In our universe there are numbers of worshiping ways to God. Every religion has its own set of worshiping styles and perception. Mystics of Sufis have made their own place outside these groups. A mystic might be follower of Christianity or Islam or any other religion but his perceptions to worship God are different from his own community. For example a Christian follower will go to church pray to God hear the sermon he might be doing all this with a perception of his religious duty fear from hell and love of paradise. But mystics do not do so. We must first know a general and brief meaning of mysticism. Mysticism can be defined as strong spiritual belief of God and worshipping God with intense spiritual devotion. Definition of mysticism is …show more content…
Bhakti movement started in south India, it spread all over the north to different regions by different saints. The concept of Bhakti (devotion) is as old as Hinduism itself. It is one of the three approaches that the Bhagvat Gita recommends, the other two being Knowledge and action. It became a powerful theory to combat the cold logical theories of the Jains and …show more content…
Unlike the saints of the Nirguna School, they worshipped idols in the form of Lord Rama, Krishna and others. The leaders of Bhakti movements who were to make a deep impact on social and religious ideas were those who were influenced by Islamic ideology, particularly Sufism, and related them to ideas from the Vedas and Upanishads. The origin of the Bhakti movement can be traced back to the ancient scriptures like the Vedas, Upanishads, and Buddhist texts and was living in parallel with the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religions. History gives importance to Hinduism as one of the oldest world religions, because of these written records, and it is from these records that we understand the importance of 'Union with God' came from such a time when humanity was born. This can be seen through one of the early religious texts, the Bhagvat Gita, which talks about Knowledge, Action and Bhakti. This is the basis of the Bhakti movement, nam, or Knowledge, which has been present since time immemorial, and is still present and will remain so whilst humanity resides in this world. As referred to in the first chapter of this research, the In Bhagvat Gita where Lord Krishna explains to Arjuna about Knowledge, he says that this Knowledge is there since humanity was created, and will remain while humans walk the earth. Also,
Some of the most prominent aspects of Hinduism are the atman and samsara which is one the clearest distinctions between Hinduism and other religions. When Krishna states, “I have never not existed; nor have you, nor have these lords of men. Nor will we cease to exist, all of us, from now onwards” (Bhagavad Gita, 185), he is referring to the atman or the human soul which is believed to have always existed and will continue to exist. And when he says, “Just as one throws out old clothes and then takes on other, new ones; so the embodied self casts out old bodies as it gets other, new ones” (Bhagavad Gita, 187), he is talking about samsara and reincarnation. It is from this text, where Hinduism gets its defining characteristics. As long as the Gita continues to be relevant in India so will these philosophies. It reinforces the idea of reincarnation, the soul, and duty which shapes the way the Hindus live their lives. The goal for a Hindu is to break out of samsara and achieve Brahman, and according to the Gita, fulfilling one’s dharma is the way to accomplish this. The Bhagavad Gita is significant to Hinduism, because it has helped Hindus identify an ultimate goal and teaches them how to achieve
Sufism is often described as being the mystical branch of Islam – a spiritual path that speaks to the very heart of the believer and brings to the fore, a very real sense of God’s immediacy within the context of daily life and religious practice. As a mystical tradition, it propositions a God that has shared His divine essence with mankind – a God who is available to address and dwell within the human condition. By discussing Sufi practice and its development of traditional Islamic precepts including prayer and fasting, this essay will place it within the context of Islam with a look at how its mystical notions contribute towards a more immediate understanding of God. Furthermore, the practice of dikhr s well as the Sufi path of divine love as a journey towards divine unity will be discussed in showing how Sufism involves a sense of self-denial in favour of comprehending the divine nature of God. Sufism’s intersection with Greek science and philosophy will also be outlined in illustrating the all-encompassing nature of the Sufi God. Comparing different viewpoints, this essay includes critical commentary that will suggest that as a progression of the Islamic faith, Sufism indeed makes a substantial contribution to an understanding of the Islamic God – one that is relevant within the context of modern day society.
Like Hinduism, Buddhism also started in India. It is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who is called the Buddha or the Enlightened One. Buddhism started a monastic movement in the Brahman tradition.
Bhakti Yoga is the way to god through love. However, there can be no ulterior motive behind your love. The Bhakti Yoga requires you to love god purely for the sake of loving god. As your love for god strengthens the world’s grip on you will loosen. A distinct feature of this yoga Japam, which is the practice of incessantly repeating god’s name throughout the day.
One of the most important elements in history is religions. The Hindu religion arguably began around 2,500 years before the Common Era (B.C.E.) in India. It was geographically based along the Indus River, which was called “Hindu” which the Persians named when they migrated to India. They also called the land Hindustan and its residents, Hindus. After that, the religion that had followed was called Hinduism. Today, almost around 800 million people practice the Hindu religion around the world.
Hinduism is made of many different religions and does not have one origin or single founder. The religion of Hinduism is very old, “300-100 B.C.E.--- The first trace of temple worship. Hindu people worship at the shrine, where Hindus make offerings to a murti. A murti is a statue of a god or goddess” (McMillan). In addition, other religions are based off Hinduism, “5000-10000 B.C.---Hinduism can be traced back to 5000-10000 B.C. Hinduism is a very old religion, many religions are based off of Hinduism, like Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism” (McMillan).
The first of which is Hinduism. One of the oldest surviving religions, a religion that surprisingly has no founding date making it unique among the world of religion. There is also no human founder which thus makes Hinduism a mystical religion.
“Religion as defined by the great sages of India…it did not require belief in a set of doctrines, but rather hard, disciplined work, without which, any religious teaching remained opaque and incredible” (Armstrong 51). The profound history of Hinduism contains important fundamental elements that play a major role in the daily life of its followers. Hinduism is famously known as one of the oldest religions in the world, which is widely embraced and composed of three prominent attributes: spiritual, tradition, and the caste system. The combinations of these three attributes in the Hindu belief system add rich tradition and deepen cultural meaningfulness and experience that uniquely defines the Hindu system of beliefs
The Bhagavad-Gita, a portion of the great epic the Mahabharata, is the “most typical expression of Hinduism.” It is eighteen chapters long and was composed around the first century BCE. The sage Samjaya recites the story to the blind king Dhrtarastra, the father of the Kaurava princes. While presenting ideas of wisdom, duty, and liberation in the midst of the rivalry between the Kauravas, the Bhagavad-Gita epitomizes the teachings of Krishna. Focusing specifically on the moral struggle of the Pandava prince Arjuna, the Bhagavad-Gita’s major themes include yoga, karma, dharma, and moksa. Yoga, being discipline or the strict and “attentive cultivation of mental character and meaningful action” , is crucial to the text because it is dharma yoga, acting properly according to one’s dharma, and bhakti yoga, a disciplined life of devotion that allows one to achieve moksa, or liberation, one of the four aims of li...
More than a religion, Hinduism is a way of life and a philosophy that is most concerned with spirituality and enlightenment. The idealism of the Hindu religion comes from the Vedas, which are the Hindu religion's oldest scriptures and are considered to be a direct revelation of God. The Upanishads are writings that take their themes from the Vedas. The Upanishads, however, seem to be more along the lines of allegories that give a fleshy quality to the religion rather than a very dry and out of touch feel that can be found in other religious texts. Lastly, the Bhagavad-Gita is a collection of teachings that are based on the conversation between Arjuna, a soldier for one of two warring families, and Lord Krishna, who appears as Arjuna's charioteer. In these conversations the two discuss everything from the purpose of life to the basis of reality. Much like Christian proverbs, the teachings of Lord Krishna give advice and general good sense and...
Hinduism is unlike many other religions in that it does not have a single founder or text, but is more like an umbrella in ways of life. In death and life for the Hindu, “The ultimate goal of the soul is liberation from the wheel of rebirth, through reabsorption into our identity with the Oversoul (Brahma)-- the essence of the universe, immaterial, uncreated, limitless, and timeless” (Leming & Dickinson, 2011, p. 134).
Upon reading about the historical and religious background of Ancient India, one can clearly assume that the country was strongly influenced by three main religious teachings: Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. These three sects in religious thinking have many similarities as all recognize the life-cycle and the need of liberation, they worship one central deity that used to be a human who gained enlightenment and they all recognize the existence of the eternal soul and after-death re-incarnation. However, they also share a lot of differences that mark the underlying principles of practicing them. I will identify the scope of differences and similarities in these ancient religions in an attempt to understand why each attracted followers, why each was shaped a certain way and how they preserved the interest of followers on into the modern times as well.
Hindu mythology has been around for ages; it is the world’s oldest surviving religion. Hinduism was formed through diverse traditions in the year 2,000 B.C.E. There is no single person that gets the credit of developing Hindu Mythology because one person did not create it. Hinduism was originated in India, where it is the most practiced now. Hinduism has over a billion followers and about two-thirds of those people are in India. There are many temples open to worship gods and goddesses. “The needs of the gods would be met by the worshipers who have to prepare themselves through purification rites to draw near to their god” (Organ,193) Hinduism is not only the oldest religion but one of the biggest, with Islam then Christianity being above it.
When I first started to read about the Hinduism religion I was not sure what to expect. I have heard about the religion but did not know much about it. What I learned about it was fascinating and caused me to reflect on just how different the religions of the world are. We do not know when Hinduism was founded by whom. It has been said to have always existed. It has been traced to the olden Indus Valley civilization.