WHAT IS HINDUISM?
India indeed has a preciousness which a materialistic age is
in danger of missing. Some day the fragrance of her
thought will win the hearts of men. This grim chase after
our own tails which marks the present age cannot continue
for ever. The future contains a new human urge towards
the real beauty and holiness of life. When it comes, India
will be searched by loving eyes and defended by knightly
hands.
W. J. Grant
Indian thought, with its usual profundity and avoidance of
arbitrary divisions, regards Philosophy as religious and
Religion as philosophical. The "liberty-loving nations of the
West" have been in the past greatly, and still are to some
extent, behind India in the matter of intellectual and
religious freedom. As has been finely said in India,
Satyannasti para dharmah (‘There is no religion higher than
Truth’) and as the Vedas have proclaimed, ‘Truth will
conquer’ (satyam jayate).
Hinduism may not be called a religion in the sense other
religions are known. It is much more than a religion, it is a
total way of life. Hinduism has no founder. Its authority is
Eternal Truth. The cumulative record of metaphysical
experimentation. Behind the lush tangle of religious
imagery, is a clear structure of thought. Compared to the
rugged originality of the Indian traditions, the language of
today's philosophers concerned with being often sound a