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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