Hinduism is a religion on Blockchain

The title sounds a bit provocative but blockchain is actually the best technology that we can use to illustrate the difference between Hinduism and other religions.

The reason I say so is because Hinduism is completely decentralized and permissionless. There is a core protocol of what Hinduism is. But on top of that core protocol there is no central authority that enforces it.

In the Bitcoin protocol, anybody can download a source code and run a node. Similarly, as long as you  abide by the protocol of Hinduism, you can make your own temple or even create your own God. You can even create a fork and start your own sect of Hinduism. There is no authority that you have to take permission from for doing any of this.

In fact let’s take a moment to understand the conception of God in Hinduism. Unlike centralized religions, there is no one God in Hinduism. There are millions of Gods and you can choose to create your own one. Or even to not believe in one.

The Sanskrit word for God in many ancient texts is Yantra (“यन्त्र”). , which means a tool. God making in India is the technology of consciousness engineering. Gods are tools with which  our consciousness can exhibit the qualities of these Gods.

For e.g. if you want to be a great cook, you worship Goddess Annapurna, who symbolizes the divine cook. Or if you want to be good wrestler, you worship Lord Hanuman, who symbolizes strength. The choice of names, prayers, stories, etc are chosen so as to increase the qualities of that God within us.

There are some core characteristics of blockchains that even Hinduism possesses. These are:

1) Resilience

Hinduism is probably the most resilient religion in the world. Take a look at this video to understand the history of world religions. Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world dating back at least five thousand years. However, in the last millennium, India has mostly been under Christian and Islamic rule. There have been many attempts to convert Hindus into other religions. But despite that Hinduism remains the prevalent religion in India.

The reason for this is the decentralization. There is no one temple that you can go destroy, no one book that you can ban or no one priest that you can kill to stop Hinduism. Even if you look at the economics of Hinduism, it is completely decentralized. All the temples in Hinduism are not being funded by some central temple or the government. Their source of funding is based on the donations of people directly into a certain temple.

2) Diversity

One more thing in which Hinduism is like blockchains is that it is extremely diverse. Since there is no central authority to standardize, it can take n number of forms.

There is no one way to reach God. Whatever whatever quality you exhibit you can reach God through that. Intellectuals try reaching God through reasoning and logic (Gyan). People who exhibit a strong quality to love reach God through devotion (Bhakti). People who are deeply involved in work achieve God through their actions (Karma).

In fact an interesting thing to know  is that the word Hindu is nowhere present in the ancient texts. “Hinduism” is a term which was used by the westerners to describe the religion in Indus valley. They couldn’t find any central focal point like “Christ” to name the religion. The only focal point was the Indus river and so they just called us H”indu”. This is also true for the name “India” which is a name given to us by the British, whereas Indians call the country “Bharat”.

What did Indians call the religion then? Nothing. It was just the way of life in the land. There are sects within Hinduism like Vaishnavism, in which there is central God. But then again there are innumerable different sects. So it is only the protocol which binds them.

The closest word to religion in Hindi is “Dharma”. But “Dharma” has a very different meaning than it’s english counterpart “religion”. Dharma means “that which binds everything”. It basically means the collective laws of nature by which the creation is upheld. It means more like "Unified Field Theory", which Einstein was pursuing.

The most original form Hinduism is called “Sanatan Dharma”, which means the law that is eternal. It’s not centred around anyone God. As we’ll see later in the series, it is basically describing physics.

Therefore, Hinduism is endlessly diverse and takes under its fold everything in creation.

3) Inefficient but Effective

The third characteristic about Hinduism is that it is quite inefficient.

It is very difficult to standardize. And so it is difficult to get everyone behind one common way of doing things. So for e.g. you can't get people to say that all Hindu text will exist in Hindi.

The same family of 4 can all be worshipping different Gods. In fact, it is so diverse that it even accepts atheism. Because the atheist is believing in the Nirguna ("निर्गुणा") or the unmanifest God. And so there’s very little other than the core protocol that you can get people to agree on.

At the same time, it’s very effective because you can customize it to fit your personality. Since, it’s effectiveness is quite high, there is no need to convert people in Hinduism. Hinduism has spread  in the west at this point but that has happened organically. There is no central authority who tried to pursue this agenda. And Westerners found easy ways of customizing it to their own needs. Like the creation of "power yoga" or "hot yoga".

The underlying protocol

Now that we’ve discussed how Hinduism is very similar to blockchains, let’s dig into what is the core protocol is. It’s actually a very tough question. The protocol is very implicit in Hinduism and not taught directly. Few centuries later, when blockchains are completely ubiquitous, it’s quite possible that people have just forgotten about the Bitcoin whitepaper. Similarly, people have forgotten about the root of Hinduism as well.

The original source of Hinduism are the four Vedas. We’ll discuss what Vedas actually are in the series, but they have been summarized into the four “Mahavakyas”. These are the basic axioms on top of which, all branches of Hinduism are built. These are:

• Prajñānam Brahma (प्रज्ञानम् ब्रह्म) - "Consciousness is universe," (Rig Veda)

• Ayam Ātmā Brahma (अयम् आत्मा ब्रह्म) - "I am that consciousness" (Atharva Veda)

• Tat Tvam Asi (तत् त्वम् असि) - "You are that consciousness" (Sama Veda)

• Aham Brahmāsmi (अहम् ब्रह्मास्मि) - "I am the universe" (Yajur Veda)

This further can be summarized into one statement: “Consciousness is all that there is”.

Let’s discuss this protocol in more detail in the next episode.