Do you agree with your religion's philosophy??

Do you know the philosophical tenets of your religion and more importantly, do you agree with them?? Or do you just take pride (गर्व से कहो ...) in being a Hindu (or Muslim, or Christian, or Sikh, or Parsi) knowing fully well that it was a mere statistical accident that you got born in this family of yours. Now don't confuse rituals with philosophy. For example, reciting shlokas and worshipping (सत्य नारायण की पूजा) in the prescribed manner does not make you a better Hindu. Have you ever tried to find out what makes your religion, philosophically different from others?

Let us make a beginning. Let's identify the main principles of Hinduism and I would request my friends from other religions to inform us "bullet points" of what their religion's philosophy is!

1. Rebirth: (पुनर्जन्म): A person is reborn, depending on his deeds of the previous birth. The highest form of birth is as a human being but as a mark of punishment for your bad deeds, you could get reborn as a cocroach or a dog or whatever...


2. Salvation: (मोक्ष): Everyone should aspire to behave so well in a particular birth that he / she gets out of this cycle of rebirth. You would have then achieved the final salvation. Rebirth is thus a "reward - punishment" mechanism.


3. Principle of non - duality (अद्वैत ): Hindu philosophy postulates that everything in this world is a part of the same entity; it even extends this logic by stating that the "creator" (निर्माता ) and the "creations" (निर्मिती) are one & the same thing. According to this tenet, there is thus no point in hating others - they are really a part of yourself - does the right hand ever hate the left hand??


4. Destiny (नसीब): Our destinies are pre-written by the creator and we are mere pawns on a chessboard playing out our life as decreed by HIM (GOD is always a male). Is this why we Hindus are a laid back lot, convinced that we can't change what is pre-ordained for us?


5. Extreme Tolerance: Hinduism should really be a delight to all modernists who value their independence above everything else - [a] it admits that their could be other paths leading to GOD; [b] it gives complete liberty to its followers to choose any GOD of his/her choice & their are many to choose from; [c] it does not have strict dress or appearance codes; [d] it allows you to use your own methods of worship; [e] it does not want to 'market' itself and spread amongst those who do not belong to its fold; [f] it is so liberal that it even sanctions atheism as a legitimate pursuit.


6. Living life "fully": It decrees that the four life stages viz ब्रह्मचर्य (before marriage) , गृहस्ताश्रम (married life and raising a family), वानप्रस्थाश्रम ( delegation of authority to children and spending time in contemplation) and finally संन्यास (detatchement from family and renunciation of worldly pleasures), have different objectives and need to be lived and enjoyed fully and robustly.


7. Fully concentrating on the process of achieving your objectives without excessive botheration about the end result: This is the famous teaching of Bhagwadgita (कर्मण्ये वा धिकार्स्ये माँ फले तू कदाचन). A person is called upon to perform different duties in different life stages and these thoughts should really be his guiding principles.

Now this is what Hinduism stands for. Truthfully, I would personally agree to only 5, 6 & 7 of the above. Next time I am filling up a form which asks me to state my religion, I should honestly write 40% Hindu (3 upon 7).

I eagerly await similar inputs for other religions.