Date: November 8, 2025
Venue: Online
Watch the recording HERE.
On 8th November, 2025, Narendra Murty, Research Associate, BhāratShakti was invited to deliver an online talk as part of the weekly YES Talks. YES – Yoga, Education and Spirituality – is an initiative started by Dr. Ramesh Bijlani of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi Branch, based on the idea – Yoga is education. Education is incomplete without spirituality. Spirituality in practice is yoga.
Narendra Murty spoke on the subject of Making Sense of Hinduism. He began by saying that Hinduism doesn’t have a fixed structure like the other religions. A holy book, a Prophet, some main tenets and some central emphasis are the common features of all the other religions. Hinduism has no such structure. There is no one holy book but a vast range of them. There is no one single prophet, but a galaxy of them.
Mr. Murty also pointed out that there are no main tenets which all those who consider themselves part of the Hindu fold must adhere to. From the Atheism of the Charvakas to the highest devotional religion; from the Atomism of the Vaisheshikas to the Idealism of Advaita Vedanta; from the worship of Nature to the adoration of the Nirakar Ishwara; from Yoga to Tantra – all these approaches are part of Hinduism. The complexity is baffling. And there is no central emphasis like prayer, devotion, surrender or meditation. In fact, all of these are considered equally valid paths in Hinduism.
Mr. Murty pointed out that this wide range of paths without any central emphasis is explained by the concept of Adhikara. Hinduism understands that all human beings are not at the same stage of spiritual evolution; there are grades of individual capacity and temperaments. Hence, each man is given the opportunity to grow according to his own spiritual capacity and mental disposition and temperament.
However, as Sri Aurobindo explains in his work, The Renaissance in India and Other Essays on Indian Culture, there are three fundamentals through which we can make sense of Hinduism in spite of its variety and diversity. They are:
- The idea of the One Existence of the Veda to whom sages give different names.
- The second basic idea is the manifold way of man’s approach to the Eternal and Infinite. The Infinite is full of infinities and each of these infinities is itself the very Eternal.
- The Supreme or the Divine can be approached through a universal consciousness and by piercing through all inner and outer Nature. That or He can be met by each individual soul in itself, in its own spiritual part, because there is something in it that is intimately one or at least intimately related with the one divine Existence.
This is our connection with the Divine. We are all divine beings. Divinity is our nature. But that Divinity has to be realized through a process of inner unfoldment and discipline. And this process of unfoldment is known as Yoga.
Mr. Murty emphasised that Hinduism sees man not as a sinful creature but as heirs of Immortal Bliss – Amritasya Putrah. And this is why Hinduism has been the most tolerant religion of the world. For Hinduism, all are children of the Divine. This is the greatness, the catholicity of Hinduism.
The talk was followed by some thoughtful discussion with the participants.