Hinduism - A culture or An art of living.

·         Do we know who we are? ........Yes human being....- Alright......

·         To which country do you belong ?........India......- OK

·         And your religion - Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Christian? Hindu......- Oh I was guessing so.

·         So you must be having some cast too.......Yes its Vaishay.....- hmm

·         And gotra....Ummm, no idea, I do not know what they are..........- It’s OK

·         Which God u believes in the most ?...Ganesha ji, hanuman ji, Durga ma......- So many, nice.

·         Ur process of prayer?...Anytime, I mean sometimes......- OK

·         Ur belief in Hinduism.....um mm

·         Which sacred book of Hindus ....Know a bit about Vedas, Geeta, Ramayana etc but never read them....

·         You know Hinduism is not religion but an Art of living? Hmm...Yeah 

·         How? No idea.

This is how today's most of the Hindu citizens of India will reply to these answers.

India like a tree has so many stems, branches and then leafs in the name of religion, cast, sub casts etc. Out of which 80% are Hindus. This is the land of Hinduism, but Hindus have lost their true identity. Hinduism which is believed to be an art of life is actually drawn in many canvases by different artists as per their convenience, theory and ideology.

And the truth of this art of living is buried somewhere in the sacred books for which no one has time to go through, or lost with time in ancient civilizations.

In India, in schools only children are made to study about our civilizations. But kids cannot take such studies very maturely in small age. I too studied but never found myself so much curious and serious about this research.

When I dip myself too deep into the thoughts on sacred books, Hindu culture, its truth, our civilizations etc..... The first question comes is what actually the Hindu living is all about? 

The strict followers of such living find the truth of this asset in sacred books. In Hinduism there is not one holy book like Quran in Muslims and Bible in Christians but many as Veda, Upanishads, Geeta, Ramayana, and Mahabharata etc. Also there are so many small stories based on various Gods in Hindus.

The art can be find in daily routine of a general family where Father doesn't believe in god rituals and prayers but in power of God. Where mother prays one God and daughter believes in other Hindu god. Then bother has different style of praying Hindu god whom he believes more.

This means even a family has different opinions in choice of God and different perception in praying them, and Hinduism allows such living.

It is so because Hinduism cares for wisdom, belongingness, freedom, love and spirituality.

Hinduism never asks to follow any rules to be a Hindu; it just suggests them to follow for better understanding of spiritual power and peaceful living.

The freedom that Hinduism gives also does not mean to live any type of life and you will be Hindu anyway. No, we should not misunderstand its ideology. It gives the freedom to choose the path of spirituality. But the ultimate truth must be spirituality only.

In Hinduism the spirituality has a very deep meaning. The concept of reincarnation is one of the main essences which every Hindu believes in.

According to this concept every living thing has soul and the soul never dies. It keeps changing its body and hence the soul of a person on having new body gets a new birth. In this way all living beings are reborn. This cycle of rebirth continues for 7 years. And after that the soul goes the ultimate power, which is the source of all souls, the God. 

In Hinduism there are three main gods ~ Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. They believe the creator of universal is God Brahma. God Vishnu has power of destruction and recreation. And God Vishnu is God of many Avatars, who took birth in different beings for welfare of society and abolish the demons.

In India you will find so many temples for their gods. Apart from the three gods, there are many other gods and goddesses. Importance of Goddesses is not less than any God. Even in some families Goddesses are given more priority.

Hindu belief of Karma is also unique and related to reincarnation. Where it is believed that human life depends on the deeds the human accumulated in previous lives. If the deeds were good then next life will be good otherwise the life will be a punishment. Even as a punishment of a very bad deed the human may get birth as any animal.

Good deed or karma doesn't mean doing any extraordinary work, but being a simple and nice human being who cares, loves and respects others. Hinduism respects such deeds and rewards such lives.

Similarly, bad deed or karma is followed with punishment.

Once all the seven cycles of birth finishes with good and peaceful living, the soul merges in God. If someone's karma and devotion towards God is outstanding then the one soul may also get escape from the cycle of rebirth and get Moksha or Nirvana which means end.

And as per Hindu culture the purpose of every life is and should be to come out of rebirth cycle and get nirvana by one's karma.

The philosophy of Hindu culture was very much into the air of India in ancient civilizations which is described in Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata and Geeta. But today's Hindu generation is losing its assets of such a divine culture, intentionally or unintentionally.

We don’t have time to devote on Gods. Even we know the concept of karma, still we do not want to control our bad deeds. Actually we don’t care for what we really are. We don’t care being in Hindu culture and being a human being.

I sometimes think how Hindu culture became so powerful with such deep idol-ism and spiritualism. From where, we received this culture? How it got nurtured?
And the answer is three powerful civilizations Indus valley civilization, Aryans and Dravidian.

..... Cont in next article...

 ~Nidhi