Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Essay - Hinduism


Hinduism
Hindu religion is the world’s oldest religion beginning from more than 5000 years. Many people from all over the world and especially from South and South East Asia follow this religion. The term "Hindus" has been evolved from the term "Indus" (The river at the bank of which the civilization is evolved).
Hinduism has grown to become the world's third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam. It claims about 837 million followers - 13% of the world's population. It is the dominant religion in India, Nepal, and among the Tamils in Sri Lanka. According to the "Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches," there are about 1.1 million Hindus in the U.S. The "American Religious Identification Survey" is believed to be more accurate. They estimated smaller number: 766,000 Hindus in 2001. Still, this is a very significant increase from 227,000 in 1990. Statistics Canada estimates that there are about 157,015 Hindus in Canada.

The specialty about the Hinduism is that it does not have a single founder; it is developed out of Brahmanism. Aum (\) is the main symbol of Hinduism. It is the sound heard in deepest meditation and is said to be the name most suited for God. It is said that Aum is the combination of three main gods of the religion ‘Aa’ (Brahma), ‘Uu’ (Bishnu) and ‘Ma’ (Maheshwor). Among the three gods Brahma is considered as the Creator, Bishnu as the Preserver and Maheshwor (Shiva) as the Destroyer. There may be different names for each of the god. For e.g. Umashankar, NilKhantha, Maheshwor, Mahadev, Shankar, Umapati, Pashupati (God of Animals) etc. are the name referring the lord Shiva. Many gods are worshipped by the Hindus. The myth said that there are more than thirty-three koti (330,000,000) gods in Hindu mythology. For example Krishna, Rama, Saraswoti, Laxmi, Narsimha, Parvati, Indra etc.


Most Hindus worship (puja) every day at home and have a shrine there. A shrine can be anything from a room, simple pictures or statues of the god and goddess. Family members worship together in the morning after having bath and being fresh before having any breakfast. Some worship at the evening as well. At the shrine, they make offerings to a murti. A murti is a sacred statue of a God or a Goddess. The place where all Hindus go for common worship is called Mandir (Hindu Temple). The temples may be of different gods and are the focus of religious life. For example Pashupait (at Kathmandu, Nepali is the temple of Lord Shiva whereas Changunarayan (at Bhaktapur, Nepal) is the temple of Lord Bishnu. During the Puja worshippers repeat the names of their favorite gods, goddesses, and the mantras. Water, fruit, flowers and incense are offered to the gods.

Hinduism does not just have one sacred book but several scriptures. The Vedas are the main scriptures which tell them about their duties, their science and medicine. There are four Vedas, and they are; Rg-Veda (Rigveda), Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda and Atharva-Veda, all written in the ancient script Sanskrit. Some other scriptures are The Upanishads, The Smritis, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagwat Geeta and The Puranas etc. There are many myths relating to the Hindu Religion. Most of them are related to Lord Bishnu and his "Avatar", Lord Shiva and Lord Indra.

Hindus believe in Heaven and Hell, they believe in Re-incarnation, Mokshya (The way towards the heaven and the peace after their deadth) the Fal/Result of their bad doings (which they say "Kukarma" due to which they cannot get Mokshya and hence have to take rebirth for washing away the kukarma by doing well), Shakti (power) etc.

The practices give some of the terminology relating to the Hinduism as:

Doctrine of Aatmabrahman
Ahimsa – Non Injury.
Doctrines of transmigration and karma
Concepts of Istadevata and Trimurti
Ashrams: the four stages of life ( Bramhachari, Gristha, Vanaprastha and Sannyasin)
Three margas: paths to salvation
Dharma – the way for the heaven.

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