HINDUISM IN THE SECOND MILLENNIUM

Abstract

Origin of any religion can be traced to the inherent urge in man to go beyond sensory experience. Man cannot remain satisfied within the boundaries of objective experience which calls for an experience beyond itself. If man could remain satisfied within the ambience of sense-bound experience, no progress of knowledge, culture and civilization would be possible. So in everyone of us there is an urge to go beyond the ordinary run of life, and this "consciousness of the beyond is the raw material of all religions." Swami Vivekananda says that "the real germ of religion is the struggle to transcend the limitations of the senses" (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama Vol.ll, p.59).