Hin­dus have nev­er at­tacked oth­er peo­ple be­cause they wor­shipped at dif­fer­ent al­tars. We have al­ways re­spect­ed the rit­u­als of oth­er re­li­gions and ad­mire gen­uine at­tempts by all peo­ples to es­tab­lish con­tact with the Supreme.

Sri Ra­makr­ish­na, a renowned Hin­du saint, said, “Every­one thinks that his watch alone gives the cor­rect time, but for us, it is enough to have a yearn­ing for God, to love Him and feel at­tract­ed to Him.”

With­out knowl­edge, some peo­ple crit­i­cise the deities of Hin­dus. The na­ture of God is per­ceived dif­fer­ent­ly by dif­fer­ent groups of peo­ple. In­dia has al­ways been a vast land of many peo­ples and dif­fer­ent lan­guages and cul­tures. Hin­du tra­di­tions aim at de­vel­op­ing in­di­vid­u­als who fol­low good habits and peo­ple who prac­tice rites and rit­u­als that pro­mote hap­pi­ness.

From a so­cial point of view, per­son­al wel­fare, hap­pi­ness, and recog­ni­tion are im­por­tant in life. The pur­pose of hu­man life is not re­strict­ed to eat­ing, drink­ing, or be­ing mer­ry. Ac­cord­ing to Hin­du be­lief, every in­di­vid­ual pos­sess­es three at­trib­ut­es or gu­nas—Sato­gun, Ra­jo­gun, and Ta­mo­gun. These are the dri­ving forces with­in and in­di­vid­ual.

Sato­gun is syn­ony­mous with be­ing vir­tu­ous and de­notes the qual­i­ties of good­ness and pu­ri­ty. Ra­jo­gun is a fond­ness for sen­su­al en­joy­ment and plea­sure. Ta­mo­gun rep­re­sents qual­i­ties of dark­ness and ig­no­rance. The re­li­gious texts ex­plain that while Sato­gun is rep­re­sent­ed by the colour white, Ra­jo­gun is rep­re­sent­ed by red and Ta­mo­gun by black.

The Bha­gavad Gi­ta elab­o­rates on the three gu­nas. It ex­plains that those pos­sessed with Sato­gun are free from at­tach­ment, firm, vig­or­ous, and not af­fect­ed by ei­ther suc­cess or fail­ure. They have con­trol over their ego. Those pos­sessed with Ra­jo­gun are at­tached to en­joy­ment and seek the fruits of what­ev­er they do. Greedy and ag­gres­sive, their con­duct is not al­ways vir­tu­ous. Both joy and sor­row in­flu­ence them. Those pos­sessed with Ta­mo­gun lack self-con­trol, are ar­ro­gant, de­ceit­ful, un­cul­tured, and giv­en to pro­cras­ti­na­tion.

Over thou­sands of years and vary­ing cir­cum­stances, par­tic­u­lar con­cepts of God ap­pealed to the pe­cu­liar cir­cum­stances of some devo­tees. Rit­u­als, names, and re­li­gious doc­trines evolved to meet lo­cal needs. Hin­duism al­lows one to see an un­der­ly­ing uni­ty that links the past to the present, such as the whole world, which the In­di­an Di­as­po­ra now oc­cu­pies.

The devo­tees of Shi­va may have dif­fer­ent points of em­pha­sis than those of Vish­nu. When we pledge, “To­geth­er we as­pire, to­geth­er we achieve,” we align our thoughts to the Hin­du idea of beau­ty as uni­ty with va­ri­ety.

Re­la­tion­ships must be based on ac­cept­able be­hav­iour. To­geth­er­ness must be con­sis­tent with Hin­du Dhar­ma—moral and re­li­gious du­ty. To­geth­er­ness does not mean cus­toms and be­hav­iour that are ad­harmic—un­right­eous or im­moral. Dharmic be­hav­iour cov­ers all as­pects of life. It pro­motes the uni­ty of the fam­i­ly as the on­ly way to build a strong com­mu­ni­ty and a suc­cess­ful na­tion.

The fun­da­men­tal ba­sis of this moral, so­cial, and spir­i­tu­al be­hav­iour must be lived ac­cord­ing to Satya, Ya­j­na, and Tapas. Satya means words and deeds. These must al­ways be ded­i­cat­ed to God. Ded­i­ca­tion of deeds to the gods is the prin­ci­ple of Ya­j­na. Tapas—Con­trol of our pas­sions to pu­ri­fy our body and mind.

In all as­pects of life, we must be guid­ed by Satya, Ya­j­na, and Tapas to pro­mote the wel­fare of our­selves, our fam­i­lies, and our com­mu­ni­ties. This is what Dhar­ma means for the Hin­du in this life and lib­er­a­tion in the next. Dhar­ma means de­vo­tion to seek­ing the truth.

Ma­hat­ma Gand­hi said, “At first I thought God is truth, but lat­er I came to know truth is God.” We need to know the truth. The Ma­hab­hara­ta says truth in­cludes dis­ci­pline and self-mas­tery, and the an­cient Rishis said truth is Dhar­ma. The San­skrit proverb Satyam Eva Jay­ate tells us “that—“Truth al­ways pre­vails.”

Obe­di­ence to par­ents and re­spect for pun­dits are the true be­hav­iours of chil­dren act­ing in good ac­cor­dance with Dhar­ma. They show the devo­tee in pur­suit of the high­est good. If we strength­en our­selves by de­vo­tion to Dhar­ma, we can re­sist the pres­sures to con­form to cus­toms that are not in the best in­ter­est of Hin­du tra­di­tions.

It will change the course of our present and fu­ture life. It will change our ma­te­r­i­al and so­cial en­vi­ron­ment, and our fam­i­lies, com­mu­ni­ties, and our coun­try will ben­e­fit. The ad­harmic be­hav­iour of par­ents in­flu­ences their chil­dren, spous­es, and rel­a­tives.

Crime may fol­low some, more than oth­ers, de­pend­ing on how one lives ac­cord­ing to, or not ac­cord­ing to Dhar­ma. Crime be­comes ram­pant, so­cial mis­be­hav­iour is an every­day oc­cur­rence, and places of wor­ship re­main half-filled. Par­ents, guardians, and el­ders, there is a need to show greater care for the chil­dren; moral and spir­i­tu­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is quick­ly wan­ing.