Most of Southern Asia is centered upon one religion, it’s Hinduism. With 900,000,000 followers, there are 780,000,000 in India. That’s an insane amount of people, and they all believe and practice this religion. There are many aspects and guidelines that you must follow in order to receive the fullest achievement and not be a disgrace to the people. The following will be what Hinduism is, the rules and elements, and their way of life.
Firstly, Hinduism is the major religion in India and Nepal. It is considered a way of life or a family of religions rather than one single, actual religion. It has been traced back to being one of the first religions or the elements within it have been traced back to thousands of years ago. It normally has a
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Dharma is an important term in Indian religions. In Hinduism it means 'duty ', 'virtue ', 'morality ', even 'religion ' and it refers to the power which upholds the universe and society. Dharma is the power that maintains society, it makes the grass grow, the sun shine, and makes us moral people or rather gives humans the opportunity to act virtuously. Karma is a Sanskrit word whose literal meaning is 'action '. It refers to the law that every action has an equal reaction either immediately or at some point in the future. Good or virtuous actions in harmony with dharma, will have good reactions, actions against dharma, will have the opposite effect. In Hinduism karma operates not only in this lifetime but across lifetimes: the results of an action might only be experienced after the present life in a new life.
The process of reincarnation is called Samsara , a continuous cycle in which the soul is reborn over and over again according to a person’s actions in one lifetime. At death many Hindus believe the soul is carried by a subtle body into a new physical body which can be a human or non-human form. You can be turned into an animal or a divine being. This is why they are vegetarians, animals may be your ancestors or family and friends. The goal of liberation, which is Moksha, is to make us free from this cycle of action and reaction, and from
Karma is the moral law of cause and effect (Bowker 2006, 60-1). This law is one of the many bases of the Hindu faith, Buddhist faith,
Hinduism conceives the whole world as a single family that deifies the one truth, and therefore it accepts all forms of beliefs and dismisses labels of distinct religions which would imply a division of identity. It is the belief that animals and human castes were created
Hinduism, also known by the name Sanatana-Dharma, is often referred to as the “oldest religion” in the world, is generally considered to be an ethnic religion and is fundamentally based on the religion of the original Aryan settlers. “Hinduism, from the Persian Hindi (Sanskrit sindhu), literally "river." Means "of the Indus Valley" or simply "Indian." Hindus call their religion sanatama dharma,"eternal religion" or "eternal truth” (“Facts on Hinduism”). It was founded around 3000 BCE, and is now considered to be the third largest religion in the world. Followers of Hinduism, which is estimated to be anywhere around 900 million, are especially concentrated in India, Nepal, and other countries throughout Asia. The broader world contact that has occurred since World War II allowed various forms of Hinduism to become more widely known and accepted. The multiple Hindu sects, including the Krishna Consciousness, have been particularly successful among young American and Europeans and claims to be adherent around the world. Hinduism is dissimilar compared to other religions, in the fact that it has no founders. This religion is considered to be permissive in creed or code as it is not necessarily coordinated in any way, even though various sects and cults are formulated. This religion is especially known for its tolerance because it is willing to accommodate those who are exceptionally religious; whether it be a Jew, Christian, or Muslim as a part of their religion. Hinduism is very transformable and accepts elements of different religion. Overtime it has even developed different aspects of both Christianity and Buddhism and incorporated them into the religion of Hinduism. Hinduism worships a multiplicity of gods; the most important in...
...onsibility in life which is decided by the caste they are born into. However, living amongst other people, one’s soul might become “forgetful of the Lord” which leads to “[attaching] itself to pleasure” which would make it “bound” to the wheel of the universe. For a soul to escape this cycle birth, death, and rebirth, it is necessary to connect with this god. The Hindu people believed that “by uniting oneself with him…one ceases to be ignorant” and this means “Birth, death, and rebirth will be no more.” This credence of rebirth and karma highly influenced the way the Hindu society developed.
The concept of reincarnation is related to karma, karma deals with a system of rewards and punishment based on the actions of the individual (Oxtopy & Segal 266). Due to bad karma by the individual, it takes many lifetimes for the karma to be worked out; reincarnation also known as samsara in Hinduism is an ongoing cycle of death and rebirth. To be released from the cycle of samsara, to achieve moksha one must reach enlightenment (Oxtopy & Segal 266-267). In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna, an incarnation of the ultimate deity as a personal god in the Hindu religion, explains three ways to moksha: the way of action, the way of knowledge, and the way of devotion. The Gita also made it clear that one should strive for moksha in everyday of our life as long as we act without attachment (Oxtopy & Segal 274). Reincarnation a concept widely receive by Hindu’s around the world, there are evidence to support the truth of this concept.
Hinduism is the world’s third largest religion and was originated in the Indian subcontinent. Is rare that a big religion like Hinduism don’t have a single founder, religious organization, specific theological system and don’t even a system of morality, but it is a religion that has evolved over thousands of years. Hinduism has a diverse body of cultural and philosophical practices. Hinduism consists of belief and tradition. The most recognized belief and traditions of the Hinduism are Karma, Dharma, Samsara and Moshka. Hindu people don’t believe in violence, but they do believe in prayers, honesty, truth, austerity, celibacy and penance. The Hindu scriptures are collectively referred to as the Shashtras. The Hindu scriptures were initially passed on orally from generation to generation until finally ancient scholars wrote them down; mainly in the Sanskrit language that was the prevailing language of the time. Some of the Hindu scriptures are the Shruti and Smritis. The Shruti primarily refers to the Vedas which represent eternal truths revealed to ancient sages but some other Hindu individuals associated the Vedas with a God or a powerful person. The Smritis are all of the other text different than the Shruti. The most know of the Smritis are the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Although the Hindus worship a large pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, they believe in the one Supreme Power that manifests itself in various forms.
There are many religions that are practiced around the world, especially in Asia where there are eight different religions being practiced. In the country of India, Buddhism and Hinduism are the main religions that are practiced today. Buddhism and Hinduism were both founded in Asia, but they were founded by two different people and practiced in two different ways and languages. Buddhism is a living tradition that is passed down from teacher to student as a set of instruction and techniques for sanity and brilliance in the inner self and the world. Hinduism is more based on the thoughts and attitude about one’s everyday life, and reflects in his actions.
In south Asia, it is well accepted that a person’s action determines his or her own personal destiny. This idea that actions have repercussions in life is known as karma. Karma is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as, “the total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as determining the person's destiny.” Karma is called las rgyu-bras in Tibetan, where las can be translated to “work” or “actions” and rgyu-bras translates to “fruits.” Combined, las rgyu-bras can be translated as the fruits of one’s actions (Keyes 232). If a person performs a good action in life, Tibetan Buddhists believe that good things will occur later on in life as a result, and they expect the reverse for bad actions. By understanding this concept and trying to live a l...
Accordingly, Hinduism is considered a religion or a life style. It's believes are diverse and complex, since they have many gods. Moreover, Hinduism
Karma is the first component in the idea of reincarnation, this is a practice that the Hindus use to justify things that they have done on earth and lead to the afterlife of reincarnation. The work Karma itself is derived from Sanskrit, the root kr which simply means to do, or to act. Therefore, this justifies Karma originally to an activity of any sort and any form. Hillary Rodrigues states in her book Introducing Hinduism, “as early as the Upanisads, the idea had developed that one’s actions have consequences both for this lifetime and future ones.” (1). The underlying conspiracy of karma is the idealism of one’s soul being detected as immortal. Although early Vedas custom contained claim to the fact that every human soul existed forever, and by only the effects after death it underwent rebirth or reincarnation. During the time of the Upanishads, karma quickly developed in the notion of a moral principle called causality, in where there is no action
Some people believe that karma means action and reaction, this is not strictly true, karma actually means " `act', `action' or `activity' "(Fowler. 1997. p11). It can be said, however, that for every action there must be a reaction. Karma is not confined to physical actions, mental actions also count. So Hindus believe that everything a person does or thinks is an action and depending on whether the action is good or bad that person receives good or bad karma as a reaction. "So, if some are happy then they must have done good in the past; if others are suffering they must have done something bad." "This is not fatalism; the law of karma says that we alone - not God or the Devil - are responsible for our fate" (Prinja. 1998. p36). Karma returns to us through everything we do. If a person does something good, with the sole intention of bettering him or herself, they will receive bad karma. Good karma is only received when a person commits a good action without thinking of himself or herself. Most Hindus will spend their entire lives attempting to accrue more good than bad karma. In the case of someone who has accrued sufficiently high levels of bad karma, the said person's spirit may not return after reincarnation as a human. It is possible for a spirit to return as an animal " in order to reap the results of bad karma until it is used up sufficiently to allow reincarnation as a human being once more." (Fowler. 1999. p208). This karma builds up inside a person in the form of the jivatman or personality.
"In Hinduism, salvation is achieved through a spiritual oneness of the soul, atman, with the ultimate reality of the universe, Brahman. To achieve this goal, the soul must obtain moksha, or liberation from the samsara, the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. As a result of these basic teachings, Hindus believe in reincarnation, which is influenced by karma (material actions resulting from the consequences of previous actions), and dharma (fulfilling one's duty in life)"(Teachings and Beliefs, 2004, par. 1).
Hinduism is an ancient religion. It has no known founder. It has several holy books. The most important of these is the Vedas, a collection of hymns. Hinduism like buddism believes in reincarnation. The goal of this religion is also to escape the birth-death cycle. Through Hinduism the entire Indian social structure was formed by creating the caste system. The major difference between Buddism and Hinduism is that Hindus believe in a god. Brahman is the spirit that encompasses all living things. There are several lesser gods who are believed to be incarnates of Brahman.
Dharma, in concept deals with duty, religion and inseparable quality of a thing or orders i.e. virtuous conduct of righteous man and dharma in literal sense means ‘something which sustains or upholds’ and is a Sanskrit noun derived from root ‘dhr’. Dharma is semantic equivalent to the Greek word ‘ethos’ .
Hinduism is a very complicated religion from an outsiders prospective. When I think about it I never have really given any thought to what Hinduism is, so what is this religion, what do they believe in, what are the social and cultural influences and what is the desire for liberation from earthly existence?