Diversity In Hinduism

To define the word ‘religion’ one must first attempt to understand it’s etymological emergence. It must be understood that the word we use so sweepingly today originated in a society with an extremely narrow conception of religiosity. The term religion was created to categorize Judaeo-Christian beliefs (***). It was originally created to describe a monotheistic, ritualistic, and highly spiritual faith. However, the word ‘religion’ is presently used as a comprehensive descriptor encompassing practices as dissimilar as Judaism and Shintoism. The singular criteria originally used in the creation of the word religion must be challenged and modified in order to properly describe and unify world faiths under one term. Hinduism differs greatly from

Hinduism is not a doctrinal religion like many western religions; there is no single central dogma. To understand Hinduism one must acknowledge that it is largely influenced by regional and culture differences (***). There is not one set way to live religious life as a Hindu. This seems contrary to western religions, which tend to have fundamental guidelines followed by all faithful members and mediated by common rituals and practices. The religious flexibility in Hinduism has allowed for tremendous diversity and has altered the way I define religion. Before studying Hinduism, I assumed that each religion was a discrete entity, practiced and interpreted in a similar way by all practitioners. Going into a synagogue on a Saturday morning in Toronto should be recognizable to other Jewish people form around the world – unified by language, ritual and scripture. Learning about Hinduism shattered that naïve perspective. It taught me that interpretation and practice of one’s religion could differ drastically between different societies while still remaining familiar at the core. The very differences in religious opinion and practice between different Hindu groups can be seen as a uniting character; the conflicts are over interpretation of shared core beliefs such as the different interpretations of Moksha mentioned above. Perhaps the greatest display of diversity in Hinduism is that of the Hindu deities. Hinduism is concerned with many spiritual beings and their interactions with humans. This diversity in Hindu practice has created a rich array of different deities, from the concept of a single personal god in the Yoga school of thought, to the millions of deities in Tantra traditions (***). Yet one supreme god, Brahman, unifies all of these gods. The countless deities of Hinduism ultimately represent the many different features of Brahman. This has taught me that however divided different Hindu societies may seem, they remain