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by Jayaram V
To believe that some people need to be forced or lured or
convinced or encouraged or threatened to agree with our religious
beliefs and dogmas has been and will always be the cause of the
instability of this world.
Hinduism is not a religion, but a set of beliefs and practices. It is not a religion
like Christianity or Islam or Buddhism because it is not founded by any one person or does not have an organized controlling body like the Church or the Order. Everything is acceptable in Hinduism because there is no single authority or organization either to accept it or to reject it or to oppose it on behalf of Hinduism.
It is like what happens when you have country without a ruler. Any one can go there, set up his shop and do his business as long as he is in harmony with the group or the peer culture. The same thing happened with Hinduism. Here the priestly class supported by the kings and rulers and backed by the authority of the Vedas acted as the Peer Group and exerted peer pressure. The priests laid down some rules and practices (dharma shastras), partly based on social compulsions and partly based on the authority of the Vedas as to what was religious (dharma) and what was irreligious (adharma).
But even they were a heterogeneous mass who disagreed and quarreled a lot among themselves on the finer aspects of the scriptures and in the ways of worship or performance of rituals. Besides, they had practically no control on the
religious beliefs and practices of diverse groups of people who inhabited the subcontinent and were beyond their reach or authority. They did exercise some peer pressure on the whole community, because of the commonly accepted authority of the Vedas and the centuries old belief about the religious authority of the Brahmins. If Hinduism had attained or retained some distinction it was because of this social and intellectual pressure.
The fact is Hinduism is a religion of the individual, for the individual and by the individual with its roots in the Vedas and the Bhagavad gita. It is all about an individual approaching a personal God in an individual way according to his temperament and inner evolution. If he does not like Siva, he can choose Vishnu. If he does not like either of them, he can become a Shakta worshipper. If he is still not comfortable, he can bring in a few elements from other religions like Buddhism or Jainism or even Islam and Christianity and add them to his rituals or ways of worship. Or he can choose a local guru, baba or a saint and follow him. In summary we can say that Hinduism accepts various forms of worship including the forms of worship followed in alien
cultures as long as they are in harmony with the original ideas founded in the Vedas and especially the end part of the Vedas called the Upanishads.
It is also true that in the past Hindus were not completely tolerant of other religious groups, though Hindu scriptures as such did not approve such behavior. Religiously, the ancient Hindus treated invaders like the Greeks, the Sakas, the Kushanas and the Turks with great contempt referring them with such epithets as mlecchas and tucchas and putting them on par with the untouchables. The concept of religious tolerance in Hinduism is very ancient but its practice is of recent origin. Today in India, Hindu fundamentalism is a palpable phenomenon. And this is mainly because of the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism and Christian missionary activity.
Suggested Further Reading
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