हिंदू धर्मं एक संचिफ्त परिचय

The Name Hindu:

Technically Hindu is not the name of a religion but a people and the name that Western people use, which is Hinduism, is erroneous. A British had coined the term Hinduism to describe the diverse faith in India. That term does no justice to the spirituality of India.

The term Hindu comes from the name of the River Sindhu. In antiquity, when the Persians conquered North West India, they did not know what to call the people of the region and called them Hindu as a mispronunciation of Sindhu. Thus the people living around and on the East of Sindhu (the Indians) became Hindus. Hindu is the name of a people not the name of a religion. Technically, every Muslim Indian is a Hindu... every Pakistani and every Bangladeshi is a Hindu. The best translation of Hindu would be Indian (people of the subcontinent)।

Is Hindu One Religion?

There are often totally opposite traditions in India. Opposing traditions of King Bali and Baman coexist. We might even distinguish several religions in India that are all lumped together into "Hinduism".

Many traditions exist in popular form in India that are not part of the Vedic tradition (Vedas are deemed to be the most authoritative of the Hindu sacred books।) Similarly many Gods and Goddesses are not part of the Vedic tradition. The Brahmin Hindus are not priests of these popular Gods and Goddesses either.

Purusharthas: The four four fold goal of life

The Hindu religion is not obsessed with any one area of life but emphasizes on a well rounded view. For example, Hindu yogis (those who do yoga, in search of Brahma) may not have sex, but sex is not viewed as a bad thing but one of the wonderful things in life. Here are the goals of life:

Dharma	Righteousness (see below)
Artha	Worldly Prosperity (wealth etc.
Kam(a)	Enjoyment (includes bodily pleasures)
Moksha	Liberation, self realization, the ultimate goal

Hindu Morals (Values)
A friend of mine once said that Hindu has no moral values like her religion, Catholicism (a sect of Christianity). So here is a list.	Ahimsa or Ohingsha	Non-violence
	Satya or Sotto	Truthfulness
	Brahmacharya or Brommocharjo	Search for the ultimate reality, Brahma
	Maitri or Moitri	Friendship
	Dharma or Dhormo	See below
	Karuna or Doya	Compassion
	Virya or Birjo	Fortitude
	Dama or Domo	Self Restraint (body and mind)
	Shaucha or Shoucho	Purity (body and mind)
	Datta or Dotto	G

The Red Dot (the third eye):

Hindu females wear a dot on their forehead. It is called a Vindia or a Teep. Unmarried girls are supposed to put a black dot and married girls red ones. However, today it is more fashion than religion or custom so a variety of colours and shapes are used by married and unmarried girls.

The roots of this practice is probably the Indus civilization in the third millennium BC. The discovery of a statue leads to that belief. The statue, dubbed Priest King, from the Indus valley civilization, has a circular space on the forehead where a little gold disc (also unearthed there) fits snugly. The Teep is also connected to the concept of the third eye. The third eye concept has also become popular in western society with fantasy novels. The Teep is a physical representation of the spiritual eye that sees beyond the normal eyes and beyond the worlds.

Shib or Shiva has three eyes. The third eye is a fiery eye.

Hindu men are also supposed to have designs on their foreheads but mostly they don't nowadays. The patterns of the markings denotes caste and other information. This is called Tilak or Tilok.

http://www.geocities.com/shivsantan/#myth