Hinduism,Penguin
Religion and Mythology, Penguin Books,1961
Author:Kshiti Mohan
Sen.
Review: BayoumiAndil.
Among religions, Hinduism stands as an exception.Whereas Mosaiism, Christianity, Mohammedanism, Bahaism and Bhudhism have a well-known founder, whether through tradition or history, Hinduism does not have any one founder. It grew gradually over a period of five thousand
years absorbing and assimilating all the religious and cultural movements of India. As a result, it does not have a Bible nor a Koran to which controversies can be referred for resolution.
Sen, our writer, asserts that life seeks for expression, it must speak out, as Rajjab a poet-saint who lived in India four hundred years ago, put it: Man has to work and toil to satisfy his physical needs.But this is not enough for him; he wants something more, something which more than three thousand years ago the Athavaveda praised in its hymn to Superfluity(
Ucchishta Sükta). First there is the feeling of wonder and awe at the mysteries of existence. In Hinduism, we find this in the Vedic Samhitâs, composed mainly in the second millennium B.C.E(=Before Common Era). In the words of Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel prize winner for literature in the year 1913, these were poetic testament of a
people''s collective reaction to the wonder and awe of existence. A people of vigorous and unsophisticated imagination, awakened at the very dawn of civilization to a sense of the inexhaustible mystery that is implicit in life.
Sen adds that the basic beliefs and philosophy of Hinduism are not irrelevant to the problems of the modern
world. In the past, he notes, the tenets of Hinduism have influenced the thinking of nearly half the population of the world; directly and indirectly through its offshoots such as Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
However our author denies the polytheistic character of Hinduism, calling it "a mistaken belief not uncommon in the West".However he asserts that Hindus show a
particular attachment to a particular figure in Hindu mythology and worship God in that form. He turns to the two most famous Indian
epics: the
Ramayana (about 24,000 couplets)and
Mahabharata (about 90,000 couplets).The latter is therefore, about seven times the length of the
Iliad& the
Odyssey put together. These epics constitute one of the main sources of our knowledge of popular religious practices. The epics also contribute to the formation of conduct. The honesty, sincerity and love of his fellow creatures that we find in Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, the chastity and kindness of Sita, his spouse have been archetypes of conduct for many generations.
To elaborate, he says that Hindu society is a product of many races and many cultures. It is necessary, according to him, to recognize this fact to appreciate the complexity of that
sui generis religion. The term Hindu is derived from the River Sindhu (the Indus) for the Persians referred to India as the land beyond the Sindhu. Hinduism would thus appear to be a generic term meaning the religions of the people of India. There is, however, a greater unity in Hinduism than this derivation would suggest, indeed it was for centuries the most important factor in preserving the unity of India.
There would be no appropriate finale for this review than a stanza of a hymn addressed by Hindus to Goddess Earth: "That fragrance of thine which is in men, the loveliness and charm that is in male and female, that which is in steads and heroes, that which is in the wild animals with trunks (elephants),the luster that is in the maiden, O Earth, with that do thou blend us: not any one shall hate us."
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