I am not sure if this subject belongs to a forum sponsored by a medical journal. However, a few observations on the post: 1. The word Hindu is a derogatory colonial term to describe the “religion of the natives". In present day USA, people have dropped using the term "nig**r" or "Bl**k" to describe an ethnic minority which originally hails from the continent of Africa. Likewise, a more appropriate term to describe Hinduism would be Vedic Dharma. 2. Most religions are social practices founded on a prevalent philosophy or school. Often the founding principles have been codified by followers of a founder who was divinely inspired and received a message of enlightenment. Vedic Dharma is quite exceptional in that there is no single founder. It is knowledge and wisdom that has accrued over many millennia.    3. Present day understanding points to the fact that Vedic civilization evolved around River Saraswati and not the present River Indus, so the Hindu-Sindhu (Indus in Sanskrit) etymological connection is pretty feeble. This supported by satellite imaging, archeological investigation and linguistic research. 4. The four "castes" mentioned in the post are not "four religions" of Hindu civilization. They represent the four strata of society - a feature that is common to any civilization. In later centuries these divisions in fact thrust untold misery on common folk because it empowered a small coterie to retain their stranglehold over the lives of people in the name of religion. HInduism is no exception. 5. While all organized religions publicly espouse amity, peace and harmony, recorded history tells a different story altogether. Most wars, genocides, slavery, child abuse and many such forms of such perversions have been carried out in the name of religion. The teachings of religions and the practices of the followers are most often at variance with each other. 6. Many so called "scriptures" of the Hindu religion are in fact philosophical treatise. Yoga, Mimamsa and Nyaya texts hardly ever mention the word God. The most ancient of Vedic texts do not express an absolutist view on creation, cosmology or cosmoggony. They put up propositions and conjectures and the later texts like Aranyakas discuss these at greater length. Most customs and ritual practiced today are of Pauranic origin rather than Vedic. 7. The ritualistic conduct of affairs in society in the name of religion had already burdened people by the time of Buddha (circa 500 BC) and society was just ready for his thoughts and practicies.  The inner meaning and the underlying philosophical metaphor had already become so blurred that religious practices had degenerated into oppression. Buddha brought about a paradigm shift as his teachings did not invoke a creator or God - Karma was the seed of causation alone - be it misery or joy.  8. Thanks to people like Rajaram Mohun Roy, Swami Dayananda Saraswati and Swami Vivekananda, the Vedic tradition was revived on a more rational footing. 9. Even during Vedic times and especially during the 6th century BC to 200 AD, a parallel, non-Vedic, atheistic-materialistic philosophy of Carvaka was in vogue and had a positive influence on Ayurveda as it helped medicine to focus on empirical data and observation and not on hollow religious conjecture. 10. So, I would not be venturesome enough to use the term Hindism for a set of rituals and practices. If the philosopies of of Yoga, Mimamsa, Nyaya, Vedanta etc. have any relevance today, they belong to mankind much as all science does. Relativity is not Jewish nor is Gravitation Christian. It is Universal. We need humanism more than any organised brand of belief, especially so if we are healers and doctors, because suffering is Universal. It spares no one.  In Response to FEW THOUSAND YEARS AGO THERE IS NO RELIGION/CASTE EXCEPT ''HINDU CIVILISATION'' :
Posted by homeopathyogi