The ancient Indian Vedic scriptures are the greatest heritage of India. These sacred texts were not preached by any single Messiah but evolved over a period of time – a sort of a culmination of the wisdom of several saints. Hence the depth and range of these ancient texts is so vast that one can pick and choose ones path to salvation as per ones attitudinal and spiritual inclinations.
They permit you to lay flat on your back in Shavasana and pray God, or squat cross legged in Padmasana to worship, or stand upside down in Sheershasana, or stand on one leg, or stand waist deep in water or sit on a bed of nails. The eight schools of thought permit you to follow a path of your own choice. According to the Adwaita school you can believe that you and God are one, according to Dwaita you and God are separate and the Sankhya and Charvaka schools are almost agnostic in their approach. You can follow the Bhakti yoga path of total devotion, or the Hatha yoga path of raising the physical and mental faculties and the tantriks follow the mantra and the yantra path. The Krishna followers claim that Krishna is the managing director of heaven and the rest of the Gods are like clerks working under him. The Shiva worshipers place him on the heights of mount Kailash an scatter the other Gods in the jungles. There are those who believe that the Devine Father is the greatest and you have others who cannot think of anything other than the Devine Mother.
Yes it is the scriptures which have made the Hindu religion the most in-depth and the most democratically liberal religion. They are the wisdom of our ancients. There are hundreds of them but but of these the following are considered the principle scriptures of Hinduism.
Our intension is to put the translations of all these scriptures on the site. So far we have put 150 scriptures on this site. More are coming soon.
A Synopsis of Hindu scriptures by Swami Sivananda
A detailed introduction to Hindu scriptures
