60 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Hinduism | Amazing Facts 4U
- Hinduism is the world’s oldest known religion, with its roots going back to more than 10,000 years in India.
- The Hindu Literature Rig Veda dates back to at least 7000 BC.
- Hinduism is strictly not a religion unlike Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc. No Hindu scripture uses the word ‘Hindu’. The religion, practices, and beliefs were preached as a way of life for mankind.
- There was nothing called ‘Hinduism’ for many centuries when it was being ‘practiced’. Word Hinduism is derived from the river Sindhu which was pronounced by Persians as Hindu. The region of the Indus valley is called Hindustan, and thus the religion called Hinduism.
- Hinduism is the world’s 3rd largest religion closely following Christianity and Islam followed by about one Billion people which is 14% of the World’s Population.
- Unlike the top two religions, 95% of Hindus in fact live in a single nation India!
- The top five Countries with Hindu populations are Nepal 81.3%, India 80.5%, Mauritius 54%, Fiji 33.7%, and Guyana 28%.
- Amazing fact is that the Vedas and many other teachings of Hinduism were preserved for thousands of years without paper. They were Chanted, memorized, and passed on to the next generations of disciples for almost 3500+ years before put into the paper, and yet it has no major discrepancies. It is indeed a stupendous achievement.
- Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha are the four cornerstones of an ideal Hindu. Kama (the pursuit of pleasures including sexual/sensual), Artha (the pursuit of livelihood, wealth, and power), Dharma (the pursuit of philosophy, religion and doing duties to society), and Moksha (attain liberation from rebirth) are the human actions as we progress towards liberation.
- Hindus believe the purpose of life is to attain self-realization or enlightenment or Moksha which is the highest and final goal.
- Four Ashramas or Four stages of life each of 25 years starting from birth are : 1) Brahmacharya: Spent in learning arts of life and spirituality. 2) Grihastha: Householder life, where earning for livelihood, taking care of children and parents 3) Vanaprastha: Retirement stage, where transfer of responsibilities and duties to younger generation is done. 4) Sanyasa: renunciation stage where one renounces all worldly attachments and moves to a quiet place to practice spirituality until death.
- All living things have a soul including animals. Advanced souls take bodies with higher abilities like that of humans. All souls evolve up the ladder
- Hinduism believes in reincarnation as the soul is immortal which takes on the form of many bodies until they achieve enlightenment or Moksha.
- Hinduism is the only religion to believe in Karma and re-birth believing that your next birth is determined by your actions in the present one. What you did in the past will affect what you have in the future. You suffer a lot in this life because of your bad deeds in the last life. Souls are considered immortal.
- Om is considered to be the subtle sound of the universe, and can be heard in deep meditation. The amazing fact is that the sound of the sun recorded by NASA mimics Om.
- The supreme divine spirit is considered to be both male and female. In Hinduism, men and women are treated as equal halves. Women are also treated as Goddesses.
- Hinduism is an adaptive religion and is flexible with time, unlike some religions which are rigid. Teachings of Hinduism have proven true over centuries even in modern times.
- Hinduism is the parent religion for two of the other major religions of South Asia, Buddhism, and Sikhism. It is also closely associated with its sister religion, Jainism.
- Hinduism at one point covered most of Southeast Asia including Indonesia, Cambodia, and Malaysia.
- The Hindu epic of Mahabharatha that embodies the principles of Hinduism is the largest poem in the world written in 1.8 million words of Sanskrit which is about 10 times the combined length of the Illiad and Odyssey.
- Manu Smriti is the first book written on Codes of good conduct which are followed even today.
- Amazingly unlike all other major religions, Hinduism has no founder or a prophet. Hinduism believes that religion has no origin and is eternal. Hinduism has no formal Institution, no Pope, and no central body. Hinduism derives its practices from ancient sages to today’s saints followed for at least the last 10,000 years.
- Hinduism believes in one God but in many forms as per people’s beliefs. The most worshipped forms of God are Shiva, Krishna, Ganesh, Rama, Vishnu, Durga, Kali etc.
- There are three foremost deities. Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the preserver, while Maheshwara (Shankar) is the destroyer. The three letters of the word ‘AUM’ are considered to represent them.
- Hinduism is one of the few religions that does not consider the pursuit of wealth a sin. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth both material and spiritual.
- Hinduism also considers Nava Grahas ( 9 Planets) as gods and places Sun God at the Center. It’s amazing that these gods find mention in Hindu Literatures dating back to thousands of years before any recent Astronomers could predict that we are part of a Solar System with Sun as its Center.
- In Hindu tradition, all books that contain knowledge are considered sacred.
- The amazing fact is that Hinduism is an Atheist at the same time as it is Polytheist at the same time as it is Monotheist. You could have a belief in one major God with other subsidiary Gods “worshippable” too! Hinduism can also be considered “monist” i.e. the belief that all the seemingly different Gods are ultimately one. Hinduism is tolerant enough to allow being atheist.
- It was the tolerance for the non-believers and the underlying theme to encompass new thoughts that allowed other religions such as Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism to offshoot peacefully from Hinduism unlike Islam.
- Amazingly Hinduism has no concept of forced conversions. All the people following the faith have either willingly embraced it or acquired it by birth.
- Jews have been living in India since 500 BC without any anti-Semitism from Hindus. In fact, the only Jews who suffered in India were under the Portuguese rule in the 20th century Goa.
- Temples are the places where Hindus worship the deities, many people have altars/ rooms in their houses for worship. One does not wear shoes or footwear inside the temple.
- It is worth noting that the idol worship and physical temples are a relatively new phenomenon as it has no mention in Ramayana and Mahabharatha – two of the oldest epics. People only visited holy sites, like the origins of rivers, or rivers/forests, etc.
- The Vishnu Temple called the Balaji temple in the city of Tirupathi, in the state of Andhra Pradesh built in the 10th century, is the world’s largest religious pilgrimage destination. On average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to it every day.
- Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s defining temple complex, which is the largest temple in the world was originally a Hindu temple. It was built by Suryavarman II in the 12th century and originally dedicated to Vishnu before it transformed into a Buddhist temple.
- There are 108,000 recognized temples in India.
- The world’s tallest Subramanya Swamy statue is in Malaysia being 140 feet tall.
- The institution of marriage was founded and put forth in practice by Hindus.
- As per Hinduism, there are three modes of nature (Triguna) in any person. Sattva is pure and good in nature. Rajas are passionate and active in nature. Tamas is inertia and indifferent nature. Every person has these three qualities in varying degrees which decides his fate in life.
- Hindu scriptures are organized into Vedas (poems that written in multiple levels from abstract rural level and going deeper into the cosmic universe), Upanishads (scientific discourses and arguments about the world), Brahmanas (manuals for ritual performances), Puranas (mythologies about Hindu gods) and Itihasas (notebooks on “historical” events”).
- All the books related to Hinduism are written in one common language, Sanskrit. This is one of the oldest known language in the world from which most of the Indian languages are derived. It is a pure language with strict grammar rules which have not changed for thousands of years.
- Swami Vivekananda is famous for his speech on Universal Brotherhood at world religions conference reintroducing Hinduism to the western world. The Prime street in Chicago, USA is named after Swami Vivekananda in his honor.
- The holiest number for Hindus is 108. This is the ratio of Sun’s distance (from the earth)/Sun’s diameter or Moon’s distance (from the earth)/Moon’s diameter. Thus, most of the prayer beads have 108 beads.
- ‘Kumbhamela’, a Hindu Festival which occurs once every 12 years is the largest gathering of humans in the world.
- Varanasi (Kashi) in Uttar Pradesh is the oldest city of India and also considered as the most holy of the places.
- Hinduism respects the elders. Generally, families do not divide unless necessary. Father and son live together.
- Men and women wear sacred ash (Vibhuti) or kumkum on the forehead, which helps them to concentrate on the third eye region.
- After marriage women also wear bangles in wrist , Mangalsutra in the neck , ear-rings, nose-jewel and toe ring. Women decorate their hairs by adorning flowers.
- The four holiest animals for Hindus are the cow, elephant, snake, and peacock.
- Fully blossomed Lotus flower has used as a symbol of enlightenment, also as the symbol of the open heart (full of love).
- Celibacy is advocated until the marriage.
- Hinduism also formed the basis for modern science with the advent of the decimal system, zero, and point system.
- Yoga, Pranayama, Astrology, Numerology, Palmistry, and Vastu which now are widely famous in the west are all part of Hindu culture and lifestyle.
- Vastu Sastra, which translates to ” The Science of Architecture ” is an ancient Hindu literature of architecture written between 6000 BC and 3000 BC with its influence clearly seen in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro civilizations.
- Ayurveda, the plant-based medical treatment practice has its roots in Hinduism.
- Yoga, the World’s most practiced form of spiritual and physical fitness procedure, originated from Hinduism in the Indus- Saraswati civilization 5000 years ago.
- Kamasutra, an ancient Hindu Literature written by Vatsyayana in Sanskrit is the oldest sex education book dating back to 200-400 CE.
- Hindus hold big chariot processions to carry gods during special occasions. Some of these chariots can be huge sometimes killing people in their path when control is lost. The biggest one of all Jagannath in Puri (India) gave the English dictionary term Juggernaut meaning the unstoppable one.
- Hinduism and Sanskrit are a major part of Indonesia’s heritage as it used to have a Hindu population ruled by a Hindu king. Presently it is a country with the highest Muslim population in the world. Evidence of heritage is found in the logo on Indonesia’s most elite engineering college which is of the Hindu God Ganesha. The national airline of Indonesia is called Garuda, the mythical bird from the Ramayana.
- US President Barack Obama always carries a statue of Hanuman the monkey God with him.
Find more nuggets of wisdom on our website: www.wisdomquotesandstories.com
