Glimpses Of World Religions

Author(s): Gunvant Barvalia
Publisher: Navbharat Sahitya Mandir

Page 12

Hinduism (The Religion of the Hindus)
The Background
The Hindu community and the Hindu culture and civilization have survived cross-currents of thousands of centuries. Many other castes and their manifold cultures have mixed with the Hindu civilization and have become one and identical with it; they have lost their separate indentities. Just as many a river having confluenced with the Ganga (The Gangas) has assumed the form of it, so has the Hindu community and civilization absorbed in its belly, various communities and cultures. Only the Hindu community, Hindu civilization and Hinduism are as firm as rock.
In realistic terms, the Hindu religion is called a perennial Dharma or 'Sanatan Dharma'; the Shruti, the Smruti and the Puranas bear testimony to this. Maharshi Ved Vyas is such an epoch-maker as has a direct relation with all these three. The other genius is Shankaracharya.
The Ved Vyasji composed history and the Puranas in order to systematise tradition of the Vedic Religion.
Shree Krishna Dwaipayan achieved the task of classifying or compiling the systematised parts of the hitherto disorganised