The U. S. A. And The War In Vietnam

Running head: THE CHARACTERISTICS

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HINDUISM

Religion and Philosophy

By Versa Brown

Professor

August 13, 2007 

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HINDUISM

Introduction

There are many religions and many people with various beliefs and worldviews. Seemingly, everyone on this earth believes that we all exist for some important reason. I am also an individual with beliefs and doubts. I believe that there is a God. I also believe that we must assemble in worship. Additionally, I believe the end of life is death. Each of us through this journey of life take on views and beliefs that shapes our character and relationships and helps others to understand how we react and respond to life situations.

It seems that people in different homes, cities, states and countries have one dominant religion. In the town where I now live there once was a controversy about a statute an individual had in his yard. The media made me curious, but not enough to research the individual's belief of beliefs. The picture of the statute defined the individual's belief or concerns to be that of Hinduism. This brought a lot of questions to my mind. However, my curiosity were cured for a moment with others ideas. Sometime later, I made the acquaintance of some Hindu people from Vietnam. Then, I became even more query about the characteristics of Hinduism. Nevertheless, it was not until the topic presented itself in this class that I began to satisfy my curiosity. Therefore this research is to answer the following question:

1. What is Hinduism?

2. How does one become a Hindu?

3. What is the Hindu belief?

The Characteristics of Hinduism

Introduction

Sanatana Dharma or Righteousness Forever was the original name of Hinduism. It was Persians who invaded India during 6th century B.C. who gave the name Hinduism meaning the religion of people living near the Indus River. In Persian the letter H and S are pronounced almost the same so they mistook the word Sindhu (Sanskrit name for Indus) to H and then started calling Hindus and Hinduism (Viswanathan, 2002).

You can only be a Hindu if you are born from Hindu parents. Hinduism is not a religion which one can convert into. One does not have to be born in India in order to be a Hindu. Also children of Hindus living in other countries can be regarded as Hindus (Michaels, 2004). Almost all Hindus of this world live in India. Out of Indias nearly one billion people more than 80% are counted as Hindus. There are also Hindus in other countries. The state religion of Nepal is Hinduism, and there are large Hindu minorities in Bangla Desh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. Hinduism was widespread in Southeast Asia between 800-1400 AD, but it was replaced by Buddhism and later Islam. Hinduism is still the dominant religion on the Indonesian island of Bali, where more than 2 million people still practice this faith (Viswanathan, 2002).

Flood (2003) writes that Hinduism comprises many forms of religious faith and practice. All Hindus agree that Benares is the most holy place in India. They also believe that heaven actually touches the earth at this location. Hindus believe that if you die in Benares, you will go to heaven, because Benares is heaven. During the time of Upanishads, when the scientists said there is only one God, Brahman, they found out that laymen could not understand that concept. So they wrote epics and mythological stories filled with many gods, with the concept that when you worship any God form, you are actually worshiping one and only God Brahman. In Hinduism one God expresses itself in trillions of forms. Another concept is that whenever God come down to earth in any form that is an Avatar. According to that definition, Christ can be considered as an Avatar, even though there is no mention about Jesus Christ in any of the Hindu scriptures (Osborne, 2005).

Hinduism is a way of life. According to Santosh and Bhanot (2003) the strength of Hinduism lies in its most ability to adapt to different circumstances and different ages while maintaining its very strong continuity with the past. It is the true culture of Indians in India. It is not an organized religion like Christianity or Islam. It has no founder. It has no Pope. It has no hierarchy. Hindu are a lot of scriptures. Hindu scriptures are studying about the history and culture of India.

There is no one Hinduism and so it has no unified system of beliefs and/or ideas. Hinduism is a conglomerate of diverse beliefs and traditions which include these themes:

* Dharma (ethics and duties)

* Samsara (rebirth)

* Karma (right action)

* Moksha (liberation from the cycle of Samsara) (Osborne,2005),

Hindus believe in life after death. Hindus believe that every thought and every action is weighed on the scale of eternal justice. The law of karma is one of cause and effect. Nobody can escape from the Karmic debt. According to Hinduism, the body alone dies. The soul within the body never dies. Additionally, the path the soul takes is decided upon the past actions which are known as karmas. Therefore, the actions of the former body do not die with the body. Past actions are attached to the body and they decide what kind of body the soul takes in the next life. When an individual soul exhausts all its karmas and merges with God then Hindus say that soul has attained salvation. Further, Hindu believes in truth, honesty, non-violence, celibacy, cleanliness, contentment, prayers, austerity, perseverance, penance, and pious company (Rice, 1978).

The Hindu live to escape the endless cycle of rebirths, samsara, which Hindus believe, is the fate of all men. By worshipping the gods and living in the right way a human being may eventually achieve unification with the divine soul which pervades everything, and thus escape rebirth. This is called moksha. They strive to adjust life according to the phase of one's life. If one sins against the rules of dharma, he or she will be reincarnated in a lower form, perhaps as an animal. But if one lives according to dharma, performs the correct forms of worship, and goes on pilgrimage to all the holy places in India,