Hinduism - The open source religion
Hinduism’s greatest quality is condensed in this line from Swami Vivekananda’s 1893 Chicago speech "As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee."
Hinduism has always embraced multiple ways and methods of worship. Because this is a base core concept. No one can point to another person and declare "You are doing it wrong! Do it this way!".
This way of thinking makes Hinduism into an opensource religion and overall makes it stronger. Much like opensource code, this gives it a lot of benefits.
1. First, it is open access. There is no one stopping you from forking the ideas and building your own. If the ideas are good then people will automatically follow them.
2. It can also innovate and try out ideas. The successful ideas are taken by other "branches" and merged into their code/principles.
A good example of this - The past few years we have been seeing increasing use of "Chocolate Ganesha" for Ganesh Chaturthi. What used to be the dunking of a chemical-laden idol into the river and a cause of pollution has now been replaced by dunking of the chocolate Ganesha into milk and given to children. The idea started from a single person and soon spread and every year we see more and more people doing this. Similarly, any such useful changes are quickly adopted by others.
3. Another is the removal of antiquated practices (Removal of old code). While we take inspiration and guidance from the past we do not tie ourselves to it. This helps us get rid of illogical and unnecessary practices which might have made sense in the past but do not anymore.
These lay the foundational ethos of the grand Hinduism project.
By
S
The Enlightened Souls
Hinduism has always embraced multiple ways and methods of worship. Because this is a base core concept. No one can point to another person and declare "You are doing it wrong! Do it this way!".
This way of thinking makes Hinduism into an opensource religion and overall makes it stronger. Much like opensource code, this gives it a lot of benefits.
1. First, it is open access. There is no one stopping you from forking the ideas and building your own. If the ideas are good then people will automatically follow them.
2. It can also innovate and try out ideas. The successful ideas are taken by other "branches" and merged into their code/principles.
A good example of this - The past few years we have been seeing increasing use of "Chocolate Ganesha" for Ganesh Chaturthi. What used to be the dunking of a chemical-laden idol into the river and a cause of pollution has now been replaced by dunking of the chocolate Ganesha into milk and given to children. The idea started from a single person and soon spread and every year we see more and more people doing this. Similarly, any such useful changes are quickly adopted by others.
3. Another is the removal of antiquated practices (Removal of old code). While we take inspiration and guidance from the past we do not tie ourselves to it. This helps us get rid of illogical and unnecessary practices which might have made sense in the past but do not anymore.
These lay the foundational ethos of the grand Hinduism project.
By
S
The Enlightened Souls
