Introduction
Human civilizations have always
sought to explain their origins. Two major schools of thought dominate the
religious imagination when it comes to creation. Various cultures have
attributed different names to these two broad philosophies. For the purpose of
this article, we shall name them as:
1. Paganism:
Rooted in the worship of nature
2. Creationism:
Based on the divinity of a transcendent creator.
The word paganism is Eurocentric
– coined by Christians to label pre-Christian faiths as primitive. Paganism is often
better understood as animism or naturalism, i.e. the worship of
nature. Paganism is by definition a polytheistic practice and does not even fit
in the definition of “religion” as perceived by Creationists.
Creationism, on the
other hand posits that God stands outside the world, rather than being a part
of it. God creates the universe and its inhabitants rather than being
the universe.
The interplay of these two
perspectives has shaped nearly every religious tradition. Curiously enough,
Hinduism seems to contain both.
Paganism
Paganism, in its many forms, is
the world’s oldest spiritual instinct. In this view, divinity is immanent. It
dwells within nature rather than beyond it. The gods of the Greeks, Romans,
Vedic Indians, native Americans, European Pagans, Zoroastrians etc. were not
abstractions of morality but embodiments of elemental forces. The pantheon of
Gods included the sky, thunder, water, fire, lust, horses, and even the Earth.
To worship meant to engage, to harmonize with the living powers that governed
existence. There was no clear line between the sacred and the natural. Man was
not made in the image of God; he was a participant in a divine continuum.
This worldview naturally aligns
with Darwin’s evolution: the idea that life emerges and adapts through natural
processes rather than divine decree. The pagan cosmos is not static; it is a
field of becoming. Its Gods evolve, merge, and dissolve, just as life itself
does.
Creationism
Creationism by contrast, posits
separation. The God of the Abrahamic faiths, i.e. Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam, stands apart from His creation. He speaks the world into
existence. Man, made in His image, is unique among creatures, endowed with free
will and moral responsibility. Here, nature is not divine but designed; its
beauty testifies not to its own power but to the mind of its maker.
The central theme of creation
is the separation of mankind from God by gaining knowledge and self-awareness.
Free Will itself is the forbidden fruit of knowledge that has separated Man
from the Almighty and Man spends eternity in trying to return to his maker. The
struggles of Man and life itself is attributed to this separation.
The symbols of this worldview
are deeply anthropocentric: the Garden of Eden, the Fall, the divine command,
the covenant. The relationship between man and God becomes one of obedience,
redemption, and moral testing. The world becomes a stage for divine purpose.
The Hindu Synthesis
Hinduism stands at a
fascinating crossroads of these two conceptions. Early Vedic religion, as
reflected in the Rigveda, is unmistakably cosmological. Its hymns are
dedicated to the elemental deities and its rituals are designed to maintain
harmony between human life and the cosmic order. The divine is everywhere,
woven into the fabric of the universe. Mathematics naturally emerges as the
language of the universe.
Yet, as centuries passed, Hindu
thought underwent a profound transformation. The Upanishads internalized the
external gods into philosophical principles. Fire became tapasya,
sacrifice became yagya, and the gods became symbols of consciousness
itself. The Puraṇs later expanded these abstractions into stories of Brahma the
Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiv the Destroyer, forming a triad that
reintroduced personhood to metaphysical truths.
This evolution mirrors, at
first glance, to the European shift from polytheistic paganism to monotheism.
But the Indian transition differed in its method and spirit. In Europe,
paganism was replaced by Christianity. In India, the old gods were not
overthrown but absorbed. Agni did not vanish when Brahma appeared; he
was reinterpreted as one of Brahma’s many manifestations. Nature was not
desacralized but philosophically sublimated.
|
Aspect |
European Transition |
Indian Transition |
|
Nature of change |
Replacement |
Integration |
|
Outcome |
Monotheism
(one true God) |
Monism (one
reality, many forms) |
|
Method |
Suppression
of paganism |
Sublimation
of paganism |
|
Symbolic outcome |
God outside
nature |
God within
and beyond nature |
The Indian genius lay in synthesis, not rejection. Paganism and creationism were reconciled in a vision where both creator and creation are expressions of the same underlying consciousness – Brahman. The famous Upanishadic line, Sarvam khalvidam Brahma (“All this is Brahman”), captures this perfectly.
The Question of Theseus: Is
Hinduism Still Hinduism?
If the religion of the Veds and
that of the Purans differ so greatly, can they still be called the same faith?
By Western measures of doctrinal purity, perhaps not. But Hinduism’s strength
has always been its elasticity. It never defined orthodoxy through fixed
revelation. The Veds are sruti: truths heard from the cosmos. The
Purans are smrti: truths remembered and reinterpreted by human
minds. Revelation in Hinduism is cyclical, not linear. Truth is rediscovered,
not imposed.
In this sense, Hinduism did not
change identity; it changed language. What began as a worship of the elements
matured into a meditation on being itself. What began as myth matured into
philosophy, and what began as ritual transformed into introspection. It is not
a religion that abandoned its past but one that continually digests it.
Conclusion
Hinduism may indeed have begun
as a pagan religion, a reverence for the divine in nature. Over millennia, it
integrated the creational, metaphysical, and moral dimensions that characterize
more theistic systems. Yet, unlike Europe’s rupture between paganism and
monotheism, India’s evolution was a synthesis. The elemental and the eternal,
the personal and the impersonal, coexist within the Hindu imagination.
Thus, the modern form of Hinduism is neither purely pagan nor purely creational – it is both. It stands as a bridge between immanence and transcendence, between nature and spirit, between the god who is the world and the god who creates it. Hence, Hinduism did not cease to be itself; it became more self-aware. To call this Hinduism is not to name a fixed religion, but to acknowledge a timeless process: the universe, endlessly creating and rediscovering itself, through the mind of man.
