Reincarnation In Hinduism: A Polytheistic Religion

Hinduism is a polytheistic religion, the origins come from India around fifteen hundred B.C. The beliefs and practices come from the Vedas, which is a collection of hymns that Aryan scholars had completed around eight hundred B.C. These hymns were thought to portray actual historical events. Much like Christianity there are many things that lead into following Jesus and being like him, so there are multiple factors that lead into reincarnation in itself. Within this religion there are three components to the life cycle that they believe and call “Reincarnation”. Each of the components lean toward the Ritual / Practical side of the religion, while this topic can really relate to more than one I am trying to stick to this one, there are practices that the Hindus use to receive good fortune toward the

Karma is the first component in the idea of reincarnation, this is a practice that the Hindus use to justify things that they have done on earth and lead to the afterlife of reincarnation. The work Karma itself is derived from Sanskrit, the root kr which simply means to do, or to act. Therefore, this justifies Karma originally to an activity of any sort and any form. Hillary Rodrigues states in her book Introducing Hinduism, “as early as the Upanisads, the idea had developed that one’s actions have consequences both for this lifetime and future ones.” (1). The underlying conspiracy of karma is the idealism of one’s soul being detected as immortal. Although early Vedas custom contained claim to the fact that every human soul existed forever, and by only the effects after death it underwent rebirth or reincarnation. During the time of the Upanishads, karma quickly developed in the notion of a moral principle called causality, in where there is no action