Atheism makes the terrain of life in to a dry dessert. The all encompassing franchise based religions make life into vast tracts of agricultural land that all look the same. Hinduism is a tropical forest - it is the collection of a vast number of precise solution traditions such as Siddha, Tantra and so on. That is why it defies being understood. That is why it is often approximated and called to be "a lifestyle".
How to be out of misery? is the question. All compassing answers are useful for debate. But not useful for moving forward. To move forward you to know precisely what to do next. Buddha's answer that all misery happens because of desire is all encompassing. So is the Vedantic statement that everything around you is an illusion. But it does not take you to the next step of what to do. Because there is no practical way to get rid of all desire. Many people spend their lives only dealing with all encompassing answers and feel cheated because their life is not transformed.
Mediocre minds cannot allow anything they don't understand to exist. The bulldozing and destruction of the collective of precise solution traditions just because they don't fall into a framework is the greatest damage done to humanity
-- Paramahamsa Nithyananda
Swami' Nityananda Talks On Finding the Right Solution Sept 24, 2013
Another analogy that came to mind was..
A stranger comes to town and tells everyone that he has found a huge cave with treasure hidden in the forest far far away and can tell them how to go there.
The atheists tell him that he is lying and that they don't do anything without proof and they will not believe anyone because they have been cheated before. Some of them are lazy and out of laziness question why one should go after treasure in the first place.
The religious people instantly believe him.. but instead of going for the treasure they start planning on how to spend the money.. And at the end feel cheated because they are now deep in debt and there is no money. Every now and then, they beg from the stranger and get a little money from him.
The spiritual person believes in what the person says... but only so much as to start journeying towards the treasure. Yes it is belief.. but eventually getting the treasure is the proof. On the path, the rough directions given by the stranger may help you get started.. but they may be out of sync with it what is present now.
Hinduism is really the signs on the road and the people on the way who can direct you to the right path as you journey. It cannot be codified.. because it is not a fixed thing. It is what each person finds and the guides and sign posts that help them move through the current area they are in.. and more towards to the goal. That is why we say we have 33 crore Gods in Hinduism. Because each one's path in Hinduism is a unique Sampradhaya and each God represents that unique and wonderful journey.
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