FYI- “atheism” is also a part of Hinduism. There are 6 orthodox and and 5 heterodox schools of Indian Philosophy. Hinduism cannot be compared to montheistic religions.”Samkhya” and “yoga” philosophy for example dont talk about any “creator”/personal god with specific attributes

Amongst the most known heterodox schools where again they r don’t believe in a “god” and reject the Vedas as such is buddhism & Jainism. The most explicit “atheists” amongst these tho is the Charvaka school. They believe in directly perceptible things. And embrace scepticism.

And these all^^ fall under the very wide umbrellas of what is termed “religion” by most people. In my opinion Hinduism consists of a broad RANGE of philosophies all interlinked in some way or another (shared text sources, shared pilgrimage places etc)

It is fascinating and most stuff is online. This year I’ve done a lot of reading on indian philosophy. Mostly motivated by my yoga practice/and study that I had to do for my courses. I just got curious. And it has blown my mind. Esp the part of charvakism esp blew my mind.

The ancients were super smart yaar

Another cool fact- since I’ve been studying more of the Hatha yoga principles and as part of my training I’ve studied sutras of Patañjali (popular known as founder of yoga)—

One of his sutras literally says that the 8 paths of yoga can be practiced by all irrespective of caste, creed, nationality etc. He has also made it v Lear that if one is meditating he/she can focus on whatever they want. The sound “om”, a deity u believe in, an object...

whatever the hell u want. Soooo ya. And I hav STUDIED the first two chapters of Patanjali properly. This comes right in the beginning. This is a common theme amongst most other branches that come under indian philosophy.

Which is.. pretty great na?sad how most of it has got distorted and the concepts muddled up. Except amongst those who REALLY love it and study it or read about it. Weirdly enough I have more friends who are non-Indian and they study this

made this thread cuz I wanted to share this stuff I read about ... ppl r asking “wth is Hindu atheist” because of a recent tweet :p To clarify - I hav never seen anyone describe themselves like that & idk what “practicing Hindu atheist”means just wanted to share sum cool factZ