Hindu Philosophy is Karma Theory Based; Not God Based

Swami Vivekananda famously said in the Chicago Parliament of all Religions “We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true”.

In Hinduism we worship millions of Gods. And we accept all religions as true religions.

So what binds us Hindus together?

What binds Hindus together is the sense of Dharma. Dharma simply according to Swamiji is “Be Good and Do Good”. In simple terms, a good deed is one which does Good to many & harms less and is done with deep devotion & love towards the almighty. What is a good deed is the deeper subject of Dharma. And Vendantha is a deep study of explaining Dharma.

Through good deeds you perform in your given life, you earn Punya and bad deeds give you Paapa. This is the simple Karma Theory. There is a famous Samskrutha Sookthi to say the same: “Paropakaraya Punyaya; Parapeedanaya Paapaya”. Which means doing good to others earn Punya and troubling others earns you Paapa.

According to the Hinduism, the Jeevathma (soul) inside the body is deathless. The Jeevathma gets the body to perform Karma. The Jeevathma takes many births in different bodies. Through performing Punya Karma in each birth it goes on becoming higher soul nearing the ultimate God & attaining moksha a state of no more re-births on the mortal earth. This is just a basic of Vedantha. Vedantha is very deep and wide further. Different philosophies emerge from this basic theory.

So Hinduism is very much based on the Karma theory. And different Gods according to different people’s faith only play an aid in doing good to all & earn Punya.

Why then in India we still have separate religions when we accept all in our bosom?

Hindus accept all religions as true doesn’t mean, western religions accept KARMA theory. Most of the western religions are “GOD based” religions and not “Deed based” religions. So they consider religions are different based on the GOD they worship. 

Here is how in a 2 by 2 matrix we can depict the Hindu philosophy and Western philosophy of journey of the human soul beyond the earthly life. In the Hindu philosophy of cycles of rebirth, the soul through the body has to earn “Punya” to get freed from the cycle of rebirths and attain salvation (Moksha). But in the western philosophy the soul simple goes to heaven or hell based on the God the human being worships.

Why then some India’s Indigenous Religions consider themselves separate from Hinduism? Viz., Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs etc.,?

All the Indian origin religions lay most emphasis on the Karma theory & not on GOD theory. They also believe in rebirth & salvation through Good deeds. But the main difference is they don’t accept Vedas as ultimate truth, although they take several theories from it. And they lay overemphasis on those core theories, and does not appreciate the need for diversity in Dharma & Karma.

For example, in Jains, they lay over emphasis on Ahimsa(Non-Violence). So they don’t perform Kshatra dharma. Because it hurts other beings. For them, even performing agricultural activities is considered sin, as it overturns soil killing many organisms. So mostly the Jains are in trade only.

For example, Buddhists lay over emphasis on Thyaga (renunciation) & sanyasashrama & bhiksha (seeking alms). This Hindus believe will weaken the society due to low emphasis on economic activities.

In Hinduism, there is Chatur-Ashrama and Chatur-Varna. Every individual has to perform both. All the Indian religions are offshoots of Sanatana Dharma. But these offshoots don’t comply to these Varna and Ashrama theory in full. A very brief of these is given here:

Chatur-Ashrama:

• Brahmacharya – Child going through the learning of the life aspects, Dharma, Shastra, Itihasa etc.,
• Gruhastha – The family rearing, economic activity to sustain family
• Vanaprastha or Sanyasa – Teaching post learning and gaining immense life experience
• Vruddhashrama – Preparing to leave the body & performing penance

Chatur-Varna:

1. Brahmana- Wondering about the world; Learning the philosophy, science behind it. Understanding Dharma & Karma to lead society in righteous way
2. Kshatra – Protecting Dharma, fighting evil. It may call for punishing, killing the evil doers
3. Vaishya – Harnessing the god gifted resources for the well being of the entire society
4. Shoodra – Doing everyday chores, cleaning activities;

Over the centuries, in Hinduism, the communities performing primary activities aligned to one of these Varnas became Jatis (castes). They lived harmoniously for several centuries. But the society drew line of rigidity of untouchability amongst these Jatis often.  But Indians being very open minded and freedom lovers, got themselves uplifted through continuous reforms in the society through Saints like Sankaracharya, Basavanna, Guru Nanak, Chaitanya etc., There came a reformer in every region almost every century to set right the rigid caste system. Even today we have several faults in our society & several saints working through the society to unite people and remove the fault lines.

Why then are conflicts, violence, and intolerance still in India?

In India we have several natural fault lines based on caste, creed, language, region etc,.  So it leads to eruption of violence & conflicts often. But these are short lived and incidents here & there. Immediately the more mature Hindu saints, strong community leaders intervene and bring peace between the warring communities. We have plenty of Utsavs, Melas, Celebrations, in every region that the differences are diluted and communities reconcile soon & join hands in peace. For example, Jallikattu is one classic example which binds all castes together. Onam boat races bring people of all castes together for a peaceful sporty competition. Like this every region has plenty of events to bring people together in life’s colourful celebration spirit.

But intolerance is something different. It is permanent. It is preached. It is religion based. And it is God based.

The religious duty of the follower determines the Intolerance, Tolerance & Acceptance of different gods in the communities as pictured below:

As depicted before the western religions which are God based, spread in India today, are the Intolerant religions.

The preacher of an intolerant religion energizes the follower to convert from one god faith to the other god faith. This is religious duty of the follower of that religion.

It may be a religious duty to that religion follower. But the Hindus must understand that the faith conversion is a social evil. It destroys the social fabric of harmony. It must be resisted and opposed. It erases the local deities & culture. It removes self-esteem, pride of their race, region, saints, heroes & their locality. The foreign soil becomes pious but their mother land becomes bland.

In Hindus, there is nothing called faith conversion. It is only faith enhancement. If a new saint comes, we don’t convert, but we worship him also. He also doesn’t advise us to discard our current god and convert our faith to the new god he proposes. That’s why you see a Sai Baba follower doesn’t stop going to a Vithoba temple or a Sadguru’s Shishya doesn’t stop visiting Thirumala temple.

But over the centuries the Indian Christians or Muslims have erased their family deities & cultures from their families.  They do not tolerate any other faith mixing up in their families. This is by & large. Of course few exceptions here & there can be found.

Local connect to the GRAND NARRATION of Hinduism

In the western religion, since there is one God and one Prophet or incarnation, One holy place in the world, only that part of the world is sacred land. All other land is bland to be only exploited for pleasure.

In Hinduism, it is different. When Swami Vivekananda lands in India from his successful overseas travel, he pours handful of sand on his head. He famously says ‘Every grain of soil of Bharath is Sacred’.

How every locality has a powerful goddess or a god and yet they belong to the grand narration of Bharata? Yet they are all related & not creating ethnic animosity? Who made this grand narration of Bharata?

Our Rishis travelled across our land. They lived with every tribe atop hills, by the side of rivers, towns and villages. Everywhere they found an indigenous powerful deity. The Rishis paid full respect and did penance in front the deity. This built trust & confidence amongst the locals that their deity is most powerful in the world as a seer from another land pays so much respect. The Rishi then tells, that 'this deity is nothing but my deity only. I worship her in another name. I have seen her incarnation in many other places'. Thus Madhurai Meenakshi becomes Mysore Chamundeshwari becomes Kolluru Mookambika becomes Kolkata Kali Devi becomes Jammu’s Vaishno Devi. Thus a grand narration of 58 Shakthi Sthala s are culturally, devotionally connected. Similarly Chaturdhama. Similarly Dwadasha Jyothirlinga. And the list in innumerable.

Similarly our Ramayana, Mahabharata are Grand History of our Nation. And every corner of India has a story related to Hanuman, Bheema, Rama, Krishna etc., In Devarayanadurga, you will see a small fountain made by Lakshmana for Rama to put his Nama called Namada Chilume. Near Thirthahalli you will see a Bheemana katte to bring water nearer to Draupadi’s hut!! Then there is Mauritius which is nothing but the body mass of Mareecha thrown away into the ocean by Rama! When Ramayana spread throughout Thailand, Indonesia, Malaya, Combodia etc., you can hear the narration of Hanuman crossing the local river there also! So the locals feel proud of their river, land, mountain and its sacredness!   

The visionary Rishis have connected the Great Grand Bharatha in an astonishingly peaceful, beautiful way. Thus every land has a very powerful deity. It encouraged people to become very proud of their deity and very indigenous local culture built around that deity.

Yet that Local Culture doesn’t remain local creating ethnic conflicts. But, it connects to the GRAND NARRATION of Bharata in a very peaceful & beautiful way.

Contrast this with the western philosophers & prophets. They didn’t respect local indigenous culture to make them feel proud. For example, in Islam, Prophet Mohammed launched Jihad (Peaceful & Violent) against the local Idol worshipers and Nature worshipers calling them Kaafirs. Similarly the Bible describes the Indigenous European culture as Pagan Systems and calls it derogatory. So the followers of these religions focus more on conversion of the faith from one to the other creating conflict in minds of the followers. The conflict in mind translates to violence outward. Love of people, love of local culture becomes secondary & spread of some foreign culture becomes primary for them.  

Many educated Indians believe it is the British who united India. It is such a stupidity. They divided India. They divided us by religion. They divided us by caste. They divided us by language. Every which way they made us feel guilty of ourselves. They called us chaotic, idiotic. What a pity some of us still believe them?  

It is time for us now to celebrate local culture, respecting and connecting to the entire world’s culture. We must together join hands and defeat the divisive forces. Only India can show the way. For that we must believe in ourselves and have great pride of our diversity showcasing a great unity.