Hinduism Goes Back 4,000 Years Without a "Bible"

I have had many friends born in India. They have been wonderful additions to my life. In several cases couples married who were not from the same regions. They discussed complications such as how "hot" a family's food should be. Sometime there was tension about a career wife versus one who works only in the home.

It was delightful to read a skilled journalist tell of he and his wife's differing branches of Hinduism. Growing up in different regions meant different prayers to different gods and different sacred holiday celebrations. He guessed their differences were not a great as the marriage between a devout Protestant and a devout Catholic but there were issues to work through nevertheless. They have a child who is being taught both sets of Hinduism.

In writing about these differences the link author referred to "traditions."  Christians would refer to "Bible-based beliefs" or "faith based on scripture." Christians would do well to use the word "tradition" instead of "Bible-based" because individuals, groups and regions all have different views as to what the Bible says. Christian beliefs are actually "traditions" and nothing more.

How do Hindus stop Hinduism from morphing into different versions of the faith than what was practiced in the past? They don't stop it. The link discusses this very issue. With an Indian diaspora going around the globe and Hindus marrying other versions of the faith and outside the faith it, like Christianity, continues to change. The link author does not lament this but observes and speculates about it with a healthy curiosity.  

While we know India has all the major faiths of the world within its borders, the role of its various branches of Hinduism is its identity. To say it goes back 4,000 is, of course, to put a stake in a timeline that surely goes back thousands of years before. The link author refers to India as a country where many versions in Hinduism were cobbled together. L ike humans everywhere, there were families that developed into clans and then regions of humans. Out of the experience came cultures, different climates and food sources generated beliefs in nature and out of that came hundreds of religions.

When on sees the huge numbers of Hindu branches after 4,000 years it seems logical Christianity, at only 2,000 years, will look similar when it is twice as old. Its Bible is not holding it together today and will not help it from morphing around as it has done already in its young life.