Concepts of Indian religions in general and Hinduism in particular
Most of the religions like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism…have been formed by one individual; where as Hinduism came into existence through way of life. No one person can be given the credit of forming this religion.
These ways of life were conceptualized by the spiritual teachers of ancient times through spiritual thinking, and wrote down the outcome that we follow today. Hinduism has two books; Shrutis and Smritis. In Shrutis fundamental
principles of spiritual life and spiritual experiences of spiritual experts are found. These experts did not try to explain their writings as any model making it absolutely impersonal and independent of the cultural and rational background of the writers. Hinduism based on these writings is known as ‘Sanatan Dharma’ – eternal way. These writings are identified as ‘Vedas’. ‘Upanishad’ is some part of the Vedas that deals with the principles of spiritual life. All concepts in end numbers of Upanishads have been confined in 10 Upanishads. Sri Sankara, one of the most renowned spiritual masters, has written the explanatory notes on this.
‘Smritis’ too have been jotted down in words by the scholars in this field. Here they have established the model of God, Man, and the Universe to match the general principles of Shrutis. These have been categorized by color according to the cultural back ground of the authors.
Different schools of thoughts existed in Hinduism maintaining the broad principle. Many of them are active for hundreds of years; while many others lost their seen and have merged with the existing sects making those stronger.
From the view point of Hinduism it can be said that it believes all other religions are as true as Hinduism because different ways in different religions also show the path to reach the same goal for everybody through intrinsic divinity of human being. Sri Ramakrishna demonstrated this principle during his living between 1836 and 1886 by taking various paths and religions like Christianity, Islam, Advaitism, Vaishnavism, etc one at a time and followed them intensely to show that the goal is same.