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Hinduism - An Introduction

Hinduism denotes the various religious beliefs and practices now prevalent in India. It differs from Vedism and Brahmanism in being more vague and comprehensive. Vedism and Brahmanism were the ancient religions of the Aryans, as contained in the Vedas and Brahmanas, in contradistinction to the religions of the aboriginal inhabitants. Hinduism comprises the religions of to-day, which are neither Vedic nor aboriginal, but a fusion of corrupt Vedic doctrines with aboriginal non-Aryan cults. Its literature is not the Veda, but the epic poems, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and the more recent Puranas.

It is impossible to define Hinduism owing to the bewildering diversity of beliefs and practices among the multiplicity of sects, for they are frequently contradictory as well as irreconcilable. The Hindu mind possesses a wonderful elastic faculty for religious adaptation, as well as a marvellous capacity for assimilating the most astounding differences. Hinduism is preeminently the religion of India.

Hindu life is looked upon as a rite; there is no absolute dividing line between the sacred and the profane. Hindu civilization got its name in ancient times following the name of the river Sindhu (now Indus) were civilization settled. With this, Hindu and Hinduism had initially a geographical, not a religious foundation. Hinduism was born in a country of diverse peoples and cults, and it sought to accommodate itself to the different beliefs by assimilating from all the creeds, even from the aboriginal as well as from the contemporary and hence the amorphous and anomalous system of this heterogeneous system of religion, with its many absurd practices.

Hinduism has flourished for so many centuries, and continues its sway in spite of the lack of any organized and centralized authoritative ecclesiastical head. There have been no great and ecumenical councils to operate through subordinate councils, and there have been no popes nor patriarchs with unlimited delegated powers. There has been no thorough system of organization that extended its ramifications throughout every city and village of India, and which made every priest amenable to his superior, and he in turn to the one above him, until the pope himself was reached. There is no such system of authority that controls Hinduism, and yet there are certain inherent and dominant elements that prevail for the enforcement of certain essentials in that religion.

With all their difference of race, language, belief and social standing, there are certain marked characteristics of faith and practice that may be regarded as essentials. In brief, they may be said to recognize the Brahmanical supremacy and the rigid observance of the laws respecting caste, and they also believe in Karma and the transmigration of souls, and pay a proper worship to their respective gods. Their household god is worshipped daily by libations of water and floral offerings, but there is no weekly worship in the temples corresponding with that which is observed in the Christian churches, but only an occasional religious observance at the temples during the great festivals, when offerings are made to the idols and alms bestowed on priests and mendicants.

The superiority of the Brahmans is the hinge on which the whole social organization turns. They form the great central body around which all other classes and orders of beings revolve like satellites. Not only are they invested with divine dignity, but they are bound together by the most stringent rules, while the other castes are separated from them and from each other by insurmountable barriers. The doctrine of Manu was that the deity created distinct kinds of men, as he created varieties of animals and plants; and that Brahmans, soldiers (Kshatriyas), agriculturists (Vaisyas), and servants (Sudras) were born and must remain from birth to death as distinct from each other as elephants, lions, oxen, and dogs, wheat, barley, rice, and beans. A Brahman, however, could have four wives, and marry a woman belonging to any of the three lower castes. Inter-marriage could also take place between mem bers of all the four classes, or, again, between the castes which resulted from such intercourse. Hence arose an almost endless number of mixed castes, every one of which is theoretically restricted to its own occupation and bound by its own rules.

So long, then, as a man holds to the rules laid down by the ancient law-givers and assents to the great Vedanta doctrine that the one all-pervading impersonal Spirit Brahma underlies everything in existence, and that the spirit of man is identical with that Spirit, he is at liberty to hold any other religious opinions he likes, and may even assent to the truths of Christianity. Perfection is attained by him alone who is a strict observer of the duties of his caste and accepts the above doctrine. Those Brahmans who are sound in the faith with regard to Brahma, and are obedient to Brahmanical caste-law and tradition (smriti), especially as handed down by the great Vedantist Sankarac'arya, are called Smartas. Such is Brahmanism — such is the creed, which, as it has no one special founder, is called 'the system of law and religion prevalent among the Aryas' (Aryadharma).

If a Hindu be asked to name his sacred writings, he would probably give them in this order: First in importance the Four Vedas; the Upanishads; then the eighteen Puranas; the two great Epic Poems—the Ramayana and the Mahabharata; the Institutes of Manu, the great law-giver; the Tantras; and to these must be added another class of writings, the Six Darsanas, or philosophical systems.

Sacred Scriptures exercise a tremendous influence over their lives and while the Vedas, and certain writings that were once of supreme authority among the people of India, are now seldom referred to, there are others that control the minds of the countless millions, the most popular of which are the famous epics, Ramayana, and the Mahabharata, the favourite portion of the latter being the Bhagavid Gita.

The climax of the philosophy of Hinduism is reached in the doctrine of Karma and the transmigration of souls. According to the teaching of Hinduism all suffering is penal and the consequence of wrong-doing in a previous existence. While this dogma may be losing its hold upon many of the people, especially among the educated class, all recognize the inflexible and relentless law of Karma from which there is no escape, but each one must reap what he has sown, and neither God nor demon can interpose to prevent or mitigate the full measure of the penalty imposed in accordance with the deeds committed in the body.