A New Look At Hinduism

There is, unfortunately, little good literature available in English on Hinduism and little understanding of its meaning as Sanatana Dharma. There has been an attempt to fit Hinduism into the mold of Western religions, which it does not resemble. Those who attempt this generally criticize Hinduism for not living up to a standard it never had, expecting it to have a clearly defined dogma of One God, One representative of him, and One Book. While there is a significant literature on the different branches of Hinduism like Yoga and Vedanta, there is little that explains their position within the greater Hindu tradition.

Hindus themselves, with an open and inclusive tradition have seldom found it necessary to define what a Hindu actually is. To many Hindus, Hinduism as a universal tradition includes everyone except those who willfully exclude themselves from it, and Hindus may not regard such exclusion as real. Some Hindus do not even like to be called Hindus because they think the name detracts from the universality of their teaching.

Academic views of Hinduism focus on various aspects of this broad tradition and seldom address it as a whole. They rarely discuss the idea of Sanatana Dharma. Few books have attempted to define what all Hindus have in common. Hinduism, like its Motherland India itself, is like a tropical jungle, extending up to the highest mountains in the world, which no simplistic views can adequately characterize.

Most of the prevalent views and studies of Hinduism available in the West remain limited and unreliable. They fail to see the unity of the tradition and merely examine formal differences within various teachings, and may even regard the different teachings of Sanatana Dharma as in conflict with one another. Instead of looking for the common thread they try to divide off Veda and Tantra, or Vedanta and Yoga, often on merely semantic grounds. These are just exercises in the discriminating intellect of academicians which miss the real truth of the teaching. Another vision is required, not merely for better understanding Hinduism but for better understanding our own reality, which is what Sanatana Dharma is really all about. 

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