Hinduism In India
Hinduism A primordial approach to life, Hinduism is one of the oldest religious conventions in the world. An antique yet rich way of life, it encompasses several religious beliefs, cultural practices and ideologies within itself which often causes it to be compared with a giant banyan tree for endless thoughts have bloomed in its shade.
Estimated to have originated somewhere between 3200 BC and 2500 BC, this oldest major religion of the world has a large following of approximately 1.2 billion people. Around 98 per cent of these followers of Hinduism reside in India. Hinduism is also the state religion of the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal.
The base word Hindu of this school of thought is derived from Sindhu River that used to flow in this valley earlier. Falling under the flagship of Dharmic religions, Hinduism, as a religion, is less prone to doctrines and offers such generic universal truths that serve as general guidelines for its followers.
These guidelines are open to elucidation, variation and fortification on all dates and in all ages. It is this core quality of this religion that has made it so flexible that it can easily accommodate the most contradictory outlooks seamlessly in its foundation.
Hinduism and all the sub religions originating from it are characterized by having a common goal, that of achieving divine bliss and they offer several paths for achieving this. The selection of this path solely depends upon the knack, prudence and disposition of the follower.
Hinduism as a religion finds Moksha as its core concept which means experiencing the divine supreme knowledge. Therefore, it enables all its followers to differentiate between the pure actions of virtue and the wrongful actions of evil. This brings the deep incorporation of the concept of Karma in this religion which paves the way for free-willed human actions that can either lead to moksha or to the cycles of birth and death.
The followers of the religion believe that the virtuous actions of a human being take his/her soul closer to the divine supreme, Brahman, whereas evil hinders his recognition thus misleading the soul. And it is this misled soul that craves for fulfillment of worldly desires including the desire for another worldly-experience-giving cycle of birth.