Approximately, 60% of population across the globe pursue more than 4 thousand religious beliefs. Most of them fall under 2 main streams of religions i.e. Abrahamic and Dharmic (Indian) with nearly 95% followings. In almost all cases the religions are named either after the founder or the philosophy. Interestingly both the factors are brushed aside in case of the oldest religion with a third of world’s population, the Hinduism. However, etymology considers Hinduism as a geographical term and refers to nationality of the people who lives across the river Sindhu a.k.a Indus. Though coined initially by the Persians, with difficulty to pronounce the river name correctly, assumed the cult status afterwards.
The parody is, the most civilized people living at the bank Sindhu are referred as Hindus by Persians and Indus by Europeans, defying a canon of language “Proper names are never translated”. Moreover, the ill-conceived notion of the nationality is now imposed on the people across the Indian sub-continent as their religion. The hypothesis is based on the narrow perception of idol worshiping as a distinguishing feature. While Buddhism and Jainism were already pre-existing established as rebellious beliefs against the principle of idol worshiping and complex customs. Two important points require clarification here, 1) name of the religion and 2) principles of idol worshiping. 1) Hinduism as a religion never existed, Sanatan Dharma meaning “Eternal” was always the belief in the main land India. 2) Sanatan Dharma, is never limited to idol worshiping, as the word “Eternal” suggests it encompasses both believers and non-believers, monotheists and polytheists, atheists and pantheists, and above all, believers of both forms and formless. This professes the religion of humanity across all artificial discrimination that embraces the entire population of the universe.
The same religion puts the gurus (the spiritual guides) in the same league of gods, 330 millions in number, is liberal enough to welcome the entire Abrahamic creed into its fold. As long as the religious principles adhere to humanity, all of them essentially lead you to thy almighty. After all, “Heaven”,”Jannat” or “Swarg” are all the same that a person with good deeds “karma” deserves and bad “Karma” paves the way for hell. There was never plurality in the definition of good or bad across all faiths. The problem arises when one school of faith starts inflicting its superiority on others. Like love, the spiritual belief too can’t be imposed forcibly or through any inducements. Neither the umbrella religion “Sanatana Dharma” nor the basic tenets of social life “harmonious co-existence” approves any such activity.
Most of the Abrahamic religions founded as a sign of disapproval against Pagan customs. Pagans are essentially idol worshipers with complex customs, in striking similarities with Indian religion. Buddhism/Jainism too were against idol worshiping and set up to protest against prevailing customs but the travesty is Buddha idol is worshiped most now. Nonetheless, all religious faiths suffer from some sort of snags, more when we confuse religion with customs. While religion remains unblemished after millions of years of progression the customs are subject to impairment. At least in the context of India, few customs are very outdated and unscientific in practice. Practice makes things perfect, however in this case mindless practices turned customs into blind faith.
Interestingly, a lot of old customs are backed by scientific reasoning after thorough analysis and experiments. For instance prohibition on same “Gotra” (clan) marriage: loads of studies have already proved that marriages within close blood relations have a risk of producing unhealthy/deformed off-springs. When the custom was initially established the Gotra/Clan lineage was numbered so it was very predictable for few generations to have babies with homogeneous genetic order, if married in the same Gotra. Now after innumerable years, the need is to collect sample data on the genealogy and conduct an experiment to check the validity of the thesis else the said customs should be out-rightly rejected.
The Worshiped Thyself Worships
So the bottom line is, though the established customs were quite scientific then, with changed context , we need to re-apply our mind to check if those practices are still relevant. Few of the customs are a result of prevailing social condition with no science behind it. They should never be mixed with religion and shunned as soon as possible. Practice of “Sati-Daha”, voluntary immolation of widows came into force against oppressing attitude during Afghan invasions. So time to time reformers take up this responsibility to unshackle people from those rusted customs. Lastly, Sanatana Dharma is so enriched with knowledge that if we connect the customs with science and explore Purana Shastras further. That could open up new dimensions in, health care/medical science, astronomy, architecture and a gamut of other streams. Remember, the current Vedic mathematics is synthesize of just few stanzas from Veda.
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