Why I am a Hindu

"His English is 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

His Style is
Honorificabilitudinitatibus

He has no arrogant attitude of
Floccinaucinihilipilification

His Genuine Pluralism (more than Leftist Secularism) may be ~similar to Antidisestablishmentarianism

Happy Bday #Tharoorji !" - Rahul Easwar

Yesterday 9th of March, he turned 64. Many more years of life, cheer and knowledge from him.

These are 10 recommended books on his birthday. To which ST says - Mind you the other ten are worth reading too! And below is the link to an article by his niece, who admire him more & more each day, for his passion, hard work, refusal of cynicism, "for the optimism that undergirds all of your movements" & more

https://rtsrinivasan.weebly.com/to-my-uncle-shashi-tharoor.html

Started reading on Shivrathri day - and thought of finishing it on your birthday! 21 of 2020

The books is divided into three sections,

Section 1: My Hinduism - covering 4 chapters namely - My Hinduism, The Hindu way, Questioning Hindu Customs and Great Souls of Hinduism.
Section 2: Political Hinduism - Covering 2 chapters viz. - Hinduism and the politics of Hindutva and Beyond Holy Cows: The uses and abuses of Hindu culture and History
Section 3: Taking back Hinduism

The author states that he wrote the book for two reasons, first to understand the extraordinary wisdom and virtues of the faith and second to show that intolerant and often violent forms of Hindutva that began to impose themselves on the public consciousness of Indians went against the spirit of Hinduism, the most plural, inclusive, eclectic and expansive of faith.

'Hinduism' is the name the foreigners first applied to what they saw as the indigenous religion of India. It embraces an eclectic range of doctrines and practices, from pantheism to agnosticism and from faith in reincarnation to belief in the caste system. But none of these constitutes an obligatory credo for the Hindu: there are nonw. We have no compulsory dogmas. It was only in late 1980s that the world media was introduced to Hindu fundamentalism, which was odd as Hinduism is a religion without fundamentals, no founder or prophet, no organized church, no compulsory beliefs or rites of worship, no uniform conception of the 'good life', no single sacred book. Hinduism see God, man and universe as co-related.

'Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti'. That which exist is one, the sages call it by various names. The four stages of life, also related to the four ends of life, the purusharthas are dharma, artha, kama and moksha. The common expression 'matha, pita, guru, daivam' encapsulates the human journey - one is from birth totally dependent on mother, then exposed to the outer world by father, then taught and guided by Guru, untill one finally finds God. The concept of time is that it is without beginning or end, but a cycle divided into four yuga. Satya Yuga, the age of truth; Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and kali Yuga. Hindu sage looks for God within, and finds him in his own deep self. Some do look for God in nature, in forests and rivers, in images of wood or stone and some in heaven. Singular thing about it, is that it can only be spoken in plural. Some Hindu's reject the term altogether, many use sanskrit phrase, 'Sanatana Dharma' or 'eternal faith'. Even there is no one book. The scriptures are commonly divided into Srutis, Smritis. Itihasas, Puranas, Agamas and Darshanas. The Srutis are that which has been heard or revealed. The four vidas - Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda - Similarly the 108 Upanishads, which distil the essence of the Vedic philosophy are also sruti. The 18 Smrithis written down largely over the five centuries, between 300 BCE and 200 CE are often referred to as the Dharmashastra. The Smrithis lay down the rules of governance, purely man made and mutable, need not be followed by letter today. Eg. Code of Manu. The Itihasas tell through stories. With idol worship came temple constructions, a feature of Hinduism only since the fifth century CE and reaching its apogee in the magnificent Chola temples of the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries. The three prasthanas or divisions of the Vedanta - the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita - correspond roughly, according to Hindu philosophers, with the three stages of faith, knowledge and discipline. Each has value; each can be understood and pracitised alone or in combination with the other. Hindu's do not look for the literal meanings of these holy books, and since they do not read them literally, do not argue over them literally.

Caste, Gurus, Fatalism are part of Hindu custom. Our belief in destiny, in karma and predestination, make us inured to our lot in life and accepting of fate, rather than seeking to change it. One does not fight that which one cannot overcome, but seeks to find the best way to live with it. A divided lot was rejuvenated by Adi Shankara whose Advaita Vedanta was the philosophically robust response to the era of confusion, integrating diverse thoughts and hindu practices into a philosophy based on the Vedic dictum of 'One Truth, Many Expositions'. There was Ramanuja and the Bhakti movement, Brahmo Samaj by Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833); Arya Samaj established by Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Great local success was obtained by three nineteenth century reformers and contemporaries in southern India, Sree Narayana Guru; Mahatma Ayyankali and Chattampi Swami whose lives and impact overlapped. The mystic sage Ramana Maharishi and the revolutionary turned spiritual guide Sri Aurobindo were two other remarkable contemporaries born in 19th century. Swami Vivekananda came of age at the culmination of all the developments and was heir to the grand, diverse and varied traditions of Hinduism,for he had drunk deeply from the well of a faith whoose eclecticism he saw as a strength. The legacy of tradition of thought an action that began with the Vedas and grew under Adi Shankara, flowered through Bhakti, embraced social reformers like Raja Rammohan Roay and Sree Narayana Guru, and has Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi as two of its fountainheads.


Political Hinduism is different from this.

History is not a web woven with innocent hands. Riots have always had its part. Indian democracy becomes Hindu Dharmocracy here. What we need is coordination and understanding and not conflict and hate.