Updated: 8th May 2016 | Current Version: v10.3.0 b [beta] PDF with TOC | Editable Doc | Odt with TOC | Website-New | HTML | Blog Entry | Scribd | SlideShare Hinduism Basics – Traditional Overview - The Most Organized Eternal Way Of Life Image Credits || tanno hamsa prachodayāt || || jnānadev tu kaivalyam || An article by Indiaspirituality Blog (Amrut) Copy Left: Copying / Giving Credit is Left to you. Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 India License Hinduism Basics – Traditional Overview || ॐ || || hari OM || || shrI guru sharaNam || || shrI Adi Sankara sharaNam || || shrI rAmakriShNaarpaNamastu || 1. Release Notes For latest updated article, please visit HTML version. If you find any typo and wish to contribute by suggesting a correction, please visit Google Docs version. Note: This article contains sanskrit words in itrans or IAST format. Firefox recognises ‘a’ and ‘ā’ as different characters while Chrome and it’s derivatives like Opera using webkit rendering engine considers letter ‘a’ and ‘ā’ as same. i.e. if you search for ‘shāstra’, FF will not highlight ‘shAstra’ while chrome will highlight both ‘shāstra’ and ‘shAstra’. Using chrome browser is recommended. Please read Transliteration key for further details. Skip to Table Of Contents | Start reading 1st article: What are shAstra - s No New Content will be Added Google Docs does not support large files and sometimes crashes while loading long article. Longer the article, longer it takes time to load article and more are chances of browser crashing, which is irritating, especially when you are in between your work This article is 255 pages long. Hence no new content will be added to this article unless it is necessary. Happy to Release on Sri Adi Shankaracharya ji’s Jayanti On the holy occasion of Shri Adi Shankaracharya Jayanti, which is on 23 rd April 2015, we have made an attempt to share basic information on Hindu Dharma. We will try to improve this article as much as possible. Version Number Coding Page 2 of 274 Hinduism Basics – Traditional Overview Unlike Traditional Publishing where the article is typed offline, proofread and edited before it is published, the author directly types it online on Google Docs. Since this article is constantly updated, its version number is updated in following way. Version number is written in the format - x.y.z x = New Heading 1 y = New Heading 2 or 3 z = Minor corrections, addition in an existing article and correcting typos. Date of latest update is mentioned along with latest version. Suggesting Corrections is welcome Please note that this is not a complete article. Beginning of incomplete section is marked as [under construction] and end is marked as [/under construction] There are some typos and inconsistencies. If and when time permits, we will add more information. This article is also published on Google Docs anyone can comment it. Editing this article on Google Docs will require invitation from the author. Please help proofreading this article. Since this article is in public domain, anyone can suggest corrections. For further details, please contact indiaspirituality [at] gmail.com (replace [at] by @ ) Page 3 of 274 Hinduism Basics – Traditional Overview 2. Credits and Acknowledgements Too Close to revere, No amount of reverence and gratitude enough Guru and Self are not different, still we must all approach to Guru with reverential attitude and as a servant. Same is the case with God. God is the Self, rules our heart and is too close to be considered as a separate from us. On the other hand, no amount of glory, reverence or worship can repay the debt of the grace of Guru and God. While they are too close to speak about them ‘formally’, we are not worthy enough to pay tribute to them. This servant will always remain indebted finding not enough words to sing their glory. Whatever good you find in this work is the grace of my Guru and God, all errors are mine. It would not be possible to acknowledge all those whose independent contribution towards sanAtana dharma is invaluable. The author, Amrut, would extend gratitude and thank online sources, spiritual websites for publishing gigantic works like Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇ a, veda- s, purāṇ a-s and various other texts on the world wide web. Amrut would also like to thank owner of discussion group Advaita-L mailing list Shri Vidyasankar Sundaresan ji and owner of forum HDF (Hindu Dharma Forums) known by screen name @satay who encourages healthy discussion on sanAtana dharma. Amrut would also take this opportunity to extend thanks to members of these two groups especially members of Advaita-L namely Acharya Shri K. Sadananda ji and Shri V. Subramanian ji among others who are traditionally well versed in sanAtana dharma. Indebted to Kanchi Paramacharya Amrut indebted to Kanchi Paramacharya, Jagadguru Sri Chandrashekharendra Sarasvati Mahaswami, as Amrut has got much knowledge about traditional Hindu Dharma from the book, Hindu Dharma - Eternal Way of Life’, which is the collection of teachings of Kanchi Paramahcharya. Kanchi Paramacharya was called as the ‘Living God’. Indebted to Sringeri Shankaracharyas Abhinav Vidyatheertha Mahaswami and Sri Bharathi Tirtha Mahaswami Amrut is also indebted to Sringeri Shankaracharyas as Amrut has been immensely benefitted from the Divine Life of Jagadguru Sri Abhinav Vidyatheertha Mahaswami, who is Page 4 of 274 Hinduism Basics – Traditional Overview a living example of a saint who has not only experienced the Supreme Truth of Advaita Sthiti, but had practiced many disciplines like Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga and Bhakti as means to Final Emancipation. His divine life are recorded by Jagadguru Sri Bharathi Tirtha Mahaswami and published in a book, 'Yoga, Enlightenment and Perfection of Sri Abhinava Vidyatirtha Mahaswami (AV)'. A brief intro of the above mentioned book is given by advaita academy. Hard copy is available in bookstores managed by Sringeri Matha. Soft copy in PDF and EPUB format are available for free down on Official Website dedicated to Sri Abhinav Vidyatheertha Mahaswami. This book contains a detailed account of His intense spiritual practices that culminated in His Enlightenment and Jivanmukti at a very young age. Swami ji practised many spiritual disciplines and realized truth by various ways like - ● Hatha Yoga ● Bhakti & Karma Yoga ● Kundalini Yoga ● Nada Anusandhana ● Meditation on Divine forms ● Intense reflection on Brahman and Nikvikalp Samadhi ● Nirvikalpa Samadhi by Grace of Guru ● Final Enlightenment, permanent rooting in it and Jivanmukti Indebted to Puri Paramacharya Amrut is also indebted to Puri Shankaracharya Jagadguru Srī Bhārati Krṣṇ a Tirtha for his contribution in decoding hidden mathematical formulas in the holy vedas. Gratitude to Shri Santosh ji Amrut would also like to thank a brotherly friend Shri Santosh Kumar Ayalasomayajula, the author of Mahapashupatastra Blog who has contributed to the article ‘ Women and Sanātana Dharma’. Santosh ji has contributed to some wonderful articles like explaining the origin of universe from varṇ amālā by Śiva and Śakti. The creation occurs from sound i.e. sanskrit vowels. He has also contributed to establishing glory of Śiva and Śakti as supreme Brahman. He has also decoded the encrypted hidden meaning of vedic verses and hymns like Mahākāla Suktam and Skambha Suktam. Santosh ji has also refuted the left hand interpretation of our scriptures. Amrut is influenced by Santosh ji’s works and it might be reflected in taking yogic stand to explain inner meaning of some vedic and purāṇ ic hymns, stories and riddles. Indeed Yoga is one of the best way to explain certain rules and regulations for living life as a Hindu. Thankful to Josué MOËNS Page 5 of 274 Hinduism Basics – Traditional Overview Thankful to Josué MOËNS @ LumApps for giving free addon TOC (Table of Contents), which appears in Sidebar on Google Docs and Correctly Auto Numbers Headings and Sub- Headings with up to 6 levels. Upon Refresh, this addon correctly renumbers headings in entire article thus saving a lot of work and human error while numbering headings manually. You do not need to delete old heading number. It just gets autocorrected upon refresh. Big Thanks to Google and it’s Team This work would not have been possible without free services like Google Docs by Google. Page 6 of 274 Hinduism Basics – Traditional Overview 3. Preface Purpose of writing this article … There are many books and articles written to explain Hindu Dharma. This is just another attempt to share basic information about Hindu Dharma from Traditional Point of View. Unlike Abrahamic religions which preaches ‘One God, One Book’ theory and asks one to pledge his/her belief to one particular person for their salvation, the philosophy which is applicable to all mankind, Hindu Dharma, is distinctive in many ways. Topics are discussed in brief. This article is not supposed to be taken as an authority but as a rough guide. It aims to make make people aware of Hindu Dharma from traditional Point of View (POV). There are some reasons for presenting traditional viewpoint. There are three types of people in every society. 1. Theists 2. Atheists 3. Anti-theists While theists believe in God, atheism is ‘lack of belief in God’. Anti-theism is to hate the word ‘God’ and anything related to it. They revolt against anything related to God, do not believe in ‘dogmas’, rejects them and ironically they openly ‘preach’ their ‘set of beliefs’ i.e. their ‘dogmas’. There are fourth kind of people who are called as ‘critics’. Some prefer to call themselves as ‘fact finder’ or ‘explorer of truth’. Such people are generally cannot develop 100 % faith in God because of doubting nature. There are many fact finders who have genuine urge to find the truth. Such analytical minds are respected by Hindus even though they might be critical of some part of system traditionally followed.