Tattva

Like others, I once believed that all religions were basically manipulative, corrupt, and money hungry political institutions. One day, over a family dinner, I slipped in the Karl Marx quote, that religion is the “opiate of the masses.” In response, my dad asked a simple question that changed my perspective in ways that still affect me: “What about Hinduism makes it an opiate?” It was then that I realized that although I had studied the history of many other religions in school, I knew very little about the religion my family practiced. Eager to prove my point, I then set out to understand the religion, ironically enough, in order to demonstrate its faults. What I found has been invaluable to me, and I hope that by reading about my experience, you will find some answers to questions you might have as well. 

I first looked into all the typical alleged criticisms of Hinduism: reverence for cows, polytheism, sexism, and the caste system. I found cow worship to be ridiculous until I actually asked a priest about it. “What does the cow do every day?” the priest asked. And so thinking about the activities of the cow, I realized the cow is an animal that lives in harmony with its world. It eats only grass, but for centuries has given us the milk that sustains us, the butter that makes our food taste rich, and the bones that our ancestors used as tools. Cows even fertilize the ground they live on! Humans are the only animals who take much from the Earth but seldom give back. I then realized that the cow is sacred as a symbol—giving all of us an example of how to live our lives in coexistence with nature.

I then sought to tackle the issue of polytheism. Again, a simple wisely-put statement cleared up the issue. Try to imagine infinity. Difficult, right? Now try to imagine an inch, a foot, and a mile. These smaller lengths are much easier to picture. Hindus believe that God is infinite, without shape or form. This concept is hard for even the wisest to focus on, so the abstract concept of God (known as Nirguna Brahman) has been represented through various deities who personify certain characteristics of the infinite Brahman. These personifications also help make religion easy to learn, as both children and adults like to hear about religion through interesting stories that show different forms of God (which are again merely parts of the larger Brahman) interacting as humans do.

What I found most interesting was that ultimately God is without a gender. While many other religions have represented God as only male, Hinduism has kept women in the forefront of the religion. Women are not merely wives or mothers of male figures, but are important in their own right. We worship Devi as a personification of strength, knowledge, and prosperity; we also practice Matru Devo Bhava (Mother is equivalent to God) and believe that Mother should be respected as the pratham (first and foremost) guru.

Though I found it very interesting and felt proud that women are so highly honored in Hinduism, I still had to resolve the issue of the caste system, which I saw as the ultimate in discrimination. A single story dating back to about 1200 BCE explained the caste system to me. A priest, a warrior, a businessman, and a pariah (untouchable) were all brought before court for murdering and robbing an innocent tourist. Two crown princes were asked how they would punish these culprits if they were king. The first said that they all were equally responsible and deserved the same punishment. The second asked about their background and said the following: the priest is supposed to be a role model for all of society; as a member of the intellectual priest class, if he preys upon the weaker, the kingdom’s spirituality has failed. He should receive the harshest punishment. The warrior is supposed to protect the innocent, if he is doing the opposite, the kingdom’s security will fall the pieces. He received the next harshest punishment. The businessman cared only for money, so he lost his house, all his property, and his entire savings to teach him a lesson. The untouchable had no education and was largely ignorant of what was happening; he was poor, hungry, and needed money to support himself and his family, so he got the least punishment, but enough to teach him not to do the act again.

This second method of punishment was the one the king chose to carry out. It shows a basic fundamental of the caste system: those at the “top” of the system should have both increased power and increased responsibility. The concept seems simple, but often times, even in modern Western culture this does not always work out. Celebrities and other wealthy, famous, and powerful people often seem exempt from the laws that ordinary people are held to.

In the Rig-Veda, the world’s oldest religious text, there is reference to the organization of Hindu society into four groups. It is described there that the Brahmanas came out of the face of the Lord, the Creator, Kshatriyas from His arms, Vaisyas from His thighs, and the Sudras from His feet. Hindu thinkers visualized these groups as constituting the four limbs of society conceived as a body. The body, in order to be healthy, needs all of its parts working perfectly with each other. If the brain cannot tell the hands it is hungry then it will get no food to its mouth. If the brain tells the hands that it is hungry but the hands cannot deliver food to the brain, then the body will starve. In this way, society was designed as a collective entity with checks and balances, in which everybody has a duty and everybody works together for betterment of society overall. Just as no one body part is more important than another, no person was considered more important than another merely because of his/her caste.

Most importantly though, caste was not fixed. Many people chose to inherit their family professions, but in no way in Hinduism is caste ever mentioned as something that is a fixed social position. People freely moved around in social classes for quite a long time until basically two systems (one which described occupational groupings and one which described social status) started to mold together over time, especially during the long period of Islamic rule, into what became the caste system. The British census in the late 19th century formalized this system by mapping each social class to a specific occupational grouping. Calling the fixed caste system a product of Hinduism is like calling slavery in America a product of Christianity. People sometimes justified the inequality using religious references, but both religions strongly disagree with the inequality.

In the Gita, Lord Krishna even says “The wise look with the same eye on a Brahman endowed with learning and culture, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an Untouchable (pariah)” (Gita 5:18). This emphasizes the Hindu belief that all living beings have a soul, comprised of the same spiritual energy, and should therefore all be treated equally. This is the reason Hindus believe in Ahimsa (non-injury) to any humans or animals unless necessary.

Hinduism is characterized by a degree of religious tolerance unparalleled by any other major world religion. Many religions often portray themselves as conclusive (the only source of truth), exclusionary (no salvation for non-followers) and seperative (can only be a member in one religion). Hinduism, I discovered, believes in none of these. Hindu belief encourages all seek “spiritual and moral truth” anywhere. God speaking through Lord Krishna said, “Whoever comes to me through whatever route, I reach out to him,” and that “all paths in the end lead to me” (Gita, 7: 23, 9: 25, 3: 25 and 26). An important teaching of Hinduism is, “Ekam Sat Viprah Bahuda Vadanti—The truth is One, but different Sages call it by different names.” Very few religions offer this type of spiritual freedom and openness.

Hinduism has no founder—and is therefore called Sanatan Dharma or “eternal religion.” Some Hindu beliefs can be traced back further than 4000 BCE and some have been written in the past 50 years. I found this fact especially interesting because it eliminates the need for religious fundamentalists; the religion adapts to changes in society and is therefore always relevant. There is no one way to heaven, and Hindus believe that through our experiences, reason, and our dialogue with others individuals, we can test our understanding of spiritual and moral truth. Hindu scriptures, based on the insights of Hindu sages and seers, are primarily a guidebook to help us understand, but it is ultimately we who decide our future.

The simple beauty of Hinduism is that when you strip it down to its core, you are only left with yourself and your actions- and this is precisely what matters most. Neither man of religion nor man of science could ever disagree. Instead of feeling the pressure of being born with sin, I felt the uplifting power of unlimited spiritual potential. I took pride in being part of a religion that has never participated in a crusade or jihad and in fact does not even have a word for holy war or nonbeliever. Watching the news everyday and seeing the problems that religion has caused and then learning about Hinduism really brought that point home for me. The day I set aside my misconceptions and actually explored Hinduism is the day I became a Hindu.

Ravi S. Kudesia is a senior at Boston University’s School of Management. His activities include starting an advertising agency, as well as both playing and listening to music. His father Vijay, mother Alka, and sister Rashmi have been a great source of inspiration and encouragement in his life. He can be contacted at rsk@bu.edu.

 Email This Post

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 9:50 am and is filed under Editorials/Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.