Hinduism 101: Ideology

Since the time of its origin, Hinduism has encouraged the spirit of free-thinking, and allowed diverse ideas to interact and co-exist as explanations to the nature of our universe, God and our place in this world, all the while acknowledging that we may never fully understand or answer these questions. Essentially, it is a collection of many different and often times conflicting theories that have been proposed and debated over the course of centuries.

There are many religious texts and schools of thought that attempt an explanation of the unknown, dating from the ancient Vedic period until the present day, which is why summarizing Hindu beliefs becomes a challenging, if not impossible, endeavor. However, most theories within Hinduism can be very broadly classified into two main philosophies:

1. Dwaita: According to the dwaita philosophy, God is an external force whom individuals seek favor from through devotion and worship. Those who are blessed receive special status with Him/Her as their salvation, and those cursed suffer eternal damnation. Some of the ideas behind dwaita reflect the principles of monotheistic religions-Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

2. Adwaita: This theory proposes that God is an internal force within every human being. This is an exclusively Eastern philosophy, and the most influential school of thought within Hinduism, inspiring principles of other religions such as Buddhism and Jainism. In adwaita, an individual concentrates on refining one's spirituality and character-either through learning, service to others, or even practices such as yoga, or a combination of these paths-to attain salvation. Also, the idea of eternal damnation is absent in adwaita.

An important distinction between these philosophies is that while both of them teach that human beings are created by God, in adwaita, God the material from which we are created and the soul becomes one with God after salvation. Dwaita professes that the soul is favored by God after salvation.

These two ideas provide a framework to interpret various religious texts such as the Vedas, the Upanishads, etc. While dwaita interprets references to God and deities literally, adwaita, on the other hand, assumes metaphoric translations.

Variations of each of these theories exist, as do philosophies that combine concepts from both. For example, although adwaita does not stress on devotion or even in theism, the Bhagavata tradition that teaches the merging of the soul with the Supreme Being also suggests devotion to God as the means to do so.

Ultimately, it is an individual who chooses what he/she wants to believe, and those beliefs are likely to fall into one of the many myriad philosophies that have been handed down from centuries.