Author: Dr. Fazl Ahmad Ahmadi
An Overview of Hinduism (1st part)
Abstract
Knowing and examining religions, whether they are heavenly, or human made, is considered one of the most important topics in universities and scientific centers of countries today. To the extent that many of these educational institutions have dedicated specific units for the analysis of this interdisciplinary debate. In the field of religions, the land of India is the cradle of the oldest religions. The first religious texts of India, called “Vedhas”, which have great authority and credibility, date back to about a thousand years before Christ. Apart from the delay of religiosity in India, a lot of diversity can be seen in the different types of Hindu worship and in the rich mysticism and philosophy of this land, which, despite the many differences, are all gathered under the single name of “Hindu ritual”. In this article, the basic issue is, how is Hinduism a religion and what are the basic sources and traditions of this religion? The current research that answered this question, with the help of library sources and using the descriptive-historical method, has come to the findings that Hinduism is not a heavenly religion in the first place, and in this religion, there is no specific person who believes or this religion was explained to the people by him or her; Rather, the sources that exist in this religion have been written by many people over time, and at the same time, the traditions in Hinduism have been based on the necessity and needs of the Hindu society.
Key words: Hinduism, Hindu religion, Hindu traditions and Indian people.
Introduction
The land of India is the cradle of the oldest religions. The first religious texts of India called “Vedha” which have a lot of authenticity and credibility reach about a thousand years before Christ. Apart from the delay of religion in India, there is also a lot of diversity in different types of Hindu worship. And it can be seen in the rich mysticism and philosophy of this land that despite the many differences, they are all gathered under the single name of “Hinduism”.
With the arrival of England to this land in the 19th century, the familiarization of the people with Western culture, the interaction and communication with other religions, especially Christianity, and facing the criticisms that were made of the way of thinking and religious practice of the people, the peace of the people for three thousand years and their heart’s satisfaction with this Ancient religiosity was troubled and religious scholars and Brahmins sought to find a way to remove the label of being anti-rational or irrational from their scriptures. For this reason, the last two centuries of India have witnessed the emergence of many new religious and intellectual currents, in such a way that some researchers have called this period the age of Hindu enlightenment, “Hindu Renaissance”. In fact, it can be said that since the 19th century, Hindus have consciously reviewed their traditions.
They tried to carry out religious reforms and traditional introduction according to the conditions of the new era. The positions of these movements and schools are different towards religion and include traditional adherence to the basic principles and returning to ancient texts to get all the answers to abandoning some of the ancient beliefs. Some of these movements are also revivalist and offer a new interpretation of Religion, philosophy and the ancient holy texts have emphasized on spiritual and mystical elements along with some social activities. One of the most important thinkers leading in this direction is called “Rama Krishna” who, due to his great influence on the Hindu society, was able to create a religious movement called “Rama Krishna Mission” after him. This flow was formed from the Bengali devotional tradition, which arose from the inner conduct and knowledge of Ramakrishna and his disciple Vubukananda.
The importance of this type of research is determined by the same title or the effect of religions on human society, as no word and belief throughout history has been as influential as the belief and trust in religions in human societies. Most of the great developments and wars of the human world have been caused by a religious or anti-religious belief; Therefore, research and investigation in the field of religions is the need of all society and every member of society should be aware of their religions and beliefs.
Extensive research has been done in the field of religions to the extent that there are dozens of books and articles in every language and culture that have analyzed the different discussions of religions. A few of these sources are also mentioned in the list of sources of this article; However, the main point that has been paid more attention to in this article is that the style and context of the explanation and the general knowledge of the foundations of “Hinduism” have been considered, which is not seen in other writings, or at least it was far from the author’s point of view.
According to the above discussion, the basic question is, how is Hinduism a religion and what are the basic sources and traditions of this religion?
The current research that answered this question, with the help of library sources and using the descriptive-historical method, has reached the findings that Hinduism is not a heavenly religion in the first place and in this religion there is no specific person whose beliefs and opinions, or this religion has been explained to the people by him; Rather, the sources that exist in this religion have been written by many people over time, and at the same time, the traditions in Hinduism have been developed based on the needs of the Hindu society.
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