Dharm ya Sanskriti

What is Hindu? 

The modern world puts Hindu under the category of religion but is it truly a religion or is it a way of life as claimed by many? To answer these questions we need to acknowledge the obvious, known by all but expressed by only a few, and bring light to some lesser-known things.

 

The obvious is that Hindus worship multiple Godesses (Devi) and Gods (Devta) in various ways. So, if a person is only aware of this fact then he or she can define Hindutva as a polytheistic religion. Each religion is made up of its festivals, stories, rituals, and what is considered to be holy and unholy. The basic thing that differs one religion from another is the deity they worship. 

The next obvious fact is that Hindutva believes in rebirth and karm. This concept is closely associated with aatma (soul) in the manner that the aatma will be reincarnated and will live a new life based on the karm (deeds) of the previous birth. 

Now that we have covered the fundamentals of Hindutva let’s dive deeper. Hindutva believes that the world works in a cyclic mechanism. This can be seen in various ideas such as:

* Punarjanam- A body goes through 4 stages- childhood, teenage, adulthood, old age. After your soul has gone through all these stages it will reincarnate with a new body and will re-experience these four stages till eternity.

* Karm- Karm can be understood as deeds in my opinion. There are good deeds as well as bad deeds. Similarly, there is a good karm (Punya) and bad karm (Paap). Whatever you do will have its own set of consequences that are out of our control. So, what goes around comes around in the form of consequences.

* Yug- In Hindutva, the concept of time is divided into four yug cycles- Satya, Treta, Dwapar, Kali. After kali yug will end, satya yug will start again.

Swastik is a very auspicious symbol in Hindu culture. It is widely used all over India at homes as well as in temples. If we extend all the arms of this symbol, a circle can be drawn around it. (I am not distorting the symbol of Swastik but expressing my imagination).

This symbol means "may good happen to you" but we can use it to symbolize various cyclical ideas such as the four yug, the stages of life, the Kaal chakra, etc. The reason why we have the same words for yesterday and tomorrow is not a mere coincidence but a representation of the idea that events that will happen have already happened before. There are many more examples where cyclic behavior can be observed.

Even though Hindutva is practiced differently in different states of India but the fundamentals remain the same. When we lay out the fundamentals of our culture in this manner it seems like this is one of the various religions of the world. Suddenly the extraordinary loses its charm. But that is only the case when we limit our understanding only up to this point. The reality, however, is very far from it for various reasons. 

Why is Hindu a Sanskriti and not a religion?

Religion is popularly translated as dharma in Hindi. I believe this translation was chosen by Britishers during colonialism and not Indian scholars. This translation or association is hilariously wrong as it is nowhere near its true meaning. Religion’s accurate Hindi translation is pant whereas dharm represents righteousness. In earlier scriptures like Mahabharat and Ramayan, dharma is associated with various things such as Kshatriya dharm, guru dharm, shishya dharm, etc. Those scriptures imply that a person plays many roles in his/her lifetime hence, different responsibilities and with those responsibilities come restrictions. In short, the dharm is followed to maintain stability in society. Even though most of the time dharm means to strictly stick to the laws, sometimes laws have to be broken to maintain dharm. This phenomenon can be observed if we compare the lives of Ram and Krishna.

In our culture, dharm has nothing to do with the deity you pray to. Dharm is doing your duties sincerely and with good intentions. The duties of a person is a multi-variable equation in which profession is one of the variables. The set of duties of a king towards his kingdom is different from his duties towards his family. Similarly, the duties of a butcher are different from the duties of a brahman. You don’t have to belong to a particular profession, caste, or family, or pray to a certain God to maintain dharm. Now, if we compare it to following a religion where everyone is supposed to follow one God, one holy book, and do as the priest asks; dharm is poles apart. 

The reason why Hindu is not a religion is that there is not one single way in which it is observed. Navratri is a very important time of the year in India. It is the time of the year that turns North Indians into herbivorous and Bengalis into carnivorous. The deities remain the same but the method of pleasing the deities is poles apart. White is a popular color choice for wedding dresses in South India whereas the North Indians wear white during a funeral. If we will follow this trail we will realize that Hindutva teaches us to acknowledge and accept the difference of thoughts of others.

In any religion, the followers are dependent on certain groups of people to tell them the eternal truth meanwhile in the culture of Bharat people have to seek out the truth themselves. Bharat is a land of truth-seekers and not truth-tellers. We are allowed to go on a journey of ancient stories from our history and form our truth. It is not about who is wrong but what is right. I am also telling the truth and you are also telling the truth. We are not supposed to restrict our minds by blindly following some rules and regulations. Hindu culture is not about restrictions but the expansion of the mind to see the presence of the formless in everything and everyone. Hindu culture acknowledges that society is made up of all sorts of elements and teaches us to accept the differences.