"Hinduism is dialogic, eclectic, and inclusive," says Pavan Kumar Varma

Those who invoke the faith to buttress their acts of vigilantism are doing so out of ignorance, says writer-diplomat and politician

Pavan Kumar Varma

. Varma looks at Hinduism as a way of life where there is no one Pope, no specific ritual, there is no need for any ordained congregation. “It is a great edifice of thought and philosophy based on a very rich intellectual discourse --- the shastras. Hinduism is dialogic, eclectic, and inclusive,” Varma said at the

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Kolkata Literary Meet on Sunday while dealing with the vast corpus of arguments and counterarguments over the bewildering plurality of the cosmos. Varma pointed out that in the discourse captured in the Upanishads there is no search for God. “Instead, the Upanishas, the Barhmasutra and the Bhagvat Geeta ---the three foundations of Hinduism leads one to a highly intellectual concept of Brahman (supreme consciousness),” Varma said, pointing to the who array of thoughts that the “great assimilator” Adi Shankaracharya addressed and gave a coherent shape. “Shankaracharya addressed all the six main streams of philosophical thoughts from Nyaya to Sankhya including the Charvaka while giving a shape to His Advaita Vedanta philosophy. Five among the six streams of thoughts in Hinduism are atheistic,” the former diplomat said while arguing how Hinduism has room diverse views.


Indologist Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri pointed out that there is no mention of Hindu in the ancient scripts namely the puranas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata. “It is a foreign word that comes from the Greek word Sindhu. Greek is a sister language of Sanskrit,” Bhaduri said. While speaking at the meet, Bhaduri explained that the Hindu religion has evolved over the times in three phases. “The hymns in the Vedas sound close to materialist philosophy. It is about give and take. I give the God the best of my produce asking for sons, wealth and fortune. But this ended in a frustration because the God couldn’t give what people wanted. There was a need for reforms. Philosophers such Shankaracharya then came with the concept of Brahman --- the one and indivisible who can’t be perceived through our senses. It suited the saints but was beyond the grasp of ordinary people. The third phase in Hinduism is the bhaktiyog where people worshipped finite forms of God (Durga, Kali, Shiva) who belong to the Infinite,” Bhaduri said.