Everyone is a Hindu
by Vinod Suresh, 2002
The statement "everyone is a Hindu" is an extremely broad one that is open to much interpretation. This owes partly to the fact that Hinduism itself is a broad and vast religion with many ways of following. In this paper I seek to explain that the statement "everyone is a Hindu" is a worthy one because Hindus have a sense of interconnectedness in all organisms and life on earth, and that the ultimate goal of a person is to join the rest of the universe in "moksha." Additionally, the attribute of the Hinduism that lends well to the statement is that Hinduism is a very hospitable religion that not only requires no specific adherence or conversion, it stresses the understanding of other religions as well.
If one ascribes to a particular religion, surely that person believes that his or her religion holds for everyone. This person would feel that there is only one god or Supreme Being that rules over the universe and all its peoples. In Islam this god is known as Allah; in Christianity He is known as Jehovah. This is one argument that could apply to any religion however. In Hinduism on the other hand, the idea of a Supreme Being is much more of an abstract concept rather than a tangible being, and is known as "Brahman." The idea that Brahman is the "everything" or Supreme Reality is what makes the statement "everyone is a Hindu" a notably pertinent one in relation to Hinduism.
Hindus have a sense of interconnectedness that pervades throughout everything in the universe: all plants, animals, people, and the cosmos. Brahman is the sacred force that holds everything together is. It is the ultimate reality that is unseen in the karmic cycle of birth and death, called samsara, which Hindus believe we humans are entrapped in. The ultimate goal of religious Hindu life is to attain "moksha," which can be described as putting an end to the karmic cycle and liberating oneself to become a part of the universe or the Brahman just described. The Hindu concept of "Atman" is the individualized soul or real self that is eternal and formless. A person's true potential is revealed once his or her atman is liberated upon moksha, and is pure, omnipotent, and beyond restraints. Although it is the goal of Hindu religious life to attain moksha, the result of moksha is the joining of the soul with the entire universe. The entire universe contains all people, whether they are Hindu or not, and everyone's goal really is to become one with Brahman. By saying that "everyone is a Hindu" one is saying that everyone is a tiny part of the universe, that everyone has the same goal to be assimilated into Brahman following samsara.
More so than the presence of a particular practice that would relate to everyone being a Hindu, there is a lack of one ceremony that is quite notable. There is no ceremony required to actually convert to Hinduism, as there would be for Catholicism or Judaism. Because Hinduism is such a broad and vast religion, there are no specific rites or adherences involved. Many Hindus do not see Hinduism as a religion so much as a way of life or philosophy. The Swami Buaji says, "Hinduism is a way of life, an eternal way of life, a way of living in Eternity." Though it consists of religious practices and beliefs, he says it really isn't a religion. I recall that the history of the word "Hindu", which is a Persian word meaning "river," was a term used simply because the British colonial administrators saw a need to classify the people of the Indian subcontinent into distinguishable religions. They essentially bunched together all the religious customs, traditions, and beliefs of the Indian people into one religion for the purpose of census taking and classification. Therefore, Hinduism is an amalgam of beliefs taken from ancient texts such as The Vedas, The Upanishads, the Bhavagad-Gita, and the Ramayana and practiced in India.
From this viewpoint, it can be clearly shown that Hinduism has no one set of creeds or doctrines, and therefore a person who simply abides by the major tenets, such as ahimsa, (the path of nonviolence), truth, and righteousness could be considered a Hindu. The fundamental practices of being a good human being, such as forgiveness, compassion, mercy, high moral character, wisdom, service, and devotion, can make one a Hindu. Since these are basically qualities held in high regard by most other major religions, one could consider a Jew, Muslim, or Christian a Hindu as well if he or she lived his life in a manner encompassing these. In addition, as with Catholicism, the beliefs of which are transcribed by the Vatican church, Hinduism has no central domain or temple from which its beliefs and interpretations come from. Therefore, one can be Hindu yet still maintain their personal beliefs without any sort of influence from or tension with a central kiosk of doctrine.
The nature of Hinduism is very warm and welcoming, and that serves to give clout to the assertion "everyone is a Hindu." Hinduism is very open-minded and does not seek to be imperious over its followers, nor does it deny the substance of other religions. Mahatma Gandhi was a noteworthy progenitor of this modern Hindu view of acceptance. It is clear from his biography My Experiments with Truth that he had a great respect for all religions, and delved into the study of several of them. He was friends with Christian reverends and priests in England, went to meetings of Christian Societies, and read a wealth of Christian, Muslim, and other texts. In his essay "All Religions are True," he states that upon his exploration of different faiths, "I do not find I ever had the slightest desire to criticize any of those religions merely because they were not of my own…and found the same fundamental morality in each." Gandhi had a strong belief that all religions dictate worship in One God who is all-pervasive. He also teaches that Hinduism "is based on the firm foundation of Truth and Non-Violence and, therefore, there is no room in it for conflict with other religions." The accepting philosophy within Hinduism serves well to the central statement in this essay.
Even in the ancient text of the Bhagavad-Gita, the foundational Hindu text narrated by Krishna to Arjuna, the awareness of other religions is found. Krishna says to Arjuna, "When devoted men sacrifice to other deities with faith, they sacrifice to me, Arjuna, however aberrant the rites." On the website www.bhagavad-gita.org, the Bhavagad-Gita Trust states, "The intrinsic beauty is that (the Gita's) knowledge applies to all human beings and does not postulate any sectarian ideology or secular view." The Gita is treated as the epitome of spiritual teachings and seeks to teach humans about the path to self-realization and true devotion to God.
Buddhism is a religion widespread in the East that sprung from India and Hindu royalty. Many similarities between it and Hinduism exist, such as the karmic cycle, moksha (referred to as Nirvana by Buddhists), and such practices as meditation and fasting. Because of this stark similarity between the two faiths, it could be said that the statement "everyone is a Buddhist" is just as valid as "everyone is a Hindu." In some manners this is true, but in others it is untrue. The tenets Buddhism shares with Hinduism make everyone a Buddhist. There is still present the cycle of rebirth and karma that connects all living beings. In addition, everyone can be a Buddhist in that there are no central deities or gods within the religion, especially in Theravada Buddhism, in which the Buddha is only seen as the first enlightened being and not even semi-divine. Thus, there is acknowledgement of a Supreme Being, but there is no worship of any divine being; in Hinduism there is at least the awareness of the many manifestations of God or Brahman, in the forms of Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma, Ganesha, and other deities. However, being the most ancient of religions, there is no founder within Hinduism, whereas in Buddhism, one must accept Siddhartha Buddha as the teacher of the path to enlightenment. This is primarily found in the Mahayana path of Buddhism, which has some similarities to Christianity in that the Buddha is akin to a savior. Moreover, the Eightfold Path found in Buddhism, involving right speech, right livelihood, and the like, could be coincidentally followed by a person ignorant of the religion. Yet these are specific guidelines that seek to liberate a human from the miserable state of being that one should have to be aware of to be a Buddhist. Practices such as meditation, to achieve certain levels of trance in attaining "right concentration," are very vital to Buddhism.
I have shown that the universality of Hinduism, its broad sense of welcoming to people of any creed or faith, and its decentralized nature are all factors that lend to the assertion "everyone is a Hindu." The central concept of Brahman in Hinduism as a sacred unexplainable force that ties everything in this world together make everyone a Hindu. In addition, everyone is seen as striving towards the same goal to reach moksha, to shed the bondage of being reborn in a human body in order to finally attain union with the Supreme Being. Although it could be said that there are "330 Million Gods," there is no acceptance required of these particular deities in Hinduism, only an acknowledgement that there is a Supreme Being. The statement that "everyone is a Hindu" is a compelling one that is substantiated by the universal ideas and concepts of Hinduism.