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Strictly
speaking, Hinduism is not a religion, but a total way of life that governs the
Hindu from conception to the grave. The word Hinduism is coined by western
observers to describe a wide variety of religious beliefs and practices, mainly
in the Indian sub-continent. The real name is Sanatana Dharma (eternal truth).
It differs from other great religions in that there is no historical founder,
one scripture, head of church or a central organization. To the Hindu, the
entire universe is alive, an ever changing field of vibrating energy, permeated
by the supreme consciousness 'Brahman', the unbounded expanse. It is the source
of all life, yet unaffected by its creations. Totally free of world of time and
change, 'Brahman' is 'unborn', 'eternal', 'everlasting' and 'ancient'. The
transcendental infinity of life is not easily accessible to worship. In the
Hindu cosmology theory, symbolism is conceived as the expression of reality,
just as words are symbols of ideas expressed as sound, and characters are words
and ideas expressed graphically. True symbolism springs from nature (prakriti)
itself. The whole nature is but the symbol of a higher reality. What we picture
as aspects of divinity are essentially abstract prototypes of the forms of
manifest world.
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