Why I am a Hindu

Who knows whence this creation had its origin?He, whether He fashioned it or whether He did not,He, who surveys it all from the highest heaven,He knows—or maybe even He does not know.— Rig Veda, X.129 1‘Maybe even He does not know!’ I love a faith that raises such a fundamentalquestion about no less a Supreme Being than the Creator of the UniverseHimself. Maybe He does not know, indeed. Who are we mere mortals to claim aknowledge of which even He cannot be certain?

Whosoever comes to me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me.

the word ‘Hindu’ did not exist in any Indian language till its use by foreigners gave Indians a term for self-definition. Hindus, in other words, call themselves by a label that they didn’t invent themselves in any of their own languages, but adopted cheerfully when others began to refer to them by that word. (Of course, many prefer a different term altogether—Sanatana Dharma,

the problem is never with the faith, but with the faithful.

It is precisely faith that makes thinking possible, for faith offers the unthought ground out of which thinking can emerge. It is faith that makes moral and other decisions possible, opening to us the horizon against which our actions become meaningful.

Tolerance, after all, implies that you have the truth, but will generously indulge another who does not; you will, in an act of tolerance, allow him the right to be wrong. Acceptance, on the other hand, implies that you have a truth but the other person may also have a truth; that you accept his truth and respect it, while expecting him to respect (and accept) your truth in turn. This practice of acceptance of difference—the idea that other ways of being and believing are equally valid—is central to Hinduism and the basis for India’s democratic culture.

Merchant interestingly defines a Hindu as one who is an ardent seeker of Truth: ‘An individual who strives to actively discern the existence of the objective Reality otherwise termed as God and attain Him if convinced of His existence, using means that are inherently subjective and dependent on the individual’s own proclivities, beliefs and values, is a Hindu.’ This definition of Hinduism, if it can be called that—since it could apply to almost anyone of any culture or religious faith—emphasises the individualist nature of the quest for truth, the role of reasoning in the process, and the ultimate yearning for God (whether one uses that term or speaks of the soul’s merger with Brahman, the idea is the same).