Philosophy of Hinduism

To understand Hinduism one has to be intimate with its philosophy rooted in Vedanta.

One of the fundamental convictions of the Hindu mind is that there is an all-pervading and all-transcending Spirit which is the basic Reality, the origin and substratum of everything animate and inanimate. This Reality projects, manifests, sustains, penetrates, observes, regulates, and ultimately absorbs within Itself the objective world. As waves have no existence apart from the ocean, so the objective world is rooted in God. Just as a clay pot has no existence apart from the clay, similarly manifoldness has no existence apart from God. God is Existence, Knowledge, Bliss, Absolute. God in Hinduism has two aspects, impersonal and personal. In Vedantic tradition the impersonal God is addressed as That or It and the personal God as He, as well as She. Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886), a great illumined saint, inheriting the spiritual tradition of Vedanta, said:

"When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive, neither creating, nor preserving, nor destroying, I call him Brahman or Purusha---the superpersonal God. When I think of him as active, creating, preserving, destroying, I call him sakti, or maya, or prakrti---the personal God. But the distinction between them does not mean a difference. The personal and the superpersonal are the same Being in the same way as milk and its whiteness, or the diamond and its luster, or the serpent and its undulation are one. It is impossible to conceive of the one without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman are one." (Romain Rolland, The Life of Sri Ramakrishna, Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, Himalayas, India, pp. 68-69)

Says the Svetasvatara Upanishad (4.3):

"Thou art woman; thou art man; thou art the youth and also the maiden; thou art the old man tottering with a stick, being born thou standest facing all directions."

Hinduism believes that though God is one, He has various manifestations in many gods and goddesses, any one of which may be adored as a form of the supreme God. We have, therefore, various forms through which God is worshiped. In fact, one is impelled to worship him in whichever thing has glory, grace and vigor (Bhagavad Gita, X-41). The Hindu adores the One God in the many gods. He finds One in all and all in One.

The special characteristic of Hinduism is its liberal attitude based on monism, a philosophical system explaining all reality in terms of one central unifying principle. Deeply convinced of the existence of the Supreme Reality, the Hindu mind allows the widest freedom in matters of faith and worship. The rhythm of universality can be traced in the eleventh verse of the fourth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita,. This verse breathes the fundamental tenet of universal religion. "As many minds, so many faiths." (The Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna, trans. Swami Nikhilananda New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1942, pp. 264-265.) Vedanta gives the simile that as milk is ever white in spite of the different hues of the cows, all the different paths earnestly accepted by spiritual seekers will lead to the same goal. "Many are the names of God and infinite the forms through which he may be approached. In whatever name and form you worship him through that you will realize him." (Sayings of Shri Ramakrishna, Shri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai, India, 1965, Ch. XI, p. 149.) This echoes the ancient dictum of the Rig-Veda: "Reality is one; sages call it by various names. (Rig-Veda, I-164-46.)

God can be partially described and approached in various ways. But Indian thought is conscious of the immensity, the inexhaustibility and the enigmatic character of God, and so the Hindu mind approaches the different conceptions and representations of God with a deep sense of humility. The special feature of Indian tradition is the spirit of accommodation. Due to this non-dogmatic attitude, the Hindu mind is reluctant to assign an unalterable or rigidly fixed form or name to God. A unique feature of Indian culture, at once remarkable and sublime, is its elasticity.

From this it follows that Hinduism looks upon the various religions of the world as so many paths to one and the same infinite Reality. Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), the foremost disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, recited the following hymn at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893:

"As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to thee." (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Mayavati Memorial Edition, Vol. 1, p. 4)

In the same parliament he also declared:

The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.
If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity, and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written, in spite of resistance: "Help and not Fight, "Assimilation and not Destruction," "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension." (Ibid., p. 4)

This catholic attitude of Hinduism is strongly supported by her philosophy and religious experiences. The momentous discovery of the Vedic seers is that One is behind many and in many fosters the spirit of accommodations. The Indian mind was saved from dogmatism by the discovery of unity in diversity and by the recognition of the importance of systematic spiritual discipline. This viewpoint is apparent throughout the long course of India's history.

Hinduism is not so much a common creed but a common quest. It is not an organized religion; nor does it depend for its support on any particular creed. It accommodates within itself various expressions of basic truth. In the Bgagavad-Gita, we see that anyone who follows with true devotion and sincerity any faith or worships any deity ultimately finds refuge in God.

That God is the ultimate reality behind human life and nature, that experience is the soul of religion, that the goal of life is to know God through intuitive experience, and that the goal can be pursued by following different paths--these constitute the most essential features of Hinduism.

These ideals were not confined to religion in the narrow sense of the word. They found eloquent expression in political and state policy. The same spirit of tolerance and universal acceptance is recorded in Asoka's (the great Indian emperor of third century, B.C.) inscription:

The king Priyadarshi honors all sects, monks and house-holders;... for he who does reverence to his own sect while disparaging the sects of others wholly from attachment to his own, with intent to enhance the splendor of his own sect, in reality by such conduct inflicts the severest injury on his own sect. (Asoka, the great Indian emperor of third century, B.C. Inscriptions of Asoka, Asoka: Vincent Smith, 1909, p. 171. Quoted in S. Radhakrishnan, East and West in Religion (London: Allen and Unwin, 1949), pp. 29-32.)

It is verily concord among religions that is right and proper as persons of other ways of thinking may thereby hear the Dharma and serve its causes." (Edicts of Asoka, University of Chicago Press, 1959, N.D. Nikham and Richard McKeon, eds., and trans., p. 53.)

  Part 3   Vedanta 101

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Books by Swami Tathagatananda:

1. The Vedanta Society of New York -- A Brief History, 2000
2. Mahabharat--Katha (Bengali), 1998
3. Ramayan Anudhyan (Bengali), 1996
4. Healthy Values of Living, 1996
5. Meditation on Swami Vivekananda, 1994
6. Meditation on Shri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, 1993
7. Glimpses of Great Lives, 1989
8. Shubha Chinta (Bengali), 1988
9. Smaran--Manan (Bengali), 1987

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