About 1 in 100 American adults is Hindu. Worldwide, there are more than a billion. So your Hindu neighbor’s tradition is small on this street and very large on this planet.
Many Hindus call their tradition Sanatana Dharma, which means “the eternal way.” It has no single founder, no single holy book and no single headquarters. That makes it hard to fit on a bumper sticker, which may be one of its better qualities.
One God, many forms, or both
Here’s the question outsiders ask most: do Hindus believe in one God or many? The Hindu American Foundation answers, roughly, “all of the above.”
Many Hindus speak of Brahman, an ultimate reality present in everything. Many worship that divine reality through a particular form, such as Vishnu, Shiva, or the goddess Shakti. Others think of God as beyond any form. A family may keep a favorite deity the way another family keeps a favorite saint, and they don’t see a contradiction.
A few words worth knowing
- Dharma. Your duty and the right way to live, which depends partly on your stage of life.
- Karma. Actions have consequences, in this life and beyond.
- Samsara. The cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
- Moksha. Freedom from that cycle, the final goal.
- Ahimsa. Not harming living things, in thought, word or deed. It’s one reason many Hindus are vegetarian.
Hindu scripture is a large library. It includes the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, and two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
At home and at the temple
For many Hindus, worship starts at home. Pew found 79% of Asian American Hindus have an altar, shrine or religious symbol at home. Daily puja, or worship, might mean a lamp, a flower and a prayer before work.
A Hindu temple is called a mandir. The first ones in the United States were built in the 1970s, and many more have gone up since. Visitors usually take off their shoes at the door. Many temples welcome guests and are glad to explain things.
Who your Hindu neighbors are
Most Hindu Americans have family roots in South Asia, especially India. Some families came by way of the Caribbean, Fiji or East Africa. Not every Indian American is Hindu, though. Pew found about half of Indian American adults are. The rest include Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and others.
Hindu ideas have been in American life a long time. Swami Vivekananda spoke at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, one of the first Hindus to explain his tradition to a big American crowd. Today, yoga mats sell in every big-box store. Some of the people selling them have never heard of Vivekananda. Your neighbor’s grandmother probably has.
Try it on
The last time you used a word like “karma” or “guru” as a joke, did you know what it meant to the people who pray with it?