TEN FACETS OF HINDUISM - Page 3
9. All these disciplines will lead us to the ultimate discovery -- revelation -- of God in ourselves. No external agency can do this for us. We have to do it ourselves for ourselves. Discover it, as the One invariant substratum that never changes while else keeps changing. Discover it as the calm of the deep sea unperturbed by the tumult and turmoil of the waves on the surface. Discover it as your own Consciousness which is present as the only common factor in all the different stages of life and in all the states of awareness. Discover the Ultimate in yourself, for yourself, by yourself.This is a long process, but never give up. Allow Intuition and mystic Experience to take you beyond Reason and Intellect. This is the ninth commandment.
10. The tenth commandment is the crowning glory of Hinduism. It says, as a matter of faith, all Faiths are valid; it is the attitude that matters -- not the rituals, not even the physical expression of the philosophy that one adheres to. Whatever may be one's path of emphasis, Bhakti, Karma, Rnunciation, Surrender, Detachment, Dedication, Awareness, or Service, one must remember that it is the attitudes that should be right rather than any exhibition of intention. It is the attitude that decides one's evolutionary level called Varna in the scriptures, in the ascent of the Spirit. No religion can assume that it is the repository of all wisdom. There should thus be no hatred , jealousy or distrust of another human, another religion, or, even within Hinduism, another point of view with respect to the Ultimate Godhead. As a consequence, the different Hindu philosophies about the ultimate nature of God, based on differing interpretation of the scriptures , should not matter in one's daily life. It i as if there exists a multidimensional Reality of which each individual perception has only an one-dimensional projection before it, and perhaps, each in a different dimensional axis.
It is not true that every Hindu believes in all the ten directives above. Sanatana Dharma is so flexible that one could find large numbers of adherents in the Hindu fold, who believe or care for only a few of the above ten, and do not care for or accept the remaining ones. This is because, though there exist many restrictions for a Hindu in the domain of conduct, in belief their exists almost total freedom. Chart 1 on the next page presents all the ten directives in a chart form, whereas the further pages present truncated charts of the same with one or more directives removed and these represent different categories of Hindus. But one who resonates with the contents of the various samples of scriptures that we present in this book will appreciate that a full understanding of Sanatana Dharma comes only from an acceptance of the validity of all the ten directives, in theory as well as in practice.