Hinduism differs from Christianity and other Western religions in that it does not have a single founder, a specific theological system, a single system of morality, or a central religious organization. It is actually made up of thousands of different religious groups and sects that have evolved in India over the last 5000 years ore more. Hinduism is generally regarded as the world's oldest organized religion.
Hinduism has grown to become the world's third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam. It claims about 762 million followers - 13% of the world's population. It is the dominant religion in India, Nepal, and among some the Tamils in Sri Lanka. According to the "Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches," there were about 1.1 million Hindus in the U.S. while the "American Religious Identification Survey" estimate about 766,000 Hindus in 2001. Statistics Canada estimates that there are about 157,015 Hindus in Canada.
But what is this religion? Supposed to be the world’s oldest practiced faith, Hinduism is actually not a religion at all. It does not have a single God concept and it has no rules laid down. Religions that recognize the existence of multiple deities have traditionally been among the world's most religiously tolerant. Hinduism remains arguably one of the most tolerant of such religions. One does not have to take frequent visits to the temple in order to be a part of the community (indeed there is no community to speak of), and unlike Christianity, the priest is not the shepherd of his flock. The Hindu priest is merely the go between, connecting a man to his faith, blind or otherwise. He merely chants the required mantras (Sanskrit connotations to the forces of Nature that are ultimately what Gods are in Hinduism). They do not guide the Hindus to the path of righteousness, that job is left to swamis and Gurus. The priests merely collect money and disperse blessings on behalf of God. But we are going too fast.
Hindus worship a whole pantheon of Gods, their Kingdom of heaven is not where goodness resides, it is where an entire city of Gods reside, and they are ruled by Indra, a cunning, politically oriented king. Of course, his being the king does not make him superior to the Celestial Trinity, the Creator, The Keeper and the Destroyer, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Again, very opportunistic trends are observed here. The Creator, elderly Brahma with a flowing beard, three heads and Saraswati, the Goddess of learning as his consort, is not worshipped very much. He just IS. The Keeper, Vishnu, the dark skinned handsome God, with the celestial discus rotating on his little finger, reclining on the plush lotus bed with his consort Lakshmi , the Goddess of Wealth by his side, is the most incarnated God. He has steadily been making appearances on earth in the form of incarnations - principled warrior kings like Rama or political economists like Krishna. He is supposed to have taken nine incarnations in the existing era system, one for each Yuga(era). The last incarnation was Buddha, by far the most intellectual and gentle of all the incarnations, and he chose to start his own religion, Buddhism, today followed by a vast number of Asians (indeed, some pockets of Hollywood too). His consort, Lakshmi, is the most widely worshipped deity in terms of the populist votes, after all, she is identified as wealth. Accordingly, the daughter or the daughter-in-law of the house is referred to as Lakshmi, to invite wealth and prosperity.
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