Word: dharma
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...literature of the Hindus has no such word as "Religion". The word Dharma, mistranslated as religion does not stand for dogma or creed; it stands for righteousness or duty "to be applied in practice." Our sentiments toward God, our relations with our fellow beings, our individual conduct, all these are comprehended in the word Dharma Hinduism, i. e., Hindu-Dharma is thus a system of philosophies which are mainly founded on the basic teachings inculcated in the Vedas. In the words of a competent authority, "Happily, India, though it has at least 20 languages, has but one sacred and learned...
This is the intellectual background of Hindu-Dharma and it is on this that the true existence of Hinduism depends. However the people of the west make little or no discrimination between the various communities inhabiting the vast subcontinent of India. All the different religions now found among millions of Hindus go by the name of Hinduism. Narrow minded persons have for the last 100 years been painting Hinduism in the most hideous possible colors. They have shown through pulpits and press their satisfaction that Hindu religious doctrines are mythological accounts of the passionate escapades and cruelties of a host...
Caste system is one of the strikingly distinguishing features of Hindu-Dharma. This in the present chaotic form, however, is not indicative of the original rational faith. Originally Hindu Society was divided into only four castes not on the basis of birth or monetary considerations: it was a perfect psychological classification on the basis of innate capacities and actual behavior in life. They did not have the Intelligence tests to classify individuals in terms of their ideas; but they followed much the same method that is still followed in schools of our times, in arranging pupils and administering their promotions...
...truth it inculcates. Christianity or Islam have developed certain phases and consequently have their place but it is futile to expect that ingrafted upon Hinduism they can bring about better results. That is why they have failed to appeal to the enlightened Hindus of India who find in Hindu-Dharma a deeper philosophy and a nobler conception of religion...