Book excerpt: The doctrine of Sanatana Dharma acquired a tag, Hinduism during the passage of time, when or why, no one seems to be sure. The word Hinduism is a misnomer – the word Hindu is mentioned nowhere in the scriptures as is the term “Hindu mythology.” When comprehension became difficult, all that is inexplicable found refuge under the term mythology. Were the ascetics who lived in forests and mountains foolish enough to portray the picture of a God, who finds His perch on top of a serpent in an ocean of milk? Or a creator finding His work place atop a lotus that springs from the navel of Vishnu? Or that Lord Shiva should be polymorphic with the visage in one form, sporting all sorts of weird articles as ornaments, half feminine in another and a phallus in yet another form? If such descriptions defy comprehension, it only means the inability to understand allegory. The author has tried to unravel all these in layman’s logic and is not trying to masquerade in mysticism when confronted with the inexplicable. The book begins with the Pranava mantra and then it cruises through the Trimurthis, their significance, the mahavakyas and ends in the soul and the advaitha philosophy with an insight on how Science sees all these.