FOUNDED: Hinduism, the world’s oldest religion, has no beginning—it predates recorded history.§
FOUNDED: Hinduism has no human founder.§
MAJOR SCRIPTURES: The Vedas, Āgamas and more. §
ADHERENTS: Nearly one billion, mostly in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Malaysia, Indonesia, Indian Ocean, Africa, Europe and North and South America.§
SECTS: There are four main denominations: Śaivism, Śāktism, Vaishṇavism and Smārtism.§
Hinduism is a vast and profound religion. It worships one Supreme Reality (called by many names) and teaches that all souls ultimately realize Truth. There is no eternal hell, no damnation. It accepts all genuine spiritual paths—from pure monism (“God alone exists”) to theistic dualism (“When shall I know His Grace?”). Each soul is free to find his own way, whether by devotion, austerity, meditation (yoga) or selfless service. Stress is placed on temple worship, scripture and the guru-disciple tradition. Festivals, pilgrimage, chanting of holy hymns and home worship are dynamic practices. Love, nonviolence, good conduct and the law of dharma define the Hindu path. Hinduism explains that the soul reincarnates until all karmas are resolved and God Realization is attained. The magnificent holy temples, the peaceful piety of the Hindu home, the subtle metaphysics and the science of yoga all play their part. Hinduism is a mystical religion, leading the devotee to personally experience the Truth within, finally reaching the pinnacle of consciousness where man and God are one. §
ŚAIVISM: The primary goal of Śaivism is realizing one’s identity with God Śiva, in perfect union and nondifferentiation. This is termed nirvikalpa samādhi, Self Realization, and may be attained in this life, granting moksha, permanent liberation from the cycles of birth and death. A secondary goal is savikalpa samādhi, the realization of Satchidānanda, a unitive experience within superconsciousness in which perfect Truth, knowledge and bliss are known. The soul’s final destiny is viśvagrāsa, total merger in God Śiva. §
ŚĀKTISM: The primary goal of Śāktism is moksha, defined as complete identification with God Śiva. A secondary goal for the Śāktas is to perform good works selflessly so that one may go, on death, to the heaven worlds and thereafter enjoy a good birth on earth, for heaven, too, is a transitory state. For Śāktas, God is both the formless Absolute (Śiva) and the manifest Divine (Śakti), worshiped as Pārvatī, Durgā, Kālī, Amman, Rājarājeśvarī, etc. Emphasis is given to the feminine manifest by which the masculine Unmanifest is ultimately reached.§
VAISHṆAVISM: The primary goal of Vaishṇavites is videha mukti, liberation—attainable only after death—when the small self realizes union with God Vishṇu’s body as a part of Him, yet maintains its pure individual personality. Lord Vishṇu—all-pervasive consciousness—is the soul of the universe, distinct from the world and from the jīvas, “embodied souls,” which constitute His body. His transcendent Being is a celestial form residing in the city of Vaikuṇṭha, the home of all eternal values and perfection, where the soul joins Him upon mukti, liberation. A secondary goal—the experience of God’s Grace—can be reached while yet embodied through taking refuge in Vishṇu’s unbounded love. By loving and serving Vishṇu and meditating upon Him and His incarnations, our spiritual hunger grows and we experience His Grace flooding our whole being.§
SMĀRTISM: The ultimate goal of Smārtas is moksha, to realize oneself as Brahman, the Absolute and only Reality, and become free from saṁsāra, the cycles of birth and death. For this, one must conquer the state of avidyā, ignorance, which causes the world to appear as real. All illusion has vanished for the realized being, jīvanmukta, even as he lives out life in the physical body. At death, his inner and outer bodies are extinguished. Brahman alone exists.§
ŚAIVISM: The path for Śaivites is divided into four progressive stages of belief and practice called charyā, kriyā, yoga and jñāna. The soul evolves through karma and reincarnation from the instinctive-intellectual sphere into virtuous and moral living, then into temple worship and devotion, followed by internalized worship or yoga and its meditative disciplines. Union with God Śiva comes through the grace of the satguru and culminates in the soul’s maturity in the state of jñāna, or wisdom. Śaivism values both bhakti and yoga, devotional and contemplative sādhanas.§
ŚĀKTISM: The spiritual practices in Śāktism are similar to those in Śaivism, though there is more emphasis in Śāktism on God’s Power as opposed to Being, on mantras and yantras, and on embracing apparent opposites: male-female, absolute-relative, pleasure-pain, cause-effect, mind-body. Certain sects within Śāktism undertake “left-hand” tantric rites, consciously using the world of form to transmute and eventually transcend that world. The “left-hand” approach is somewhat occult in nature; it is considered a path for the few, not the many. The “right-hand” path is more conservative in nature. §
VAISHṆAVISM: Most Vaishṇavites believe that religion is the performance of bhakti sādhanas, and that man can communicate with and receive the grace of the Gods and Goddesses through the darśana of their icons. The paths of karma yoga and jñāna yoga lead to bhakti yoga. Among the foremost practices of Vaishṇavites is chanting the holy names of the avatāras, Vishṇu’s incarnations, especially Rāma and Kṛishṇa. Through total self-surrender, prapatti, to Vishṇu, to Kṛishṇa or to His beloved consort Rādhā Rāṇi, liberation from saṁsāra is attained. §
SMĀRTISM: Smārtas, the most eclectic of Hindus, believe that moksha is achieved through jñāna yoga alone—defined as an intellectual and meditative but non-kuṇḍalinī-yoga path. Jñāna yoga’s progressive stages are scriptural study (śravaṇa), reflection (manana) and sustained meditation (dhyāna). Guided by a realized guru and avowed to the unreality of the world, the initiate meditates on himself as Brahman to break through the illusion of māyā. Devotees may also choose from three other non-successive paths to cultivate devotion, accrue good karma and purify the mind. These are bhakti yoga, karma yoga and rāja yoga, which certain Smārtas teach can also bring enlightenment.§