Hinduism differs from the religions with which we are more familiar in having no historic founder- no Jesus, or Muhammad, or Buddha - and no fixed point in time at which it can be said to begin. It is neither Lord Shiva, nor Lord Krishna, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, who could be said to have founded Hinduism. Hindusim it is said, is like the Ganges, the great river which it holds especially sacred and celebrates as a goddess. Like the Ganges, it offers its benefits to all; children may splash and play in its shallows, and yet the boldest and most experienced swimmers cannot plumb its depths. Having her origin high among the snows of the Himalayan peaks - mountains have always symbolized high spiritual states - Ganga descends to the world of man and of everyday life, bringing her great flood of life-giving waters to the hot and dusty plains of northern India. As she progresses, tributaries, great and small streams which also have their beginnings high among the mountains, flow into her, swelling her volume and joining her in her progress to her ultimate home, the infinitude of the ocean.

So it is with Hinduism. Although we can trace its course very far - it is the oldest of the great religions - its ultimate origins lie beyond even the early Vedic period and too far back in time for us to discern. Even 11,000 yers ago, Devi or goddess worship, similar to the worship of goddess Saraswati or Goddess Lakshmi was already present. Rather than a single doctrine or a single system of worship it is a broad confluence of ideas and attitudes. As it progresses great tributary streams flow into it. Four are of especial importance: the ancient Yoga tradition with the Sankhya philosophy to which it is linked; the Vedanta, the 'way of knowledge', stemming from the Upanishadic sages; the great Bhakti or devotional movement; and finally the Tantric tradition [with its worship of Shakti and interwaeving the elephant cult of Lord Ganesha], with its emphasis upon the 'feminine' aspect of reality. These four elements, interacting with one another and woven together with the Vedic core, are the basis of Hinduism.

The knowledge that this spirit, which is essentially one, is in one's own and in all other bodies, is the great end, or true wisdom, of one who knows the unity and the true principles of things. As one diffusive air, passing through the perforations of a flute, is distinguished as the notes of the scale, so the nature of the great spirit is single, though its forms be manifold, arising from the consequences of acts. When the difference of the investing form, as that of god or the rest, is destroyed, then there is no distinction.

At a moment of great difficulty in the life of the West, Hinduism, along with the other great religions of the East, offers to Western man a way out of spiritual bankruptcy. The structures, both of Christianity in the West and of the Liberal Humanist creed which attempted to supplant it, have broken down, and the individual is left to wander in a darkening forest of moral and intellectual chaos. But without a coherent and comprehensive world-vi ew to guide us we cannot avoid SPrious errors, and life is largely wasted .

In this situation , Hinduism comes before us as an old and auth entic pa th , tested by many centuries of human experience. While recogni zing the importance ofreligious forms , it has not lost sight of their ultimately relative nature. While going far beyond anything th at reason can di scover for us, its various traditions recognize the claims of reason and are not generally in conflict with it. It offers a vision of man and of his possibilities far different from that to which we have become used:

'Heaven is that which delights the mind; hell is that which gives it pain', the Vishnu Purana tells us. It is a way which demands, not so much acts of faith, but a willingness to listen to the voices of the past, to think clearly about what is important in life, and finally, to make the effort to carry out in one's own life certain practical measures and to observe their result. Hinduism claims to provide systematic means of spiritual progress; methods which are testable. Only by embarking on a particular path and pursuing its methods, can its validity, and its suitability for the individual concerned, be discovered.

 

Other Links:
On Hindu Gods