People have misconception about Hinduism. When person reads about Hinduism, they consider Hinduism a religion.
And it is know that Hinduism is a religion, but Hindu is a philosophy. Hindu is a culture first.
Actually Hindu is a very very ancient and very big culture.
And it is considered very rich culture. In that culture there are many religions.
Like Sanaatana Dharma, Vaishnava Dharma, Jaina Dharma, Buddha Dharma, Sikha Dharma.
They are all dharma, all religions belongs to the same culture.
So we need to make a difference that in that culture there are many religions, and they don't know how to say in 1 word, so they start saying Hinduism.
Hinduism is known now as a philosophy. I will say Hinduism is a way.
It is a way of life. And it is a very good way of life because it gives you lot of good advice, good steps to follow, good path to follow.
That your life will be very happy and easy. Stressless, worriless.
So I will consider Hindu is a way. And, not to make any mistake, Hindu is not very very very old word.
It is maybe like around 3000 years old. Because there was no word like Hindu before.
There was Sindhu, there was Indu, but not Hindu.
And this Hindu culture is a very strong culture and it is ancient culture. It is coming from the Sindhu Civilization.
Sindhu Civilization is almost more than 5000 years old.
And in that culture, people were practicing nonviolence and method of peace, or the way of how to get the happiness forever.
But later the invaders disturbed them and they moved towards the south.
Now those people who were practicing nonviolence and peace, living with harmony - they have to move from there.
They were Dravidian. Dravidian were the followers of the Shraman Sanskriti.
They were Samanopasik. They used to like people who always follow the spiritual path.
So in Hindu...they took that, the path, with them, and they were still following until 8th century something happened.
After 8th century, those people just follow strongly only rituals.
And they forgot the real principle of nonviolence and real principle of peace.
And real teachings of the Samanas. And Samanas were the real selfless people.
They were teaching the society selflessly, they didn't want anything to get from them.
And they were advising them. The society was very peaceful. But now it is more rituals.
Rituals also in front of statues more. They are not bad rituals. But sometimes they go too long.
They are boring. And sometimes those rituals they don't have much meaning.
But still in India, many many people, millions of people, they are following the teachings of the Samanas.
And that actually is a Hindu culture. It was in Hindu culture. Those principles are still in Hindu culture.
Let me define the word of Hindu itself. Hindu means the person who is far away from the violence.
So it is a...it always say the Hindus are nonviolent people.
And it is supposed to be. Because it's still a stronghold of nonviolence.
Like Jains, they always used to be followers of Samanas. Now the name changed, Jains. So they are still following strictly principle of nonviolence.
And that's why in Hindu culture, nonviolence is the biggest principle. We have a slogan about in Hindu culture, Ahimsa Paramo Dharma, is the greatest dharma.
If you follow the principle of nonviolence. So don't make any mistake, Hinduism has lot of religions in it.
And we can not go one by one by one, so they start telling one word. And one word is Hindu.
It's a culture, merely culture. Has many religions. But lately I don't know why they did mistake, they start calling Hinduism.
They're supposed to call just Hindu or Hindu culture or Hindu civilization or Hindu way of life.
That's what it's supposed to be. So we need to understand the concept of Hindu culture. In Hindu culture there are many religions mixed.
So we need to straighten out this concept. Hinduism is a very very very old tradition.
It is carrying the seeds of nonviolence, peace, and how to live in harmony.
So no doubt about it. So I will suggest if you want to learn about Hinduism, the way of life, you have to read the culture and you have to go all the way those people where they used to live in the Mohenjo Daro and Harappa.
Now it is in Pakistan. And you will see how they were following the Samanik tradition and the principle of nonviolence and peace.