Is there such a thing as Hinduism? What is the difference between Hinduism and Hindutva?
Sadhguru: The term and concept of Hinduism was coined only in recent times. Otherwise, there was really no such thing. The word "Hindu" essentially comes from the word Sindhu. Anyone who is born in the land of Sindhu is a Hindu. It is a cultural and geographic identity. It is like saying “I am an Indian” but it is a more ancient identity than being an Indian. “Indian” is only about seventy years old, but this is an identity that we have always lived with.
Being a Hindu does not mean having a particular belief system. Basically, the whole culture was oriented towards realizing one’s full potential. Whatever you did in this culture was Hindu. There is no particular god or ideology that you can call as the Hindu way of life. You can be a Hindu irrespective of whether you worship a man-god or a woman-god, whether you worship a cow or a tree. If you don't worship anything you can still be a Hindu.
It is only recently and due to external influences that this geographical and cultural identity has attempted to transform itself into a religious identity called Hinduism. Hindu was never an “ism”, and the attempt to organize it as a religion is still not successful because the Hindu way of life which is referred to as Sanatana Dharma or universal law is all-inclusive in nature and does not exclude anything. The Hindu way of life is not an organized belief system but a science of salvation.
No religion teaches to kill people, still, a lot of murders happen in the name of religion. Isn’t it because of entering religion into politics?
Sadhguru: All religions started as a method to turn inward. An inward step can be taken only by an individual. It’s a very intimate thing; it has nothing to do with anyone else. But when people try to organize this inward step, naturally it gets distorted. Now, we want to do our religion on the street. Religion cannot be done on the street, it can only be done within you. If you become truly religious you must be beyond any kind of conflict, both within and outside – that is the whole crux of the religion. But today religion means conflict. This is because you have reduced an inward step into a set of beliefs. When I believe one thing, and you believe another, conflict is inevitable.
In that sense, religion is politics – it has been so for a long time. Whole continents have been taken over initially by the religious army, then by the real army. So the question of dissociating politics and religion is not the point. The point is to bring more awareness and sense into people so that you do not empower such forces. This empowerment happens when we allow a certain amount of laxity towards one group and some violence is perpetrated. Once this group attacks another group, now that group wants to get a chance to get back at this group. In turn, this group wants to get a chance to hit them. It becomes a constant process.
Every generation has to continuously work to bring awareness and a sense of wellbeing into people’s minds. It’s a nonstop job. There is no one thing to do and bring it to an end. These problems are created every day, so every day a solution also has to be sought. It is like cleaning our house every day, every day dirt comes in, and every day we clean. How efficiently we clean, that is how clean our house will be.
Is the future all doom and gloom? Or is it hopeful?
Sadhguru: People keep asking me, “Sadhguru, where do you think the world will be in fifty years?” I ask them, “Do you want a prediction or a plan?” All the idiots who are incapable of a plan are looking for a prediction. The very fact that creation gave you such big brains and the possibility to create many things means that you are supposed to have a good plan, rather than wait for a stupid prediction. As humanity, if we want to decide where we go, you need to empower human beings beyond their body and mind. Something bigger needs to touch them. That is the basic effort of what we are doing.
(Editor’s Note: Inner Engineering Online: A powerful beginners program designed by Sadhguru that imparts practical wisdom and a 21-minute purifying energy technique using the breath.)
(Sadhguru is a Yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author. He is also the founder of Conscious Planet – Save Soil)
