Hinduism : A Model For Religious Toleration Essay

Hinduism: Universally viewed as a polytheistic religion and one of the oldest. Its 900 million followers’ spiritual goal is to merge as one with Brahma, its supreme God. This achievement is through reincarnation determined on karma, depending ones past deeds coinciding to one’s future.

Over time traditions came together to develop recognizable religious traditions which was eventually known as Hinduism. Hindu’s have many different practices such as Sanatana Dharma, Vedic worship, yoga and many other different rituals. Hindu’s also have many other beliefs and celebrations such as reincarnation, karma, prana, puja, samsara and many more. Hinduism is known for its beliefs, practices and gods and as the years pass by the religion still stands strong to what they believe.

Hinduism is the third largest and the oldest religion in the world. Because it is so popular, there are many stereotypes of this religion that have come about over the years. Some of these might include things like all Hindu women have red dots on their foreheads or that all Indians are Hindu. These are both untrue, of course. However, Hinduism is the leading religion in India, dominating around 80 percent of the country’s population (“Hinduism”. Britannica Online Encyclopedia.). Within each religion are a number of beliefs, sacred texts, laws, and guidelines to live by. Hinduism is definitely an extremely complex religion compared to other religions, with several beliefs, multiple gods, goddesses and deities, and many laws and rules to be

In this essay, I intend to compare and contrast two major religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, that came out of India thousands of years ago. Though these two religions are old, they are still practiced today by millions of followers within the continent of Asia and the West.

Since the beginning of civilization many religions and cultures have come and gone. One of the few that has stood the test of time is Hinduism. Hinduisms base flourishes from the practical view of human life, belief in eternal truth and it’s ability to make small adaptations to it without compromising its core values. Hinduism is the oldest known religion in the world and also the third largest in the world. Most of its one billion followers live in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Even with its immense amount of followers and lengthy existence, many non followers are unaware of its history, beliefs, and practices.

In Chapter ten the history of Hinduism is discussed in America and India. Instead of illustrating the religious doctrines of Hinduism. The author lists statistics about the livelihoods of Asian Indians. For example, there are eighteen different official languages in India. As the author emphasizes that doctrines have nothing to do with Hinduism, but the actions that individuals commit. The orthodoxy is a set of responsibilities that Hindus must carry out. If they wish to be reincarnated into a higher caste. In addition, the origin of Hinduism is mentioned within the chapter. That Hinduism is the only major religion that does not have a founder and has no beginning as there is not a specific known date of when it originated. Moreover, Hinduism is the oldest major religion and is the only polytheistic faith among the five popular creeds.

The religious history of India is long and complex. Hinduism was the first known religion to permeat India and the surrounding area. A couple thousand years later, Buddhism originated as a reformation of Hinduism–rejecting its caste system and deities–and began to rearrange the religious status of India. Today, Eastern Asia is divided between Buddhism and Hinduism. Only Nepal employs both religions, considering them inextricably linked. The history and current situation of the relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism begs the question: Can Buddhism exist in a Hindu society in a way that fulfills each religion? Huston Smith’s The World’s Religions and the Buddhist Scriptures each contribute to this controversial conversation. Despite strong arguments for the conjunction of the two religions and the similarities they share, the philosophical and categorical difference between the two demonstrates a tension better than it does a cohesion.

India is a country full of mysteries and differences. It has a long history, a profound yet unique culture, with diversified nationalities, races, religions, languages and a huge population. The pursuit of secularism and inveteracy of sectarianism have brought huge influence to the Indian society. As the mainstream culture in India, Hinduism plays an important role in the Indian society and has dominated almost 2000 years of its history. Although in the following years since, the Indian culture gradually becomes a combination of different races, religions and languages, Hinduism still remains to be the key to dig into the development of the culture and society of India.

Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world; but it is generally thought to be the world?s oldest organized religion. The Hindu religion has a lot of different traditions so it has the reputation of featuring freedom of practice and beliefs. A good example of this would be that Hindus ?recognize a single deity, and view other Gods and Goddesses as manifestations or aspects of that supreme God;? but there are atheists in the Hindu religion. Some ex-Hindus explain that atheism is accepted but only to the point that you will not be socially shunned for professing non-belief in a god. It is important to know what Hinduism does not have. It does not have a single founder; a single holy text like the Bible or Koran; a single concept of deity (as mentioned above; a single system of morality; a central religious authority or a specific theological system; nor do they have any concept of a

I have chosen Hinduism and Buddhism as the two religions for this assignment. With religion being such an intricate part of many cultures, I found these religions most interesting due to their similarity. Both of these religions originated in the subcontinent of India, these religions have had an awkward relationship that can be compared to Christianity and Judaism. The belief is that Buddhism is an off shoot of the Hindu religion. My goal is to address the questions in this assignment and to take a look at how close these two religions truly are and what role do these religions play in the lives of those who practice them.

After listening and analyzing the interviews of the swami and of practicing Hindus, I now know of Hinduism, not as a barbaric and uncivilized group of people, but, instead, as a complex and ever-changing belief system. That, much like humans, evolve and expand to fit the changes of society in order to be more relevant to the current culture , and to have a more relatable connection to people thus ensuring the survival of

In Berger and Radhakrishnan’s books the multitude of religious experience one can encounter is defined and explained through the hardships and cultural multiplicities of views that many Hindus’ go through to find absolute transcendence with God, gain a higher level of religious consciousness and how externalization, objectivities, and internalization are used as forms in society to introduce and establish religious construction. The inconsistency of religious isolation is in the very manner of dehumanizing a large part of the social and cultural world that we live in today because of the roots in the fundamental wish that humans have towards creating a reality and having a world that has

Hinduism has neither a typical precept nor a solitary sacred text as the wellspring of its different teachings. It puts a greater number of accentuation on orthopraxy than universality, empowering relative opportunity of thought inside firmly characterized sets of accepted rules and ethical quality.

Hinduism and Buddhism are both eastern traditions with much to say about the human condition as well as the reason human beings exist at all. In some ways they are different while also being similar in other ways. In this essay, those differences will be discussed and the similarities examined for their message. In conclusion, we will examine what these two faiths offer to the human beings of the twenty-first century.

Hinduism is sometimes considered a polytheistic religion. To date there are an estimated 330 million Hindu gods (Cooper, 2013). More realistically Hindu’s believe that there is one god that reigns supreme with many facets that encompass all gods and even people. It is believed that god shares his body with all beings of the universe while still remaining their own identity. When studying Hinduism there is synergy between metaphysics and ontology (Brannigan, 2005, p.221). Metaphysics is a worldview. Everything that you are is connected to every other person in the world and everything other people, and the world, are connected to you. Because you are so connected to other people on a spiritual level there is a strong emphasis on treating others the way you would treat yourself. Who you are is also important. When studying Hinduism your view of yourself and understanding of your physical and emotional needs is ontology.