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Neil Miller June 30, 2014 Filed Under: Hinduism

6 Things Hindus Do, and which ones you can do too!

Rajasthani Woman

Paula Ray via Flickr

To close up this series of articles about Hinduism, we’ll turn our focus to the second most important component of religion for Hinduism – Hindu practices and behaviors.

Religious behaviors are actions that have no intrinsic meaning,  but rather ascribed meaning. For example, walking around with a white cap on your head has no meaning on its own. However, when you are in a Muslim neighborhood, it suddenly has a lot of meaning. Similarly, taking a sip of wine doesn’t mean much on its own, but it carries a lot of meaning in the context of a Catholic church.

In Hinduism, behaviors are the second most important component (after community and before beliefs). Doing the right thing is more important than believing the right thing, because doing a particular action shows you are part of a particular group.

For example, in a Hindu home, the mother is more concerned that her son visits a temple (behavior) than that he believes in the power of that deity. [Read more…]

Neil Miller June 23, 2014 Filed Under: #IndiasNotIndia, Hinduism

5 Beliefs Most Hindus Would Agree With

Brightly colored Hindu Temples

You should approach this article with skepticism.

As we have said, while beliefs are an important component of religion, they are not the most important part about being a Hindu. A Hindu can reject nearly all the usual teachings of Hinduism and still confidently call herself a Hindu if she belongs to a Hindu community and performs the normal behaviors.

So, what do Hindus believe?

Hindu beliefs can be extremely diverse. Since Hinduism was formed as an amalgamation of several belief systems and not from one common source, it is very hard to identify some universal beliefs that apply to most Hindus.

So, you should cautiously approach anyone who says, “This is what Hindus believe.”

Instead of trying to give a full systematic theology for Hinduism (which doesn’t exist), I’ve pulled out five things that most Hindus will incorporate into their belief systems, as well as how they talk and act. [Read more…]

Neil Miller June 16, 2014 Filed Under: #GreyIsWhite, #See1See100, Hinduism

The Most Important Term From Hinduism You Will Never Talk About

Dharma

“Hinduism is a way of life, not a religion.”

You will hear this phrase over and over as you learn about Hinduism. It is a very true statement, but what does “way of life” mean? Why does Hinduism get to claim to be outside of “religion”?  What makes it so different?

It really comes down to one word. One untranslatable word that most Hindus don’t regularly talk about, but creates the entire structure for their life and society.

 

The most important term you’ve never heard

Dharma comes from the root word dhr that can be translated as “uphold” or “sustain”, according to Indologist PV Kane (quoted in Dayanand Bharati’s Understanding Hinduism). In many ways, the concepts of dharma have been the “supports” for Hindu (and Indian) society for a long time. [Read more…]

Neil Miller June 9, 2014 Filed Under: #IndiasNotIndia, Hinduism

Why you will probably stop learning about Hinduism

Cave Temple in India

 

It is a great idea on your part.

You are working with Indians or moving to India, and you want to be prepared. You want to be sensitive. So you start learning about the culture and decide you need to know something about Hinduism. “What is Hinduism?” you ask yourself.

You get online and browse around some websites. You order a book that looks good. Maybe you get really ambitious and try to read the Bhagavad Gita.

You are trying to dip your toe into the shallow end of the pool just to get a feel for what Hinduism is, and how learning about it will help you live and work better with India.

However, if you are like most of us, you will abandon this pretty quickly for one or more reasons:

 

  1. The content is way too philosophical. It tries to explain the difference between Vedanta and Mimamsa in the second chapter. It gets too deep too fast, and there is no frame of reference.
  2. The content is overly spiritualized. Everything seems to be about seeking the inner god in you, being a good person, etc. It strikes you more as “new age” than a multi-millennia religion.
  3. The content isn’t consistent. If you are comparing what you read from different sources, you notice large gaps and contradictory statements that make no sense when put together.
  4. It doesn’t match up with what you observe and experience in everyday life. The whole reason you wanted to learn what is Hinduism in the first place is to gain an insight into working with Hindus. However, more than 90% of what you learned is useless in conversation and understanding daily life.

There ends your short journey into learning about Hinduism.

 

I don’t claim to be an expert on Hinduism, but I think we are approaching it the wrong way. Trying to learn abstractly about Hinduism and then apply those lessons onto individuals will not help you. [Read more…]

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