Religious Life

 

 

The Hindu attitude is all inclusive and all accepting and tolerating. Look what Dr Arnold Toynbee said “It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race….

Millions of Hindus begin the day with a prayer to the sun. This is the Gayatri mantra and its content—-

“OM, let us meditate on 

 radiance of the divine   

May it inspire and illumine our intellects. Om, “  

The word Hindu is an exonym (Sindhu- coined by Persians on the other bank of the Indus River to describe Indians, became “Hindu” and successive invaders popularized the word). The core of Hinduism is realization of self. Self-realization is through spirituality of many avenues and it must be part of one’s living and one’s being, or Sanatana Dharma. One of the genius aspects of Hinduism is its inclusiveness of thought, often from other religions.

The religious ethos of Hinduism has given flexibility, tolerance, and strength by the absence of single religious doctrine based on a Bible or sacred dogma .India‘s religious beliefs have been formed by the multiplicity of faiths and practices. Many of these beliefs are based on Vedic and breakaway traditions of India’s sages and Seers.  S. Radhakrishnan noted “The Hindu attitude to the Vedas is one of trust tempered by criticism: trust because of beliefs and forms that helped our fathers; and criticism because, however valuable the testimony of past ages may be, it cannot deprive the present age of its right to inquire and sift the evidence. ”The attitude is inclusive, drawing the alien heretical belief within a total ambiance, absorbing and extending, while respecting the beliefs of other religions. Heresy hunting is a favorite sport of many religions, but is conspicuously absent in Hinduism. The Hindu attitude is all inclusive and all accepting and tolerating. Look what Dr Arnold Toynbee said “It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race….

At this supremely dangerous moment in human history, the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian way-Emperor Ashoka’s and Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of nonviolence and Sri Ramakrishna’s testimony to the harmony of religions. Here we have an attitude and spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family-and in the atomic age, this is the only alternative to destroying ourselves.”

For several centuries India has offered shelter to people fleeing from persecution in their homelands.

Judaism was the first foreign religion that was accepted in India in recorded history.  Indian Jews are a religious minority of India, but unlike many parts of the world have historically lived in India without any instances of antisemitism from local population. These ancient communities have assimilated many local traditions through cultural diffusion – what I describe as Indianessor Indu-ism. While some Jews state their ancestors arrived in India during the time of the Kingdom of Judah, others identified themselves as the descendants of Israel’s Ten Last Tribes.  The Jewish population of India peaked at about 20,000 in the mid-1940s and began to decline due to their emigration to Israel after its creation in 1948(Cochin Jews, Madras Jews, Benny Israel, Baghdadi Jews).

The state of Maharashtra is where the largest number of synagogues was built. The ones not used for praying are now museums of Indian Jewish history. The Cochin Jews are known to have existed inKerala in the 1st century AD and it was possible for an Aramaic speaking Jew such as Saint Thomas from Galilee to make a trip to Kerala. The earliest known source connecting the Apostle to India is The Acts of Thomas, likely written in the 3rd century, perhaps in Edessa.

Due to persecution of the Zoroastrians in other countries and the liberal atmosphere and patronization of India today, the largest population of Zoroastrians reside in India where they could play a major role in Indian economy, entertainment, the armed forces, and the Indian freedom movement during the British Raj. These Zoroastrian groups are regarded as either Parsi or Irani depending on the time of migration to India.

This Zoroastrians moved in successive migrations in the Islamic period. The initial migration of Zoroastrians to India following the conquest of Persia, has been characterized as their fleeing of religious persecution by invading Muslims. According to the account, the Zoroastrians suffered at the invader’s hands and in order to protect themselves and safeguard their religion, fled first to northern Iran then to the island of Hormuz, and finally to India.

(The author is an eminent ophthalmologist, and a crusader for prevention of childhood blindness. He can be reached at vkraju@comcast.net)