There is ONE omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient Ultimate Reality that is simultaneously:
a. Transcendent, as in Abrahamic religions; AND
b. Immanent, whereby the universe is the manifestation of the Ultimate Reality – the body of God. (Yet God remains transcendent and unchanged at the same time.) The relationship between 'a' and 'b' has been the basis of multiple Hindu worldviews. Compared to the Christian notion of immanence, there are important differences:
- In Hinduism, the Ultimate Reality and its body (the universe) are with no beginning. This manifestation is cyclical: a universe comes into being and passes away according to a regular pattern, like inhalation and exhalation. In Christianity, there was one unique Creation (with a capital 'C') with nothing prior to it.
- In Christianity, the created universe is separate from God and has its own self-existence. In materialistic science, creation is a 'big bang' out of nothing. In contrast to both these worldviews, in Hinduism the universe is a manifestation of, and form of, the Ultimate Reality. It arises out of the being of the Ultimate Reality, not for any reason, but as a natural process simply because this is the nature of Reality; it is maintained for a while as the form of the Ultimate Reality; and then dissolves back into the unmanifest state within the Ultimate Reality. There it lies dormant in potential form until it emerges again at the commencement of another cycle.
- In Christianity, God was not immanent in the universe prior to Jesus, and the unique significance of Jesus is that his historical arrival turned the universe into the Body of Christ, i.e. made God immanent. In Hinduism, immanence is the very nature of Reality and not the result of a historical event. This is why Hindus can and do accept Jesus as God's intervention, but (i) not historically unique, and (ii) nor one that changed the nature of Reality. (See 4a)
In mainstream Judaism and Islam, God is transcendent but not immanent. There have been popular claims that Sufism is non-dualistic and hence consistent with immanence, but this needs to be qualified in two ways: (i) Sufism has been a very tiny percentage of Islam throughout Islam's history. (ii) Even more importantly, Sufis experience union with God but clarify when asked that this is not an ontological unity and merely a temporary experience of unity. Mainstream Islam considers claims of ontological oneness with God as blasphemy.
Religions believing in God's transcendence only do not consider images of God as legitimate, while religions that believe in God's immanence regard images as central to their practice. Hinduism is both. The Ultimate Reality may be represented in many ways, theistic and non-theistic, and accessed through many paths. The theistic representations are conceptualized and worshipped in many ways. Yet all theistic and non-theistic representations are mental images of the Ultimate Reality apart from which there is nothing else. All paths lead to the Ultimate Reality. Thus Hinduism is pluralistic, but not polytheistic. Each representation by humans is merely an approximation, and helps humans to perceive the transcendent Ultimate Reality through their limited senses and mind.
Hindu theism is capable of being understood through either gender. It has both the Fatherhood and the Motherhood of God. Only within the Hindu traditions is there such an elaborate theology worked out on the conception of the Supreme as God-as-She. She is not the mother of God, but Mother God! (See 4d.)
The ultimate Reality communicates with humanity in many ways, including:
a. By entering the world: Manifesting as personified incarnations called avatars in some Hindu theologies. This allows Hindus to accept Jesus within their system, but NOT as the exclusive avatar. Rama and Krishna are the two most commonly worshipped avatars.
b. By sending messages: Sages and saints (who are not avatars) are ecstatic humans with a transformed consciousness, and receive messages of inspiration from God. (Imagine a radio station perpetually broadcasting divine inspiration, and sages are specially tuned receivers capable of experiencing the inspiration.) They are capable of facilitating a transformation of others through transmission of grace.
c. Rare human potential to rise into the Ultimate Reality: While (a) and (b) are 'top down' communications initiated by the Supreme, every human also has the potential to attain an extraordinary state known as the 'rishi' state, through spiritual meditation and esoteric practices.
- A rishi (seer) is in a state of non-difference with God, and the limits of human representation mentioned in paragraph 2 are transcended.
- Yoga's very fine and subtle physiology and psychology are discoveries in the clear mind of the rishi state, which alone can understand trans-personal (and therefore trans-psychological) reality.
- A rishi teaches the first principles of truth from direct experience. But given the conceptual nature of language, his disciples receive his teachings in their own relative contextual framework. Buddhism and Jainism, while not using theistic language, are based on similar notions of jina, arahat, and bodhisattva.
d. As the forces of nature: In the Vedas, "Ekam sad vipra bahuda vadanti" refers to the many deities as the attributes of the One Reality. These represent various cosmic processes and energies, and are vehicles leading to the Ultimate Reality. They are not Gods and Goddesses in the western sense.
- These cosmic processes and energies are either feminine devis (such as Lakshmi, Durga, etc.) or masculine devas (such as Agni, Vayu, etc.). They are loosely translated as 'gods' or 'goddesses'.
- All goddesses are forms of the one Goddess, each form being one aspect of her.
- The Goddess is not subservient to God but is God herself in the form of 'shakti' (energy), and hence a devotee's direct link to the Ultimate Reality. Devi is simply the feminine equivalent of Deva, and not a derivate as 'goddess' is to 'god'.
Hinduism is perennial dharma, which is an abstract concept of an ever evolving engagement with Ultimate Reality:
a. Religious history is therefore not critical, and hence not the nexus for religious truth or serious contention. You can be a perfect Hindu without knowing or believing in any historical event whatsoever, or in any theory of history.
b. Modern Hinduism, is a temporal enactment or version of this evolving engagement with Reality.
c. Hinduism has no limit to the number of historical engagements of God with humanity via avatars, prophets, and rishis. Hence, there is no privileged tribe, culture, place or time for such communication from God. God is a very prolific communicator, very accessible, and did not grant anyone the exclusive franchise to represent him.
Hinduism is inherently pluralistic within itself, and its lack of hard-edged identity keeps it alive for fresh interpretation and regeneration. At the same time, without doubt, diverse practitioners think of themselves as Hindus, and its variety of ideas can be seen as part of a coherent tapestry:
a. Numerous incarnations, prophets, saints, and spiritual methods have emerged over several millennia.
b. Rather than one absolute book, Hinduism therefore has a library of scriptures of enormous diversity (with thousands of texts), each documenting the spiritual experiences in some context. It is an open rather than a closed body of knowledge, in that there is no finality and completeness of knowledge expressible in human language, thereby giving room for new ideas and experience.
c. Hinduism does not have one church, one pontiff or one central authority. Its knowledge is classified into 'shruti' (revealed knowledge), 'mat' (opinion or theory) 'vad' (argument or view) 'siddhanta' (proven theory), 'shastras' (systems of thought or well-established view points to guide us), and 'smriti' (sociological constructions).
d. A Hindu is free to pick and choose, and to adapt these ideas and practices.
e. Hinduism's spiritual know how is cumulative, as an encyclopedia, as opposed to substitutive: new revelations and spiritual discoveries get added, but previous ones do not get eradicated.
f. Hindu texts include the empirical experiences of the rishis, with centuries of peer debates and cross fertilization amongst hundreds of sects. This confluence included Hindus, Buddhists, Jainas, and Sikhs. Pluralism was the accepted norm.
g. There are hundreds of religious sub-groups within Hinduism. Had Jesus been born in India, he would have been assimilated as another great avatar, along with Rama, Krishna and others. Already, Jesus is often included in the Hindu pantheon of 'gods' and worshipped in many temples.
h. The immense variety of yoga signifies that different people need different paths and practices. For the Hindus, to say 'One Lord, one church, one way', is excessively and somewhat naively exclusivist, as to try to fit every person into the same size shirt is to ignore the human situation.
The nature of the individual is seen as follows:
a. Each individual, including every sentient being, is in a relation to God as a drop is to the ocean. All these drops are part of one coherent divine play/dance called 'leela'.
b. Karma is the ethical framework of responsibility and accountability of one's choices made under a system of free will. Karma is not fatalism, but a system of merit-based consequences.
c. Reincarnation is the system of rebirth into another life, based on one's cumulative karma. This explains why different persons are born into different circumstances – it is not God playing dice or arbitrarily assigning fate. In practice, karma theory's main use is not as an explanatory model for present circumstances, but as a guide to good action.
d. As the consequences of one's karma get played out, the karma gets erased, but the record gets replenished with fresh karma being accumulated since the individual is always making choices.
e. There are infinitely many individual 'souls' in the dance, each making free choices and receiving the consequences.
f. Liberation is the state of freedom in which the very entity accumulating karma and bound by its causation radically transforms/dissolves, and the 'individual' is non-different than the Ultimate Reality. Heaven is therefore not a physical place but such a state of existence.
Hinduism is based on original purity rather than original sin. There is no Devil or Hell in Hinduism, and the notion of evil is as follows:
a. Evil forces are also part of the same cosmic dance, as there cannot be a separate reality or any realm 'outside' of the all inclusive Ultimate Reality.
b. As the source of suffering, evil is personified as asura, rakshasa, etc. It is not Devil or Satan in the Abrahamic sense, but a multitude of powerful intelligences capable of wreaking great harm, for in reality, evil is all around us in different shapes and forms. More importantly, in the Hindu world view, these tendencies are also present within each of us. We must recognize this evil potential within, learn to control it and deal with it, and eventually to transform it – and this is the purpose of yoga or inner alchemy. There has been no Inquisition or witch hunting in the Hindu world, as evil cannot be externalized and sent into exile away from 'us' to 'them'.
c. Heaven and Hell are states of existence within reality itself, pictured as complex transcendental realms called svarga and naraka, respectively:
- Stay in svarga or in naraka is temporary. Heaven is a place of rest and recuperation, not our final destination; after exhausting our good karmas, we return to earth to strive once again. Hell, likewise, is a place of torment or suffering for those who do evil, but they too eventually return to earth. There's no eternal hell or heaven, and the time span in either experience can vary from brief to extremely long.
- There are many kinds of heavens and hells, these realms being known as lokas. These correspond to our own psyches. In other words, there are as many lokas as there are states of mind! Each deity has his/her own heaven where they live with their devotees – vaikuntha, kailasa, etc.
- Earth is the unique evolutionary realm, where we take birth out of our own volition for our spiritual growth and eventual enlightenment. Ultimately, we realize a state of non-difference with Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, from which all have sprung and unto which all return.
Hindu practices are very diverse, eclectic, and adaptable by communities, families, and individuals, and for specific circumstances:
a. Hinduism organizes the pursuits in life into four categories, and prescribes ethics for each:
- Dharma – righteous and ethical living, including one's relationships with family, society, and ecology.
- Artha – material wealth and prosperity by ethical means.
- Kama – fulfillment of desires.
- Moksha – self-realization and liberation.
b. Numerous technologies of inner transformation or alchemy include a variety of meditation, yoga, and tantra techniques, whose object is to accelerate spiritual growth. Yoga is a spiritual practice wherein all the deities are internalized, and not just a mind-body fitness fad. Many westerners do not know that Dhyana, a technique within yoga, is called Zen in Japanese.
c. Human-like images can be used to represent deities. These are images and not 'idols'. Images are akin to an artist's rendering of an abstract idea, and hence the same idea may be represented in thousands of variations.
d. A given deity or divine power may also be accessed via images that are not personified, as in geometric diagrams, or without any images at all, as practiced by certain sects.
e. Besides visuals, divine powers may also be accessed through sacred sounds called mantras. AUM is the primordial mantra on which all others are built.
f. Rituals are a form of sacred theater. All five senses are used in the performance, including visual objects, sounds, fragrances, actions and touch, and taste.
g. A ritual may engage various levels of being, from devotional emotion, to intellectual commitment and reinforcement of concepts, to paranormal access of higher intelligences.
h. Pooja is a common kind of ritual, which is a form of guided imagery where devotees imagine that they have invited their ishta deva in front of them and they are treating their ishta deva as an honored guest with utmost love and devotion.
i. Prayer in the same style and sense as is performed in Abrahamic religions has also been a common practice in Hinduism. Prayer may be individual or collective as a group. Prayer may be either direct with God, or via a deity. It may be at home or in a temple.
j. Most Hindus believe in a direct private communion with their chosen representation of God ('ishta deva'), i.e. without any intermediary, in an atmosphere of perfect peace and tranquility. For this, most Hindu families set aside a place in their home for daily worship. Hence, there is no requirement to join a religious institution. Most Hindus are not formal members of any religious organization.
k. Sanskrit is considered to have arisen from the Ultimate Reality, so that each sound in its alphabet corresponds to a specific divine intelligence/energy. Indian Music is sacred and in accordance with principles of 'sonic theology'. Indian Dance is sacred and in accordance with a grammar of movements.
l. Despite the plethora of images, Hinduism is not polytheistic, but respects poly-representation.
Hindus look upon nature as sacred, honoring the rivers and mountains as homes of deities. They stress the protection of Mother Earth, which they worship as a Goddess. Hindu scriptures prescribe vegetarianism and protection of all forms of life, including animals and trees. Hinduism classifies food as satvic, rajasic and Tamasic. Satvic (pure), which is conducive to health, peace and spirituality, is essentially vegetarian, including milk which is the first food of humans. Rivers, forests and cows are held to require special protection because of their importance in sustaining life on Mother Earth. Hindus believe that animals too have a soul.
From Rita D. Sherma, "Hinduism in an Era of Globalization," U.U.C.P., 2002:
a. Marriage and Kinship: Matrimony is not intended as a relationship between two individuals in an isolated partnership, but is also the birth of a new social unit in the bedrock of community. The kinship networks on both sides of the family provide a support structure for the new couple, as their family grows, in terms of physical, emotional, and financial assistance. Marriage is not a severance from family but a strengthening and extension of relations.
b. Mutual Protection between Husband and Wife: Contrary to western scholars' "domination/subservience" model, the tradition is that of mutual protection where the "providence and physical protection" by the man is complemented by the "nurturing and spiritual protection" by the woman. She has agency as the spiritual protector of the family, and accesses the forces of the sacred realms by her meditations, vrats, and prayers.
c. Power versus Authority: In non-Abrahamic 'indigenous' societies, domestic rituals have as much or more power as public displays, because they are more familial and relational rather than triumphalist and expansionist. Hence, one must differentiate agency between the wielding of authority publicly versus the exercise of power privately. Due to the power attributed to domestic rites, worship, and the nurturing role of women, they enjoy significant internal power. Hindu women have considerable power inherent in spiritual leadership in terms of familial rites of worship.
d. Respect and Care: Hinduism is often stereotyped for caste hierarchy, but the benevolent hierarchy of kinship systems is often ignored. Hinduism has a reciprocity of respect and care based on the elder-younger bond. In any sibling, in-law, or ancestor-descendent relationship, the elder-younger hierarchy bestows the mantle of responsibility on the elder but also the right to respect from the younger. The young have the right to support and assistance, but it is incumbent on them to seek guidance and offer respect. Rights and responsibilities are balanced. Hindu history has largely avoided the fratricides and public family feuds found in other ancient cultures.
e. Stability not Expansion: Unlike religious and secular cultures that focus on unbridled expansion and increase of goods, territory, and souls market-share, Hindu culture emphasizes maintenance of economic harmony and stability in society. As a result, the history of India, unfortunately, is littered with the debris of plunder and occupation by foreign invaders. However, today the future prospects for humanity lie not in endless economic expansion with the attendant ravaging of the natural world, or the extinction of diverse cultures due to the proliferation of one global culture. The Hindu preference for balanced maintenance could provide an ideological counterpoint for the unsustainable economic and social theories of the current paradigm.
There is no comprehensive Hindu scriptural theory of who 'others' are, and this has been called the 'xenological passivity' of Hindu culture.
a. Scriptures make few statements about non Hindus, thereby giving Hindus flexibility to construct positions about non-Hindus based on each context.
b. There is no requirement to proselytize.
c. There is no doctrine to kill those who differ in their religious views.
d. There is no teaching to destroy others' places of worship, or to denigrate them as damned or evil or less spiritual, or to impose punishments or taxation of any kind upon them for their religious beliefs.
e. Hinduism is not a predatory religion believing in triumph over others – it has a 'live and let live' philosophy.
f. It is not surprising, but often ignored in modern portrayals, that Hindus gave sanctuary to early Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians who had to flee their homelands due to persecution:
- The Thomas Christians of South India claim their origins back to St. Thomas' arrival in India, and have a place of respect and honor in India's pluralism.
- The oldest continuously operating Jewish synagogue in the world is in South India.
- Zoroastrianism was a major world religion in and around Persia until the arrival of Islam. Fleeing Zoroastrians received refuge in India, and India is the only place in the world where they survive today. Many of India's top industrialists, public officials and professionals are Zoroastrians. US based Zubin Mehta is an example of an Indian Zoroastrian.
a. Hinduism approaches the Ultimate through an immense variety of forms of theology, scripture, mythology, music, rituals and arts of all kind. However, it needs to be stressed that for the Hindus no form, however sacred and exalted, can contain the Ultimate or exhaust It. To some extent it is a bit like one of the Ten Commandments that thou shall not make graven images of thy God.
b. But Jews, Christians and Muslims do make graven images of the Bible or the Quran or Jesus or Mary, and of various commercial brands, logos and icons of society that often function as 'gods'. Yet their ideologies promote the destruction of other peoples' images.
c. On the other hand, since no form will ultimately do for the Hindus, they therefore invite all forms as context-dependent approximations. Another consequence of this attitude is an immense tolerance for everybody's forms and images, gods and theologies.
d. Abrahamic Monotheism has been regarded by Western scholars as the pinnacle of religious ideas. But psychologically and historically, mono-theism usually leads to my-theism, and hardly ever to inclusive compassion.
e. Monotheism understood in the sense of an Ultimate Oneness is very much a Hindu idea. But western history is dominated by theologies which championed the use of monotheism as an intellectual weapon to convert or kill all those who did not believe in their exclusive theory of history and conception of God. Western portrayals often proclaim this as superiority of civilization.
a. Karma theory says that one will face consequences of one's actions no matter what. Rebirth theory says that one's negative sanskaras (impressions) will carry forward even beyond this life.
b. The interwoven and collective nature of all existence in the Hindu worldview means that there is no 'us' separable from 'them'. Hence, whatever we do to 'them' will also come back to haunt 'us' sooner or later in this world itself, be it this life or a future one. Since there is no Devil separable from everything else, and the nature of evil cannot be ontologically separated and exiled to some 'other' realm. Evil is within us, and needs to be conquered internally – individually and by communities and nations within themselves.
c. In the dharma, there is no call to conquer others in God's name, or to plunder or enslave them under any pretext whatsoever. There is no reward for killing others that awaits so-called 'holy warriors' in any 'heaven'. Saints in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism were NOT martyrs!
d. Yoga is the inner science of alchemy for permanent transformation of the mind-body complex, and not mainly for temporary 'experiences' of psychedelic special effects. What world civilization needs today but lacks is yoga at the grass roots, including in all schools and workplaces. This must augment or even replace organized religions in which the main focus has been to 'believe' in some exclusivist theory of history, as though belief in historical events will do the trick. Without inner transformation on a massive scale (for which yoga is required), no amount of punishing the bad guys will have any long term positive effect.
e. The two most critical watershed events in human history were: (a) Indian emperor Ashoka won a bloody war, and the experience turned him into a Buddhist ruler who then promoted non violence and inner transformation. (b) By contrast, Roman Emperor Constantine (mis)appropriated Christianity into a state religion for imperial conquest - turning the cross into a sword! Islamic ideology of jihad is said to have been inspired by this precedence for just and holy wars. The Islamic conquest of India starting in the 7th century was far more ruthless and bloody than the present Taliban's actions. The archetype of the Taliban is therefore centuries old, even though it arrived on American soil only recently.
f. The bottom line is: Gandhi's methods of struggle should be the role model for humanity, rather than aggression of any kind. The collective human consciousness needs collective healing, which cannot happen as long as there is exclusivism and certain religions view others as competitors for market share.
a. Proselytizing has divided humanity's faiths into competing camps fighting for power and hegemony. Religious exclusivism turns into chauvinism, and this has historically become a doctrine of imposing one's ideology under the pretext of 'saving others from their own traditions'. Mono-theism has thus become My-theism.
b. Islamic fundamentalism is merely an extreme case of such exclusivism and aggressiveness.
c. It is very important to stop all proselytizing, which has turned humanity against itself. For there cannot be double standards: they cannot preach love of all in front of the public as a politically correct PR posture; and yet portray others as being 'condemned', 'damned', and in need of being 'saved' from their own dharmas and traditions. Proselytizing should be deemed a form of hate speech and a form of intellectual holy war against fellow humans.
d. The main battle in India's religious landscape is over foreign sponsored Christian proselytizing and the resulting counter-reactions by Hindus that are equally bad. Each time someone has asked for a public declaration to stop all proselytizing, or even to have a temporary ceasefire to give dialog a chance, Christian leaders have flat out refused. They aggressively assert this as a 'right' they have. For a Hindu to oppose proselytizing is to run the risk of being branded 'fundamentalist', ironically by those who preach an exclusivist religion.
e. The US Federal Commission on Religious Freedom holds hearings where proselytizers get to attack cultures that resist.
f. While many liberal Christians express sympathy for religious diversity, and many feel that Jesus would not be proselytizing today if he were in the world, Hindus wonder why there is no movement by Christians to convince their own leaders.
g. In November, 2001, in New Delhi a world conference on Preservation of Religious Diversity is planned. Religious leaders from Shamans, Buddhism of many kinds, many Hindu sects, Sikhs, Jains, African native elders, Native American elders, European Pagans, etc. are coming together to sign a resolution against all Proselytizing. Unfortunately, Christian churches don't want to support this initiative.
a. There are up to 20 million Americans practicing yoga, meditation, vegetarianism, and other Hindu practices, with varying degrees of awareness and acknowledgment that these are Hindu per se. This movement is the nexus of the mind-body holistic healing trend of today. America's spirituality and the new worldviews espoused by scientists and philosophers have been deeply effected by Hindu-Buddhist ideas and practices.
b. Hinduism influenced the American Transcendentalists (including Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, and Eliot), the Beats, the new age pop culture, and women's fashions, and has thereby impacted mainstream American culture.
c. Gandhi's influence led to the peaceful revolutions by Martin Luther King in the US, Lech Walesa in Poland against communism, the anti-apartheid revolution of South Africa, and now the Tibet freedom movement of the Dalai Lama. These have transformed the world in the post-colonial era.
d. The 1.6 million Indian Americans are upwardly mobile, growing in their contributions to their nation of adoption in many walks of life, and hence exerting their influence upon it.
Issues of representation that are of concern to many Hindu Americans:
a. Academic scholars of religion reduce Hinduism into exotica and anthropology, a portrayal depicting backwardness in need of western cures.
b. Psychology scholars have been appropriating meditation, kundalini, tantra and related Hindu-Buddhist ideas, repackaging them into 'new age' and western representations, while letting the traditions' roots die out. Adept yogis/meditators are often reduced to laboratory subjects in the same manner as laboratory rats, when in fact they deserve to be respected as co-scientists and co-investigators of the inner realm.
c. The western academy of philosophers has largely boycott non western philosophies, and many openly proclaim that there is no such thing as non western philosophy.
d. Anthropologists have positioned the Indians being studied as 'native informants' in an asymmetric relationship. They always select poor, illiterate villagers, claiming them to be more 'real Indians' and/or more 'interesting'. Given the power imbalance, often these native informants supply the data that is expected of them to fit into the western scholars' paradigm, and the representation tends to be that of a primitive people as compared to the superior, 'rational' west.
e. India's own Macaulayite elitist intellectuals have often sold out their traditions, rather than championing the revival and proper place of these traditions for the benefit of all humanity.