Transcript The Religions of India

The Religions of India
Hinduism
• Hinduism is the world's oldest extant
religion, with a billion followers, which
makes it the world's third largest
religion. Hinduism is a conglomeration
of religious, philosophical, and cultural
ideas and practices that originated in
India, characterized by the belief in
reincarnation, one absolute being of
multiple manifestations, the law of
cause and effect, following the path of
righteousness, and the desire for
liberation from the cycle of births and
deaths.
• Hinduism has its origins in such
remote past that it cannot be traced
to any one individual. Some scholars
believe that Hinduism must have
existed even in circa 10000 B.C. and
that the earliest of the Hindu
scriptures – The Rig Veda – was
composed well before 6500 B.C. The
word "Hinduism" is not to be found
anywhere in the scriptures, and the
term "Hindu" was introduced by
foreigners who referred to people
living across the River Indus or Sindhu,
in the north of India, around which
the Vedic religion is believed to have
originated.
Hinduism cont.
• There is no “one Hinduism”, and so it
lacks any unified system of beliefs and
ideas. Hinduism is a conglomerate of
diverse beliefs and traditions, in which
the prominent themes include:
• Dharma (ethics and duties)
• Samsara (rebirth)
• Karma (right action)
• Moksha (liberation from the cycle of
Samsara) - - Reincarnation
• It also believes in truth, honesty, nonviolence, celibacy, cleanliness,
contentment, prayers, austerity,
perseverance, penance, and pious
company.
• The basic scriptures of Hinduism, which is
collectively referred to as "Shastras", are
essentially a collection of spiritual laws
discovered by different saints and sages
at different points in its long history. The
Two types of sacred writings comprise the
Hindu scriptures: "Shruti" (heard) and
"Smriti" (memorized). They were passed
on from generation to generation orally
for centuries before they were written
down mostly in the Sanskrit language.
The major and most popular Hindu texts
include the Bhagavad Gita, the
Upanishads, and the epics of Ramayana
and Mahabharata.
Hinduism cont.
• Hinduism believes that there is only one supreme Absolute called
"Brahman". However, it does not advocate the worship of any one
particular deity. The gods and goddesses of Hinduism amount to
thousands or even millions, all representing the many aspects of
Brahman. Therefore, this faith is characterized by the multiplicity of
deities. The most fundamental of Hindu deities is the Trinity of
Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva - creator, preserver and destroyer
respectively. Hindus also worship spirits, trees, animals and even
planets.
Buddhism
• Buddhism is a religion based on the teachings
of Siddhartha Gautama, who lived about 25
centuries ago in what is now Nepal and
northern India. He came to be called "the
Buddha," which means "awakened one," after
he experienced a profound realization of the
nature of life, death and existence. In English,
the Buddha was said to be enlightened,
although in Sanskrit it is bodhi, "awakened."
• In the remaining years of his life, the Buddha
traveled and taught. However, he didn't teach
people what he had realized when he became
enlightened. Instead, he taught people how
to realize enlightenment for themselves. He
taught that awakening comes through one's
own direct experience, not through beliefs
and dogmas.
• In the centuries following the Buddha's life,
Buddhism spread throughout Asia to become
one of the dominant religions of the
continent. Estimates of the number of
Buddhists in the world today vary widely, in
part because many Asians observe more than
one religion, and in part because it is hard to
know how many people are practicing
Buddhism in Communist nations like China.
• The most common estimate is 350 million,
which makes Buddhism the fourth largest of
the world's religions.
Buddhism cont.
• Buddhism is so different from other
religions that some people question
whether it is a religion at all. For
example, the central focus of most
religions is God, or gods. But
Buddhism is non-theistic. The Buddha
taught that believing in gods was not
useful for those seeking to realize
enlightenment.
• Instead of teaching doctrines to be
memorized and believed, the Buddha
taught how we can realize truth for
ourselves. The focus of Buddhism is
on practice rather than belief. The
major outline of Buddhist practice is
the Eightfold Path.
• About 2,000 years ago Buddhism
divided into two major schools, called
Theravada and Mahayana. For
centuries, Theravada has been the
dominant form of Buddhism in Sri
Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma
(Myanmar) and Laos. Mahayana is
dominant in China, Japan, Taiwan,
Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia, Korea and
Vietnam. In recent years, Mahayana
also has gained many followers in
India. Mahayana is further divided
into many sub-schools, such as Pure
Land and Zen.
Sikhism
• The history of Sikhism begins with Nanak, a son of the ruler/warrior caste, who
lived from 1469-1538 and was born in northern India. The mystic branches,
Bhakti Hindu and Sufi Islamic, “holy” men influenced him. Guru Nanak Dev
believed in a supreme being and determined that all religions used different
names for the same deity, which he called “Sat Nam,” (True Name). It appears
that Nanak wanted to blend Hinduism and Islam, (Sikh is Hindu for disciple).
Although many similarities can be seen between Sikhism, Hinduism, and Sufism
(a branch of Islam), the typical response to claims of a connection are met with
an adamant position for Sikhism as a direct revelation from God.
• The word Guru is combination of two small words Gu and Ru. Gu means Darkness
and Ru means Light. Sikhs say guru means “the Light that dispels darkness,” but
since “darkness” comes first it seems more like, “the darkness that parades as
light.”
The Basic Beliefs of Sikhism are:
•
God is said to be self-created. This is a self-defeating option,
since something that doesn’t exist cannot create itself. Sikhs
are taught by “becoming the image of the Lord.” This means
that there remains no difference between God and that
individual, such as a drop of water merges in the ocean.
• Salvation is attained by baptism, a life of honesty, meditation
on God, having faith, reciting the name of God, avoiding
getting caught up in worldly distractions, and remembering
God in every moment possible. It is said that salvation and
spirituality comes to those not affected by happiness, pain,
pride, greed, and emotional attachment, who treats poverty
and riches the same, do not react to pain or pleasure, treats
friends and enemies alike, and recites the name of God at all
times.
• Sikh Baptism (Amrit, or Khande Ki Pohul) is performed by
drinking holy water which is prepared while reciting hymns.
Once baptism is taken, the devotee is prohibited from hair
trimming, adultery, meat eating, smoking, drinking, and
drugs.
• Prayer is performed three times a day, and the seven prayers
are prescribed word-for-word for each part of the day.
• All other Scripture (than the Sikh Shri Guru Granth) is faulty.
Any Granth translated out of the original is not trustworthy.
• Sikhs reject that Jesus is God and teach that human errors
and misinterpretations of the Bible are what led to the belief
in a Trinity of persons in the one Essence of God. “God is
neither born and nor does He die” reads similarly to the
Islamic “God is not begotten, neither does He beget.”
Consider that created people cannot really conceptualize the
existence of something that is not created; neither can those
with a dead spirit accurately conceive of the true spiritual
realm.
• Sikhs believe in reincarnation (samsara), and that life
destinies are determined by the accumulation of one’s good
and bad deeds (karma), much like Hinduism.
• Sikhs, as Islamists, are doctrinally monotheistic, but some
Sikhs elevate the founder of Sikhism to the level of a god.
Sikhs see the concept of a Trinity as either tritheism (three
separate gods at the same time) or modalism (one god living
in three modes, one at a time).