Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism give as much value to cognition as Judaism, Christianity and Islam give to commandments. This can be seen as the fundamental difference between the two. The former speak about how we perceive the world, and how we can change our perception of the world; the latter speaks of how we are supposed to behave in the world. The word "spirituality", which is about self-discovery leans towards the former, and the word "religion", which is about social engineering leans towards the latter.
European, American and left-wing academicians have tried very hard to contort Hinduism as a "commandment" religion - with commandments coming from Vedas, Gita, Manusmriti, which creates the "caste system". This is why they believe new commandments like reservation policy will annihilate the caste system, when, in fact, it does the very opposite, further entrenching it.
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