Kṛṣṇa Consciousness: Hindu Cult or Divine Culture?
Indians both inside and outside of India think that we are preaching the Hindu religion, but actually we are not. . . . People should not think that we are preaching a sectarian religion. No. We are simply preaching how to love God. . . . We are giving a spiritual culture that can solve all the problems of life, and therefore it is being accepted all over the world.”
There is a misconception that the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement represents the Hindu religion. In fact, however, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is in no way a faith or religion that seeks to defeat other faiths or religions. Rather, it is an essential cultural movement for the entire human society and does not consider any particular sectarian faith. This cultural movement is especially meant to educate people in how they can love God.
Sometimes Indians both inside and outside of India think that we are preaching the Hindu religion, but actually we are not. One will not find the word “Hindu” in the  Bhagavad-gītā . Indeed, there is no such word as “Hindu” in the entire Vedic literature. This word has been introduced by the Muslims from provinces next to India, such as Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and Persia. There is a river called Sindhu bordering the north-western provinces of India, and since the Muslims there could not pronounce Sindhu properly, they instead called the river “Hindu,” and the inhabitants of this tract of land they called “Hindus.” In India, according to the Vedic language, the Europeans are called  mlecchas  or  vavanas . Similarly, “Hindu” is a name given by the Muslims.
India’s actual culture is described in the  Bhagavad-gītā , where it is stated that according to the different qualities or modes of nature there are different types of men, who are generally classified into four social orders and four spiritual orders. This system of social and spiritual division is known as  varṇāśrama-dharma . The four  varṇas , or social orders, are  brāhmaṇa ,  kṣatriya ,  vaiśya , and  śūdra . The four ashrams, or spiritual orders, are  brahmacarya ,  grhastha ,  vānaprastha , and  sannyāsa . The  varṇāśrama  system is described in the Vedic scriptures known as the
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