Hinduism is an incredibly diverse religion that expresses, through many of its texts the complex relationship between the environment and humanity. The base teaching that the earth is the physical body of the goddess Devi, and the idea of reincarnation, gives the Hindu a different perspective of what "life" is, and what respecting earth beneath us is accomplishing. Most importantly, they perceive that our treatment of the world directly affects our karma, the positive and negative forces that affect our future.
Hindu villages of the past did not see nature as disconnected from their everyday lives. Yet they actively protect it in keeping with an important Hindu concept, dharma, or as it is often translated, "duty" or "virtue". For example, Nelson (1998) explains that, “many Hindu villages have a sacred lake, and around it a grove of trees to catch rainfall and protect the banks from erosion. The lake and its grove store rainfall to irrigate surrounding fields and supply village wells with drinking water”. These villages are performing dharma, and are not making what we in the west would call an attempt at environmental preservation. They simply respect and care for the environment and believe that the environment will in return, respect and care for them.
Hindus respect the environment because they believe in rebirth and reincarnation. A human being can be reincarnated into any animal, plant, or any form of life. The idea of rebirth reinforces their choice of a vegetarian diet. Most Hindus are vegetarian because they do not like inflicting pain (the concept of ahimsa) on an animal. Hindus believe that all things have souls and that all things have a right to life. To kill another living species is to not respect their sacre...
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...e part of our very being and it makes up our very bodies.
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In the journal of Environmentalism as Religion, Paul H. Rubin discuss about how environmental is similar to religion. Rubin want everyone to know that the environment and religion are somehow similar in a way, which they both have belief system, creation stories and original sin.
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
Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter, Edwin R. McDaniel, “Hinduism”, communication between cultures, pg 132-138.
Fisher, Mary Pat. "Chapter 5: Buddhsim." Living Religions. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2005. 150-62. Print.
Though Hinduism is labeled as a religion, it’s actually much more than that. It’s a culture, a lifestyle, and a society that has influenced it’s people for more than four thousand years. The Indian culture is made up of several languages and dialects causing much racial diversity amongst the civilization. Although modern Hinduism often conflicts with that of the earlier forms of this religion, it’s most basic foundation is practically the same. Even though it’s teachings are not commonly agreed upon.
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Many foreigners cannot know what makes Hinduism so strange. Hinduism lacks an uniting belief system and many people do not know faithfully what makes up the Hindu religious belief. After one goes in-depth concerning Hinduism, one must be familiar with the fundamental details about this difficult religion. Do you realize that almost 80 percent of the India people find themselves being Hindus? Hinduism is in addition known as the Sanatana-Dharma, which means everlasting religion. Hinduism is the third leading religion following Christianity and Islam and has no one initiator, teacher, or spiritualist and it is not an unconvinced religion. All through this article, I will look further in-depth on what makes up the Hindu religion what the traditional and group influences that have prepared Hinduism fundamental to Hinduism, and I will provide details the yearning for freedom from early existence.
I will now examine what it means to be religious with a critical enquiry into Buddhism, Hinduism and
The most obvious reason that the environment has moral significance is that damage to it affects humans. Supporters of a completely human-centered ethic claim that we should be concerned for the environment only as far as our actions would have a negative effect on other people. Nature has no intrinsic value; it is not good and desirable apart from its interaction with human beings. Destruction and pollution of the environment cannot be wrong unless it results in harm to other humans. This view has its roots in Western tradition, which declares that “human beings are the only morally important members of this world” (Singer p.268).
Hinduism has been a religion for a long time, the Buddha was a Hindu before seeing how terrible the world was, he then found the religion Buddhism. Since the creator of Buddhism was Hinduism as a child, it is only expected for the two religions to be similar. While the two religions are similar they are also quite different as seen by their creation stories. The creation stories are these religions way of explaining how the world started. With most religions the creation story gives the most basic beliefs of the religion as this is where their religion supposedly starts its life. The two stories this paper focuses on is no different, and since they technically have the same origin, it can be obvious as to how they would be similar. However, in the case of the idea of social order and moral decline, they can be different too.
“We are the same as plants, as trees, as other people, as the rain that falls. We consist of that which is around us; we are the same as everything. If we destroy something around us, we destroy ourselves” (Buddha). This quote from Buddha depicts the essence of Buddhism and its intimate relationship with the environment. Buddhism new and old is intertwined with nature and the environment. Buddhism is intrinsically, at its core, environmentalism. Environmentalism shines through many aspects of Buddhism: the middle way, Samsara, Karma, iconography, and impermanence. These facets led to Buddhism containing an underlying theme of environmentalism.
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