What actually religion is? Today we see there are many religions like Hindu, Christian, Muslim. Buddhism, Sikh, Jain etc. In ancient religious books we have learnt religion is set of beliefs about something what is right actually. Then what actually religion means? Does the meaning of religion in ancient times and present times is different or they are still the same. In fact at present times religion is divided and are named. Lets look into the it.
First let's understand what actually religion is. Religion is something or some set of rules and beliefs that people consider to be correct for them. This was in the ancient times and still the same. In ancient times there was some set of rules mentioned in holy scriptures are believed to be right and are called as human's religion (Manav Dharma). There were some set of rule that should be followed by father called as father's religion (Pitri Dharma). Similarly there are religion for mother, son, husband, wife, brother or many other types of religion. But the most important of them was human's religion or Manav Dharma and are used by kings for ruling their kingdom. In spite of this there were many beliefs that are only limited to one person and different for different persons. They used to believe those beliefs as their religion. This is how religion was followed in ancient times.
But what happened when time changed? In fact religion was divided. In fact there were religious leaders who followed some practices and expressed tehir thoughts, beliefs, practices and rules as their religion. Now they gatherered some followers who started and used to follow their beliefs. They were considered to be following that religion. Among these religious founders there were Jesus whose followers are called Christian, Mohammed whose followers are called Muslims, Buddha whose followers are called Buddhist and so on. There are no pen and paper writings about who is of which religion but those persons from their beliefs were considered who were of which religion. Their descendents from birth too were started being considered of the same religion their parents belong to. This is how religions were formed.
But for Hinduism their is no religious leader. Their beliefs were stills based on ancient scriptures or vedic books / Bhagvat Gita and so they follow the religion of humanity. In fact those persons who never followed any of these religious leaders and are left behind are the Hindu's or of Hindu religion. Due to these reason Hindu religion is often called Sanatan Dharma or the oldest religion.
So the meaning of religion is still the same as in ancient period but just it's understanding has changed and religion is divided where each community follows a different religion according to choice or birth. This is what actually religion is. But always the first and foremost thing is serving people and doing good of society and that should be the most important religion for any human.
