How did religion came from?

where did Hinduism come from

AnswerHinduism is the world's oldest extant religion, with a billion followers, which makes it the world's third largest religion. Hinduism is a conglomeration of religious, philosophical, and cultural ideas and practices that originated in India, characterized by the belief in reincarnation, one absolute being of multiple manifestations, the law of cause and effect, following the path of righteousness, and the desire for liberation from the cycle of births and deaths.

How and when did Hinduism originate?

Hinduism has its origins in such remote past that it cannot be traced to any one individual. Some scholars believe that Hinduism must have existed even in circa 10000 B.C. and that the earliest of the Hindu scriptures - The Rig Veda - was composed well before 6500 B.C. The Word "Hinduism" is not to be found anywhere in the scriptures, and the term "Hindu" was introduced by foreigners who referred to people living across the River Indus or Sindhu, in the north of India, around which the Vedic religion is believed to have originated.

Founder of Hinduism ( ?)

Hinduism cannot be described as an organized religion. It is not founded by any individual. Hinduism is God centered and therefore one can call Hinduism as founded by God, because the answer to the question 'Who is behind the eternal principles and who makes them work?' will have to be 'Cosmic power, Divine power, God'

Swami Vivekananda wrote:

There are these eternal principles, which stand upon their own foundations without depending on any reasoning, even much less on the authority of sages however great, of Incarnations however brilliant they may have been. We may remark that as this is the unique position in India, our claim is that the Vedanta only can be the universal religion, that it is already the existing universal religion in the world, because it teaches principles and not persons.

[The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, III,

Topic 'The Sages of India']

Swami Vivekananda wrote:

If you want to be religious, enter not the gate of any organized religion. They do a hundred times more evil than good, because they stop the growth of each one's individual development.... Religion is only between you and your God, and no third person must come between you. Think what these organized religions have done! What Napoleon was more terrible than those religious persecutions? If you and I organize, we begin to hate every person . It is better not to love, if loving only means hating others. That is no love. That is hell! If loving your own people means hating everybody else, it is the quintessence of selfishness and brutality, and the effect is that it will make you brutes.

-The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume I,

Topic 'The Gita III']

Swami Vivekananda wrote:

Truth is of two kinds: (1) that which is cognizable by the five ordinary senses of man, and by reasoning's based thereon; (2) that which is cognizable by the subtle, super-sensuous power of Yoga.

Knowledge acquired by the first means is called science; and knowledge acquired by the second is called the Vedas.

The whole body of super sensuous truths, having no beginning or end, and called by the name of Vedas, is ever existent. The Creator Himself is creating, preserving and destroying the universe with the help of these truths.

The person in whom this super-sensuous power is manifested is called a Rishi, and the super-sensuous truths, which he realizes by this power, are called the Vedas.

This Rishihood, this power of super-sensuous perception of the Vedas, is real religion. And so long as this does not develop in the life of an initiate, so long is religion a mere empty Word to him, and it is to be understood that he has not taken yet the first step in religion.

The authority of the Vedas extends to all ages, climes and persons; that is to say, their application is not confined to any particular place, time and persons.

The Vedas are the only exponent of the universal religion.