The Hindu Mind is, perhaps, the only mind that does not put itself on the highmost pedestal and claims to be the highest. It is willing to accept the possibility of higher minds, indeed, a myriad of higher minds.
Thus, a Hindu accepts the possibility of not just one God, but a myriad of Gods and Goddesses. He intuitively knows that his body consists of trillions of cells and billion billion billion of atoms. And, this knowledge opens him up to infinite possibilities.
To those who do not understand this, the Hindu mind may seem very uncertain. To a Hindu, however, uncertainty is certainty. To a Hindu, God is All Possibilities; and, both the uncertainties and certainties are but parts and parcels of such possibilities.
But, He does not Stop at That…. Beyond all such possibilities, certainties and uncertainties, a Hindu discovers the unifying factor – That is His Very Self.
And, he finds the same Self at play everywhere, through each and every one those trillions of cells and billion billion billion of atoms. Not only in and through his body, his being, but in and through each and every body, each and every being, each and every form of life.
He also sees life everywhere. To a Hindu, the rivers and the mountains, the dust under his feet and the farthest star, indeed, the very emptiness of the space – all are alive!
Life is Everywhere, He is Everywhere – He is also she. You are I, I am You. All the Gods, Goddesses, and That One beyond All and enveloping all at the same time – the transcendent and the imminent – he is in awe of his own discovery, of his discovery of himself. And, he becomes prayerful, he becomes grateful.
He needs no rules to pray, he requires no methods. He does not have to be told or instructed by some authority to pray. His prayerfulness is natural. His gratefulness is an outburst of his self-discovery, self-realization.
He does not pray to achieve something. He does not pray for some favors. His prayer is of a totally different quality.
Alas, We Hindus have Forgotten this uniqueness of our mind inherited through a long evolutionary process. Our situation is similar to that of a baby lion raised by a flock of sheep in a story retold many times by Swami Vivekananda:
I will tell you a little story. There was once a baby lion left by its dying mother among some sheep. The sheep fed it and gave it shelter. The lion grew apace and said “Ba-a-a” when the sheep said “Ba-a-a”.
One day another lion came by. “What do you do here?” said the second lion in astonishment: for he heard the sheep-lion bleating with the rest. “Ba-a-a,” said the other. “I am a little sheep, I am a little sheep, I am frightened.” “Nonsense!” roared the first lion, “come with me; I will show you.”
And he took him to the side of a smooth stream and showed him that which was reflected therein. “You are a lion; look at me, look at the sheep, look at yourself.” And the sheep-lion looked, and then he said, “Ba-a-a, I do not look like the sheep – it is true, I am a lion!” and with that he roared a roar that shook the hills to their depths.
In Our Ignorance, we have been copying and following other less evolved minds. We are ever trying to match our mind with theirs. Sheer nonsense.
We feel very insecured when others call us polytheists, worshippers of many Gods; animists, worshippers of plants and rivers and trees; or, atheists, non-believers. Why should we concern ourselves with such terminologies and definitions?
All such terminologies and definitions combined cannot possibly define a Hindu Mind in its totality. For, the mind of a Hindu is much more than, at the same time, beyond all such terminologies, all such definitions, all the isms created by less evolved minds.
Yet, having said that, all such terminologies and definitions are also part of the Hindu Mind. For, the mind of a Hindu encompasses all.