Hinduism grew out of the culture of India around 2500 B.C. and is one of the most ancient religions of man.

Photo by Bonnie Gehling
 
Huston Smith rightly begins his extraordinary book "The Religions of Man" with Hinduism. He says Hinduism grew out of the culture of India around 2500 B.C. and is one of the most ancient religions of man.

He says Hinduism starts with the question, "What do we really want?" This sounds like a simple question but it cannot be answered easily. India has thought about the question for a long time and has come up with four answers called the four desires of man.

The first desire of man is pleasure, tasting, touching, seeing, smelling and hearing all the wonderful things on earth with our senses. India says there is nothing wrong with seeking pleasure, enjoy it to the fullest for the world has a lot to enjoy. But, hopefully, there will come a time when we will want more than a constant seeking of pleasure in our lives. Not because pleasure is bad, but because it is too narrow and small to satisfy our nature.

The second great desire is to seek worldly success, wealth, fame and power. Again this is a good goal and it can bring self worth and respect but in the end it too will be found too narrow and small for us. For worldly success means competing with others, and rewards through competition can easily be lost. Also, wealth, fame and power do not multiply when shared and there is always more to be had so we are never satisfied.

Pleasure and success are twin goals of desire that we seek mostly for ourselves. They are much like toys, they are fun but as we mature we out grow them.

The third great desire of life is to serve people less fortunate than ourselves. Now our goal goes beyond the wish to gain to the wish to give. The rewards of service are great, praise, self respect, but once again it fails to satisfy the human heart completely. We can never be fully satisfied as history shows us the suffering will always be a part of the human condition.

Our real wants lie else where, which leads us to the fourth and ultimate desire which is union with God. When we unite with God we experience a release from all limitations, we become infinite being, knowledge and joy.

The Hindus believe we are already free of limitation but we are not aware of this because of our distractions, false ideas and self-limitations.

We are like a lamp that is covered with dust and when it is cleaned our light shines forth. We are like a lion cub who lost its mother at birth and who wonders with the sheep grazing and bleating. When we free ourselves of limitation and realize who we really are we will be free, wise, strong and joyful.

We will be free as we will no longer be attached to the world being a certain way, our minds will be at peace, we will be free of wanting, fear and grief. Since we have no need for recognition from others our love will flow freely to everyone. The state of being where we are free is to become one with God.

There are four paths to become one with God. The method of training that leads to union with God is called Yoga.

Since we are all different, some of us are thoughtful, some emotional, some active and some experimental, we can choose the path that suites us best.

The first step to any yoga is to practice non-injury, honesty, self-control, discipline, cleanliness, contentment, and a desire for union with God.

The first path to God is through knowledge (Jnana Yoga) and this is for the people who love ideas. The goal of this yoga is to see how our surface self, our personality covers our larger Self like clouds covering the sky. This means making a shift from identifying with our personality, which changes all the time, to the eternal or non-changing part of ourselves. We can do this by watching ourselves as if we are someone else. With a lot of practice we will see who we really are and become one with God.

The second path to God is through love. (Bhakti Yoga) The goal is to love God, but the Bhakti does not want to become one with God, rather to love God as separate and different from ourselves. To the extent we succeed in loving God without conditions we will become like God for we tend to become like that which we love. We will know joy and our attachment to the world will weaken.

The third path to God is through work (Karma Yoga). For those that need to be active we can find God in the everyday work-world. The trick is to work with proper knowledge and with love. Work then becomes a vehicle for self-transcendence. Every chore is performed as a service to God, with no expectations, for it is God's will and we are channels for Gods work.

Pain, loss and shame are accepted as we are grounded in God.

The fourth path to God is psychological (Raja Yoga) and physical (Hatha Yoga), exercises for experimentation. A number of scientific experiments are done using mental and physical experiments to watch the effect. When the experiments are performed over time the student will experience union with God also known as the "beyond that is within." This involves turning our senses inside ourselves, exploring our internal world until we are completely absorbed in God. This is known as "Samadi".

The four ways to God can be combined and when they have been faithfully practiced and learned, we will identify with God, our eternal Self, and no longer experience death.

We cannot know God through our minds for the mind is finite and God is infinite. God is different from anything our minds can grasp.

Since it is hard to think of God without pictures, words or ideas, the Hindus recommend we create our own personal reminders of God. Some words used for God is loving, kind, merciful, all powerful, almighty and eternal.

The Hindus talk of God being supreme reality, pure being, infinite awareness and bliss.

God can be thought of as a Creator, Preserver, or Destroyer. God can be personal or impersonal and separate. What is important is to have a "picture" of God that carries the most meaning for us and opens up our hearts and minds.

Each of us has a soul that will live many times on this earth before it reunites with God. This is known as reincarnation, which means we will die and be born again many times, before we are ready to give up the pleasures of the world. The soul does not depend on the body any more than the body depends on its clothes. Worn out clothes are discarded and so are our bodies when they grow old or sick.

Since our souls choose what happens we must take responsibility for everything we do and accept what happens. This means we will reap what we sow or get back what we give out. This is called Karma.

The world is the soul's school for learning. The soul is here to learn what it is we really want and what is important to us. It is learning about giving up desire for worldly things. But we can only give up pleasure and worldly success once we have experienced them and no longer find them satisfying.

The souls movement up the ladder of desire, from pleasure, worldly success, social dedication to God does not happen in a straight line but will zigzag upward, until we become completely identified with God.

God is always with us during our soul journey and provides light even when the world is covered in clouds.

The Universe is made up of many galaxies each having and earth where souls can work their way to God. There are finer worlds above and lesser worlds below the earth where souls also work, depending on their Karma.

Periodically, the cosmos will collapse and all beings will return to a state of becoming before the cycle begins again. Like a huge accordion, the world swells out and then draws back in. This happens over billions and billions of years.

Ultimately, the universe has no beginning and no end. Earth, is a middle world as it has an equal mixture of good and evil, pain and pleasure, knowledge and ignorance. The earth is here to teach us to look beyond the universe so it can never be made a paradise. The earth is where we learn to deal with good and evil, it is like a bridge, to be passed over but not to become attached to.

The world is an illusion, like a movie screen, a gigantic play of God.

The world is tricky, it looks solid and as if it is made up of many things but the world is made up of one substance, God. The world is basically kind as there is no permanent damnation.

The Hindus say all the religions on earth are good and true and are equal paths to God. To say there is only one religion is to say God is found in only one room. Each person will find their path to God and be influenced by their cultural heritage, history and personality.

The different religions are but different languages through which God speaks to the human heart. The truth is one, only wise men and prophets call it by different names.