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The World View of Hinduism
The Hindu world view rests upon an ultimate and impersonal Reality or Brahman, and sees the
world as transient, as possessing no independent reality of its own.
It says that God is the only Truth. For this view, Hinduism is
accused of rejecting the world, denying life, and not giving proper
importance to the individual, while religions that fail to recognize
such a Transcendent Reality may be considered progressive,
compassionate and concerned about the welfare of the individual
because they rest upon a personal and historical concept of the
Divine.
Such thinking remains
superficial because Hinduism does not reject the world but only the
idea that it exists apart from the Divine. Hinduism abounds with
reverence for the Divine in all the forms of life and all aspects of
nature - including animals, plants, rivers and mountains. It honors
all aspects of the personal worship of the Divine with forms of the
Divine Father, Mother, Lover, Friend, and Lord. Moreover it says
that the individual is God (aham Brahmasmi, ayam Atma Brahma). It
values the individual over the entire universe. It emphasizes the
full realization of the Divine in the Universal Being that is our
true nature as an individual.
These two most salient
features of Sanatana Dharma - its seeing of the Divine in
innumerable forms and its recognition of the Divine reality that
transcends all forms - are not contradictory but the two sides of
the same vision which not only recognizes the Absolute Truth but
finds it in all creation.
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