Hinduism World Religion

Hinduism is a religion practiced primarily in India, that has no official founder, and contains a social and doctrinal system that extends to every aspect of human life. In, “Hinduism World Religions” by Madhu Bazaz Wangu, Hinduism presumably originated in the Indus Valley in northwestern India and addressed as ‘Hindu’s’ by the Aryan invaders from Persia (Wangu, p. 8). Additionally, when the Aryan invaded the Indus Valley, they brought religious elements that influenced Hinduism. For example, in “Hinduism” by Hillary Rodrigues, she claims the Aryan “carried with them a set of sacred oral scriptures, known as the Vedas, which tell us about their beliefs and practices” (Rodrigues, p. 37). The Indus Valley Civilization were influenced by the Vedas,

Yogic practices are essential for developing a desired state of balance, purity, wisdom, and peacefulness of the mind. Furthermore, Pavulraj Michael states, “Yoga in the Bhagavad Gita-The Path for Self-Realization”, “Yoga is also both the process that results in integration and the goal, ‘integration’ itself, both the process of training the character in the one great virtue of detachment and the result of that training - 'sameness and difference’” (Michael, p. 198). There are four paths of yoga practiced in Hinduism which include raja yoga, jnana yoga, karma yoga, and bhatki yoga. Raja yoga, is the path of mental concentration through meditation, and is explained in the Bhagavad Gita by Vedanta Society in Southern California, that “the realization of the Atman through the process of psychological control because the divine Self is obscured by the disturbances of the mind. If the mind can be made still and pure, the Self will automatically, instantaneously, shine forth” (“The Path of Meditation-Raja”). Jnana yoga, is the path of rational inquiry, rather than concentration practices done in raja yoga. In jnana yoga, rationality is “the knowledge of Brahman and Atman and the realization of their unity. Where the devotee of God follows the promptings of the heart, the jnani uses the powers of the mind to discriminate between the real and the unreal, the permanent and the transitory” (“The Path of Meditation-Jnana”). Essentially, the jnana path uses knowledge of the self to not be distinguished or separated by the ultimate reality, Brahman. The path of karma yoga is the path of right action, and the dedicated work renouncing the results of our actions as a spiritual offering rather than hoarding the results for ourselves” (“The Path of Meditation-Karma”). Karma yoga is lead by the dharma, which is “represented in essentially leading a life in morality”