These days I am beginning to wonder about the endless exoticization of Hinduism! From western academics, journalists and commentators to our own 'home grown' Hindu thinkers, intellectuals and Swamis, everyone presents Hinduism as an unspecifiable chaos, something that can only be explained in terms opposite to what is understood 'conventionally', as a religion.
We read, often, that Hinduism has no founder, has no single book of authority, has no single creed or conception about God, etc. Come on, now, how much of this actually true?
Orthodox Hinduism has always held the Vedas as the ultimate authority. Revealed texts, these constitute the 'Hindu book'. And for founders, how about those Seers - Rishis - to whom these books were revealed? Even the Old testament has dozens of prophets, that doesn't mean Christianity doesn't have a 'founder' ! But yeah, Hinduism being like a 'well-spring religion', unlike say Christianity, which uses the figure of Christ exclusively succeeding the heritage of the Old Testament, or Islam which chooses to focus on Muhammad, Hinduism uses multiple figures such as the various Avatars and later, the great Acharyas and saints and sages. It is a continuously evolving tradition, that's all.
Then, this much-repeated quaint idea that Hinduism alone is unique among world religions in having many different and even competing conceptions about God. What is a religion if it does not have such different conceptions! Anyone who even starts considering the idea of God, soon will realize that there is possibly no single way in which to humanly formulate the concept of a Supreme Being who is capable of intelligently causing this unbelievably vast and complex universe.
Christianity has dozens of sects and viewpoints. Is the Christian God triune, or is he Unitary? How does the person of Christ relate to the ineffable God? What is the relation of God to creation and time? The umbrella of Christianity houses a bewildering number of sects - Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Anglican, Lutherans, Mormons (and many more!) - that each has a competing answer to these questions.
This is true of Islam as well! How does prophet-hood relate to God? What is the source of guidance after Muhammad? What is the nature of God and can He (is it He or She or It?) be known? orthodox Sunnis of the four madhabs, Deobandis, Barelvis, Wahhabis, Twelver Shias, Ismailis, and a myriad different Sufi sects have each their own competing conceptions and ideas. Even Judaism has a multitude of sects that each have their own viewpoints on such fundamental questions. Yeah just that these so-called 'motheistic' religions, especially Islam, will seem to have lesser tolerance for doctrinal variance, but that is just due to prevalent dominance of certain sects, often achieved through violence, intimidation or economic pressure.
The illusion of a single unified doctrine in these religions, does not hold up on closer examination. Truth is, wherever man exercises his intellectual investigation freely, there are bound to be multiple viewpoints. I wish Hindus think for themselves and stop presenting their tradition as uniquely curious and outlandish than all the others out there.
