1. Hinduism and Buddhism offer much more sophisticated worldviews (or philosophies) and I see nothing wrong with these religions.

Comment #99524 by asnair on December 17, 2007 at 1:42 am

I was born and brought up a Hindu.

In my early years, I was exposed to Hindu mythology; as also to many stories from the Bible. I don't recall ever having believed that any of these were accounts of historical facts in a literal sense. My family was non-vegetarian -- I may add that most devout Hindus from my local community are traditionally non-vegetarians -- with no great taboo even towards beef.

Hinduism is not a religion in the normal sense. "Hindus" are not required to be initiated, or registered as members of any organized body. The exception to this is in case of the Brahmin males, who to this day, continue to undergo an initiation ceremony into the erstwhile priestly caste. But even here, I doubt that there is a process of registration as a member of any formal religious body. I suspect that many Brahmins go through these ancient rites merely as part of cultural baggage ...

As an early teenager, I did believe in a non-personal God -- but hardly that this God would interfere in our daily affairs. I vaguely believed in soul, heaven, rebirth and life after death -- not being clear regarding the details of any of these. I was not at all familiar with the Hindu concepts of Vedanta, including that of Atman ("Individual Self") and the Brahman ("the Universal Consciousness"). But I had heard people mentioning mysteriously and in awe that the material world is merely an illusion (or "maya").

I believe that my experience as above is that a of a typical Hindu, over the past hundreds of years.

As I advanced in my teens, I became familiar with the rationalist views of Bertrand Russel and Nehru -- and seriously started to doubt the existence of a super-natural God, and of life after death. Around the same time, I also read up on Vedanta which propounded the philosophy of advaita (non-dualism). But I found it difficult to accept the belief that the material world is illusory (maya), while the Brahman is the single monistic reality. By then, I was also aware of Darwinism -- though only at a basic level. By the age of 19, I was as much an agnostic as Russel or Nehru...

So what is the "Hindu World-view"? Is this more sophisticated than other religious views?

Yes, and no.

Yes, in the sense that there is no "Hindu World-view" that most Hindus (or even most Brahmins) are even vaguely aware of. Yes, in the limited sense that the philosophy of Vendata is non-dualistic -- though most Hindus are only vaguely, if at all, aware of this.

No, in the sense that the common beliefs (as actually held by most devout Hindus) are not significantly different from these of other religions -- beliefs in life after death, soul, heaven, hell, rebirth, divine retribution, miracles and so on.

Yes, in the sense that the Hindu religion has no "fundamentals" -- you can believe in a variety of things, adopt a variety of life styles, forms of worships, attitudes to God and food habits, and yet be generally accepted as a Hindu.

No, in the sense that Hindus have proved to be as amenable to fall into the trap of religio-political fundamentalism as are adherents of other religions. No, in the sense that social evils such as the caste system were amenable to be easily justified under the Vedantic monistic world view ...

Anand