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11
FORMATION OF HINDUISM
The unification of
these fighting denominations came in recently. It started with the
coming of the Europeans into India, who knew Christianity only in
its Greco-Roman form. When they encountered a variety of religion
they classified them as Christian and Hindu. Thus when the British
Empire occupied India on 31 December, 1600 AD they classified
religions as Christian, Muslim and Hindu. Thereby they practically
gave an edge to the further unification of all Indian religious
forms. What they implied by Hinduism was that they are of
India. But later as the independence movement started, it gave
impetus to unite all religions in an attempt to oppose the British.
This resulted in the Freedom of India on 15 August 1947.
One of the other
unifying forces was the arrival of Theosophical Society founded by
Madam Madame Blavatsky. Theosophy is the name Blavatsky gave to
that portion of knowledge that she brought from the “masters” to the
world. (The Masters are secret Spiritual beings who are waiting to
reveal the secrets of god and man to those who seek for it) It
comes from the term "Theosophia" used by the Neoplatonists to mean
literally "knowledge (Sophia) of the divine (Theo)". Helena Petrovna
Hahn was born on August 12, 1831 and died May 8, 1891 London,
England. She is better known as Helena Blavatsky or Madame Blavatsky,
the founder of Theosophy. . She did much to spread Eastern
religious, philosophical and occult concepts throughout the Western
world.
It was in
1873
that she emigrated to New
York City. She was
a psychic
and a medium. She was able to perform
levitation,
clairvoyance,
out-of-body projection,
telepathy, and
clairaudience
materialization.
She founded the Theosophical
Society in
September 1875, with Henry
Steel Olcott,
William Quan Judge
and others. Theosophical
Society moved its
Head Quarters to India in Adyar, Madras in the same year.
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Theosophy
Concise Oxford Dictionary
describes Theosophy as "any of various philosophies professing to
achieve a knowledge of God
by spiritual ecstasy,
direct intuition,
or special individual relations, esp. a modern movement following
Hindu
and Buddhist
teachings and seeking universal brotherhood."
Adherents
of Theosophy maintain that it is a "body of
truth"
that forms the basis of all religions. Theosophy, they claim,
represents a modern face of Sanatana Dharma,
"the Eternal Truth," as the proper religion.
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This resurgence of Indian ethos was
tied to the Indian Independence movement and the Theosophical
Society gave the leadership.
Madam Annie Besant
of England was the President of the Theosophical Society. She
established the Indian Home Rule League in 1916 and was the first
President of this Indian Independence Movement. The next year
Madame Besant became the first President of the Indian National
Congress (1917) which led the country to freedom in 1947. During
the process all religious groups were drawn into the net, one way or
other, since it was tied to Indian Independence.
This completed the process of
transforming the Gnostic Indian religious sects into a unified yet
loose entity today known as Hinduism.
In the fight for freedom, new
slogans were coined. One of them was “One God, One Religion and
One Nation”.
In the course of time It took
 slight
variations.
One variation was “Under Heaven,
One Family” which tried to obliterate and ignore religious
differences. Moral Rearmament Movement was another common
inter-religious movement which emphasized that. Many of my
generations were deeply involved in it and joined hands with
political movements called by varying names. This included
Marxism which became the proponent of fight against the
imperialistic oppression of the British and colonialism.
Gandhiji’s meetings started with readings from Hindu, Christian
and Muslim scriptures. Even after the Independence these movements
continued. Marxism became the central spiritual forum for the
downtrodden and the oppressed. Many Christians took it as a
spiritual movement for ushering in the Kingdom of God.
Sarvodaya Movement
emphasized the oneness of Mankind and the only way to the omega
point for man as the collective sharing.
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Sarvodaya
The word Sarvodaya was coined by
Mahatma Gandhi to mean "the welfare of all" and its current usage
means the "awakening of all." This includes the individual, the
family, the group, the nation, and the world.
Shramadana means "the gift of
voluntary sharing of one's labor, time, thoughts, energy, money, and
other resources". The Sarvodaya Movement is based upon the following
philosophical principles: sharing, compassion self-sufficiency,
constructive action, truthful communication, equality, development,
democracy, and community.
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Once the freedom was won, all these
slogans and movements became a means of exploitation and rhetoric in
politics.
In the national religious front new
Hindu revival took place in the form of Arya Samaj under
Maharishi Swami Dayanand Saraswati in Bombay on
April 7th, 1875 and the Arya Samaj was founded in
the pre-independence era of India. The purpose was to move the Hindu
Dharma away and go back to the teachings of Vedas. The goal of the
Arya Samaj has always been, “Krinvanto Vishvam Aryam”, which
translates as, “ Make this World Aryan.”
Once
seperated from the Historic Christianity, the gnostic Christians
underwent syncretic amalgamation with other religions. In that
process, both Buddhism and Jainism practically vanished from India
except in certain pockets. Since gnosticism by its nature does not
have a specific theological
system, a single system of morality, or a central religious
organization Hinduism is not a single religion. . It consists of "thousands
of different religious groups that have evolved in
India since 1500 BCE."
The Hindus are
divided into three main classes, viz., Vaishnavas who worship
Vishnu; Saivas who worship Siva; and Saktas who worship Devi or the
Mother . In addition, there are the Sauras, who worship the Sun-God;
Ganapatyas who worship Ganesa; and Kaumaras who worship Skanda. In
addition there are other groups that worship other gods and spirits
– some good and some evil. These groups were never united and were
constantly fighting with each other.
The word Hinduism
came into existence as the name of a religion only with the coming
of the British. The British classified the religions into three
classes: Christians, Muslims and all the others. “All the others“
were called Hindus – which simply meant “of India”. When the people
of India began to struggle for independence these religious
denominations found a common enemy and that is what united them and
the name Hinduism became meaningful symbol of national unity and the
name got stuck. In that sense, Hinduism was the product of the
British ignorance. Anything that is not Christian or Muslim came to
mean Hindu. Dropping out the idols, the witchcraft and other
practices what is exported as Hinduism is essentially the Gnostic
Christianity.
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