Questions On Hinduism

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.

Hinduism, Buddhism and Shinto, while vast in differences there is much to learn about these three religions similarities as well. Some facts and history of Hinduism include, Hinduism (being the oldest of the three) is dated back in pre-history before 10000 BC even believed to predate the Indus River Valley Civilization! The Vedas (the holy text of Hinduism) is the foundation for Indian culture and also the basic belief system of Hinduism. The basic belief structure of Hinduism is as follows, the three doctrines; Samsara (1) which means “successive rebirths” indicating the belief in reincarnation started by ATMA or the spark of life given by the god Brahma. This cycle continues until the soul collects enough good Karma (2) to break from the

A thorough and often-assigned work, Klostermaier 2007, understands four different elements of Hinduism: indigenous, Indus Valley, North Indian “Aryan,” and South Indian “Dravidian” perspectives. Klostermaier 2007 also focuses on the change, development, and conflict within Hinduism, arguing that, in addition to sectarian debates, the colonial and postcolonial worlds gave rise to various attempts to extract certain “essences” out of Hindu ideas and discard the rest as either “corrupt” or not “original.”

The practice Hinduism poses some interesting questions for anthropologists, its is fairly unique in comparison to the other worlds religions, and interestingly there is no founding fire. Furthermore, there is no single religious text or scripture and its dogma is not centered around one singular omnipotent deity. Hinduism does not subscribe to a singular moral code and there is no internal structure or centralized institutions. Because of this, anthropologists,and the general public alike, have a hard time imagining Hinduism as a religious system. In order to gain a better understanding of Hinduism, scholars have relied on a wide variety of texts and historical events from the South Asian cultures. It has become necessary to engage in

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 is a religion that is difficult to define. No one can say who the founder is, or connect it to a certain place or time. So in order to understand Hinduism, we follow a coherent set of assumptions upon which people base their lives; otherwise defined as the Indian Worldview.

In India, during the late Vedic Period which lasted from 1000 to 500 B.C, an ancient form of Hinduism flourished. As it possessed no official superior work of literature, such as the Bible or the Koran, Hinduism became one of the most tolerant religions due to its lack of binding documentation. A life committed to Hinduism was spent constantly maintaining the socio-economic order in an attempt to achieve universal stability, which was something highly valued in this tolerant religion. “Thus Indian society has always been concerned with stability rather than with progress...” (Early India).Hinduism’s central requirement was to fulfill the duties of a person’s caste, or class, which largely affected the daily life of anyone living in ancient India. At the top of the social pyramid

Hinduism is the world religion that comprising both continuity and change. Hinduism has always combined and adapted to a variety of social and cultural contexts. It encompasses several and varied systems of philosophy, belief, and ritual. Hinduism is a Basic Religion with an animistic cosmology, out of which developed monistic and monotheistic. Hinduism is characterized by the belief in reincarnation, one absolute being of multiple manifestations, the law of cause and effect, and the desire for liberation from the cycle of births and deaths. In the following, there will be discussion of some characteristics of Basic Religion that are found in the Hindu tradition, philosophical monism of Hinduism and how it relates to the Basic Religion of Hinduism and also the beliefs and expressions of monotheism in the Basic Religion as well as scriptures.

According to our text, “The religion of the overwhelming majority of Indians is Hinduism, the fourth largest in the world with about one billion adherents. Hinduism is both more and less than a religion as the West understands that term: It is a way of life, a philosophical system, an inspiration of art, and the basis of all Indian political theories in the past. But it is not a rigid set of theological doctrines.” (Adler & Pouwels, 2011, p. 51).

Of all the religions in the world such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam, Hinduism is the world's oldest religion which is still practiced, has no beginning and it precedes recorded history. Although, it is the third largest religion in the world and has no identifiable human founder or date of origin. Even so, Hinduism originated in India located between the Himalayan Mountains, Ski Lanka, the Arabian Sea, and the Bay of Bengal. However, when looking at a map of India it is shown that this subcontinent is isolated. As a result to this kind of isolation, India has created a culture that is both rare and fascinating (Experiencing the World's Religions).

Hinduism is a vast religion with various beliefs spread throughout the religion. In this religion there are many important sacred texts. These texts allow practitioners of this religion to connect with the traditions Hinduism, read about the beliefs of Hinduism, and also read about the path they should follow in order to achieve moksha. Some of the sacred texts are; the Vedas, Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita.

An interesting aspect of Hinduism is its conception has created a history that is still prevalent today. The citadels of the Harappa culture provide modern society with information regarding the architecture and consequently their religious practices. However, there are some aspects of the Harappa culture that are still unknown to this day. For example, there is little evidence regarding the culture’s manner of disposal. Consequently, we lack the knowledge of the Harappa’s religious convictions. After the fall of the Harappa culture, the Indo-Europeans embraced language as a means of understanding. Historians have been able to track the migration patterns of the Indo-Europeans. They can do so because the language of the Vedas

Hinduism is large and complex religious institute that reflects the religious belief of a rich society, the Indian people. It origins, just as the religion are intermingled in the Aryans system of belief and early Indian system of belief which merged to give what is now Hinduism. The Aryan system of belief came to exist in India when the Aryans from eastern Europe invaded India around 1500 B.C. It is believed that many of the rituals and gods of now, Hindu are derivative of their faiths. They came to India which what would later be adopted by hindus as the cast system, but theirs was composed of hierarchically of three entity; the warriors whom were the most important, the priest which direct any rituals and retain knowledge of the vedas and the servants which looked at the cattles. The accentuation of nature is also a product of the Aryan faith system which is reconstructed to or at least reused in the idea of oneness with nature and Brahman which is the hindu supreme God. The Rig Veda which contains thousands of hymns in the sanskrit are also Aryans (Phil.108, notes).

The Hindu religion and culture is a very complex subject. The Hindu religion combines rich ethnical and standard beliefs. We will take a closer look and try to understand the Hindu religion and culture. The Hindu religion is the oldest religion of the five major religions, which are Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism (Major World Religions, 2006). The Hindu religion began to develop about 4.000 years ago in India, but it there was no single founder or system of belief (Major World Religions, 2006). There are many diverse and various Gods in the Hindu religion. One of the most important beliefs is the theory of karma, which holds that all beings, human or animal have karma which determines which soul is for which body and

First of all, Hinduism grew out of the ancient belief of Aryans. Hinduism is one of the world’s oldest religion. The Aryans believed in many deities. They know that deities controlled forces of nature. All the deities are part of a universal spirit called Brahman. Because of the beliefs of Aryans, Hinduism became a major religion.