The word 'Hindu' is a geographical term used by Persians to describe people living beyond the Sindhu (Indus) river. 'Sanatana Dharma' is the actual, indigenous name, meaning the 'Eternal Law' or natural order that governs the universe.
Cyclical. Unlike the Western linear concept (beginning to end), Hindu cosmology views time as an infinite cycle of creation, preservation, and dissolution (Yugas and Kalpas), mirroring the natural cycles of the cosmos.
No. The Vedas mention 33 'Koti' (categories or supreme aspects) of the divine, which was later mistranslated as 330 million. It is fundamentally a monistic system: One Supreme Reality (Brahman) worshipped in many forms.
A 'Murti' is not a mere idol; it is an energized focal point. Hindus do not worship the stone itself, but the omnipresent Divine invoked into that specific form through consecration (Prana Pratishtha) to help the human mind focus.
Yes. Texts like the Bhagavata Purana explicitly describe countless universes bubbling out of the pores of Maha-Vishnu, pre-dating modern theoretical physics' multiverse concepts by millennia.
A 'Soul' is often viewed in Western thought as being created by God and subject to judgment. The 'Atman' is never created nor destroyed; it is a direct, inseparable spark of the Supreme Reality (Brahman) itself.
Karma is not 'cosmic punishment' or fate. It translates to 'Action'. It is simply the universal law of cause and effect—you are the architect of your own destiny through your physical, mental, and verbal actions.
Maya is commonly mistranslated as 'illusion' (implying the world doesn't exist). It actually means 'delusion' or 'measurement'—the world is real, but our perception of it as permanent and separate from the Divine is the delusion.
To achieve 'Moksha' (Liberation). It is the realization of one's true nature as the Atman, freeing the individual from the cycle of birth and death and ending suffering.
Sanatana Dharma is a seeking culture, not a believing culture. Texts like the Upanishads are entirely formatted as debates and questions between students and teachers, emphasizing direct experience over blind dogma.
