Why I am a Hindu

by Shashi Tharoor

the word ‘Hindu’ did not exist in any Indian language till its use by foreigners gave Indians a term for self-definition.

as a Hindu I belong to the only major religion in the world that does not claim to be the only true religion.

This inclination to revere the Divine, whatever its source, is a notable Hindu trait, reflecting a traditional unwillingness to succumb to doctrinal absolutism.

[Bhagavad] Gita echoes the same idea, saying: “Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me”.’9

‘ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti’. This was Swami Vivekananda’s favourite phrase about spirituality: ‘That which exists is One; the sages call It by various names.’

Prudery appears to have been imported into Hindu social attitudes only in reaction to the Muslim invasions and Victorian colonial rule.

four yugas (aeons or ages): Satya Yuga, the age of truth, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga (the age of destruction and untruth, the one in which we are all living now).

Swami Vivekananda pointed out with pride that some of

the most exalted rishis of the Hindu faith, the most learned and respected authorities on the scriptures, are women. (Twenty-one of the original rishikas to whom the Vedas were revealed were women: the names of Gargi and Maitreyi today adorn colleges in Delhi University; Vishavara, Ghosha and Apala were also prominent seers.)

If the Hindu chooses wrongly, or unwisely, among the opinions offered to him, it is not Hinduism’s fault.

The fact that the Manusmriti says something does not preclude the possibility that throughout the ages, it was honoured in the breach.

role, the Puranic practice principally involved idol-worship and pujas. (It is suggested that while the Vedic era saw only the worship of a formless and imageless God, the conduct of rituals and the propitiation of the river and mountain and tree gods of local tribes, all of which were ‘portable’ and not confined to a fixed spot, it was the arrival of the Greeks under Alexander in the fourth century BCE that brought into India the idea of permanent temples enshrining stone images of heroes and gods.)

idol worship came temple construction, a feature of Hinduism only since the fifth century CE, and reaching its apogee in the magnificent Chola temples

Intellect is subordinated to intuition, dogma to experience, outer expression to inward realization. Religion is not the acceptance of academic abstractions or the celebration of ceremonies, but a kind of life or experience. It is insight into the nature of reality (darshana) or experience of reality (anubhava).’

iniquitous.

two are Purusharthas gone wrong, kama as lust rather than desire, and lobha as greed and avarice for material possessions (beyond artha which is the legitimate acquisition of wealth and worldly goods for a worthy life).

krodha (hatred), mada (vanity), matsarya (envy) and moha (delusion arising from ignorance or infatuation).

ahimsa (non-violence), satyam (truth), shivam (piety), sundaram (the cultivation of beauty), vairagyam (detachment), pavitram (purity) and swabhavam (self-control).

prarabdha karma.

sanchita karma

agami karma,

four ‘mahavakyas’ or ‘great sentences’ of his doctrine—‘Prajnanam Brahma’ (knowledge is Brahman), ‘Ayam Atma Brahma’ (this atman is Brahman), ‘Tattvamasi’ (that you are), and ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ (I am Brahman)

rigidities into Hindu practice: restrictions on entry into temples (to safeguard their treasures from prying eyes), child marriages (to win protection for girls before they were old enough to be abducted by lustful invaders) and even the practice of sati (the burning of a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre) were all measures of self-defence during this turbulent period of Indian history,

‘Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life—think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success,

Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti:

‘sarva dharma sambhava’

to refuse to impose his own upon them (as he explained when refusing to advocate a ban on cow slaughter that would affect other communities).

‘Anekantavada’—the notion that truth and reality are perceived differently by different people from their own different points of view, and that therefore no single perception can constitute the complete truth