what is Hinduism

Submitted by Rishika (United States), Mar 26, 2022 at 17:20

Hinduism is mankind's oldest spiritual declaration, the very fountainhead of faith on the planet. It is the only religion, that is not founded in a single historic event or prophet, but which itself precedes recorded history. Hinduism has been called the "cradle of spirituality" and "the mother of all religions," partly because it has influenced virtually every major religion. Hinduism is not a polytheistic religion. Hinduism is without doubt the most monotheistic religion in the world because it recognized that the Supreme can only be diverse and that he incarnates Himself in many forms. It was Hinduism who first proclaimed God as One in this universe. A Hindu worships that One God in diverse divine forms.

Hinduism is an open-minded discipline. It is a discipline that does not use force on its follower. That is, it does not dictate the follower to act by one step by step recipe it gives, condemning all other recipes.

Hinduism describes everything as divine and sacred because God is everywhere and in everyone. Supreme Self has truly created this real world, everything belongs to him but He also pervades everywhere. Hinduism speaks about all-pervasiveness and all-controlling nature of the Supreme Being. The Changing things that appear in the physical and mental world may be realized as divine: the Supreme Self that shines unmixed in everyone and everything, beneath all names and forms and qualities of personality and world.

"All this that is in front is but Supreme God, the immortal. Supreme God is on the right, as well as on the left; Above and below too, is extended Supreme God alone. This world is nothing but Supreme God, the highest." Mu.n.daka Upani.sad 2.2.11

"All this entire universe belongs to God: who lives in it, in every smallest bit of it. It moves; and yet it does not move. God is far beyond the furthest reach of space and time; and yet He is immediate, forever close, inseparably present here. He is here inside, in everything; yet it is outside all of this. God shines pure, through everything unconstrained by muscled body, unaffected by all ill, untouched by any taint of sin." (Isha Upanishad, stanzas 4-8).

Katha Upanishad it is said: "Paramātmā (The Almighty or Supreme God) is the same everywhere, in every world, on every level throughout the entire Cosmos. Until you recognise this you will continue to be reborn. Paramātmā remains the same – in past, present and future. It is the same in the heart of an ant or an elephant, in every living being. It is the Cause of everything."

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