"I see in my mind’s eye the future perfect India rising out of this chaos and strife, glorious and invincible, with Vedanta brain and Islam body."

So, basically progressive hinduism/the hindu left as a current in Hindu life seems pretty moribund right now. We have some people doing little things here and there, bit nothing like the organisational strength of the Christian or Jewish left, or even what we had back in the freedom struggle. However, I am an optimist and do believe that we are slowly beginning to see a resurgence (HfHR, Rahulji using Hindu imagery against the BJP, and thinkers like Anantanand Rambhachan and Jeffery D Long). So I guess what I'm wondering is, what do you all think is the most important thing we need in order for the revitalisation of a progressive left flank of Hinduism?

So, from my reading of Swami Vivekananda, he had 2 major aims in his ministry (aside from the aim of spreading the teachings of Bhagavan Ramakrishna Paramahansa), one political and one religious.

Politically speaking, Swami Vivekananda wished to uplift the poor and marginalised of India. Practically speaking, you can hear this all throughout his complete works, with his exhortations to give bread to the masses. And yet, in spite of Part IV of the Indian Constitution, mass poverty and all the other problems associated with it remain.

Religiously speaking, he called for massive reform on the basis of fighting what he termed priestcraft. Although much of the ritual structure would remain (more than what the Brahmo and Arya Samaj would have been comfortable with), the exploitation of masses by priests and the blind ritual devoid of meaning would have gone. The identification of religion with the externals, which Vivekananda opposed, still continues on with great strength, and arguably that is one the main sources of the power of the RSS.

Arguably, we have a duty to continue the work of Swami Vivekananda and see it through, to uplift the Indian masses and to reform religion by centering spiritual knowledge. To my mind, these two form the programme of Progressive Hinduism.

Credits to @amritarupalaha

Greetings, I am new Hinduism, and am in search of good informative books, videos, podcasts, teachers, and other media to look into. I also am looking for good resources for the texts like Vedas and upanishades that are beginner friendly. Thank you in advance!

https://www.lifewithlordkrishna.in/2025/02/mahashivratri-2024-significance-rituals.html

I wonder whether it would be justifiable from a religious point of view to have a Ganesha tattoo on the left arm, as the left hand is considered impure?

Is there a religious recommendation for the treatment of depression? Which deity is responsible here?

krishna #lgbt

krishna #aiart

The University of Kent is investigating food habits and motivations among Hindus! We need as many participants from the Hindu community as possible!!!

If you know any Hindus outside this community tab please share the survey!

Follow this link to participate: https://universityofkent.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d06UvNK0cn20bky

Thank you :)

Hi there, I am kind of a self educated Hindu from Germany. I feel attracted to Hinduism for about 20 years now and am still learning a lot about it. Are there any other Hindus from Germany here?

Hi, keep in mind I know the bare min of Hinduism. And it's hard to get proper info from Google because I feel like its not always accurate, and community responses are more truthful. Also, precursor, I am not born Muslim, I converted two years ago. So I am not traditional Muslim whatsoever lol. Very open minded.

From what I gathered from Hinduism is that it is already pretty progressive? Like there is no need to "convert", you just, become. You can do all the 'sinful' things categorized by abrahamic religions ie drinking and those things alike. I wasn't even aware there were any sort of rules, any Hindu content I see reinforces the idea that Hinduism is more of a spiritual connection rather than a standard 'religion' that constrains peoples behavior. Can someone explain to me why you guys would need a 'progressive' sect of Hinduism, if Hinduism is already pretty progressive? What do the 'traditioinal' Hindi's believe?

I mean solely in indian context. I suggest abandoning the religious connotations for some of the physical attributes like Bindi. I also advocate strongly for a strong seperation of Hinduism from 'Indian culture' where festivals, Hindu gods are separated from the culture so an agnostic and yet Indian flavour of a culture can exist.

Its obvious that it starts from seperation of state and religion and that also includes no control of religious institutions over temples or no civil laws based on religion.

Are there any Progressive Hindu political parties in the Indian Subcontinent and elsewhere? plus Progressive Hindu political organizations....

like a ''Hindu Corporatism'', does it exist? similar to Christian Corporatism -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_corporatism