Hinduism is easily the oldest existing organized form of religion on the face of the earth. The Hindu faith has about a billion adherents around the world, migration from India having taken it to almost every country on the planet. Hindus are known to be strongly attached to their native social culture and traditional faith; research by the Trinity College, Hartford, in 2008 indicated that a majority of Indian scientists are believers, even with their rocket science and atomic exploits. The number of Hindu gods and men of piety, and the volume of Hindu religious texts would possibly far outnumber the corresponding numbers of all other religions put together, at times even seeming comical. But the numbers are a reflection of the tolerance, accommodation and acceptance of plurality of lines of thought among its believers. It is the recognition that no two men or women are the same and that every human can follow his or her own ways to explore his or her place in the universal scheme of things, if so desired.
The cornerstone of the Hindu belief system is that multiple paths lead to the same goal of truth and self-realization. Or simply put, do your stuff right, live and let live and you're good; maybe not good enough but you're definitely on the right track. And the "let live" principle holds not only to other humans, but to every piece of matter around you. The plants, the animals, the unsightly worm, the barking stray dog and even the flowing river have the right to do their stuff and as long as the dog doesn't bite anyone, leave it alone. Harmony within you, with others and with the environment is one of the basic underlying tenets of existence of the Hindu faith. Hinduism has no typical founders, no tell-it-all single sacred text and no religion-backed "become-a-Hindu" initiation rites. In fact, even the word Hindu is a comic British colonial holdover; no Hindu religious text in its hundreds of thousands of pages ever assigns the word Hindu to a follower. You, the man on the street, are a Hindu if you follow the Hindu way of responsible and dutiful life, no questions asked, very few conditions apply.
Hinduism is often called "sanatan dharma," which roughly translates into "the eternal laws and ways of life." It is a 100 percent "how-to-live-life" survival kit. The Hindu Vedas, or revelations, tell you how to attain salvation, but also tell you how to solve mathematical equations, how to build a strong house, and the cure to your stomachache. Even for an atheist, it is nothing short of mind-boggling to read about the speed of light, the Pythagorean theorem and artificial rain-cloud precipitation neatly packed into religious hymns and abstract poetry. And we are talking, at the very least, 2,000 years back. Hinduism is often questioned for its polytheistic beliefs, social hierarchies and theories of reincarnation, but begin probing, and answers you will have. Even from whatever's still left of ancient Indian manuscripts, intricate concepts in cosmology, philosophy, evolution, medicine and mathematics are seen to be well-woven into one, big all-explaining theory of life, with almost no contradictions, internal or to current-day scientific truths. And this is what keeps the flame alive in millions of Hindus around the world, and the couple of hundreds in Virginia Tech. Not every Hindu is aware of his massive, enormous cultural and civilizational inheritance, but deep down, there is this conviction that what grandma passed on to his mama is probably right.
Religion, faith and human life seem to be inextricably knotted together; they probably came out of the womb together. Many believe that far from being a unifying force, religion seems to have only promoted strife and violence and continues to cause destruction in its various manifestations. I vehemently protest such half-truths. Show me one system of faith that does not preach love, affection and generosity. Show me one religion that asks you to bomb and butcher innocent men, women and children to promote your "holy" causes. On the contrary, religion is that last piece of straw we cling to when we are drowning in debt, sinking in depression or mourning in pain. For billions, it offers the last shreds of hope when all is lost; it gives the weak and the powerful alike the optimism that there is this invisible force that helps you recover. To believe or not to believe is your own choice, but it is only when you force your own dubious interpretation of a piece of human writing on dupable people that you create hatred and revenge where there should be love and compassion. Tolerance is key to co-existence, and now more than ever, to existence itself.