Transcript Polytheistic Religions PowerPoint

The Religions of India
Hinduism
• Hinduism is the world's oldest extant • Hinduism has its origins in such remote
religion, with a billion followers,
past that it cannot be traced to any one
individual. Some scholars believe that
which makes it the world's third
Hinduism must have existed even in
largest religion. Hinduism is a
circa 10000 B.C. and that the earliest of
conglomeration of religious,
the Hindu scriptures – The Rig Veda –
philosophical, and cultural ideas and
was composed well before 6500 B.C.
The word "Hinduism" is not to be
practices that originated in India,
found anywhere in the scriptures, and
characterized by the belief in
the term "Hindu" was introduced by
reincarnation, one absolute being of
foreigners who referred to people
multiple manifestations, the law of
living across the River Indus or Sindhu,
cause and effect, following the path
in the north of India, around which the
Vedic religion is believed to have
of righteousness, and the desire for
originated.
liberation from the cycle of births
and deaths.
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).