You might think it takes a lot of Chutzpah (if I may borrow a Jewish term) to claim your religion is eternal. What Hindus mean when they say this is their tradition doesn't come from any one founding father or mother, from any single prophet towering over the bastion of hoary antiquity. In fact, the first few verses of the Veda-an incredibly old book, parts of which were composed some 6,000 years ago-acknowledge the sages who were already ancient to its composers the sages who were already ancient to its composers living in 4,000 B.C.E!
Very old Hindu texts speak of a time when it became almost impossible to survive on Earth because of ice and snow. This could be a reference to the last Ice Age, some Hindu scholars believe. Archaeologists have unearthed small statues of goddesses from 10,000 years ago (that's about the time the Ice Age was ending)like those still being worshiped in Indian villagers today. So even if wer'e not willing to grant that Hinduism is eternal, we still have to admit it got the jump on the other major religions.
But even more fundamental that the question of how Hinduism first got rolling (a very complicated and surprisingly interesting issue we'll explore in Chapter2,"Hindus in History") is the fact that Hindus consider their tradition eternal because it's not based on the words of any one inspired man or woman. It's based on the eternal laws of nature.
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