Religion is not as important in today's world as it was a couple hundred years ago. In the United States the major religion is Christianity and no one pays much attention to other religions like Hinduism. Weird thing is that Hinduism has been in the world way before Christianity, yet not a lot of people know about it. As seen before when teaching religion it “lacked sophistication compared with lessons about Christianity” (Glod). Some people are raised to think that Christians are “perfect” putting other religions down, but everyone is perfect in their own way. Just like every other thing Hinduism has its own stereotypes. These stereotypes are often mislead or completely different from their beliefs. Even though Hinduism is a different unique culture they still have similarities to Christianity. Every time someone hears Hindu's the first thing they think about are cows or some sort of other ridiculous thing, yet no one really knows what they actually believe.
I asked a couple of Christians what they thought of when they first hear about Hindu's and many of them had little to no clue on what they actually believed and they mentioned many common stereotypes. One person mentioned the idea that Hindu people actually worship a cow. They insisted that it is true that in India there is a rule that favors the cow. As one says “I believe in India you could go to jail if you don't bow down to a cow as they walk by and cows walk where ever they want.” This stereotype leads to the idea that they are also vegetarians. “It makes sense to me that they are vegetarians considering the fact that they worship the cow. If you get in trouble for not bowing down to a cow imagine if they ate one.” Although it is a stereotype it has some truth to it....
... middle of paper ...
...ey do not teach it in depth. Especially since in the past few years Hinduism is spreading more thorough out the United States.
Works Cited
Arshod, Laiba. Personal Interview. 14 March 2014.
Glod, Maria. “Wiping Stereotypes of India off the Books.” Washingtonpost.com. 17 April 2005. Web. 10 March 2014.
Gonzalez Abraham. Personal interview. 15. March 2014
“Holi.” religionfacts.com. N.d. Web. 12 March 2014.
“Holy Cow: Hinduism's Sacred Animal.” Pbs.org. 12 August. Web. 12 March 2014.
“Nine beliefs on Hinduism.” Kauai's Hindu Monastery. Academy.com. N.D. Web. 12 March 2014.
“The Cow in Hunduism.” religionfacts.com. Updated 10 December 2013. Web. 11 March 2014.
Rajhans, Gyan. “Why Celebrate Holi? Enjoy the Festival of Colors” about.com. N.d. Web. 11 March 2014.
Violatti, Cristian. “The Vedas.” ancient.eu.com. 18 Janurary 2013. Web. 13 March 2014.
There are two holy days in the Hindu religion named Diwali and Holi. Diwali is a festival of lights, and is India’s biggest and most important festival of the year. It is mainly celebrated in the months of October and November. This festival is a great time for family to get together and be together. Holi is another festival that family gets together. Holi is a festival of colors. Holi is a holiday where they get together and dance, play, and bring joy onto their home. Depending on the region, some cover their body is many different colors to celebrate the day.
Other than a religion, Hinduism is a way of life through philosophy that is mostly concerned with spirituality and enlightenment. The impracticality of the Hindu religion comes from the Vedas. Vedas are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu religion that are considered to be a straight ...
Hinduism is a very unique religion; it is the oldest living religion and does not have a single founder unlike Buddhism. Hinduism
The characteristics of a Hindu as V.D. Savarkar says is “one who (1) regards the entire subcontinent as his (or her) motherland/fatherland... (2) is descended of Hindu parents (3) and considers this land holy” (Sharma 23) Essentially, Savarkar implies that Hinduism is just a word that is specific to Indians. The Indian government adopted the definition of a Hindu as “one who belongs to any religion of Indian origin” (Sharma 24). However, I would like to disagree with this definition, as there are some Muslim groups in India that would be Hindus by this definition. There would not be tension between Muslims and Hindus if they didn’t think they were two very distinctly different
I was brought up in a Bengali Hindu family with strong religious beliefs. The social infrastructure around me was a bit too strong, enriched with all sorts of beliefs and many methods of worship. Whether it was a song from veneration, whether it was a rhyme at my school, or whether it was certain musical pieces sung by my mom, I was always surrounded by some
Hindus believe in helping others including the poor people of their society. They believe that being poor is due to people’s bad lifestyle and a kind of
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...
Because of its long tradition, its links to social status and its integration with cultural activities, Hinduism has had an enormous influence on Indian society. It is not only a religion, but also a way of life for Indians.
Hinduism is the 3rd largest religion in the world, this religion was found in the country of India and has a roughly 900 million adherents. There is no one founder of the religion and it is believed that the religion came about through the cultural and religious exchange between many groups of people occurring in India around 1500 BCE. Family is important to any culture or religion, Hindus tend to have mixed emotion on the family structure some calling it the building blocks to their everyday spiritual lives to help people reach renunciation or some may say it’s like a black hole where you loose spirituality and become detached, which has caused the younger generations to tweak the current structures in place with Western family structures. There are many different positions within the Hindu family structure as well, going from the Grandparents all the way to the In-laws all responsible for different chores and duties for the family.
According to the 2011 census, 79.8% of the population of India practices Hinduism and 14.2% adheres to Islam, while the remaining 6% adheres to other religions Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism and various indigenous ethnically-bound faiths. Christianity is the 3rd largest religion in India. Hinduism: Caste System, Reincarnation, and Karma.The Caste System groups assigned by birth not personality. The Hindu conception of the social order is that people are different, and different people will fit well into different aspects of society. Untouchable, also called Dalit, officially Scheduled Caste, formerly Harijan, in traditional Indian society, the former name for any member of a wide range of low-caste Hindu groups and any person outside the caste system.
...oes not hide the actual discrimination that is present in every single aspect of the Hinduism lifestyle. I’m sure that this is fine with some of those that are in the higher caste of Hindu society since the effect this bias has is not a detriment for them. However, I am also sure that there are many born into the lower classes that realize they have more to offer to society than their religion tells them they do. These examples show that, although the multiplicity of Hinduism may reflect the recognition that people are different, it does so in a discriminatory and biased manner.
Most people in the world derive their religious beliefs and traditions from their parents and peer influences. From a religious point of view, “There are many definitions for the term ‘religion’ in common usage. [Broadly defined], in order to include the greatest number of belief systems: ‘Religion is any specific system of belief about deity, often involving rituals, a code of ethics, and a philosophy of life’” (Robinson, 1996). However, in examining Hinduism, it is difficult to label the practices as a religion. This paper will expound upon the Hindu traditions, taking into account the characteristics of sacred elements, their meaning, and significance.
While most traditional religions are easy to define and comprehend, Hinduism is not. It cannot be spoken about as one single entity but rather a label for many different traditions within itself that originated in India. It is the world’s third largest religion with a following of a billion people. Hinduism, at its most basic definition, is the belief in either several gods or goddess, or the belief in one God with many faces. It is a way of life that relies heavily on the ideas of cause and effect. They believe in reincarnation with a desire to be liberated from the cycle of birth and death. They believe it is the key to a lifetime of happiness, prosperity and love. While it is considered to be the oldest
Today, Hinduism stands as India’s primary religion. In fact, India houses 90% of the world’s Hindi population and 79.8% of India’s population follows the Hindu religion, according to the 2011 census. It is thought by some to be the oldest religion in the world and the “eternal law” (Fowler). This culture is truly one as defined by Edward Taylor: “A complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs, and any other capability and habit acquired by man as a member of society.” In order to have somewhat of an understanding about what the Hindu religion entails, one must study the Hindu conception of God, its basic concepts and key beliefs, as well as symbolism.
Diwali, the festival of lights, is one of the important and widely spread holidays celebrated in India. It is a celebration of lights, and for many, it is truly a sensory experience; some families decorate their houses with all sorts of lights and open up to the neighbors, sharing their love and their food.