Most people use the term Hinduism and are content with it. Some prefer to call it Sanātana Dharma, the Eternal Dharma. Others frame it as Vedāntism, the religion of the Upanishads.

While I respect the insight behind those names and also the ones who use them, I humbly beg to differ here. From what I grasp in the scriptures, this faith is fundamentally about awakening the inner divine. It points inward, not outward.

And most of the names we commonly use point outward — to land, time, philosophy, or social order. That mismatch is the reason I have chosen to label the religion I practice as… Pranavism.

Here is why–

1. The core theme is Prāṇa or Energy

At the center of what is called Hinduism lies a single, consistent insight: everything is energy.

Not inert energy; not mechanical energy. But living, conscious, animating energy — Energy that sustains life, moves the cosmos, breathes through the body, and awakens the awareness.

In Vedic tradition, this energy (life force) is called Prāṇa.

Prāṇa is not a side concept. It is the thread that runs through the Vedas, the Upaniṣads, Yoga, Tantra, and every serious inquiry into Truth. The cosmos is not seen as dead matter, but as a living field of energy expressing itself in countless forms.

If there is one idea that all sects, paths, and philosophies in Hinduism agree upon, it is this.

2. Sanātana points to Time

Sanātana is translated as eternal. While that is not incorrect for this faith, it still anchors the idea in time — even if infinite Time.

But the heart of this tradition is not temporal. It is inward.

The movement is not toward some eternity elsewhere, but toward divinity already present within. Liberation is not achieved by striving for immortality, but by turning inward and recognizing what is already in there.

In that sense, defining the tradition primarily through time — even if eternal Time — misses the direction of its movement.

3. Why not Dharma?

Dharma implies a way of life, a moral order, a structure of action in the world.

But much of this tradition ultimately points beyond concrete morals, beyond rules, beyond social identity. As sages like Ashtavakra point out, there comes a stage where one rises even beyond Dharma — not into chaos, but into direct inner realization.

The core is not living “rightly” as someone suggested, but awakening inwardly. To live as your heart says, while also following some essential ethics.

4. Everything is Om

Across Hindu texts and traditions, one idea repeats consistently: everything arises from Om. Om is not merely a sound or a mantra. It is the primordial, the first expression of Divine Energy, the vibration.

Nature is Om.
Devi is Om.
Ganesha is Om.
Skanda is Om.
Vishnu is Om.
Shiva is Om.
Energy itself is Om.
The Source is Om.

Most religions are named after a prophet or a founding figure. Hinduism predates any single creator figure, which is why it ended up being tied (incorrectly) to geography instead.

If Om is the Source of everything, then Pranava — another name for Om — is the most accurate anchor for this faith. From that follows Pranavism.

5. Why not Omism?

Because Om does not belong exclusively to any one tradition.

Om is used in Buddhism and Jainism. It is used across Indic spiritual systems. To claim Om outright would be to appropriate something that’s shared.

Pranavism acknowledges Om as the Source without claiming ownership over the symbol itself.

Finally… Why Pranavism?

Om is the Source. Prāṇa is Energy. And Pranava is Om as Energy.

Pranavism, for me, names a worldview where truth, divinity, and spirituality are understood as expressions of living, inner energy — not belief, not geography, not identity.

And so, that is the religion I practice.

Not Hinduism. Pranavism.
Not Hindu. Pranavi.

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