Re: What has Hinduism given to the world?
http://www.sundaygazettemail.com/section/Columns/2006031813
Tolerance is the lesson of India
By Dr. R. Sampath
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During the middle of the 20th century, Arnold Toynbee, the great English historian, predicted that at its close the world would still be dominated by the West. But in the 21st century “India will conquer her conquerors.” He meant culturally and spiritually, not politically and militarily. In his opinion, religion will be restored to its earlier importance, and the center of world happenings will wander back from the West to the East.
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The world events of the recent past seem to suggest he may be proven right.
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Max Muller, the 19th-century Orientalist, wrote, “If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most deeply pondered over the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions to some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant — I should point to India.
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“And, if I were to ask myself from what literature we who have been nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of one Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw the corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact more truly human a life, again I should point to India.”
What made these two eminent individuals make such comments? What can we learn from India?
To understand India, one has to understand her way of life, her philosophy and her religions. Indians do not make any distinction among the three. India is the birthplace for four religions namely, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. ** Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world and is the world’s third-largest religion, with more than 1 billion followers. As the predominant religion of India, it has shaped India’s culture and history.
The Hindu religion was not established by a single person, but was built collectively by hundreds of brilliant minds whose inspired statements created the Hindu scriptures.
Hindus revere their scriptures. But how they interpret them can be summed up by a quote from Mahatma Gandhi. He said, “Every formula of every religion has, in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal justice if it is to ask for universal assent. Error can claim no exemption even if it can be supported by the scriptures of the world. Every true scripture only gains by criticism. After all we have no other guide but our reason to tell us what may be regarded as revealed and what may not be.”
Hindus respect their seers. But how they follow their advice can be understood from a statement by a famous Hindu, Buddha. He said, “Do not accept what I have said to you because it has been so said in the past; do not accept it because it has been handed down by tradition; do not accept it because it is also in the holy scriptures; do not accept it because it is said by a famous or holy monk; but if you find that it appeals to your sense of discrimination and conscience as being conducive to your benefit and happiness, then accept it and live up to it.”
No wonder there have never been any inquisitions in Hinduism for questioning any religious belief. Hinduism allowed and still allows the free flow of thoughts. One system of Indian philosophy held a totally atheistic view of the world. This is the antithesis of the mainstream beliefs of Hinduism or any other religion for that matter, and would have been characterized as heresy or blasphemy elsewhere in the world. But in India, these beliefs were respected, recorded and carried through the ages as part of scriptures. Religious scholars study them even today.
How do Hindus treat other religions? They consider all religions as true and believe that they all tell one and the same truth. The Hindu scriptures proclaim, “There is one truth, only men describe it in different ways.” In Hinduism, tolerance is not simply a matter of policy, but an article of faith.
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So, it is not surprising that Jews who went to India 2,000 years ago, when their temple was destroyed by the Romans, lived in peace and that their descendents have practiced their faith openly all these years. India is one of the few rare places in the world where Jews were not persecuted. When Christians were thrown to beasts in Rome and were forced to practice their faith secretly for centuries, one of the Disciples of Jesus, St. Thomas, went to India and preached the Gospel. Indians who converted to Christianity practiced their faith openly. As an openly accepted religion, Christianity in India is older than Christianity in Europe. Again when Zoroastrians and Baha’is were persecuted in Persia and in Iran respectively, India sheltered them.
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At present India’s prime minister is a Sikh; India’s president is a Muslim; and the leader of the political party governing the Indian federal government is a Christian woman, even though most Indians are Hindus, proving that India practices what she preaches.
No wars have been fought in the name of Hinduism, and there is no history of forced conversions, because of her conviction that various major religions are alternate paths to the same God.
A great Hindu saint, Ramakrishna, expressed this concept as follows: “God has made different religions to suit different aspirations, times and countries. All doctrines are only so many paths; one can reach God if one follows any of the paths with wholehearted devotion. There is only one God, but endless are his aspects and endless are his names. Call him by any name and worship him in any aspect that pleases you, you are sure to see him. So it is in ignorance that people say, ‘My religion is the only one, my religion is the best.’ When a heart is illumined by true knowledge, it knows that above all these wars of sects and sectarians presides the one indivisible, eternal, all-knowing bliss.”
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India strives for unity not by calling for a common religion, but only by pointing to a common goal, which is to realize God and by urging people to its attainment. The path, according to her, matters little; it is the goal that is supreme.
Her philosophy is reflected in this hymn: “As different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their waters in the sea, so different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they may appear, curved or straight, all lead to God.”
Sampath is a doctor who lives in Charleston.
