what are the basics of hinduism. Is that right to worship those things which we make by our own hands.?

Answer 1

Idol or image is a kind of yantra or a device for harnessing the eye and mind on God. As the Vishnu Samhita puts it:

"Without a form how can God be mediated upon? If (He is) without any form, where will the mind fix itself? When there is nothing for the mind to attach itself to, it will slip away from meditation or will glide into a state of slumber. Therefore the wise will meditate on some form, remembering, however, that the form is a superimposition and not a reality."

Diane L. Eck, has noted: "Hinduism is an imaginative, an "image-making, religious tradition in which the sacred is seen as present in the visible world – the world we see in multiple images and deities, in sacred places, and in people. India is a visual and visionary culture, one in which the eyes have a prominent role in the apprehension of the sacred. For most ordinary Hindus, the notion of the divine as "invisible" would be foreign indeed. God is eminently visible, although human beings have not always had the refinement of sight to see. Furthermore, the divine is visible not only in temple and shrine, but also in the whole continuum of life – in nature, in people, in birth and growth and death. Although some Hindus, both philosophers and radical reformers, have always used the terms "nirguna" (quality less) and nirakara (form less) to speak of the One Bramh. Yet the same tradition has simultaneously affirmed that Bramh is also saguna (with qualities) and that the multitude of "names and forms" of this world are the exuberant transformations of the One Bramh.

(source: Darsan - Seeing the Divine Image in India)

The Rig Veda has declared the Ultimate Reality (God) as:

"Ekam sat vipraha, bahudha vadanti" (Sanskrit)

"Truth (God) is one, the wise call it by various names"

and exhort us to "let good thoughts come to us from every where" in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna assures the adherents of all religions that "those who pray with devotion to another god, it is to Me that they pray."

The Truth (God) was called Bramh by the sages. The root of the word Bramh is "Brih" which means to expand. According to the Hindu view, the Supreme Reality can be viewed from two aspects:

Transcendent (impersonal) and Immanent (personal).

In the transcendent aspect, the Supreme Reality is called Nirguna Bramh, that is Bramh, without attributes. "Bramh is He whom speech cannot express, and from whom the mind is unable to reach Him, comes away baffled" states the Taittiriya Upanishad.

Nirguna Bramh is not an object of prayer, but of meditation and knowledge. It cannot be described, and the most one can say is that It is absolute existence, absolute knowledge, and absolute bliss (sat-chi-ananda). It is unborn, self-existent, all-pervading, and the essence of all things and beings in the universe. It is immeasurable, unapproachable, beyond conception, beyond birth, beyond reasoning, and beyond thought". God cannot be defined in terms of any specific manifestation, nor indeed in terms of their sum total. He is beyond all possibility of definition. The Bhagavad Gita, the best-known scripture of India, states this point clearly:

"Though I manifest Myself in all things, I am identified with none of them".

In its Immanent (personal) aspect, the Supreme Reality, is called Saguna Bramh. He is the personal God, the creator, the preserver, and the controller of the universe. In Hinduism, the immanent (personal) aspect of Bramh is worshipped in both male and female forms. In the male form, he is worshipped as Ishvara, Maheshvara, Paramatma, Purusha. In the female form, as the Divine Mother, Durga, and Kali. The Vedic God has no partisan attitude of the jealous and vindictive God.

God in Hinduism is not the creator of the individual soul, (atman). The atman is divine and eternal. Greater wisdom was never compressed into three words than by the Chandogya Upanishad which proclaimed the true Self of Man as part of the Infinite Spirit - Tat twam asi : That Thou Art".

In the beautiful words of Vedanta: "Samvit or pure consciousness is one and non-dual, ever self-luminous, and does not rise or set in months and years and aeons, past or future."

Hinduism provides for the ultimate Truth but not for a final and last statement of that Truth. Hinduism provides for self-renewal. The concept of Kalabrahma or Kaladharma is central to the Hindu way of thinking. Thus making for effective use of the built-in mechanism for change for centuries. It accepts explicitly the inevitably of change with the passage of time. The past is not superseded but modified according to the demands of the spirit of the times. Thus, the Vedas are followed by the Upanishads and these by the Epics and the Puranas; nothing is final. Hence, Hinduism's striking ability to adapt itself to changing circumstances and conditions.

Hinduism emphasizes Experience of Reality and Truth rather than belief.

Man is not born as a sinner in Hinduism. "Each soul is potentially divine."

"God sleeps in the rocks," proclaims the Indian scriptures, "dreams in the plants, stirs toward wakefulness in the animals, and in mankind is awake to his own ego individuality." In the enlightened stage, finally, he awakens to the full reality of who he truly is, in His infinite Self.

Infinite tolerance is the hallmark of Hinduism. The first statement of tolerance in Hinduism comes from the Rig Veda and the Bhagavad Gita:

"Let good thoughts come to us from all sides" or "The truth is one but the wise call it by many names" or Lord Krishna saying that "Whoever invokes a deity by whatever name, it is Me he invokes"

source: Ayodhya and After - By Koenraad Elst

Tolerance: This basic feature of Hindu religion which separates it from revealed religions believing in the finality of their revelations as a fundamental doctrine. While Lord Krishna says in the Gita:

Ye yathaa maam prapadyante
Taamstathaiva bhajaamyaham.

He proclaims a doctrine which is fundamental to all Hindu thought; that is, religion is not a matter of exclusive dogma. It is a wide tolerance, a feeling that others may be equally right in the methods they follow, that is the essence of Hindu teaching.

Hinduism is a religion of freedom. It allows the widest freedom in matters of faith and worship. It allows absolute freedom to the human reason and heart with regard to questions such as the nature of God, soul, creation, form of worship, and goal of life. It does not force anybody to accept particular dogmas or forms of worship.


Hinduism is not a "one size fits all" religion. Hinduism is a religion that is doctrinally less clear cut than say Christianity, politically less determined than Islam. It offers something for everyone, including the atheist. It has delighted its followers, with its richness, its antiquity and its depth. Hinduism, is a philosophy that appeals to reason, love, tolerance, harmony, unity and truth. It motivates us to live life to the fullest, to achieve and realize our goals, keeping in mind that all things are connected in this universe and respecting them thereof. Religion in India is the cultivation of the interior life. It is the attainment of spiritual freedom. In the West, religion is a social phenomenon, a matter of the ecclesia, of the community. The Western mind sees the divine as largely external to man but to the Hindu it is about improving his being, or inner self. Hinduism traditionally does not recognize the borderlines within which religion in the West has been confined for some centuries - politics, social structures, hygiene, science - everything is assimilated and considered part of the divine reality.

Hinduism is alive and vigorous and has withstood attacks from within and without. It seems to be possessed of unlimited powers of renewal. Its historic vitality, the abounding energy which it reveals, would alone be evidence of its spiritual genius.


The Hindu religious system can be divided into two major systems. The Orthodox system (called astika in Sanskrit) accepts the authority of the Vedas.

1. Sankhya - founder Sage Kapila
2. Yoga - Sage Patanjali
3. Mimamsa - Sage Vyasa / Sage Jaimini
4. Vedanta - Shankaracharya, Ramanuja/Chaitanya/ Madhava/Vallabha
5. Nyaya - Sage Gautama (not Buddha)
6. Vaisheshika - Sage Kanda

The Heterdox (Nastika) system rejects the authority of the Vedas. This system includes Carvaka (materialism), Jainism, and Buddhism. The Carvaka system denies existence of the individual self(atman) apart from the body and rejects the notion of moksha (salvation) for the atman.

Answer 2

The basics of Hinduism is to follow a life style which ultimately leads to discovery of one's true origin. In Hinduism it is called "YOGA" or Union with 'self'.