crucial difference between what is called Hinduism and other religions

crucial difference between Hinduism and other religions

Prashant Parikhhari

HARI Om, this was an email one of my teachers, Karthik ji, sent me on delineating the difference between sanAtana dharma (what people call Hinduism), and other "religions"... Of course before getting into that we must take note that dharma and religion are not synonymous. Please read: : One crucial difference between what is called ...Hinduism and other religions like Christianity or Islam is not appreciated by many folks, especially those with an Abrahamic background. So let me give a brief outline of what is missing here and why these kind of posts aimed at "debating hindus" are really out there to do nothing but just expose the ignorance of the traditions that produce them. Living tradition Vs Fossilized traditions ----------------------------------------- Let us take an example of the difference between knowing a person and knowing a fossilized specimen. Like say the various fossils that are unearthed around the world. How to we study a fossil? A fossil has a finality to it. Many people might have already studied the fossil and created their own study reports. We study them. If we want to study the fossil personally, we go to where it is preserved and study it and add in more details. Thus even though there will be continuous activity surrounding the study of that fossil, the entire possibility of what can be studied is limited - because of the finality that exists for a fossil. It is what it is, because it is after all a dead thing. But imagine you want to learn about a living individual. How do you do it? You cannot learn it like you do a fossil. We might already know some friends or acquaintances of the person from whom we could develop an idea of the person's personality. We then could try and befriend them. We spend some quality time with them and learn about them ourselves. But to know them fully, we may have to develop a lasting friendship with them. And even then, the entire lifetime may not be sufficient to learn about them. Even though we could argue that even in the case of the fossil, we may not know everything that we can possibly know, we certainly do not develop a personal relation with it. It is an impersonal contact. Not so with an individual. Knowing an individual thus, is fundamentally different from knowing about a fossil. Somewhat of this nature is the difference between learning a religion, like say Islam or Christianity, and learning what is called Hinduism. Islam and Christianity have a finality to their creed. They are what their holy texts define. You want to know Islam, learn Qur'an and the Hadiths etc. Qur'an is the final source. It has a finality to it. In fact, these religions finalize themselves and thus have fossilized themselves for all time to come.