So I saw this post on instagram saying that Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism are as different as the abrahamic religions, and hence, shouldn't be considered a part of Hinduism as a whole. So what are these things?
Hinduism is made up of two categories. Sampradaya and Darshana. Darshanas are basically different philosophies. They can be divided into Astika and nastika. Now, they do not mean theistic and atheistic. Astika simply means "there is". There are six astika darsanas; Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Yoga, Samkhya, Mimamsa and Vedanta. While they have their differences, with some of them being nontheistic, they usually agree upon two things. They believe that there is an atman, and they follow the Vedas. In my opinion, all the Astika Darsanas form Hinduism. The Nastika darsanas do not follow the vedas, and include Buddhism, Jainism, Charvaka, Ajivika and Ajnana. So usually, to be a hindu, you should believe in the authority of the vedas, and that there is an atman.
Mostly, all hindu sampradayas come under the category of Vedanta, though there is syncretism as well, with people mixing different theories from the darsanas and practicing them.
Now, Hinduism is not fully polytheistic, since there is one belief that all sampradayas hold, that there is Brahman (or Parabrahman). Brahman is the supreme, all-encompassing reality . It's hard for hindu theology to be interpretated through an abrahamic lens. But in short, Brahman is basically the source of everything, the reason for the existence of everything. Basically yeah. The og bossTM.
All hindu sampradayas, be it Shaivism, Vaishnavism or Shaktism believe that there is a Brahman. Now, lemme make it clear. How does one become a part of this sampradaya? Usually, in earlier times, you needed proper initiation to be a part of one, take diksha, follow the lifestyle and teachings of that very sampradaya etc etc etc. But common people, who were not initiated, usually believed the different theological interpretations given by different sects.
The major difference between all hindu sampradayas/sects/denominations is on WHO is Brahman. Shaivites believe Shiva is, Vaishnavas believe Vishnu is (with some believing it's Krishna), and Shaktas believe it is Adishakti. You CAN worship other deities, despite having varying views on Brahman. It's not like worshipping Kali/Durga will make you a Shakta, not until you believe that she is Parabrahman. That is a core difference.
Shaivism has Shaiva Siddhanta (which is dualistic) and Kashmiri Shaivism (which is non dualistic). Vaishnava thought is more dualistic leaning, but there are diff forms of Vedanta. Vaishnava Sampradaya is mostly categorized between the Sri, Madhva, Rudra and Brahma sampradayas. Shaktism can be divided into Kali Kula (where Kali is Parabrahman) and Sri Kula (where Tripurasundari is Parabrahman). Apart from this, there is Kumarism (Kartikeya as Parabrahman), Ganapatya (Ganesha as Parabrahman), Shaura (Surya as Parabrahman). And there is also Smartism, started by Adi Shankar, where Parabrahman has 5 main manifestations, Shiva, Vishnu, Devi, Ganesh and Surya who are worshipped and considered equal to each other.
mainly, all Hindu sampradayas are...kinda same. They just have a diff interpretation of who Parabrahman is, with some diff ritualistic practices. You can worship ANY deity who you want, and be part of the sampradaya of your choice, as long as you align with the sampradaya's version on who Parabrahman is. Rarely any sampradaya forbids worship of other deities except few institutions *cough* iskcon *cough* (tho gaudiya vaishnavism doesn't forbid so iirc).
So yes, there are certain differences, but there are enough similarities for all of these to be considered as HINDU.
