A Popilar Dictionary of Hinduism Karel Werner

10 A POPULAR DICTIONARY OF HINDUISM
Brahminic tradition, enriched in their outlook by the accommodation of new
trends, developed their teachings into systematically presented sets of tenets
which they supported by rational arguments and often also by reference to
special means of direct knowledge available to those trained in yoga. These
tenets were also, in their argumentation, sanctioned by revelation.
Six systems of ‘orthodox’ Hindu philosophy were eventually recognized:
Yoga (codified by Patañjali), , , Nyāya, Pūrva
and Utara (Vedānta), some of them further split into sub-schools,
differing among themselves in some details as to the interpretation of reality
and of the relevant texts of the Vedic revelation. These schools cover, in
their own way, virtually the whole field of human knowledge, but despite
their many differences over some points, they are not regarded as mutually
exclusive, because in the relative world of human learning the absolute truth
cannot be presented fully and adequately and each particular system
approaches it from a different vantage point which has its justification.
Along with this specialized development of philosophical thought there
was another line of philosophising going on, on a much more popular level,
which made the basic teachings of Hinduism, common to all its sections,
widely known. These basic teachings eventually came to be epitomized by
the concept of Sanātana Dharma, which has, of course, its popular as well as
sophisticated versions.
10. Neo-Hinduism or modern developments in Hinduism. The sudden
encounter of Hinduism with Western civilization brought into it some new
perspectives and initiated in it also a process of re-assessment of itself.
Previous confrontations with Islam had made little impact on it, and the only
serious attempt at reconciliation or synthesis of the two traditions ended in
the birth of a new faith, namely Sikhism. Christianity seemed to pose a
certain threat, because it shared, to a degree, in the political prestige of the
new rulers, and one of the reactions to it was the movement of Ārya Samāj
with its drive to return ‘back to the Vedas’. Another influence which came,
however, from the fringe of the Christian scene led to the birth of Brahmo
Samāj, a reformist Unitarian movement which was in fact influenced even
more by the liberal ideas of the West than by its religion, as was even Ārya
Samāj, although to a lesser extent, and without readily admitting it. Western
liberal ideas helped in the effort of the reformists to cleanse Hinduism of
some negative developments, such as the excesses of the caste system or
child marriage.
One Western idea, quite new to the Hindu way of thinking, had, at least
initially, a rather strong impact, namely evolution. It was combined with the
Hindu world view by Theosophists and found some echo in the teachings of
one or two modern gurus, e.g. Aurobindo, but in the end it did not change
the overall Hindu perspective of repetitive rounds of which does
not admit of a final state of perfection to be reached through the steady
progress of evolution.