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Hinduisim

Essay by   •  December 8, 2010  •  Essay  •  747 Words (3 Pages)  •  1,326 Views

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Hinduism

Hinduism is a religion that originated on the Indian subcontinent; it has no known founder and is a conglomerate of different traditions and beliefs. In today's world it is considered to be the oldest existing religion, and has over a billion members whom majority of which live in India. Hinduism has a wide variety of scriptures that have been developed over millennia's, which are equal in theology, philosophy, and myth giving spiritual insight and guidance along with the practice of dharma. The Hinduism religion is originally from the ancient Vedic tradition and other indigenous beliefs gradually created over time. Some of the main points of the Hinduism religion are Dharma which are ethics and duties, Samsara meaning the continuing cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth, Karma action and subsequent action, and also Moksha which is liberation from the cycle of Samsara. There are a few other religions that are very similar to Hinduism religion which are Buddhism, and Sikhism because these religions also came from India and mainly focus on self-improvement with the goal of attaining personal spiritual experiences.

Most of the Hinduism religion believes that your spirit or soul the true self of everybody called the Atman is eternal. Their goals in life are two main life-long Dharmas, Grihastha Dharma, and Sannyasin Dharma. The Grihastha Dharma believe in four goals as noble and are known as the purusharthas which are, Kama sensual pleasure and enjoyment, artha worldly prosperity and success, dharma following the laws and rule that a person lives under, moksha liberation from the cycle of samsara. In these four goals moksha and dharma are the most important because they play a special role. Dharma has to dominate an individual's pursuit of Kama and artha while seeing moksha at the horizon. Basically in which ever way a Hindu decides to define the goal of life there have been several ways taught for reaching those goals. Hindu's may participate in some kind of worship normally in a temple or at a home. They also sometimes create shrines with icons dedicated to the person chosen form of god. Hindu's sometimes will offer food, water, or flowers, and they do this by burning incense, lighting candles, or oil lamps, ringing bells, waving fans, or blowing a conch shell. They also often do mantras which is chanting or reciting scriptures.

The cultural and societal influences that have made Hinduism vital to the region that it originated from is Hinduism religion is able to group all of the diverse beliefs and practice's of the people that are necessary for India to continue historically as it has. That is one reason the government of India is against the Christian and Muslim missionaries. The demand of vegetarianism in Hinduism

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