Who's a Hindu

One out of every six people on Earth is a Hindu. A Hindu is basically any person born into the indigenous religion till the advent of Buddhism and Islam. This includes the country we call India now, as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh Nepal, Bhutan, Ladakh, Sri Lanka, and even parts of Tibet. Indonesia and Malaysia became predominantly Hindu around 1400B.C.E. Today, Hinduism is still practiced by over 80 percent of the population of India. Nepal and Bali also both remain largely Hindu-in fact, Hinduism is the state religion of Nepal. Malaysia has over a million Hindus. More than 11 million live in Bangladesh.

In the past few decades, the population explosion in India has motivated millions of Hindus to emigrates to other countries, like Great Britain, the  United States, Canada, Reunion Island, Mauritius, and some parts of Africa. There are well over a million Hindus in South Africa, the country where Mahatma Gandhi first for social justice.

Today, there are more than 60million Hindus living outside India. Over a million of them live living outside India. Over a million of them live in North America. Very rapidly, Hinduism is becoming less an exotic Eastern religion and more a familiar global presence.Generally speaking, Hindus are born, not made. For the most part, Hindus are not interested in converting anyone else to their religion. " If all roads lead to Rome", one of my Hindu teachers told me, "all religions lead to God. Why should I insult your believes by saying God can't use your religion to call you to Him? Not everyone is lucky enough to be born a Hindu. God will still find a way to illuminate your life".

Basically, a Hindu is any person born into a Hindu family who accepts the Veda (the Hindu Bible as the of their tradition and who participates in the Hindu sacraments which I'll describe later (see chapter 18,"Sacraments and Holy Days"). In the last of the twentieth century, as Western fascination with India increased, some outsiders have asked to be initiated  into the Hindu faith. Several of my friends, born Christians  or Jews, have formally entered the fold Hinduism. This ancient religion is gradually expanding its self-definition to accommodate foreigners. Today Hinduism includes some well-known swamis and gurus, such as Krishna Prem  and  Sivaya  Subramaniyaswami , who were not born Hindu.

The world Hindu actually came from Persians mispronouncing Sindhu (Persians thought of Hindus as the people living to the east of the Sidhu River). Europeans picked up the term when they began setting up shop in India in the eighteenth century. Most Hindus are now so used to being called Hindu that they've finally started calling themselves that. The more traditional term for the native Indian spiritual tradition is Santana Dharma", the eternal religion.