Interesting Hinduism Facts

Without a prescribed theological system, a standard of morality, or a religious organization, many people often ask the question, is Hinduism really a religion? Well, it is a question that is difficult to answer. With over a billion followers, the religion is more of a faith. It is a way of living. Unlike other major religions, Hinduism is not organized nor does one single book prescribe its beliefs. There is no compulsion on going to a place of worship. The religion does not have one single god that everyone prays to. In fact, the sheer number of Hindu gods can be mind-boggling to say the least. There are many aspects of Hinduism which may take years of study to fully understand.

Hinduism Facts and Beliefs

One of the interesting facts about Hinduism is that the name of the religion is derived from the name of the river Indus which is known as Sindhu in Sanskrit. Traditionally, the religion was referred to as Sanatana Dharma which translated to mean the eternal religion. In Arabic literature, the term al-Hind was used to refer to people who lived across the Sindhu. By the thirteenth century this term gave birth to the name of the country, Hindustan, the land of the Hindus. It was only in the eighteenth century that this primarily secular term, became a reference to the religion followed by the majority of Indians.

Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma is widely considered the oldest religion in the world, with evidence suggesting that practice can be traced back to relics from 1500 BC. It is one of the few religions in the world that cannot be credited to a founder. Hinduism has more than one billion followers across the globe, making it the fourth largest religion in the world. A majority of the followers of the religion are based in the Indian sub-continent. Till 2006, Nepal was the only Hindu kingdom in the world, relinquishing that status for a more secular one that year.

According to the history of Hinduism, traditionally, followers belonged to one of six schools of which only two still exist. Today as a practitioner of Hinduism you could belong to one of four sects, Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, and Smartism. The original language that followers needed to learn in order to study the sacred texts of the religion was Sanskrit. These texts like the vedas, puranas, and the upanishads all date back to the Vedic period.

One of the basic beliefs of Hinduism is that the human body is caught in a circle of reincarnation and that your purpose in life should be to attain moksha (liberation) from this circle. The only way to achieve this liberation is to resolve your karma and live your life as specified by dharma. Hinduism as a religion also specifies that you need to fulfill not only your moral and religious duties by fulfilling your dharma but also attain your desires of artha (financial), kama (sensual), and moksha (liberation). As a Hindu, you will also have to pay your debts to God, the saints, and your ancestors. In order to achieve your goals, Hinduism beliefs also states that there are four important paths or yogas. These are listed below.

• Bhakti yoga which is the path of devotion to religion and love.
• Karma yoga which is the path of correct action.
• Raja yoga dictates the path of meditation.
• The path of wisdom and knowledge or Jnana yoga.

As a devout Hindu, there are four stages of one's life - the brahmacharya, which is your learning period, grihastha, a stage where your attention needs to be on your family and career, vanaprastha, devotion to spirituality and disengagement from the material world, and sannyasa, a stage in which the person is expected to renounce everything worldly and material. Hinduism facts and history will tell you that a Hindu society is divided into four classes or varnas. The brahmins, kshatriyas, vaishyas, and the shudras are the four classes into which the society is divided. It is one of the unfathomable yet interesting facts that these societal classifications, as archaic as they may seem, still determine a majority of the religious and societal interactions in India which has the largest Hindu population in the world.

While fanatics have reduced the religion to being fundamentalist and closed in nature, the fact remains that the essence of the religion lies in its universality and tolerance. Facts about Hindu religion will tell you that the doctrines of the religion are such that they proclaim a message against hatred and war. The religion follows a philosophy that determines a way of life.