If this collection of practices, teachings, philosophies, and methodologies for living, for spiritual exploration that we call Hinduism, that we call the Hindu Dharma Traditions, has real value in the world for people who may never fully embrace it or call themselves Hindu — and it certainly does, of that I am entirely convinced — then I think we must be careful to be as welcoming of people dipping their toes in the water as I was welcomed initially.

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Complex and nuanced discussions about gender roles, stereotypes and expectations, the varieties of sexual attraction and social expectations — and the alphabet soup of identity categories that has emerged in recent years — is something that in the Hindu Dharma Traditions and in the societies out of which these traditions have emerged has occurred for centuries and centuries.

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Global yoga is a multi-billion dollar a year fitness, health, and wellness industry, with all sorts of people from all walks of life and with a full range of spiritual inclinations, including plenty of people who discount anything spiritual taking part. Ultimately though, yoga is much more than all this. The physical practice is just one small part of yoga as it was passed down from teacher to students for millennia before Lululemon got involved.

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In some religious traditions, the person who overseas services and rituals, advises members of the community on spiritual or social matters, knows the history of the tradition, studies scripture, or dedicates their life to full-time religious pursuit is the same person — or at least some of those functions all overlap. In Hinduism is generally doesn’t work like that.

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When you consider all the different parts of the Hindu Dharma Traditions, there is a holiday, festival, or commemoration of some sort for nearly every day of the year.

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All of the world’s religions have internal divisions, sometimes deep ones. Hinduism too has internal sub-divisions, though the differences between them are less contentious than in some other traditions, and are more a matter of preference in what forms of the Divine are the focus of veneration and contemplation.

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How do Hindus today actually think about and interact with the multitude of representations and aspects of Divinity? Are there really 2 million gods that are worshiped within the Hindu Dharma traditions? Is Hinduism polytheistic, monotheistic, pantheistic? Something else can you say that all the different parts of this collection of traditions are in agreement on this?

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Worship is an old word, but one that doesn’t fully represent the ways in which Hindus honor the divine, whether in their homes or in temples.

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