Are we proud of who we are?

In my previous article I had asked about our religion and what is the general perception of a common person like you and me. Do we get it? In this article I want to talk about our heritage and culture, that have been passed down to us from generations. From childhood we are taught to follow, perform certain values that our parents learned from their parents, without asking any questions. When asked we were told our parents use to do this.

So the quest is to understand why we do what we do and do we get it and are we proud of it. Many scholars and philosophers have given their two cents and explained the reasons behind it. Yet a common person is still lost.

India always had a glorious history and culture. Historians date Indian culture and tradition back to 8000BC and only India have the continuous recorded history since Vedas. Many scholars and historians have written about Indian culture and how profoundly we have impacted other culture and civilizations around the world.

There is a black period in Indian History, where British historians penned some of the things which were not fact, nor did they have the total understanding of our Indian society or culture. Arya Samaj was started to make a common man understand what a Hindu religion was all about and how glorious and rich our culture was. Two hundred years of rule not only enslaved our economic condition but enslaved our minds. Considering western culture has the best to offer. So far has it been true. We have lost so much and will be losing further more.

I will cite a very recent example.. Oprah was in India, and on her first visit she was seen wearing Traditional Indian Saree. In most of her public appearances Oprah wore traditional Indian dresses, but the ironical part was Indian who were around her wore western dresses. So I want to raise this question, why are we not comfortable enough to represent our culture and traditions?

This blog is yet again to voice your opinion and share what we feel about our culture, tradition and are we proud of it? Please comment…..

As a Hindu I am sure most of us come across the question “what is Hinduism”.. When I googled the question it brings many definitions , many written blogs and publication describing meaning of Hinduism. When our religion started, how many sections sects of Hinduism, what books were written and what is their  purpose in our religion. As a Hindu conclusion was not the same… I found many negative and very few positive aspects that were highlighted about our religion. I felt obligated to take this query and take it to fellow Hindus and ask them  what we feel about our religion and how important is it for us. Believe it or not there is a book for “Idiots guide to Hinduism”, compulsion was to buy but the author is some American…

There are cool facts, which I never knew,   like Hinduism is third largest religion of the world, making us 800 million strong. Hinduism is not religion but was termed from Hindustan. It was very simple set of rituals and traditions initially, many saints, religious pundits defined per their vision. “Hinduism has never been a "creed" with a set of beliefs, but rather a culture and way of life. Hindus find themselves articulating Hindu "beliefs." They often speak of tolerance, vegetarianism, and non-violence as basic of Hinduism. “

This blog is an open forum to define what we feel/know about our religions. Our religion is very unique, where we have the freedom to express what we feel, follow what our heart desire after all we have survived various invaders of the West.

Few weeks back I had a very roaring discussion with friend, who insisted that as time turns we as Hindus” we are losing our culture, tradition and values. I initially disagreed to this but later concurred.

Like Islam and Christianity we are not organized religion. We don’t have many strict dedicated schools or universities, where they teach staunch Hindu values. Has the time come to organize Hindu religion so that we don’t lose our values, tradition?

I am not preaching anything but trying to see how passionate are we about our religion.  Also do not connect this with any political forum..