Can Hinduism Evolve?

“Evolution- in biology, evolution is the change in the heritable traits of a population over successive generations, as determined by the shifting allele frequencies of genes. Evolution is ultimately the source of the vast diversity of life: all contemporary organisms are related to each other through common descent as products of cumulative evolutionary changes over billions of years.”

Source: Wikipedia.

Well, this does speak well about evolution as an abstract concept. However, what I would like to discuss, is different from the usual meaning associated with the word evolution. I would like to know, in the simplest of ideas, why is it that a religion cannot evolve from itself. And by evolution, I do have some strange ideas to discuss here. Let me hereby plunge….

Hinduism is one of the major religions existing today on the face of the world. I live in the heart of one of India’s biggest metropolitans, Mumbai. And being here for almost 20 years now, life has enabled me to witness certain practices, rituals, traditions, whatever you may call it- that seems very disturbing to me. And this is something I would fundamentally want to challenge today.

· Imagine a situation – a giant earth-moving machine, suddenly comes to life, and dumps tones of plaster of Paris, into the Arabian Sea.

Dejavou? Sadly, yes. We do witness such atrocities being committed today. Right before our very eyes. One should visit the beaches of Mumbai, a day after the eleventh day of Ganesh Chaturthi, right after the immersions are over. Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the major festivals being celebrated in Mumbai, with Mumbaikars complete with zeal and gusto enthusiasm. The spirit of the citizens is something that attaches me emotionally to this wonderful city. And yet, when I visit the seashore on the 12^th day, I wonder why? The site of devastated aquatic life – a price being paid for our festivals?

Why cannot we improve our practice?

· Somewhere nearby, another nasty-looking machine is in full life, chopping off banyan tree- branches.

Commonly called “Vat-Poornima”, it brings pain to the heart, when you see banyan braches being sold in the market, and women buying them and worshipping them. Again I wonder why? For the protection of husband or family, we worship chopped branches of an innocent tree? Is it wrong to worship the tree, without chopping it off? In fact, I have seen the practice of worshipping trees in rural life, and yet, a civilized city like Mumbai fails to understand such delicate issues. Yes, they are delicate. I simply fail to understand the point in cutting trees and worshipping their body-parts.

Why cannot we improve our practice?

I am not anti-Hinduism, from any point of view what-so-ever. As a matter of fact, I am a Hindu myself. Yet, I refuse to accept such practices, which have been comfortably enjoying the status of labeled traditions and rituals, and are practiced without thought, for centuries now. Can we not use sand, or mud for shaping Ganesha idols? Can we not plant more banyan trees, and worship them whenever the festival comes, but keep the plant alive? Can our religions not evolve?

After all, if humans have evolved, by realizing what is wrong and what is right, cannot we apply the same logic to religions? The very purpose of religions coming into existence was to encourage faith. Religions are, after all, man’s creation. Yet, cannot we stop doing something, which we very well know is harming the environment today? Or do we still continue to practice it, simply because it is our “religion?” Why cannot we improve our practices…..?