Hinduism: Hinduism And Hinduism

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Sachinbhai Patel
Dr. Michael Stanton
Ant 121
November 9 2014
Hinduism
Religion allows people to live better lives. It always affects the people or society in one way or another. One of the religions is Hinduism. According to (Hindu Online 2010) “Hinduism is one of the oldest religion and spiritual tradition in the world, Hinduism is often compared with a giant banyan tree in its shade a thousand faiths bloom. Hinduism has never been a creed with a set of beliefs, but rather a culture and way of life.” However, the demand for a clear, unambiguous definition of religion has become ever more insistent with the rise of more fundamentalist voices in many religious traditions. When I think about it I never have really given any thought to what …show more content…

Hindu Deities (gods) The Hindus believe the universe is populated with many gods. These gods behave much as humans do and are related much like humans are. This view is very similar to the ancient Greek theories. The supreme gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are often viewed with the relations they have with female deities. The females are called Shakti. The gods are ranked by how closely they are related to the supreme gods. All the gods have duties but the supreme gods control the destiny. “Each god has its own part of the year when it is worshipped and own style that it gets worshipped in. Some view Hinduism as Trinitarian because Brahman is simultaneously visualized as a triad one God with three persons: Brahma the Creator who is continuing to create new realities. Vishnu, (Krishna) the Preserver, who preserves these new creations” (Tejomayananda 1993). Whenever dharma (eternal order, righteousness, religion, law and duty) is threatened, Vishnu travels from heaven to earth in one of ten incarnations. Shiva, the Destroyer, is at times compassionate, erotic and destructive. However, many rural Hindus worship their own village goddess or an earth goddess. She is believed to rule over fertility and disease and thus over life and death. The priesthood is less important in rural Hinduism: non-Brahmins and non-priests often carry out ritual and prayer there. “Karma and Rebirth A popular belief in Hinduism is Transmigration of souls, or samsara. Samsara is the passage of a soul from body to body as determined by the force of one 's actions, or karma. The strict karma theory specifies that a person 's type of birth, length of life, and life experiences are determined by one 's previous acts. Hindus believe in the repetitious Transmigration of the Soul. This is the transfer of one 's soul after death into another body. This produces a continuing

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