Is our culture dying?

Indian culture is an attachment that we learn and grow with. It is this attachment which makes us believe that, if it exists as it does, it should remain there. The respective practices and traditions that we hold dear to us are actually a logical extension of our hearts and minds. These activities such as prayer, the construction of temples, and other offerings are small substitutes in the idea of achieving a perfection of sorts. We can think of it this way: When a man or a woman wants to provide for others then they can build a hut for the homeless or cook or provide endless other services. In doing so, their thoughts are beliefs are extrinsically brought out in the physical world. In the same way, the idea of achieving perfection in an artform, a sport or religious ideal has brought about a physical world interspersed with a more and more complex nature. Our culture, myriad of practices and the like, has brought about so many vast changes and improvements in itself that it can only be thought of as a whole or ‘Hinduism’ as opposed to each little aspect on its own. That is why we have no definition on what Hinduism is and what a Hindu person is. We are not defined by the temple or the Bhagavad Gita unlike those of other religions. Contrary to this fact, we still hear from those who have concerns that our culture is ‘dying’. Although youth are moving towards western traditions, this is in no way causing the ‘death of Hinduism’ but in fact it is a changing of the whole aspect of Hinduism. We cannot but pretend that changes of this scale have not happened before, but we as a generation can hold onto the roots of our past. Hinduism is a leviathan in the religious world and although it takes care to stay underneath the surface at times, its resonance in the physical world is only a reflection of its true essence – the mind, the presence and the body of each and everyone of us. It does not need to be out in the open for it to be a formidable force but understands that it is carried and lives on in the inner world of our hearts and minds.

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