{"id":418,"date":"2008-09-22T09:41:25","date_gmt":"2008-09-22T09:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shekharkapur.com\/newblog\/?p=418"},"modified":"2016-01-30T18:22:31","modified_gmt":"2016-01-30T12:52:31","slug":"what-does-it-mean-to-be-hindu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shekharkapur.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/what-does-it-mean-to-be-hindu\/","title":{"rendered":"What does it mean to be Hindu ?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I am Hindu, and very proud to be one .. but I have often wrestled with that question. What does it mean to be a Hindu?<\/div>\n
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I have spoken to some of the best minds, the most spiritual minds. \u00a0I have journeyed to many places in my quest. and I have to come to believe that the best way to describe Hinduism is to say what it is not.<\/em> For how do you describe a \u2018teaching\u2019 that encompasses all possibilities and all of eternity, refusing to describe the infinite in finite terms ? That describes all of life and all thought as both illusion and reality at the same time ? There is no science , no thought, no possibility that Hindu thought does not embrace ? So there is only one way to describe Hinduism for me \u2013 although it may mean many things to other people \u2013 is that Hinduism is a search, a yearning, to find that which is infinite within ones own self, a yearning to experience that which is Eternal\u2026<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\u2026So what is Hinduism not ? It is not centralized, it not an organization, it is not political. It can never be. For every time there has been an attempt to organize Hinduism as a political force, it becomes by nature a finite structured force that bears no relationship to the idea for a search for the infinite.
\nSo to those people that ask why we cannot declare India a Hindu state I ask them to understand and trace back to what a Hindu state is ? And they will soon realize they are looking for an identity. And the very basis of Hinduism negates the idea of identity. For it is a search for ourselves beyond that which is called ‘Identity’.<\/p>\n

Which begs the question, why we cannot accept our identity as just Indian ?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am Hindu, and very proud to be one .. but I have often wrestled with that question. What does it mean to be a Hindu? 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