Who Is a Hindu?
The four ascending orders of the Sanātana faithful
Being a Hindu is not a single fixed mark, but a ladder of faith and conduct — rising from the person of good conscience to the knower of the Absolute. Four orders are described below.
Primary-Class Hindu
Those who, though living a materialistic life, still cherish humane modesty and austerity, feel kinship with all living creatures, and hold faith in Govaṁśa (the holy cow), Gaṅgā (the sacred river), Satī (the virtuous woman) and the like — these are primary-class Hindus.
Middle-Class Hindu
Those who do not regard the soul as perishing with the death of the body, who accept the eternal Vedas and Śāstras as their authoritative scriptures, who work for the welfare of all while striving for both worldly progress and the upliftment of the hereafter, and who aspire to attain God — these are middle-class Hindus.
Highest-Order Hindu
One who, possessing all the above qualities, treats the nature-bound elements and gross physical distinctions of the world as aids to the higher purpose; who adopts the eternal scriptural methodology of the Vedas and uses the very differences of the world to attain the undifferentiated, one-and-only Divine beyond all distinction; and who therefore lives by faith in the eternal Varṇa system — keeping the spheres of Education, Defence, Commerce and Service in balance — is a Hindu of the highest order.
The Best Hindu
One who holds the Vedānta-revealed Almighty to be at once attributeless-and-formless and attributable-yet-formless; who sees Him as both the creator of the world and the creation itself in the form of the world; and who also accepts His attributed, embodied form — the five primary deities manifesting as Avatāras — with faith in Śrīman-Nārāyaṇa and the other Sanātana Gurus: such a one is the best among Hindus.
From faith in the cow, the river and virtue — to the realization of the formless, embodied Almighty: this is the ascent of the Sanātanī.
धर्मराज्य भारतवर्ष
Sanātana Dharma · Who Is a Hindu