Christianity And Hinduism .According To The Human Truth

Religion can be defined as a commitment or dedication to a particular set of beliefs. Hinduism and Christianity make up only two of the thousands of religions found around the world. Hinduism is the dominant religion in India, leading roughly 800 million followers. These followers are called Hindus from the Arabic term al hind referring to the people living across the river Indus. Countless people presume that Hinduism is a polytheistic religion. Surprisingly, most Hindus claim they have faith in only one god, Brahman. He is seen in many forms and is believed to have been the cause and foundation for all existence. However, Jesus is seen as the leader in Christianity. He is important to Christians, followers of Christianity, because of his sacrifice. The term Christian is derived from the Greek word “Christitanos” meaning follower of Christ. There are about 1.9 billion followers fairly distributed throughout the world. Because of this, Christianity is viewed as one of the largest and most widespread religions today (Stewart).

When looking at Christianity and Hinduism there are many ways to look at each religion from a theological perspective. This is why the best way to look at the broad view of these religions would be to analyze each by comparing and contrasting what each religion is about. The first point to look at would be at how Hinduism and Christianity are very similar in how they view the world. This can be seen in how they both strive to achieve a state of higher being whether it be with the eternal state of Moksha or eternal life in heaven with God. They both also look to be more introspective of themselves in order to maintain a good relationship with their higher being. This can be seen with Christians trying their hardest to maintain their faithfulness to God (Letter to the Romans, Reader p. 200) or Hindus making sure to maintain their duties in their caste in order to climb the system (Bhagavad Gita, Reader p. 75). Another comparison would be that Christianity follows the “Golden Rule” which is better known in the Hindu religion as karma. This is an important cornerstone to both religions because it creates a system of justice for both religions to follow. To truly examine these two religions one must also look at the differences that each religion has to each other that make them each a unique belief. A main difference would be that Christianity focuses more on the short term while Hinduism focuses more on the long term. Another difference is the rewards that a Christian

While Hinduism and Buddhism come from the same cultural backgrounds, they are extremely diverse in their beliefs on afterlife, deity, and rituals. Both religions believe in reincarnation, but it is where an individual goes after he or she gets off the endless cycle that differs. These religions also part when it comes to whom they do or do not worship. Every religion comes with rituals and Hinduism and Buddhism are no exceptions.

So we can see that in one religion we have life set out the way it should be lived and in the other people are free to live the way that they see fit within their religion. The next main difference is the actual being of the dharma. In Hinduism Dharma is not only seen as the way in which people should live, but also as the god Vishnu or Rama. Here we see the term dharma as, “the preserver of dharma who takes worldly form (avatara) to combat threats to dharma,”(lecture, 9/16). It was also said that, “Rama, was a heroic king who, along with his spouse exemplifies dharma,”(lecture, 9/16). This is very different then that of the Buddhists, because they believe that, “what Buddha discovered, is that which makes him the awakened one,”(lecture, 9/23) So we see that it is somewhat of the reverse from Hinduism, because it is not represented or upheld through gods, but that which brought them their god to worship. So again we see clearly that these two religions are not as closely related as people may think.

Hinduism is known as the world's oldest religion. According to ISKCON Educational Services (2004), it is hard to construct a timeline because Hinduism has no identifiable human founder or specific origin in history. It is so old that its past goes into pre-history. It is extremely diverse with the Hindu people being more interested in the meaning of events than in providing first hand records. There is also no clear-cut divide between history and myth.

The differences between Hinduism and Abrahamic Religions are many. The primary difference of beliefs is that Abrahamic Religion believes that there is one God. Hinduism beliefs vary being Pantheistic, monotheistic and polytheistic it is one of the most complex religions of the world. In the comparison of Hinduism and Abrahamic Religion differ on their concept of God. Along with their differences on the concept of God the Hindu’s and Abrahamic Religions also differ on their concept of man’s destiny. Finally Hindu’s and Abrahamic Religions also differ on their concept of Salvation.

For instance, "The Ramayan," the story of Ram and Sita, and "The Mahabharat," the story of the Kauravs and the Pandavs, are epic tales that teach people about the way of life a person should lead.

The core beliefs of Hinduism is Kharma, reincarnation, and Dharma. Kharma is the idea that whatever one does during their life will translate back onto themselves, similar to when Jesus says do onto others as you would have them do onto you. Or in other words treat others the way you would want to be treated. Reincarnation is basically the rebirth of someone’s soul in a new form or body. Christianity does not seem to have something similar to this but one could argue that Jesus reincarnated because he became a new version of himself compared to his past. Jesus could have also been reincarnated as God himself so that the divine could be made visible in human form for all to see, according to the Gospel of John. Dharma is the idea that there is an order that makes life and the universe possible, which includes ones duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues and the right way of living. I believe this could be similar to Christianity in the sense of the Ten Commandments. These commandments are rules and laws that Christianity uses to judge right from wrong.

Throughout studying the Hindu religion I realized how complex the practices and culture of the faith really are. Hinduism is the only religion I have learned about outside of christianity making the study of it much more interesting. Comparing and contrasting my faith with another produced many deep thoughts and questions about what religion really is. How do we know if our religion is more right than theirs or vice versa? There are many similarities and differences between Hinduism and Christianity whether it is the culture they predominantly are a part of, the way they perceive God, or the intricate details of each religion.

Both of the religions Hinduism and Judaism are similar but different in their own ways. Hinduism worships many gods and goddesses, whereas Judaism is a confirmedly monotheistic religion. In the Hinduism religion the bedrock is the belief that the Vedas is sacred and the caste system decribed in it. “Hinduism is a guide to life, and the goal of which is to reach union with Brahman, the unchanging ultimate reality”(75). The dharma or moral law that need to be followed. There are many gods that were worshiped and each person may worship a different god. Images of the gods in homes or temples were presented where each person can show devotion to their personal gods by singing hymns or offering flowers before the images. The Hindus believe in many things such as that the universe undergoes and endless cycle of creation, believe in karma, that the soul reincarnates, the belief that all life is sacred.

The Question of Identity is also answered differently in both worldviews. The Christian Worldview believes "that mankind is a special creation of God (Weider & Gutierrez, 2011) . Hinduism worldview on the other hand believe's that the man's soul has no beginning, that it is an eternal force in a physical body.

“Look to this day, for it is life, the very breath of life...For yesterday is only a dream, and tomorrow is yet a vision… Look well, therefore, to this day”(Ancient Hindu Sanskrit); “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment”(Buddha, n.d.). Buddhism and Hinduism are similar in various ways, in that they both originated from the Indian subcontinent and continued to spread across Asia. Each of them also believe in multiple paths to enlightenment, represented in Buddhist Eight-Fold and Hindu's Vedas Path, and both believe in reincarnation. They are different however in that Hinduism has a concept of sin, whereas Buddhism does not. These religions are also different because Siddhartha Buddha founded Buddhism, but nobody knows who founded Hinduism. The final reason that they are different is that their philosophies differ. These two religions are homologous with how they are structured yet have different characteristics in some areas.

III. The Question of Origin - In the Christian worldview, they are taught on how God made something out of nothing. In the Hindu worldview, they have about the same meaning but its towards different idols that they worship. Normally, every Sunday, Christians would go to a church for a place of worship while Hindus would go to a temple. Christian practices include prayer, and readings of the Bible. The Hindus practice meditation, yoga, and yagna for their practices.

Hinduism and Islam are two of the world’s great religions however, they differ in many regards including their beliefs in god, their ethical beliefs and the afterlife in fact, it would be quite difficult to find to two religions more different then Islam and Hinduism. One major difference is in their belief in god, Muslims are steadfastly monotheistic where Hindus are very much polytheistic. Another key difference is their views on the afterlife Hindus believe in reincarnation, whereas Muslims believe in a heaven and a hell with the faithful going to heaven and the evil going to hell. The two religions also differ in the their ethical beliefs where Hindus follow the Law of Manu and Muslims turn to the Quran for their ethical guidance (Hopfe & Woodward, 2012). While both Islam and Hinduism advocate for a better overall person amongst it believers, they have vastly different approaches to achieve this result

Many Hindus would have difficulty understanding Christianity and the Gospel because Hinduism is more of a way of life than a religion. It is based on a lifestyle of balance and good ethical living. There is no one person or book as in Christianity’s Bible and belief in Jesus. Individual Hindus choose their own set of beliefs according to their interpretation of Hindu readings and from their teacher called a Guru. Also Hindus do not believe in sin and the necessity of forgiveness of sin as a way to salvation. Hindus believe in Karma, a law of nature. For Hindus every behavior has an effect. If they do good then good will come to them and if they do