1. Hinduism is the *world's 3rd largest* religion closely following Christianity and Islam. However, unlike the top 2 religions, 95% of Hindus live in a single nation!
2. If you ask a religious Hindu, when did Krishna or Rama live - they will give an answer like 50 million years ago or some other random big number. Actually, it doesn't matter. Because, Hindus believe in a circular time (rather than the linear time concept in the Western world).
3. Each of our time cycles has 4 main periods - the Satya yuga (golden age of innocence), Tretha Yuga, Dwapara yuga and Kali Yuga. In the last stage, people get so filthy that whole thing is cleaned up and the cycle starts all over again.
4. Hinduism is the oldest of the major extant religions. Its fundamental book - Rig Veda was written over 3800 years ago.
5. Rig Veda was orally passed for 3500+ years in parallel. And yet, its current form has no major discrepancies. It is indeed a stupendous achievement that a major body of work can be orally passed between people in such a large nation with no loss in quality/content.
6. Unlike other major religions, Hinduism doesn't consider the pursuit of wealth as a sin. In fact, we celebrate wealth in the form of many gods such as Lakshmi, Kubera and Vishnu. Hinduism has a 4 level hierarchy - Kama (pursuit of pleasures including sexual/sensual) - Artha
(pursuit of livelihood , wealth and power),
Dharma (pursuit of philosophy, religion and doing duties to society) and Moksha (liberation) and we progress from the top to bottom. This is very close to Maslow's hierarchy and thus Hindus are natural capitalists.
7. Hinduism is the parent religion for 2 of the other major religions of South Asia - Buddhism and Sikhism. It is also closely associated with its sister religion - Jainism.
8. The holiest number for Hindus is 108 . This is the ratio of Sun's distance (from earth)/Sun's diameter or Moon's distance (from earth)/Moon's diameter. Thus, most of our prayer beads have 108 beads.
9. Beyond India, Hinduism is the dominant religion of many exotic regions such as Nepal, Mauritius, Bali, second biggest religion of Fiji & Sri Lanka and at one point covered most of South east Asia - including Indonesia, Cambodia and Malaysia.
10. The Hindu epic of Mahabharatha - that is often used to teach the principles of Hinduism - is written in 1.8 million words long poem (10X the combined length of the Illiad and Odyssey)
11. Unlike all other major religions, we don't have a founder or a prophet (like Moses, Abraham, Jesus, Mohammad or Buddha). According to Hindus, the religion has no origin (again coming back to the circular concept).
12. Unlike the popular Western conception, Yoga in Hinduism is not merely an exercise routine. It is one of the founding blocks of the religion. Read more in my other answer: Balaji Viswanathan's answer to What should everyone know about Yoga?
13. The 4 most holiest animals for Hindus are the cow, elephant, snake and peacock (India's national bird and a wagon of many Hindu gods) - 4 main animals of India.
14. The largest religious structures in the world - Ankor Vat in Cambodia were built by the Hindu kings of South East
Asia.
15. Hinduism has no formal Institution - no Pope, no Bible and no central body.
16. Unlike Christians or Muslims, we go to the temple at any time, any day. There are no special Sabbath, Sunday congregations or Friday prayers.
17. Hindu scriptures are organized into Vedas
(poems that written in multiple levels from abstract rural level and going deeper into cosmic universe), Upanishads (scientific discourses and arguments about the world), Brahmanas (manuals for ritual performances), Aranyakas
(experiments done on human mind and nature in the forests), Puranas (mythologies about Hindu gods) and Itihasas (notebooks on "historical" events").
18. Hindus don't mourn for anything and believe that happiness is the highest form of religious achievement. Thus, unlike most other religions there is no sad festivals for us where we are supposed to mourn.
19. Fire & Light are among the holiest
2. If you ask a religious Hindu, when did Krishna or Rama live - they will give an answer like 50 million years ago or some other random big number. Actually, it doesn't matter. Because, Hindus believe in a circular time (rather than the linear time concept in the Western world).
3. Each of our time cycles has 4 main periods - the Satya yuga (golden age of innocence), Tretha Yuga, Dwapara yuga and Kali Yuga. In the last stage, people get so filthy that whole thing is cleaned up and the cycle starts all over again.
4. Hinduism is the oldest of the major extant religions. Its fundamental book - Rig Veda was written over 3800 years ago.
5. Rig Veda was orally passed for 3500+ years in parallel. And yet, its current form has no major discrepancies. It is indeed a stupendous achievement that a major body of work can be orally passed between people in such a large nation with no loss in quality/content.
6. Unlike other major religions, Hinduism doesn't consider the pursuit of wealth as a sin. In fact, we celebrate wealth in the form of many gods such as Lakshmi, Kubera and Vishnu. Hinduism has a 4 level hierarchy - Kama (pursuit of pleasures including sexual/sensual) - Artha
(pursuit of livelihood , wealth and power),
Dharma (pursuit of philosophy, religion and doing duties to society) and Moksha (liberation) and we progress from the top to bottom. This is very close to Maslow's hierarchy and thus Hindus are natural capitalists.
7. Hinduism is the parent religion for 2 of the other major religions of South Asia - Buddhism and Sikhism. It is also closely associated with its sister religion - Jainism.
8. The holiest number for Hindus is 108 . This is the ratio of Sun's distance (from earth)/Sun's diameter or Moon's distance (from earth)/Moon's diameter. Thus, most of our prayer beads have 108 beads.
9. Beyond India, Hinduism is the dominant religion of many exotic regions such as Nepal, Mauritius, Bali, second biggest religion of Fiji & Sri Lanka and at one point covered most of South east Asia - including Indonesia, Cambodia and Malaysia.
10. The Hindu epic of Mahabharatha - that is often used to teach the principles of Hinduism - is written in 1.8 million words long poem (10X the combined length of the Illiad and Odyssey)
11. Unlike all other major religions, we don't have a founder or a prophet (like Moses, Abraham, Jesus, Mohammad or Buddha). According to Hindus, the religion has no origin (again coming back to the circular concept).
12. Unlike the popular Western conception, Yoga in Hinduism is not merely an exercise routine. It is one of the founding blocks of the religion. Read more in my other answer: Balaji Viswanathan's answer to What should everyone know about Yoga?
13. The 4 most holiest animals for Hindus are the cow, elephant, snake and peacock (India's national bird and a wagon of many Hindu gods) - 4 main animals of India.
14. The largest religious structures in the world - Ankor Vat in Cambodia were built by the Hindu kings of South East
Asia.
15. Hinduism has no formal Institution - no Pope, no Bible and no central body.
16. Unlike Christians or Muslims, we go to the temple at any time, any day. There are no special Sabbath, Sunday congregations or Friday prayers.
17. Hindu scriptures are organized into Vedas
(poems that written in multiple levels from abstract rural level and going deeper into cosmic universe), Upanishads (scientific discourses and arguments about the world), Brahmanas (manuals for ritual performances), Aranyakas
(experiments done on human mind and nature in the forests), Puranas (mythologies about Hindu gods) and Itihasas (notebooks on "historical" events").
18. Hindus don't mourn for anything and believe that happiness is the highest form of religious achievement. Thus, unlike most other religions there is no sad festivals for us where we are supposed to mourn.
19. Fire & Light are among the holiest