Hinduism is the third largest religion on earth. It is the faith of the most populous and fastest growing major nation. Hundreds of millions of Hindus need to know the Gospel. Knowing more about the Hindu faith will help Christians minister better to Hindus.
By Mark D. Harris
Out of the mists of the ancient past, without a face or a name, the ideas of reincarnation, caste, the cycle of lives, dharma, karma, and all that we know today as Hinduism emerged in the land between the Indus River and the Ganges plain. These concepts were contained in the sruti (revealed) texts such as the Vedas (Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda), and the Upanishads (Vedanta). Alongside these sacred books arose the smrti (remembered) texts, including the Bhagavad Gita.
The above paragraph would suit many Hindu apologists but requires a bit more explanation. Hinduism is, indeed, a historical accretion of ideas that arose, mixed, and developed through the interactions of the native Dasyu peoples and the Indo-European Aryan immigrants in the second and first millennia BC. Scholars bicker about whether the Aryans invaded or migrated from the northwestern plains, but world historical experience from the Bantus in Africa to the Europeans in the New World 2,500 years later proves that invasion and migration often look the same. Hinduism has no known founder, unlike other world religions.
