What are the core principles of the Hindu culture? Since the Dharma of the Self is divine, Hindus respect and revere all of creation as divine. Since the nature of the Divine is Sat-Chit-Ananda, therefore life has to be founded upon Sat: the True or Real, Chit: Consciousness and Ananda: bliss of love. This simple yet profound vision creates a totally different culture. Truthfulness, respect, tolerance, acceptance, ahimsa, honesty - all these great virtues were cultivated in people’s lives and a society with a high standard of culture was created.
Hindu culture discovered the concept of Dharma: the true nature of being and its paths, righteousness, the laws of life. Everyone is duty-bound to unfold his or her potential to the fullest. The concept of Isvara and Brahman (omnipresent all pervading supreme being) has been the creation of the highest contemplating minds, a concept to which modern physics is coming close to these days. The law of Karma is another great discovery, by which we are all bound together. Hindus literally believe that "we are the makers of our own destiny," what we want to be that we can become. Every action yields a result either positively or negatively affecting the person, family, community and the society. Dharma is the central pivot of this culture. Universality, humanism and absolute freedom or liberty are the pillars of the Hindu culture. As, Swami Vivekananda said: "Freedom is the first condition of growth," freedom from all limitations and attachments had taken the form of highest ideal in the concept of Mukti. Hindus have specialized in the discoveries of the inner world, the science of spirit, the science of consciousness.
Based on these principles Hindus have given birth to many spiritual paths, panths or sects, including Jainism, Shaivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, including new groups like Swaminarayan. Hindus have created a vast literature and arts with everywhere the concept of spirituality is the central theme. To fulfill the path of Self-realization, Hindus have created many systems suitable for people of various physical, mental and spiritual capacity: Karma, Bhakti, Jnana, Hatha and Raja branches of Yoga are the highest achievements of this culture.
Yet it is a mistake to think that Hindus neglected material and mental needs. We must remember that Columbus was on his way to Bharat (India) not in search of God, but of gold. The British did not go to India for it’s vast and diverse natural beauty, but to add to their own material prosperity and to feed their own poor. Hindus developed shastras and vidyas, i.e. branches of knowledge and technology in the hundreds; from karma-yoga to kama-sutra, natya-shastra of music and dance to shilpa-shastra (arts and architecture), Rasayan (chemistry) to Ayurveda, Astronomy to mathematics to martial arts. Virtually in every possible field they have left great marks! Indian ships were the best till the 18th century. But the greatest contribution lies in the field of spirituality, the science of spirituality - Yoga.
Hindus tried to perfect everything by adding spiritual values. A soldier would not attack another soldier who was unarmed. They would not exploit nature and they coined the word "milking" instead. They were deeply aware of the importance of environmental harmony, not because of a biochemical concept of ecology, but owing to a vision of the entire universe as a living entity. This is called spiritualization. To be able to call an animal like a cow "mother" is spiritualization, as is to be able to call the Sun the giver of all life as Surya-dev or Lord Surya. To be able to express one’s identity with the reference to the Supreme Being : "Aum Tat Sat or Aham Brahmashmi" is nothing but spiritual identity. Hindus already offered to the world thousands of years ago what Julian Huxley called "the science of human possibilities."
If we want to clearly see the distinction between cultures we can look at the basic human act of relationship and communication, how greeting is done by people. Hindus’ "Namaste" is the expression of the reverence of the entire body, mind and the spirit of human divinity, whereas other cultures greet physically and intellectually. The distinction between two societies can be simply stated as the Hindu culture in the Indian sub-continent was pre-planned (like a city) and ‘samskriti’ was the basis, and Western civilization grew according to ‘prakriti, without any planning.
Now the obvious question comes to our mind, then why India and people of India are in such a miserable condition today? The history can answer the question. Any entity can be destroyed if the inner strength weakens and if external forces overpower the entity. Here is what Swami Vivekananda said about it: “The social laws of India have always been subject to great periodic changes. At their inception, these laws were embodiment of a gigantic plan, which was to unfold itself slowly through time. The great seers of ancient India saw so far ahead of their time that the world has to wait centuries yet to appreciate the full scope of this wonderful plan, that is the one and only cause of degeneration of India. The degeneration of India came not because the laws and customs of the ancients were bad, but because they were not allowed to be carried to their legitimate conclusions.
