Gennaro Brooks-Church

Mukund
Indian Hindu.

As a Hindu growing up, I was told many stories. Hinduism is full of mythology, and us children were constantly being told religious stories. The stories were about anything from the creation of the universe to why squirrels in India have three stripes on their backs. That is the one thing I miss from childhood, those bedtime stories. I did not have a dogmatic upbringing, though.

Sure, I participated in the festivals and certain cultural rituals, but it was not a daily or weekly thing. I did inherit certain values. These are mostly universal, such as honest, hard work, personal honesty, and respect for others. If I had to distil the Hindu message, for me it would be not to let the fruits of my work distract me from the work itself. I can only choose to do what I think is the right thing, but I have no control over the outcome.

What I like about Hinduism is that it is really open for your own interpretation. The basic idea is that you can find God in many ways, so that allows people to seek Him in the way they feel most comfortable. Of course, like any religion, it has its share of dogmatic areas and fanatical followers.

It is strict in certain areas, such as eating habits, but these are usually socio-cultural issues, and not religious ones. As far as choosing your religious path, I feel it is very flexible. In fact, there is nothing really in Hinduism that says you can’t worship, say, Christ, since it acknowledges that there are various paths to the Ultimate One.

If you feel salvation would be best through Allah, or Buddha, then you can take that way. It is ridiculous to say, “We are the only ones who know what the truth is,” or to condemn somebody following Islam, telling them they are doomed to hell forever. That is dumb, because they could be very virtuous and sincere in their religion.

In my family, we traditionally follow Vishnu, but I worship whoever I choose at the time. Krishna is a colorful character, so I might choose him if I’m in that mood. Or I might want the purity and perfection of Lord Rama. It is similar to the Greek pantheon, where you have all these Gods who are constantly up to their antics, each one with their own personality. You take what you need at the time.

I find Hinduism unique compared to the other religions. Firstly, it does not have a traceable root. Christianity can be traced to Jesus, Islam to Mohamed, and Judaism to Moses, but there is no one figure you can take Hinduism back to. No one person founded it. Likewise, Hinduism has many texts to draw from, unlike Islam, which focuses on the Koran, or Christianity’s Bible.

Another thing is that you can’t convert to Hinduism, you have to be born into it. It has no system of conversion like other beliefs. You have the Hari Krishna movement which takes in foreigners, but it is not the same as, say, a born again Christian conversion.

Hinduism’s pantheon of thousands of deities also sets it apart. But you have the basic trinity as well: the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer, or Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, respectively. What is really interesting, though, is that Hindus believe that true enlightenment is the ability to connect with God directly, without any of the deities as intermediaries.

So, eventually, the goal is to not need the religion or its idols at all. But I don’t think Hinduism is in any danger of going away. Eighty percent of India is Hindu, so there’s still a lot of people who need to reach enlightenment before they discard their religion.