CHENNAI : The world is home to over 900 million Hindus. Most  of them live in India, a country with 1.330 billion people, of whom about 80 per cent are Hindu. There are  also large numbers of people in Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and beyond who follow  Hindu religion. Among the major religions in the world, Hinduism is unique in one respect. While the founder, scripture and date of origin of all the  other religions are known, there is no clear knowledge about the origins of Hinduism which is  considered to be the oldest existing religion.

The word Hindu itself is derived from the name of river Indus, which flows through northern India into what is now Pakistan. In ancient times the river was called  the Sindhu, but the Persians who migrated to India  called the river Hindu. Thus the religion followed by the  Hindus came to be known as Hinduism. For centuries, the native religion of ancient India was  known as adi sanatan dharma wherein adi means from the beginning, and sanatan means ancient. In  fact what we call Hinduism today is the mutated form of the original religion of this land which was called  the adi sanatan devi devata dharma or deity religion, which was practised by the deities who lived in India during the golden age, 5,000 years ago. 

According to the spiritual knowledge given by supreme almighty himself, we are all immortal souls, children of one supreme. Those who imbibe  this knowledge and follow the godly injunctions of leading a virtuous life, attain a level of purity that is  akin to divinity and become completely virtuous and  free of all vices. This transformation of souls is  accompanied by major changes in the world whereby  the crises-ridden old order vanishes and a righteous  new world order emerges.

This marks the end of one  cycle of time and the beginning of an identical new  cycle. The divine souls then take birth in this new  world, which begins with the golden age. But after  the golden and silver ages, which together last 2,500 years, these divine beings lose their purity and gradually get corrupted by vices. Having lost their  purity and divinity, they are no longer eligible to call  themselves deities.

Hence, when these deities cease  to exist, the original deity religion too vanishes in the  absence of any true adherents. The once-divine  souls, who now become ordinary humans without  divine qualities, build temples and start worshipping  their own divine past form, of course without knowing that they themselves were those deities. This marks the beginning of the Hindu practice of  idol worship. Further, some devout souls start  writing scriptures from sub-conscious memories of the spiritual knowledge that they had received in the  previous cycle from Supreme.

But because of the  long lapse of time from the previous cycle and their imperfect memories, these scriptures present an incomplete picture of god’s teachings and it is quite visible today in various versions of scriptures written and re-written by many learned souls. Now, the  present 5,000-year cycle of time is nearing its end, and a fresh cycle is about to begin and almighty  supreme has come once again to re-establish the  deity religion. As in the previous cycles, those who live by his teachings will become worthy of being  born as deities in the coming golden age. So, as wise children of one lord, it is our duty to follow  him to reach our final destination of golden age.