Hinduism has been greatly misinterpreted by a large group of ignorant, confused and non-spiritual people. Unfortunately, it is so sad to note that even those who claim themselves to be Hindus, criticize Hinduism and call it to be a religion without any base or authenticity.
This is the age of Kaliyug which started in 3102 B.C. The effects of Kaliyug are to despise the divine truth and to elevate the anti-God elements in the name of God. In the last 200 years such dissipations were much greater when the English regime tried to destroy the culture and the religion of India in every way.
During that time, they deliberately produced such derogatory literatures in huge quantities that confused and misguided the entire world.
In order to impose the worldliness of their own baseless culture upon the Hindu faith, they introduced such fictitious theories and disparaging dogmas that produced a derogatory and demeaning view of Hinduism.
These publications affected the minds of the Hindu writers to such an extent that they also began to think and write on the same lines. Even the reputed Indian scholars produced such books those were the replicas of the same trend which was promoted by Sir William Jones, Max Muller (who was a highly paid employee of East India Company), the associates of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and many more.
Hinduism is the oldest religion which has an eternal solid and perfect base. The perfectly eternal base of Hinduism is the Vedas. The Vedas were never written by anyone, not even by God.
Supreme Lord Shri Krishna says in the Bhagwad Gita;
Sarvasya chaham hridi sannivishto, mattah smritirgyanmapohanan cha Vedaishcha sarvairahameva vedyo, vedantkritvedavidev chaham. 15/15
I am the knower, the knowledge, and the known. In other words the Vedas are not the words of God but are the perfect knowledge, (chit) aspect of God who is also known as SATCHITANAND Brahm.
Hinduism is a divine manifestation, be it our perfectly divine Vedic scriptures that include the Rigved, Atharvaved, Samved, Yajurved, the six darshan shastras ( Nyaya, Sankhya, Vaisheshikh, Poorva Mimansa, Vedant, Yog Darshan), 1,180 upnishads (out of which only 200 are available), 18 Puranas, 2 itihas puran- Ramayan and Mahabharat, Manu Smriti or the perfect divine Sanskrit language and the God realized saints, who were descended personalities and not simply elected or chosen by any group of people or self claimed spiritual leaders.
To prove any fact there are three kinds of evidences: testimonial, inferential or circumstantial and perceptional form of evidence. We have all the three kinds of evidences to authenticate the Divinity of all the scriptures and thus Hinduism.
(a)Hinduism has a system. At many places and in all the different Vedic scriptures the scriptures themselves reveal their origin to be the supreme Godhead personality. Little scriptural evidences are: Brihadaranyakopnishad 2/4/10, Chandogyopnishad 7/1/2 and so forth.
There is always a perfect reason behind everything the scriptures say. For example Shri Krishna wears a crown with a peacock feather tilted on one side.
During the British rule in India, a question was raised as to what is right tilting the peacock feather on the right side or the left side? People got divided into two parties and to solve their heated argument they approached a British judge who passed the judgment using his ignorant material intellect, saying it shouldn’t be tilted on either side but put straight.
When the fact of the matter is that when Shri Krishna is standing with Shri Radha Rani who always stands on the left hand side, the feather is tilted on the right and when standing with Balram who stands on the right hand side the feather is tilted on the left.
(b) Considering the perfection, preciseness, depth and extensiveness of the eternal Vedic wisdom it is beyond human intellect and is very much relevant in today’s time and age.
The perfect guidance it gives to live a peaceful, enjoyable and spiritually rich life, naturally certify the Divine greatness of our scriptures. The facts about creation for example: the beginning of the existing human civilization is 120.5331 million years; the beginning of this planetary system is 155.521972 trillion years, human beings didn’t simply evolve from monkeys; which is so illogical and baseless. However, our scriptures give the evidence which is scientifically and philosophically logical.
The creator Brahma divided His personality into two shaktis with the purpose of creation; Male shakti as Swayambhu Manu and female shakti as Shatroopa! Thus, here began the procreation and from them were born three daughters and two sons.
Hence, the human creation started and continues in the same manner till this day unlike the others who claim that we evolved, or were born out of sin of Adam and Eve and so on.
(c) As regards to perceptional form of evidence, all great God realized Saints always witness the Divine glory of the supreme God. That is how all the writings of such divinely realized Saints are perfectly in coordination with the tenets of the original Vedic scriptures. This truth is not hidden from the world today. If anyone listens to or reads the philosophy of Divine Love by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, one is astounded to learn how he can quote the verses with precise number endlessly from the infinite Vedic scriptures. The descriptions given by the entire God realized Saints about God’s beauty, attribute, abode, pastimes in their chanting, shows that they witnessed the Divinity as they sang.
Thus Hinduism is eternal religion having a perfect original founder the supreme God Himself. All our scriptures are collectively called “Sanatan Dharm” which means the eternal (sanatan) principles of knowledge (dharm). It provides the guidelines for all kinds of people of the world, which, if followed, would lead them to God realization.
Therefore, people who are caught up in the drama of material pursuit and indulged in power and position, have no right to give their opinion on Hinduism. It is a shame when such deluded people who lack faith in God jump up to conclusion saying that Hinduism is an outcome of collective thoughts without any founder or proper base.
Only the sincere God realized Saints can drink the Divine nectar of the Vedic wisdom and hold such conversations with other genuine Saints. It is not that anyone can become a spiritual teacher or a priest. All the conditions of qualification are written in our scriptures. For details one can get in touch with me.
Teachings from my spiritual master a God realized Saint, His Divine Excellency Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj.
For further details on Hinduism one can read the book “True History and Religion of India.” By H D Swami Prakashanand Saraswati.
Swamini Gopeshwari Devi