For many, Hinduism is more than a religion, it is a way of life. The ultimate goal of Hindus is to reach liberation, or moksha. Moksha refers to the uniting of the Atman, the soul of an individual, with Brahman, the infinite being. To do so, one must separate themselves from the negative aspects of life, distance themselves from any bad habits, and have the desire to reach the ultimate goal of moksha. Once an individual has accomplished all of that, Hinduism recognizes four main paths to help them achieve moksha; Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Raja Yoga. Every individual has a dominant path that they take but that path is not exclusive; most will integrate aspects of each path into their lives. There is a common Hindu saying, With …show more content…
Any deed, good or bad, that is done will come back to the individual in the future as a result. Someone that is more energetic tends to have Karma Yoga as a dominant path thus seeking moksha through work and action. As the non-dominant path, the basic principles will be worked into the everyday lives of the individual and will still be followed.
To understand Karma Yoga, Dharma must be addressed and many Hindus turn to scripture for guidance. Dharma is the duty that one must pursue in regards to their responsibilities and roles within society. As a parent, one has a duty to their child; as a husband, one has duty to their wife; and as a teacher, one has duty to their students. Not all duties are ones that are looked forward to and some may be considered unpleasant. However, picking and choosing which duty to complete is not how duties are performed; rather all actions must be done regardless of personal
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The first stage involves listening to scripture and sages speak about scripture to take in their teaching and discover Atman's existence. After one has accomplished that, they move on to the thinking stage where they spend a lot of time on reflection. Reflection on the teachings of the sage, the scripture, and every day experiences will help the Atman to become more distinct for the individual. Once that has occurred, they can move to the last stage, shifting. In this stage, an individual is able to see themselves as separated from their body and realizes that they are not their body, but their
(Pew Research Center 1) Hinduism unlike Christianity or Muslim, is deemed to be the oldest surviving religion. Having a collective number of sacred texts, it differs from any other faiths. Being a polytheistic religion the views of Hinduism followers are diverse from what monotheistic religions would consider to be the norm. Again, this religion consists of a different approach to the notion of afterlife. Companions of the belief system, consider Moksha to be their form of heaven. Moksha is when an individual is liberated from the ongoing cycle of death and rebirth. This is known as the Hinduism form of hell called Samsara. Karma is the impression that what an individual does throughout their life cycle will depict a positive outcome, or
The prima facie duties that William David Ross has listed include duties of fidelity, reparation, gratitude, justice, beneficence, self-improvement, and non-maleficence. Duties of fidelity and reparation rest on previous acts that one has performed, and acting on these duties are acts such as promise-keeping (duties of fidelity) and making amends for previous wrongful acts (duties of reparation), while duties of gratitude rest on previous acts that others have performed. There is a duty associated with the distribution of pleasure or good regardless of its recipient, and this is termed as duties of justice. An additional duty rests on the mere fact that there are other beings in this world to whom we can be of assistance to: duties of beneficence. Duties of self-improvement claim that there are intrinsic moral reasons for one to improve oneself and finally, duties of non-maleficence states that there are intrinsic moral reasons to not harm others. Duties are placed on the list only when they have been judged to be basic moral reaso...
Hinduism is a religion with no known founder, with its understandings and actions developing over thousands of years. This religion has roots from the Aryan people’s religion, when they invaded India at 1500 BCE. The Aryans created a caste system when they invaded India so their kin would remain in power. Hinduism has absorbed and accepted this caste system as a large part of their religion. They believe in reincarnation, which is being reborn after you die, and Samsara, the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. If the person completes their dharma, the rules of their caste, and live a good moral life then they advance to the next caste, but if they do bad in their life then they remain at their caste level or they are downgraded. The most respected caste group is the Brahmins, they are high priests, making them very religious, and they are the closest in the caste system to reaching moksha, release from samsara or entering paradise. Another way of viewing moksha is that their Atman, the soul, gets reunited with the Brahman, the universal spirit. They then infer that everything that does not exist forever, unlike their Atman, are not real, which they call a veil, also known as Maya, because it is not permanent. Along with reincarnation there exists karma, similar to the idea what comes around goes around, so if you live an immoral life, your future lives will be a punishment. Guidance for priests and rituals are written in the most ancient Hindu scriptures called Vedas. The Rig Veda is the most important scripture out of the Vedas. The Upanishads, however, explain the Vedas through a teacher student dialogue, this helps anyone learn the Vedas much easier. Finally, the rituals described in these scriptures incl...
duties: 1. the duty not to cause further pain or suffering; and 2. the duty to
The Question of Meaning/Purpose: Hinduism is more of a dream of illusions that life has no meaning and does not truly exist. Were here for the purpose of nothing and in a state lower then Nirvana. In text (Hindson &Cancer Pg.387 and Weider & Gutierrez Condsier. Pg70) this is that if one does not concept the growth of themselves they will remai...
The statement "everyone is a Hindu" is an extremely broad one that is open to much interpretation. This owes partly to the fact that Hinduism itself is a broad and vast religion with many ways of following. In this paper I seek to explain that the statement "everyone is a Hindu" is a worthy one because Hindus have a sense of interconnectedness in all organisms and life on earth, and that the ultimate goal of a person is to join the rest of the universe in "moksha." Additionally, the attribute of the Hinduism that lends well to the statement is that Hinduism is a very hospitable religion that not only requires no specific adherence or conversion, it stresses the understanding of other religions as well.
In Hinduism, each person must go through Dharma, which after a very long time, if they have followed everything they needed to do, they would achieve Moksha. Moksha is every Hindu’s goal. It is the peace that they would reach at the end of their lives. An example can be found in the article, Moksha, it states that “Moksha is the end of the death and rebirth cycle and is classed as the fourth and ultimate artha (goal). It is the transcendence of all Arthas. It is achieved by overcoming ignorance and desires” (Editors of BBC). Moksha helps motivate any Hindu reach peace throughout their whole life being part of the religion. Anyone can achieve Moksha as long as they work for it though; the caste system, which is the Hindu conception of the social order is that people are different, and different people will fit well into different aspects of society also plays a part in this. The highest part of the society, the Brahmins (priests), have a higher chance of reaching Moksha, while the list goes down the caste system (Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Sudras). Even the untouchables, who are the lowest class anyone could ever be, would be able to reach
With no known founder, Hinduism was developed thousands of years ago, according to Mary Fisher, author of Living Religions (Fisher, 72). While Hindus often deem their religion as eternal, or “Santana dharma,” Hinduism is not a uniform, or orderly system (Fisher, 72). For example, Hindus may take different stances on God or liberation while still following their respective religion, according to Mary Fisher (Fisher, 85). However, Hinduism incorporates fundamental beliefs such as reincarnation and karma, similar to Jainism. According to Fisher, Hindus may focus on devotion to a single God, or multiple Gods, unlike the views of Sikhism (Fisher, 98). In fact, some Hindus focus heavily on the practice of meditation, similar the ways of many Buddhists (Fisher, 100). Unlike Sikhism, which bars images or representations of God, Hinduism promotes images or figures of God in many rituals (Fisher, 98). Ultimately, Hinduism centers on the fulfilment of social aspects and stages of life.
Hinduism is unlike many other religions in that it does not have a single founder or text, but is more like an umbrella in ways of life. In death and life for the Hindu, “The ultimate goal of the soul is liberation from the wheel of rebirth, through reabsorption into our identity with the Oversoul (Brahma)-- the essence of the universe, immaterial, uncreated, limitless, and timeless” (Leming & Dickinson, 2011, p. 134).
Nirvana is a word that is commonly used in Buddhism with varied meanings depending on the use. It means the state of blowing out from certain detractors in life. To “blow out” has great meaning and refers wholly to the extinguishing or dispelling of oneself from certain characters that are considered to be iniquitous. It is characterized by peace of mind and it saves man from the sufferings, the cycles of rebirth, and death. Nirvana could only be achieved by individuals who observed the laid down rules and detached themselves from sin. Moksha is a common belief in the Hindu religion and it describes a state where one’s soul connects with god’s soul. In the Hindu religion, achieving moksha removes one from the cycle of life and death, which is the state of reincarnation as one moves from one life to the next. In essence, moksha is a state of unification of one’s soul with that of the creator, therefore achieving oneness of atman and Brahman. This essay discusses the various similarities and differences that exist between Buddhist Nirvana and Hindu Moksha.
Every individual has diverse gifts and qualities; that is why there is more than one way to reach liberation in Hinduism. There are three ways, Karma Marga, Jnana Marga and Bhakti Marga. Hindu's can take after more than one way if they choose. Karma Marga is one of three Hindu paths to salvation, emphasizing performing right actions according to dharma. Jnana Marga emphasizes on knowing the true nature of reality through learning and meditation.
Though both Hinduism’s moksha and Buddhism’s nirvana are more or less synonymous, they both hold distinctive differences in the path that leads followers to the end goal of enlightenment from samsara. In Hinduism, “letting go” or releasing from samsara by way of the realization that “atman is Brahman” is what moksha is defined as. Contrastingly, Buddhism involves extinguishing feelings that cause suffering and thus, achieving
PROF. HR NAGENDRA,, . "Karma Yoga Questions & Answers." SVYASA University. n. page. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. .
"In Hinduism, salvation is achieved through a spiritual oneness of the soul, atman, with the ultimate reality of the universe, Brahman. To achieve this goal, the soul must obtain moksha, or liberation from the samsara, the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. As a result of these basic teachings, Hindus believe in reincarnation, which is influenced by karma (material actions resulting from the consequences of previous actions), and dharma (fulfilling one's duty in life)"(Teachings and Beliefs, 2004, par. 1).
For Hinduism, the ultimate liberation is returning to Braham. According to Bhagavad Gita, there are three ways of practice that lead to liberation.¬¬¬¬. These are janna-yoga (the way of knowledge), bhakti- yoga (the practice of devotion) and karma-yoga (the course of action). In other words, one can practice any of these methods to achieve union with God. This paper I will analyze some important aspects of bhakti-yoga and how it can lead one to attain ultimate liberation—return to Atman. In doing this investigation, I hope to help the reader broaden their knowledge on liberation in Hinduism. As Radhakrishnan says we may climb the mountain from different paths, but the view from the summit is identical for all.