ‘Who am I?’
The question of origin of Hinduism arises because other religions in the world have an origin. Modern education also might prompt a person to ask about the origin. So, many Hindus are forced to give a period of origin or a particular era.
Theories and dates of Origin of Hinduism can be found in the successive posts.
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25 comments:
Excellent way to put it. Simple and yet to the point. You have nailed it 'the way of life'. Thank you for the wonderful explaination.
The Vedas (Sciences) have no history, but Hinduism is its product, is a mixture of different cultures and religions, that's why you cannot define it. It is similar to Europeism, Asianism, Americanism, Sovietism or Africanism. All of them are territorial amalgamations of different cultures. Hinduism presents Nothing special. History in ancient terminology is parampara. Without respect to parampara India could not preserve its Vedic legacy. The great scientists-philosophers who gave us the Upanishads, Vedas and other Holy Scriptures, never talked about the history of their clan or kingdom. Why should they? What's the need to talk about your clan in a book on physics or astronomy? History is of no use only to animals not in any way to the mankind.
The great thoughts found in the Upanishads are really eternal, but they do not have any practical use in everyday life of an individual. They form the chronomatrix of an organized cosmos and are precious foundations of a peaceful and civilized society.
Our world is dominated not by religions, especially not by monolithic ones (Hinduism, Islam, Christianity are amalgamations composed of innumerable sects). Our world as any world is governed by Time (Shiva Mahakala). All religions have symbolic mythological founders (Hinduism is not an exception). But in reality, these founders were simply symbols of certain subdivisions of very complex Vedic (scientific) texts. Do not try to reduce the value of true Vedic religion to an incremented way of life. There are texts, which talk more about day-to-day obligations, but there still others, which expound mathematics, programming, astronomy, linguistics and many other brunches of knowledge. Why cannot you see? The question ‘Who am I?’ is of primordial importance. Try to answer it first before jumping to unverifiable mundane conclusions about something ambivalent, extraordinary complex and eluding all plain explanations.
The question of origin of Hinduism is one of such difficult scientific
problems. You are trying maybe unconsciously to denigrate the efforts of many scholars all over the world to solve this problem.
Read my book Key to the Vedas and find scientifically proved theory and methodology of Vedic inter5pretation.
Dr. Mikhail Mikhailov (Belarus)
http://key.itved.com
When I read in your comment, I felt I was caught in a sticky web. I could not relate many ideas you put forth. But I smiled when I finished reading it. That smile was the product of Santana Dharma.
Sanatana Dharma has been helping me in solving the numerous problems that I face in daily life. To solve this problem, I don’t need to unravel the complex history of a religion.
I am a firm believer that Sanatana Dharma is not a religion but a product of a long line of thought process. And I am proud to be a part of that long lineage. I never bother whether it has a beginning or an end. All that matters to me is that it provides me with the light to come out of darkness.
Mr Mikhail's comments are more of an observator's than of a researcher. He links Hinduism to Europeism, Asianism, Americanism, Sovietism or Africanism which is improper. Sanatan Dharam, Vedas, Puranas etc are beyond any such "-ism" as they all talk of humanity and human universe as a whole. They dont speak of any so called religions (Islam, Christianity) who act like private limited companies but of human beings and universe. Hindu name might have come from some people naming it but Hinduism can not be equated to these so called religions. Sanatan Dharma can not be measured historically as it came with the birth of human being on earth and so it cannot have limited life as it will remain till there are human beings in universe or even after that till universe exists.
I agree & Disagree at a same time on personal front.Our heritage speaks about the way of life that insists on living in harmony with surroundings.Our heriatage sets a benchmark of ethical behavior in day-to-day life,without hampering or causing inconvenience to other co-existing living.Our heritage gives us strength to sail thru the numerous conflicts we face in everyday life and find hope & solace in simple things like pooja or rituals or festivals.At the same time we have scholars in our lineage who studied the universe,understood the climates & categorised it.Who understood what drives everything is the time!! So wrote theories and put forth their researches that defines,understands that factor.Physics,Astronomy,cosmological differences are all were studied & put forth by the scholors in the the holy scriptures.That's why Hinduism is way of life."NOT ONE OF THE ISMs."Our religion is holistic.Unlike other isms Mr.Mikhail compares it with.They have particular path,set way of conducting their prayers,they have founders & modifiers,they have someone always dictating them that what is for & against their religion, BUT WE DON'T!Our paths are free & open to researchers,it's left to personal intelluctual to trode the path of realisation and find for himself/herself the nature,meaning & importance of life.The scholors' teachings & theories are the gems scattered to find,understand,enrich our intellect and move on with our research.That's why it's way of life.Like river,life's nature is flow,movement.None of the other mentioned ISMs give this freedom to its followers.So we are not part of Isms.We are part of a rich heritage that exists for a reason.
In most of the religion one has to do something tobecome a 'member'of that religion. like the use of holy water or circumcision etc. but no one 'becomes a hindu' no one can be converted to a hindu. it is like saying i am a Yogi now because I practice yoga. That is why it is a way of life and not a religion.
It is of no surprise that someone like Dr Mikhail Mikhailov has given his opinion. Asia is a vast continent with Turkey and Egypt to the West, Russia to the north, Japan to the east Indonesia/Oceania to the south. Bealrus is next to Russia. Russia is steeped in mysticism and altenative and complementary studies. Dr Mikhail
Mikhailov's full name contains the angel Mikhail's name twice with the angels being a set of divine beings and deities. I am sure that Dr Mikhailov has tried to get in touch with these beings.
Asia is a place where many great religious teachers and sages lived: Ram, Krishna, Buddha, Jain, Lao-tzu/Laocius, Kung-fu tzu/Confucius, Zarathushtra/Zoroaster, Jesus, the apostles and the family of Jesus, Mohammed, the companions and the family of Mohammed, John the Baptist, Moses, David, Solomon, Abraham, Guru Nanak Dev, Guru Gobind Singh, Babullah, Bahaullah, Abdul Baha, Shoghi Effendi and many more. Such people have always encouraged people to a better understanding of living.
ya
please dont mind , you people are Filled UP to NECK with HATE towards Scheduled Caste people.. please remember that all people are same.. and according to Hindu myth.. human body is made of FIVE articles... such as air, sand, water, fire..
body of weaker section of the INDIA is also composed of these five basic INGREDIENTS.
please dont mind... if you hurt
per curiosity,stumbled into woner-
fullTopic. Be it Sanatham dharma or
any Label..true, though, it is way of LIFE, but, has to BE LIVED & UNDER-STOOD AMONG OTHER,HUMAN-BEINGS. Very DIFFICULT, TO DEFINE IN WORDS. It is INFINITY...THE THOUGHT HAS NO BOUNDRIES,CAST OR
RELIGION, THE OUT-COME IS OF INDIVIDUAL'S THOUGHT.
Its jesus who preached christianity and its prophet who preached islam its buddha who preached buddhism and its mahavir who preached jainism and its guru nanak who preached sikhism and the list goes on. But hinduism its been named by other religitic peers. There is no meaning for hindu in sanskrit or vedas it has been used by isms of other religion just to differentiate it form theirs. History is just for reference and vedas and upanishads are for daily life what to do and what not to do.
those who have mis-conceptions regarding hinduism can forget about it but cannot live out of it as it is the essence of sanatana dharma and all the so called religions have the same as the basis. this sanatana dharma is eternal and hence cannot be taken out of the life. the best thing to do is to live in it
Namaskar,
Hinduism has no founder. It is sanatana dharma. Right from the beginning of Kruthayuga, hinduism is there which we cannot give any nimeric evidence. As long as the God is there Hinduism will be there. Just because of misunderstanding between people hinduism has to split. those days like kruthayuga, threthayuga and dwaparayuga were there anyother religion? Each and every man has to think about this, what is their origin? But One drawback made by us was discrimination in caste which made hinduism to split. But according to God there is no discrimination. There were only 4 varnas, At least now we have to be united and educate the people. Whenever we forget the God, think of all illegal things all types of natural calamities happens. which is called Laghu Pralay. This is because, we are against the nature and God. We think we are very intelligent, we can findout so many weapons, can kill people, can convert all people into the religion. But we think one and God does one.
Hello, friends.
I agree with the article. However, as a college student, the books on religion that are written by scholars posit a date. And it is their words that are being taught in the public schools.
Unfortunately, high credibility are given these scholars by other teachers who also do not know and the students are made to accept this as fact.
I have spoken the truth many times in my religion class regarding issues of this nature, and I have received the same response. They say, "It is your belief" with hostility. And when I tell them it doesn't matter what I believe, but what I know, they do not comprehend.
Almost all their knowledge is based on belief, based on what someone else has said. They really do not know anything. Therefore, they project their lack of knowledge upon me and say it is my belief.
With all these blind systems of thought being propagated in the name of education and knowledge it is no wonder the world is in such an unhappy state.
What a waste of time to try and get an education when one is not grounded in Truth. But if you tell them to get God before getting an education they will only snarl and spit at you. You will be a devil in their eyes.
Stating that one has the truth is a beautiful line used in many stage acts. It lets the actor say that they have some drive in them that helps prop up the story when supporting roles are disappointing. The expression of conviction needs to come with make-up, fancy dress, characteristic gait, different personality and audience members employed by the theatre company to give prompts to everyone else at opportune moments in the storyline.
Babullah is actually Al Bab.
The Slavs have always been fascinated by the esoteric. They have been consistent in expanding the subject in a scientific manner. They have a natural interest in this respect.
HINDUISM IS NOT A ISMM OR DHARMA IT IS RESTRICTED IN BOUNDRIES . ITS PURELY WAY OF LIFE HOW TO LIVE .ITS MORE ABOUT HUMANISM WHT IS IT SUPPOSED TO BE DONE BY A HUMAN BEING , IT ALSO RELATES THAT KARMA .WE KNO THE NEWTONS LAW EVERY ACTION HAS GOT EQAUL AND OPPOSITE REACTION . LIKE WISE IF U DO GOOD IT WILL YEILD GOOD TO YOU WITH GROWTH IN IT . AS YOU SOW SO U REAP .WE CANNOT REAP MANGOS .STRWBERRIS IN CACTUS PLANTING ,
i don't accept the fact that there is no date or founder for hindism.i must say LOVE IS GOD - to explore things man had found out different things to understand love that is the only reason from love,killing evils,creating things etc every god has to perform thier duties which was mentioned in Greeks and Egyptians which was later gone to different variations and atlast we made rules based on LOVE given by our gurus thus we have cultivated the religion thus hindu was born.
Dear Dr. Mikhail Mikhailov -Hinduism (the Bhagvad Dharma) cannot be equated with any 'Ism' as u equate in your comments. The Bhagvad Dharma / Sanatan Dharma is the oldest one. Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and other contemporary religions have emerged much later and even after the period of 'Mahabharta'. There is need to thoroughly and closely study the litrature of this great relgion and find out the truth. There are several proof in English and other languages of Asia and Europe that verfy the definite roots of the Buddhsm, Christianity and Islam, etc. to the Bhagvad Dharma (the oldest relgion or the Vedic and Shaiva Religion).
Thanks
Firstly, I'd like to contradict the author. History is important. Hinduism does deal with history too. Ramayana and Mahabharatha is nothing but history if you dont consider them a myth or a story weaving itself out of the sages heads. And we do learn a lot from our history. The great book we take oaths upon is a good part of mahabharatha itself. Without knowing history how would you say now with confidence about what you know. It is only that it's not a well documented history. I disagree to even give it a name. Sanathana Dharma is discovery of the present to give the religion an identity. It surely doesn't mean that I'm not proud of my heritage. Secondly, to the comments above. I'm sorry but there is nothing Sanathana about the Monolithic bashing That goes on here. Our history says our religion is an outcome of tolerance to a great level. There are Dvaitha and Advaitha, different sages writing scripts at different centuries which were included and debated upon. Spiritual debated were quite important and the winner's views were respected. Monolithic religions are no taboo. If we really know our history well we'll know where to take the good word from. I'm an avid reader of every religious book that I can lay my hands on and spent a lot of time trying to get the translations in an acceptable sense. But I'm not a proclaimer of religion. Spirituality was taught in those ages as a way of life. As far as I've read from the Bible Christ never asked anyone to follow a set of rules. He layed out a set of Godly characters which even Hinduism believes is Sathvika and asked people to follow. in the gospel of Mathew it's written: Jesus told his followers, ask me not what to wear and what to eat, for if you follow the word my Father will provide. May not be the exact word. But lets not go into semantics. I'm sure there are a lot of learned people here. I respect their knowledge but sometimes what we know may not be everything. Life is about learning and I'm never complete. As long as the word is good I'll keep my ears open for it.
most of the comment writers in this blog seems to be hurt in their past or someone have sown the seeds of hatred of other religion in their hearts than that they are practicing. of course we need to study our faith, but we need to implement in our lives the good virtues we learn for that we need to ask the help of our creator, cause we as human beings as weak as we are, try to rely on ourselves but we fall, but it is God who created us lifts us up and give us the courage to carry on doing good on this earth. what is more important is how much of sacrifice you can we do on this earth for our brothers and sisters, instead of seeking and seeking for ourselves. we need to be pure and holy instead of letting the greed, jealousy, hatred, selfishness, ruin our inner peace and true joy. we need to see the image of God into the eyes of our poor brothers and sisters who are struggling to come out of the evil, struggling in drunkardness, poverty, hatred, sickness, prostitution, etc.,we need to show them mercy, love and above all be able to give our life for them when needed, just like the christ in christanity did. different religions are created by man not God.
I agree with both gentlemen for their guiding comments. But would still like to say that it is a fact that Bhagvad dharma is the only dharma of whole mankind and there is not other dharma except it. Others are merely the definitions of this great dharma propounded by great personalities and saints at different points of time. This is the history and this is the truth. But to understand it, we are required to study and practice Bhagwad dharma in our personal lives. Bhagwad dharma is the only dharma of whole mankind.
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