What Do Hindus Require to Recognize Another from Outside Their Culture As Hindu?

[Shantanu]

I'll have to think on that.
Myself, I've always seen Advaita Vedanta as a school of theoretical physics.

Do you know the meaning of the Hindu term 'Vedanta'?

 

[Valjean]

Yes.

 

[Shantanu]

Yes.

The final chapter to the Vedas?

 

[Valjean]

Pretty much. I usually see it termed: End-of-the-Vedas."

 

[Shantanu]

Pretty much. I usually see it termed: End-of-the-Vedas."

That means Advaita Vedanta is the final word of Hindus, right?

 

[Valjean]

That means Advaita Vedanta is the final word of Hindus, right?

Nope. There is no 'final word of Hindus'. Hinduism isn't a single, organized religion, in the Abrahamic sense. It's a hodge-podge of all sorts of different religious traditions from many different regional cultures.
Each Hindu decides his own "final word;" his own theology and practice.

 

[Shantanu]

Nope. There is no 'final word of Hindus'. Hinduism isn't a single, organized religion, in the Abrahamic sense. It's a hodge-podge of all sorts of different religious traditions from many different regional cultures.
Each Hindu decides his own "final word;" his own theology and practice.

If Advaita Vedanta is not the final word of the Hindus or the 'End' of the Vedas, there is no such thing as Vedanta. So why do you call your religion Vedanta (reform)?

 

[Valjean]

If Advaita Vedanta is not the final word of the Hindus or the 'End' of the Vedas, there is no such thing as Vedanta. So why do you call your religion Vedanta (reform)?

Ordinarily I'm not 'religious', in the usual sense, but I'm OK with pigeon-holing myself as Vedanti if asked to specify some particular belief system.
This, of course, usually brings a blank stare, so I just say "Hindu" and my interlocutor's usually satisfied.
I add "reform" to give myself some wiggle room, in case one of my heterodox viewpoints clashes with orthodoxy.

 

[Shantanu]

Ordinarily I'm not 'religious', in the usual sense, but I'm OK with pigeon-holing myself as Vedanti if asked to specify some particular belief system.
This, of course, usually brings a blank stare, so I just say "Hindu" and my interlocutor's usually satisfied.
I add "reform" to give myself some wiggle room, in case one of my heterodox viewpoints clashes with orthodoxy.

That is very clear now, for I am a Vedantist in the sense that we have to have something up-to-date to follow on what the Vedas said. I am Existentialist through the process of satya-advaita, so highly religious.