The People And Culture Of India
Each of the religions of the world has its own culture, with many customs, traditions and refined qualities. The Hindu culture is a culture of love, respect, honoring others and humbling one's own ego so that the inner nature, which is naturally pure and modest, will shine forth. There is no belief system to the Hindu way of life. You can believe in God or not. Individuals can work out their own way to salvation. If there are five people in your family, each one can worship a god of their choice, or not worship and still be a good Hindu. The Hindu culture is rooted in the spiritual ethos of each individual working towards ultimate liberation as the fundamental goal in life.
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| Hindu Culture |
In the East, spirituality and religion were never an organised process. Organisation was only to the extent of making spirituality available to everybody - not for conquest. A farmer worshipped his plough, a fisherman worshipped his boat; people worshipped whatever aspect of life they related to most, and that was perfectly fine. Essentially, in the East, religion is about you, it is not about God. Religion is about your liberation. God is just one more stepping stone that you can use or skip towards your ultimate liberation. The essential purpose of the God-belief is to create reverence in a person. What you worship is not important. It is not about liking something or disliking it. The object of reverence is irrelevant. If you make reverence the quality of your life, then you become far more receptive to life. Life will happen to you in bigger ways.
Some of the recent criticism of our mission here at Nirmukta has come from Hindu apologists admonishing the writers for treating Hinduism as a religion. The often encountered claim is that Hinduism is not a religion in the same sense as the other faiths, because of various reasons that the apologists deem are unique to Hinduism alone. This propaganda has been pursued so vigorously by the apologists that it has become a mantra to be used as a shield against criticism. Millions of educated Hindus are taught these talking points, often ideas derived from some insignificant truism miscast into a vast theory of cultural significance. Such “special pleading” is a mark of all religions, asking to be considered unique and special. To begin, let us first look at some of the general qualities of religions.
Some of the recent criticism of our mission here at Nirmukta has come from Hindu apologists admonishing the writers for treating Hinduism as a religion. The often encountered claim is that Hinduism is not a religion in the same sense as the other faiths, because of various reasons that the apologists deem are unique to Hinduism alone. This propaganda has been pursued so vigorously by the apologists that it has become a mantra to be used as a shield against criticism. Millions of educated Hindus are taught these talking points, often ideas derived from some insignificant truism miscast into a vast theory of cultural significance. Such “special pleading” is a mark of all religions, asking to be considered unique and special. To begin, let us first look at some of the general qualities of religions.
