Decoding Hinduism

By Edha Singh and Sam Verma

Disclaimer- The views expressed are our own, and do not represent TGP or any other body.

There’s been a resurgence in the desire to understand Hinduism led by authors like Devdutt Pattnaik and Shashi Tharoor. With multiple alternate tellings of age-old classics by Anand Neelkanthan and Amish Tripathi, the market of Hindu philosophy and epics has blown up and readers are lapping it up.

Yet there exists a stigma among the youth regarding Hinduism and a desire to shun it rather than try to understand it. In the pursuit of ‘coolness’, everyone is atheist and agnostic but not religious.

Especially in India, due to fake babas and pandits, there’s widespread distrust among the young towards religion. While justified, it is often seen that these very same people will go and accept the myths and cultures of other regions and prefer to preach practises from other cultures. It is clear as day that many young Indians are ashamed to categorise themselves as Hindus and we’re here to call you out on it.

To start off Hinduism is not a religion. It is a philosophy. The religion you’re thinking of is called Sanatan Dharma.

Hinduism has two sects- Astik and Nastik.

Astik philosophy is those based on Vedas and when loosely translated- it means theist philosophy. There are 6 Astik schools of thought- Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, Vedanta. Nastik philosophy is those that rejected the Vedas and caused the birth of new religious philosophies in India. These include- Buddhism, Jainism, Charvaka and Ajivika. The culmination of all philosophical theories from India is Hinduism so when we blatantly disregard and discount it as spurious it is comedically foolish and ignorant on our part.

While it may sound like a lecture and cringy, all modern philosophies have actually existed in Hinduism for years. We have all been propagators of the idea that western concepts seem cool until we realise they preexisted in our books.

More than that, those of us who think it's all ‘voodoo’ and doesn’t have a scientific base, well certain sects of Hinduism agree with you. Samkhya and Nyaya are the rationalists of Hinduism and desire for knowledge through proof.

In fact, Samkhyas are atheists, they do regard the Vedas as a source of knowledge but do not believe in supreme deities. For them metaphysical concepts are a little out there, because the knowledge used to derive it cannot be directly proven.

If you think consciousness is a new debate, well you’re wrong. Hinduism has been debating consciousness in the BCs and each school of thought provides compelling arguments for the mind-body duality and spirit-body consciousness. The Vedanta school has subsets of Advaita, Dvaita, etc. that have various views on duality and oneness. In fact, the Samkhya texts take a deep dive into the mind-brain duality and regard it as separate entities- Purusa and Prakriti.

source: wholio.net

All philosophies are the more digestible aspects of Hinduism, but the real hatred is for the practices of Sanatan dharma, a lot of which comes from the Vedas. The reason for Hinduism being shunned by youth is not only their fault. Shreekanth Sampigethaya is a practitioner of hinduism and well read in the field, according to him-

“It is a systematic progression of any religion over a period of time. Mostly Hinduism has become a set of rituals for which most of the practitioners cannot give a valid reason for their actions. Almost all the inquisitive questions brought by the youngsters are always given no reason or something that is not comprehensible. The biggest reason for that is most of the adults don’t know the real meaning of teachings or rituals. The only reason why anyone can condemn parts of Hinduism is because of not having the thorough understanding of it. One of the examples of this is the caste system which is brought many times. Caste system is never mentioned in the basic Hindu scriptures the Vedas, what is mentioned there is the Varna system which is only the color of your mind. One of the widespread misunderstanding about the religion is that ‘there is an exact definition about Hinduism. The Sanskrit word for Hinduism is ‘Sanatana Dharma’ which means dharma or duty of the present.What it means is it is applicable to anyplace at any time.

There are no strict guidelines which define the religion.”

Talking about the caste system, David Attenborough states that social hierarchy is seen in all animals and has been studied in primates extensively to understand the evolution of hierarchy.

Even lobsters have levels of hierarchy.

The infamous varnasrama-dharma, or the caste system is frequently criticised, when it is interpreted to be something it is not. The caste system was originally broken down into 4 tiers of functionality, the worker-type (skilled or unskilled), the merchant and business-type, the warrior and statesman-type, and the intellectual, priest or philosopher-type.

It is important to note that Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita states that different human types are not to be determined by birth, but by one's ability and bodily tendency. The modern caste system is a distortion of the original varnasrama-dharma social system of the Vedic tradition. This transition of a system built on logic to something restricting and illogical stems from the megalomania of the Brahmins, who used their power and social hierarchy to their advantage. This story is not one that is unique to the history of religion, in European history the Church gave direction and defined the moral and ethics. The king ruled and enforced. The merchants and farmers traded, grew food and generated trade and business and the artists, musicians, and creators of all kinds drove the cultural movements. It was only later when the Church grew corrupt and disrupted the social hierarchy. The same story has been told many times before, just worded differently.

source: cocktailzindagi.com

Certain things are common for all Indian religions like the concept of ringing bells. Gongs and bells are said to activate chakras. Modern lifestyle disregards the power of sound, but those vibrations can be influential. Even when you look at Aartis, they are meant to cleanse the soul. If you look carefully at the Ganga aarti you see them doing it in huge circles and slowly and this is to cleanse your aura and that of the area, not to worship the idol/deity.

The most common misunderstanding is that of menstruating women. Menstruating women are allowed to worship, they were not considered impure.

The texts say that a menstruating woman should not enter a temple. This was done as temples were built in high magnetic fields and it could mess the cycle of women and even affect pregnant women. Personal bias along with patriarchy changed the understanding of the texts and spread the idea of impurity.

In fact, there’s a temple dedicated to Kamakhya Devi where period blood is worshipped, which is clear hypocrisy, but not on the part of Hinduism, rather on the propagators part. When you look at Sabarimala, in the name of feminism women decided to enter a temple which banned women because it was made for male celibates. There are temples for females only such as Bhagati Maa ones. The issue is not with our texts, it is with the interpretation of them.

If all of these practises make no sense to you, despite their reasonings, that’s okay because Hinduism has something for you also. If you’re not spiritual and the whole energy or ritualistic aspect doesn’t make sense to you check out Charvaka which is the ancient Indian school of materialism and realism.

Charvakas believe that if you use inference to establish the truth, who must acknowledge that it is conditional. Hence, they are deniers of metaphysical concepts like reincarnation, heaven and hell, karma, etc.

While faith is the flag bearer of free-will, hard determinism is a concept philosophers have been writing about for years now. It is the denial of free will and hence the inability to pursue good/bad. Ajivikas believed in this and this was one of the main rivals to the Vedas. Their theories included that of atoms and their influence on cosmic forces. They did believe in the atman (soul) which is central to most philosophies in India.

One of the key concepts of Hinduism is reincarnation.

Samsara or Reincarnation is the belief that life is a continuous cycle and after death, the soul is reborn in a physical form; its next incarnation is always dependent on how the previous life was lived (Karma).

Moksha, another key concept is more layered. Moksha literally means freedom from samsara, but more commonly understood as salvation, moksha is the ultimate aim in life for Hindus as it is when they become one with Brahma, the creator.

Salvation and western concepts of nirvana both fall short of what it means. It is reaching a state of nothingness. It does not mean achieving eternal bliss and peace. Imagine it like reaching the state before the big bang, where nothing, not even time and space existed. Moksha is a concept that exists in not just Hinduism, but also Buddhism and although they have similar connotations, they’re not quite the same. Buddhism lacks the angle of God.(Side bar- For all you nihilists out there, Buddhism is the place to look. With the clear rejection of desire and the drilling in of suffering Buddhism established existential and moral nihilism back in 6 BCE.)

Until moksha is achieved, a Hindu believes that he/she will be repeatedly reincarnated in order that he/she may work towards self-realization of the truth and the truth being that only Brahman exists, nothing else. It is a paradox in the sense that overcoming desires also includes overcoming the desire for moksha itself.

People think that attaining Moksha is impossible and hence pointless. That's where they go wrong.

We do not know whether attaining Moksha is impossible, but the driving force of Moksha is to do good to others and oneself and to live a happy and satisfied life. Moksha is meant to be inculcated in one's life as a reminder, not as an ultimatum.

Dharma, interestingly, has no western equivalent, making it very hard to explain in English. Understanding the concept of dharma helps you understand the Hindu faith. It does not mean religion, instead in English it is generally understood as duty, right conduct, righteousness and moral law. It is the subtleties of the universe which bring order in place of chaos. Anyone who makes dharma central to one’s life strives to do the right thing, according to one’s duty and abilities, at all times. Each person’s dharma caters to their own individualism. Hindus want to end the cycle of samsara, and therefore they aim to make morally right decisions in order to achieve good karma.

People often mistake the twig of the tree for the great tree that Dharma is supposed to be. Over the centuries, the Hindu society has codified Dharma into various forms of neeti (Law) or reeti (Tradition) based on, perhaps, approaches that have worked in the past. This is where the mistake lies: Law and Tradition are later offshoots (twigs/branches) of Dharma, not its roots.

Dharma has always been rooted in compassion: all Laws and Tradition should thus stem from a place of compassion, any which do not cannot be said to be Dharmic because it no longer can be called the “right thing to do."

Given the current political climate, many Hindus have felt misunderstood and wrongly accused. In February an infographic got viral, making circles around the feeds of every other person. From Shashi Tharoor to Kunal Kamra, everyone advocated for it. The infographic differentiated between ‘Hinduism’- a religion, and ‘Hindutva’- an extremist Hindu ideology.

The opposite of Hinduism is not Islam, it is Hindutva.

Hindutva came into being in 1923. It was coined by V.D. in his text. For him, ‘Hindutva’ wasn’t the same as Hinduism. It had nothing to do with the practices and beliefs of the religion, but was only concerned with the political domination of the Hindus. Given this, it can be said that Hinduism and Hindutva are not the same, but they aren’t contradictory either. What Hinduism does in the social lives of the people, Hindutva does so in the political life. Hindutva is an ideology of Brahminical supremacy, and to achieve that goal, the best tool is to practice the religion of Hinduism.

It’s very easy to pass off the evils of Hinduism as ‘Hindutva’, but it is important to mention that Hindutva came into existence because of Hinduism, and it is sustaining, thriving, and growing because of it. Moreover, it is only when Hinduism is questioned that the narrative of ‘Hindutva’ is brought forward. Rarely will it be found that Hindutva is being talked about in isolation. This seems more like a tactic of shifting blames to diffuse accountability. It is important to note that Hindutvavadis do not follow any of the scripts of Hinduism, have not taken heed to understand the scripts and if they have read it, they've read it with bias. These texts are expansive and difficult to understand in one go and require time and introspection. They would not have the views they have today if they sincerely read the texts.

A young avid Hindu philosophy aficionado, Apurva told us,

"Hinduism, as it exists in its current form, is very toxic. So it's kind of expected that the youth doesn't care about it at all. In reality, it's a philosophy, a set of guiding principles to live life with. For me, it's all about the principles. The gods in fact are explicitly stated to just be figments of perception of human principles for easier understanding. My point is that there's a misunderstanding that it's all about religion and praying to God. It's not really that at all. I can't really talk about parts I condemn because as I keep going deeper into it I only believe in it more. To end, I'd encourage the youth to read old tests to get the essence to apply it in everyday life I don't think you should pray to God and to be honest I haven't done it in a while. It's much better to be mindful and meditate to have control over our lives that's what these virtues teach anyway- to focus on what you can control."

What is needed is for the people to call a spade a spade; for Hindus to acknowledge the evils of Hinduism in order to stop the government from creating a framework that legally sanctions discrimination. The presentism debate will go on, but as humanity progresses it is important to understand that some things like the caste system, whether or not it was mentioned in the texts, is attributed to Hinduism, and that does not make it right. Everything has its pros and cons.

Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world and has been around for millennials and the way we interpret its teachings and texts should evolve with the times.

There is nothing wrong in acknowledging when something is wrong. We ourselves acknowledge that we cannot justify everything within Hinduism and take things with a grain of salt for a lot of it has been skewed due to personal bias and propaganda. What we do encourage is for you to stop looking at Hinduism as an absolute religion and understand it as multiple ways of life. It is up to you to decide what appeals to you and what doesn't.