Hinduism

Hinduism is not a religion ; It is a philosophy. So I'm told at the Chinese restaurant around the corner, a joint for old retired men to have beers and lunch.




I don't pretend to give a lecture on religion, but rather a short summary of my conversation with the man, as well as a few field observations and comments about them.

Hinduism describes life and death as part of an universal pattern. The universe is a cosmical entity, of which the timeless infinity lies behind everyday life's reality. The material world made of atoms is actually ruled by superior mystical powers which decide of the fate of all things and beings. Each man has a destiny embedded in him, and if he doesn't fulfill it in this life he will reincarnate to continue the quest. Atoms, protons, neutrons and electrons are all part of this universal scheme and encourage the fulfillment of destinies. The concept of good and evil is formed by each person's morality. Someone is bad if another person is here to judge his actions as bad. Moreover, determinism makes us stay what we were yesterday, and we will be the same tomorrow. This concept of eternal soul reminds me of what I've already learned with the Krishna followers. So much for free will...

Hinduism religion is unrationalizable. It takes us light years away from our Western philosophy and its rationalist (Descartes, Spinoza) or empiricist (Locke, Hume, Berkeley) tradition. The starting point for building our understanding of the world is Reason, whereas Hinduism as a philosophy describes a knowledge which is above reason, a higher reality. A the ISKCON temple for instance, the classes are given by the Institute of Higher Consciousness. The understanding of reality is not achieved by repeted experiments and study of causality, but by years of meditation, prayers and a blind faith (blind to us as faith does not use Reason, but rather a kind of Intuition that comes from the heart, or the soul) in another world, beyond ours, that we hope to reach after going through the four stages of spiritual life. Being a "student" first (mainly studying the Vedas) ; Then a "housekeeper" (everyday life, material happiness and experience of pleasure, sacrifice of instant individual happiness for the one of our family, more rewarding) ; To then become a "forest-dweller" (retire oneself for everyday life distractions to begin spiritual awakening) ; And eventually be an "ermit" (Sannyasa), virtually cut from the outside world in order to complete one's consciousness of the spiritual world. Dictature of the senses versus meditation. To sum up, Hinduist philosophy is hard for us to apprehend as it does not fit our rationalist understanding. Eastern spirituality doesn't rule out Reason, it transcends it.


As artistically stunning as it is, Hinduist artwork (shrines, statues...) and the devotion to the many Gods of Hinduism might actually be against the old foundations of the religion, according to which one should not worship the representations of the Gods. This information remains unverified (any grounds for this assertion Sourabh?), and even if it was true I don't know of any religion which still follows its founding principles. We usually read what we want to in the Holy Scriptures of any faith (Jesus always told us to love our neighbours as ourselves, and to give the other cheek ; But how many Christian families actually apply these? The fear of our own neighbours being very common in our society). The foundations of hinduism were layed in the Vedas, or vedic writings, including the oldest one the Rig-Veda, written between 1500 and 900 B.C., being the oldest book about philosophy or religion. The Vedas gather a great number of stories about the Gods, myths and beliefs, some of whom date back as far as 5000 B.C. The caste system, roughly set in the Vedas, was then further developped in the Upanishad. A lot more was depicted in the two most famous epics of Hinduism, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, written between 800 and 200 B.C. They are the most refered to when it comes to religious practices, rather than the Vedas.

Originally, the caste system was invented by the Aryans invaders, who used it to keep the natives in their position of conquered people by calling them "Dasas" (slaves). Then the karmic hierarchy developped, placing in order from high to low: the Brahmins (priests), Ksatriya (nobles, warriors), Vaisyas (farmers, merchants) and Sudras (servants), and many other sub-castes (carpenters, cleaners etc..). The untouchables are outside of this hierarchy. It is worth noting that it is uncertain whether religion backed up this cast system, and it was often broken, sometimes resulting in new caste formations. in facts, it seems clear that the caste system was mainly used as a powerful tool to maintain the relations of socio-economic domination.

Although source of unvaluable beauty to the observer, a lot of religious practices seem to be taking a lot of time, money and energy, for the whole of Indian society. So much time and money that is not allocated to infrastructures (roads...), cleaning and maintaining of public spaces, and furthermore education. Just to cite three of the main issues, in big cities and rural areas. What would be the cost of setting up an irrigation system to make farmers less dependant of the monsoon? A lot of religious practices and supersition get in the way of freedom for some youths, and may even substitute to their education.