Hinduism is the oldest living religion in the world and the third-largest. More than one billion Hindus live in more than 150 different countries, mostly in India and the United States of America alone is home to over two million Hindus origins of Hinduism.
To find the distant beginnings of Hinduism we have to go back over 6,000 years to the Saraswati Indus region of the Indian subcontinent this vast area extends from Sri Lanka in the south of India to the Himalayan mountains in the north of India, from the Arabian Sea in the west of India to the Bay of Bengal in the east of India.
The source with the Indus civilization developed here eventually becoming the world's largest and most advanced surpassing even those of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China the civilization is named after the area's two great river systems the Saraswati and the Indus it is called the Vedic culture. After the earliest Hindu sacred texts itis also known as the Harappan culture after the site of its first discovery in the year 1920. This was an urban culture centered around many highly organized cities some with populations of 80,000 which was rare in those days the cities were connected by trade routes which extended west to Mesopotamia and East to Central Asia. 5,000 years later archaeologists discovered pottery, seals, statues, beads, jewelry, tools, toys, miniature, card, dyes, and all of which hint at what life was like at the source of the civilization that has evolved into modern-day India. The flat stone seal shave riding on them and images of deities ceremonies symbols people plants and animals even though the writing was widespread. Among the people, we have not deciphered it yet from these artifacts we learned that certain religious and cultural practices were identical to those followed by Hindus. Today one seal shows a meditating figure which scholars linked to Lord Shiva while others show the Lotus posture used today in Hatha yoga. Other discoveries connect the far past with today including swastika statues of the mother goddess worship of the Shiva Lingam. The fire altars that show the ceremonial practice of Vedic people who are also known as Aryans. Sacred baths priests, sacred animals, and symbolism in the performing arts you must be familiar with the traditional greeting namaste here is a small clay statue portraying the same and this statue shows a woman with red powder in the part of her hair married women even today observed the same custom. As the Saraswathi Indus culture declined when the river dried up around 2000 BCE many people migrated to more fertile places in eastern and central India especially along the river Ganga and also beyond the subcontinent.
Hindu scriptures the four Vedas the central holy books of Hinduism were composed in Sanskrit starting at least 6,000 years ago. The Rig Veda the earliest of the four speaks repeatedly of the Saraswathi describing it as the most mighty of rivers flowing from the Himalayan mountains to the sea. Thus we know that a large part of this sacred text was composed well before 2,000 BCE by which time the river had dried up Vedic hymns praise God. Gods and goddesses and describe a powerful and spiritual people their clans, kings, and emperors fight and battles their sophisticated economy included agriculture, industry, trade, commerce, and cattle raising. Vedas called the country Sapta Sindhu meaning the land of seven rivers the words Hindu and India both come from the Sanskrit word Sindhu which means river. Vedic hymns describe a form of fire worship yet Nia performed around specially built altar archaeologists have unearthed such altars in several satisfy the Indus cities. Hindus still perform fire worship in this form originally these thousands of hymns were not written down but memorized even today there are priests. Who could chant from memory as many as ten five hundred verses which takes fifty hours there are dozens of other sacred texts that Hindus Revere including the Puranas and the writings of alumina rishis/sages.
The epics Ramayana and the Mahabharata are traditional histories of India and storehouses of Hindu heritage the Ramayana is a story of Lord Rama’s seventh incarnation or avatar of Lord Vishnu and his divine wife Sita.
The Mahabharata is the world's longest epic, it is about a massive war in ancient India between cousins fighting for the throne of a great Kingdom, a central episode of Mahabharata called the Bhagavad-Gita. It is the dialogue between commander Arjuna and his charioteer Lord Krishna, the eighth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, which took place on the day of the battle the Mahabharata. It remains as one of the most widespread scriptures in the world with its dominant message of justice. Hindu sacred music, dance, drama, and the arts draw heavily on these two literary epics the Hindu society by 600 BCE.
The social religious and philosophical ideas and practices central to Hinduism today or fully evident having emerged from the Indus culture to the Vedas Dravidian culture and the tribal culture of the religion. A distinctive feature of society was the Varna or class system people were classified with specific occupations, parents taught their skills to their children from a young age providing a strong grounding in their profession or trade. These groups eventually became hereditary priests warriors merchants and workers including craftsmen and farmers however this class system did not include the various forest tribes. It also did not include small communities considered untouchable because their occupations were unclean such as the cremation ground Chandana’s scavengers and leather workers this system gave identity to the kinship groups and gave all citizens a sense of belonging greater social order and stability the socially cohesive contributions of caste continued to play a key role in economic, social and political life most visibly in marriages and elections.
Life in ancient times was hard working for both men and women, Women were responsible for running the household while men for looking after their craft form and family security in general. Women participated equally in religious ceremonies festivities and social relationships. Some of the foremost religious and political leaders in India's history have been women some even composed Vedic hymns.
The period from the 1,003 periods ending in the mid-six centuries was a time of great scientific and mathematical advancement. Hindus rishis/ sages developed the counting system we use today including the mathematical concepts of zero and decimals. Indian astronomers knew that the Earth orbits the Sun and they calculated the length of a year with amazing precision of medicine was so advanced that doctors were performing complex surgeries not equaled in Europe until the 18th century. India was the foremost supplier of steel to the world. The quality of iron that India made, which even stands today and has never rusted modern science cannot be equal to this feat for thousands of years. India has been home to 1/4 of the human family. It has been honored as a nation of wealth and wisdom and of course, it is famous today as the world's largest democracy. Hindu beliefs, practices and the rishis/saints/ sages of the religion of this land have always been open-minded and tolerant with the belief that truth is one, however, paths are many. Thus Hindus respect all other religions.
Hinduism is the only major religion that worships God in both male and female form as well as with and without any attributes the original Sanskrit name for Hinduism is Sanatana-dharma meaning eternal religion. Most Hindus believe in a supreme God, many gods, and goddesses spiritual worlds the divinity of the soul Dharma karma reincarnation. God-realization and liberation from rebirth the Supreme God is known by various names depending on region and denomination. Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva shakti, and more he/she is an all-powerful, all-knowing all-loving eminent that is present in all things and transcendent beyond them as well. God exists within each person as the divine soul. God-realization describes the experience of the divine within oneself. This profound encounter with God is regarded as the ultimate goal of life. Hindus teach that every human being can know God personally. Hindus also worship other divinities each divinity has distinct powers and areas of responsibility, for example, Lord Ganesha is the remover of obstacles, Saraswathi is the goddess of knowledge and Hanuman is the God of service and devotion each. Hindu freely chooses the deities he or she wishes to worship.
Today everyone knows about the Hindu concept of karma, the law of cause and effect it means that anything a person does whether good or bad will eventually return to him in this or a future life a popular way of expressing this is what goes around comes around. Reincarnation is the central Indian belief that the soul - Atma is reborn in a new body. Time and time again to grow and mature through all the experiences human life has to offer eventually every soul achieves salvation by realizing its oneness with God and is no longer reborn.
Hindus do not believe in a Satan or eternal hell worship is central to a Hindus life so mostly every Hindu home has a place of worship it may be as simple as a shelf with pictures of deities or an entire room dedicated to the family's daily worship. A worship ceremony called pooja performed elaborately or very simply every day in the temple or the home shrine invokes the divine beings for blessings and happiness the puja ceremony includes sacred chanting, bathing, the image of the deity or bi-graha / murti (idol) offering food, flowers, incense stick, the lighting of the lamp and other sacred substances and the waving of lights popularly known as aarti. According to Hinduism, the practice of yogic disciplines every day is called sadhana, sitting on the floor often in a yoga posture (lotus feet) they chant, sing, devotional hymns, repeat the name of God while counting on beads or simply meditate in stillness and silence.
The temple is revered as the home of God. There are millions of temples in India. Many quite ancient the most important of these mystically designed structures cover hundreds of acres and receive thousands of pilgrims each day every. A Hindu is expected to pilgrimage to temples and holy places far and wide these pilgrimages unify the religion as tens of millions of people travel throughout the subcontinent and interact. Hinduism has a rich history of rishis/ sage/saints both men and women from all castes some of the great saints wrote detailed explanations of the Upanishads and related scriptures such as Adi Shankara in the 8th century CE Ramanuja in the 11th and Vallabhacharya in the 15 others including Sambandar, Meera Bai and Tukaram expressed their experience of God through devotional songs. Recent saints include Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is considered as the reincarnation of Lord Krishna, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekanandaananda, Swami Narayan and Shirdisai baba millions of Swami's and other saintly souls make up the spiritual leadership within. Hinduism Swami's / saints have renounced the world and taken up spiritual life full-time special among these are the Guru's enlightened men and women, who serve as religious teachers. Some gurus have millions of followers others are humble hermits. Hinduism has no central organization and no single dogma no one person or institution is in charge instead there are thousands of independent guru lineages.
Spiritual traditions monastic orders and religious institutions. Hindus love festivals and enthusiastically celebrate many holidays each year. Amongst many Hindu festivals, the biggest is the Diwali or Deepavali the festival of lights this five-day event held around the new moon in October or November celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness. thousands of small lamps including traditional clay oil lamps are placed everywhere and fireworks signal hope for mankind it is a national holiday in India and in many countries with large Hindu populations. In 2013 BarackObama was the first U.S. President to celebrate Diwali in the white White House, light diya (lamp), and wished all a Happy Diwali.
Another special festival is the Ratha Yatra. Ratha Yatra is also called as Car Festival or Chariot Festival, it is associated with Lord Jagannath held at Puri in the state of Odisha, India. It is the oldest Ratha Yatra taking place in India and the World, whose descriptions can be found in Brahma Purana, Padma Purana, and Skanda Purana and Kapila Samhita. This annual festival is celebrated on Ashadha Shukla Paksha Dwitiya (second day in the bright fortnight of Ashadha month). The festival commemorates Jagannath's annual visit to Gundicha Temple via Mausi Maa Temple (maternal aunt's home) near Saradha Bali, Puri. Rath Yatra is celebrated throughout India and all other places where Hindus.
Kumbh Mela is a major pilgrimage and festival in Hinduism. It is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years at four river-bank pilgrimage sites: the Allahabad (Ganges-Yamuna Saraswati rivers confluence), Haridwar (Ganges), Nashik (Godavari), and Ujjain (Shipra). The festival is marked by a ritual dip in the waters, but it is also a celebration of community commerce with numerous fairs, education, religious discourses by saints, mass feedings of monks or the poor, and entertainment spectacle. The seekers believe that bathing in these rivers is a means to prāyaścitta (atonement, penance) for past mistakes and that it cleanses them of their sins.
Subroneel Saha is high in life. He enjoys life and believes to savour everything by doing along the path with passion, which he considers to be the most important part of the experience. He is a prolific writer on history, mythology, sacred lore, legends, folklore, fables and parables, and for challenging willful misinterpretations of ancient Indian and world scriptures, stories, symbols, and rituals. He intents to break the dogma and reveal the intentional part of every myth and the story, with the relevance with business, management, social life, student life.
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