Page 122 - Hinduism

Essentials of Hinduism
- Sri K.C.Narayana
I. Introduction
Like most Hindus, I often find myself perplexed when called upon to explain to others what Hinduism is. I find that the major difficulty a modern Hindu faces in defining Hinduism to others stems from his difficulty in defining it to himself. This is especially the case with the "educated Hindu" who has unconsciously acquired the habit of looking at himself and his civilization through Christian eyes. As a result, his reaction is invariably defensive, and he mumbles something like "essential truth in all religions," or Sarva dharma samatva, or some such equally meaningless platitude. But this habit-of measuring something with alien values is a very serious limitation if anyone wants to understand what Hinduism is about.
The problem has to be studied in depth. The vision and vocabulary of a revealed religion like Christianity and Islam are fundamentally unsuited to describe Hinduism, for Hinduism is an evolved and not a revealed religion. The problem is not just lack of sympathy; it is the severe limitation of the concept of religion as the revelation of a book or a prophet. Trying to understand Hinduism in terms of a revealed belief system or creed is like trying to understand quantum mechanics through Newton's laws of motion. It just cannot be done. One must try
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