Many people tried to define Hinduism but failed miserably, so it would be inappropriate to say that I’m trying to define Hinduism. Being a Hindu, I’m sharing my beliefs about the most ancient belief existing in this world. Can you define matter? Can you define energy? Every time we try to define it, we find that we missed something or we try to satisfy one aspect, and another aspect grew incongruous. The duality and uncertainty that exists in nature exists in Hinduism too.

Moreover, this duality and uncertainty is vital to maintaining flexibility and adaptability. Hinduism itself is not an indigenous term. Europeans called it Hinduism. We called it ‘Sanatana Dharma’. We called our land ‘AryaVrata’. The origin of Hinduism is unknown. In fact, it has 330 million gods and goddesses. People who can’t understand Hinduism get baffled by this fact and chortle at Hinduism reprovingly. The point of disbelief is that how can I pray to 330 million gods daily? I’m going to clear this doubt later on.

First of all, Hinduism is not a religion. Hinduism at present is a set of beliefs accepted by people living below Hindukush. People from the school of Advaita can denounce the existence of Shiva, Vishnu, or Brahma, and all the demigods like Indra, Varun, Surya. Some people get perplexed by the myriad beliefs existing in a single religion that contradict each other.

The very word ‘religion’ distracts from the Indian reality. Did I say Indian? Yes. Any Indian or human being can be called Hindu if he believes in certain principles like every individual is free to his will and his beliefs have to be respected. Every human has to be rational and find his own way to the truth and is ultimately responsible for his life. All Western religions have a dogma and a body to control or impose the rules of religion. Hinduism doesn’t have any central authority and advocates existentialism.

Even any Eastern religion does not have any central authority, and each focuses on self-realization and the quest of the individual to find the truth. This gives every individualistic insight to Hinduism. In contrast to Hinduism, Hindu society is neither individualistic nor homogenous. Hindu society has rules, but Hindu religion doesn’t. The Hindu society is governed by DharmaShastra. But this Dharmashastra is not ultimate and can be modified according to the requirements of the society. The last modification was made in the 18th century.

Hinduism as a science

Hinduism can rival Science. Atheist scientists are dumbfounded when it comes to Hinduism. Their belief about religion being just a set of dogmas imposed on society and God being the creation of the imagination of the human mind is seriously challenged by Hinduism. Hinduism is very similar to Science. It takes some assumptions, and by logic, it forms a set of beliefs. Further, if they turn out to be false, Hinduism dumps those beliefs. There is no dogma that can restrict the growth of Hinduism. Maybe this is the reason we have so many myriad incongruous beliefs just because they can’t be challenged or proved false.

Why 330 million Gods?

Now, the question arises: why 330 million gods? As Hinduism has the nature to celebrate every belief of rational human beings, it has so many gods. Hinduism has celestial gods from Greek and Romans, rituals from Phoenicians, nature worship from Druids, Shintoism and other Celtic religions, Avatars like Buddha and Mahavir from Buddhism and Jainism, Brahman from Jews, occultism from various tribal rituals. It can’t be restricted to a particular time domain, a particular region on the Earth, or a particular species.

Humans even can’t claim that Hinduism or ‘Sanatan Dharma’ belongs to them. Stories of Puranas and Vedas tell the truths of ages before the Jurassic age. Then, there is the concept of reincarnation, heaven, hell, and above all, Maya. The 35 avatars of Vishnu tell us about the evolution of species on the Earth from Fish to Lions to Pygmies to Humans. Then, there are about 8.4 million species (yonis) in Hinduism. The Samudra Manthan tells about the formation of Himalayas and the disappearance of the Tethys Sea which happened during the Jurassic period which existed about 30 million years ago!

Clearly, with such a long span of history, Hinduism is bound to have so many gods and so many beliefs.

The Maya

Hinduism has a very unique philosophy: Maya. For many, Maya is the illusion which binds us to the Earth. Maya is the super-imposition of the world and the universe on the greater universe in which we live. Western religions don’t recognize this super-imposition. We are like trapped in these three dimensions. However, Science recognizes that there are many other dimensions still inaccessible to humans. Western religions call it a miracle. Miracles are for those people who cannot understand the force behind the process.

The origin of the philosophy of Maya came from logical thinking. Long before Egyptians thought that we think from the heart (as the heart beats fast as we grow anxious), we knew that humans use brains to think and not the heart. The process of going to sleep and reaching the subconscious state has been analyzed long before. Certain cases of remembrance of past lives by some individuals and the cross-verification of past lives of individuals proved that people are reincarnated. It happens even today, and there has been ‘tons’ of documented scientific evidence of past life, though it is not accepted by a large section of scientists (their religious or scientific prejudice does not allow them to see the naked truth).

The Indian philosophers went further. They were bewildered by this fact as it challenged the notion that everything we experience is stored in our brains. If after death, the brain and the body get destroyed, then there must be a place where our memory is stored. In the search for truth, they concentrated on the brain.

They came to understand various unique features of the brain, like the human brain’s tendency to think about something every time. Not only that, they cannot continue with a single thought for even a minute. They tried to attain the state of thoughtlessness known as Sunya or Zero. They went further and realized that the human brain has the capacity to understand the cosmos without saying anything. For example, like vibes or intuition, humans get about things going to happen.

It forced them to conclude that everything is pre-determined. But they went further in the search of the truth. If the brain is powerful enough to intercept inter-dimensional messages, it should be able to respond and change the multi-dimensional universe to affect the future. The further self-realization made them clear that we are trapped in this universe and our mind has the key to escape from this trap. They called it “Maya”.

In what lies beyond Maya, they went further and found that since they can modify or alter the multi-dimensional lattice of this universe, they have access to every part of the universe or every particle of this universe. This state is called “Shiv”. This is the state when a human being becomes universal, omnipresent, all-powerful, and synonymous with God.

Yogis came to know that there is definitely a god and also came to know about various abstractions like swarg, narak, pitralok, various loks, and also about the very central authority to which everyone is connected. They became gods in their own respect. They created their own level of abstraction where they live. This place is known as “Gyanganj”. This method of achieving God or being god is known as ‘GyanMarg’.

The ‘BhaktiMarg’ is also related to the same principle. However, the approach is quite different. In Bhakti, we are so immensely involved that your brain is overwhelmed with a single feeling. The central authority can’t deny the multi-dimensional trauma caused by this feeling; the central authority is forced to respond to your bhakti and fulfill your desire. There are various spiritual powers, either godly or evil, identified by Hinduism that roam free in this multi-dimensional lattice.

The last one is “KarmaMarg”. It believes that since you as an identity are stored somewhere else, you elevate or lower your state in the various reincarnations. Just think that you are an AI program whose attempt is to understand and evolve itself, and in that attempt, you yourself get evolved into better programs or worse programs. The ultimate of you as an AI program is to reach the mental state of the creator or central authority or God.

Why Idol worship?

There is no need for idol worship in “GyanMarg”. But people following “BhaktiMarg” can isolate their thought if they can visualize God as an object. It is difficult for the human brain to visualize an abstract, shapeless, all-powerful God and stick to one thought. For example, if I say “TriTrita” is all-powerful, omnipresent, it would be difficult to visualize it. But if I say that TriTrita is a three-headed human being who has each of his heads in each of the three dimensions, it would be easier for you to visualize. This is the reason why idol worship is highly revered in ancient civilizations. The various spiritual powers in the multi-dimensional lattice are isolated and given a shape. The human brain is allowed to picturize and worship it.

I would write more about Hinduism in the next blog. Please post your doubts, comments, and suggestions. If you’ve any information related to this post, please share it with me.