Salient Aspects of Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma)

The word 'Hindu' or 'Hinduism' is more modern than ancient. The word 'Religion' is based on a Latin word 'religare' which means 'to bind'. The only issue here is that, in Hinduism, there is no such thing to bind with and there is no emphasis that every Hindu has to follow certain rules to be a Hindu.  For the sake of simplicity, we can bind it with beliefs. Hinduism is a logical thought that one has to understand, contemplate and experience the way of life. This power of understanding is with every human and to become a good 'Hindu', one has to understand the salient aspects of Hinduism. There needs to be clarity on these salient aspects for every person. With clarity, you will get the belief. With clarity and belief, there is faith. With clarity, belief and faith, you will be sure that what hinduism is talking about.


Essential Aspects:

1. Vedas are the source of knowledge.
2. Doctrine of Reincarnation.
3. One Reality, Many Paths.
4. Doctrine of Incarnation.
5. Doctrine of Mental Shades and Stages.

Vedas:

Vedas were not written by any one person but these are sruti's (that which is heard) or revelations to Rishis. These are the texts that were preserved since ages immemorial.

There are fourteen aspects of Indian Knowledge System.

Vedas - Rig, Yajur, Sama, Atharva
Vedangas - Siksha (Science of Pronounciation), Kalpa (Science of Action / Rituals, Vyakarana 
                 (Science of Grammer), Niruktha (Science of Etymology), Chandas (Poetry), Jyotisha          
                 (Astronomy and Astrology)
Puranas
Nyaya
Mimansa (Purva Mimansa and Uttara Mimamsa)
Dharma Sastra (Science of living)


Doctrine of Reincarnation:

Energy or Matter can neither be destroyed nor created but it can only be transformed from one form to another. Mind (Emotions, Thoughts, Intellect etc) is considered as a subtle matter unlike body, which dies. There are several other explanations why Mind is not a epiphenomenon created by Brain rather Mind uses Brain as an expression. Consciousness shines on the mind (thoughts etc.,) and thus giving us the awareness. After death, Mind survives and Body dies and is destroyed. Mind takes new form or embodiment. This is the reason of incarnation and more logical explanation of a belief.

One Reality, Many Paths:


Each of our mind is very different and we all have different interests. When we have freedom to think, we approach a problem or an issue differently. The goal is same but approach is different. There is no one way to realize the transcendental reality or truth or dharma. This is the reason why Hinduism has different gods and different ways of realizing the truth. Hinduism embraces all religions in this world except that it doesn't believe in 'this alone approach' rather it believes in 'it is another way'. There is a beautiful sanskrit verse - "Aakasa Tatpitam Toyam, Yadha Gacchati Sagaram" which means that rain water from the sky falls down into rivers and rivers lead into ocean, thus, different streams leading into one.

Doctrine of Incarnation:

God comes down (avatar) as a human anywhere in this world to take action when there is a massive imbalance in Dharma (The word 'Dharma' in Sanskrit has various meanings and it has to be understood based on the context). Mankind needs to follow 'Dharma' (here it is righteousness). If there is misinterpretation or misrepresentation of facts by taking scriptures in a out of context way, for their own selfish gains, there will be imbalance. I believe, this is what is happening now in this world. For example, if an issue arises anywhere ,say home or in the corporate world or in an organization or in the country, decision making is escalated to the leader. There will be a time, when god or truth has to take an avatar, when leaders themselves fail and chaos or imbalance exists in this world. This is incarnation. Incarnation happened many times in this world for various reasons. For Eg. Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Mohammed can all be considered as Avatars.


Doctrine of Mental Shades and Stages:

Varna in Sanskrit means Color and different stages of life is called 'Ashrama' in Sanskrit. Unfortunately, this color got misinterpreted and is misused in India and around the world. The feeling of superiority arose among some sections of the people who are predominantly white, pushing the ethics to a corner. In India, I experienced and still see this superiority complex based on color. It is a pity this still exists. Let us talk about the Varna aspect in Hinduism. Varna is our inner mental color and not external color. The shades of mind or color is of three types

Satva (Serenity) - Calmness, Intellect
Rajas (Dynamism) - Action, Brave
Tamas (Inertia) - Dullness, Laziness.

Every person in this world have different proportions of mental shades and no person in this world is misfit. Many people misinterpreted words in Gita "catur-varnyam maya srstam
guna-karma-vibhagasah" for selfish ends and it is sad that we still have this vertical caste system. Why people or administrators never took this wordings positively? Why the rulers have to malign it?  From our experience, we can see that in a family, not everyone has same intellect, same braveness and same dullness. This is what, Sri Krishna talks about varna. Varna is not by birth.

1. If Serenity is high, Dynamism is low, Inertia is low - Such people can be Thinkers, Teachers, Visionaries, Discoverers etc.,   (Bramhins)

2. If Dynamism is more, Serenity is less, Inertia is low - Such people can be Managers, Leaders, Administrators etc.,   (Kshetriyas)

3. If Dynamism is more, Inertia is greater than serenity - Such people excel in business. (Vaishyas)

4. If Inertia is highest, followed by dynamism and Serenity - Such People are capable of executing things when you guide them. (Shudras)

This classification based on Guna (qualities) and attributed work exists in every part of the world, ancient and modern. But, the caste system, killed it all. People were misled, divided and maligned by misinterpreting what Gita said.

In a family, we can have a Bramhin, Kshetriya, Vaishya and Shudra. No one should be left behind and we need all natures.

Different Stages of life is called Asrama.

BramhaCharya - Study (Student Life)

Gruhasta   - Serve and Work (Household and Community)

Vanaprastha - Semi Retired Life (Focus on deeper aspects of life)

Sanyasa   - Retired or Renounced Life (Focus on Ultimate Truth)

Hinduism says to do your duty as per the stage of your life. It is natural that some realize the later stages very early in their life.

Let us teach our children positivity from any scripture and try our best to correct this. Choose your work based on our mental shade. The clarity of what work best suites us comes naturally at a certain point in our life and until then do your present duty. 

(Source: Some quotes are from my notes on Swami Advayananda lectures)

PS: Highest authoritative sources of Hinduism might have meant differently when they say that Varna is by birth. Caste and Castism is not by birth and rather, it was created by the ego of man.  Varna (inner color) is by birth. We all should remember that in order to build a society, there needs to be team work from different shades. Everybody can't do everything and we need work from different sources of sociecty to have fulfilling life. What has happened is that money and wealth changed the hindu dharma system by various forces and the greed of person.  Focus should be on learning what to do now based on what Gita said and the need of the hour is to contemplate every moment in a positive way by interpreting the sacred texts positively.