Hinduism Religion
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The Hindu religion lacks the uniting beliefs as most religions do, they are made up with faith and they share the same belief that religion is the search for truth. All Hindus believe that the god they worship is just one representation of the great God. The Indian supreme court defined a Hindu as follows, “Acceptance and reverence for the Vedas as the foundation of Hindu philosophy; a spirit of tolerance, and willingness to understand and appreciate others points of view, recognizing that truth has many sides; Acceptance of the belief that vast cosmic periods of creation, maintenance, and dissolution continuously recur; Acceptance of belief in reincarnation; Recognition that paths to truth and salvation are many; Recognition that there may be numerous gods and goddesses to worship, without necessarily believing in worship through idols; Unlike other religions, absence of belief in a specific set of philosophic concepts.”( Fisher, M. P. (2005). It is the deep philosophy of Hinduism that keep Hindus as one. Hindu way of life is very spiritual and full of many rituals. Many gather at the temples together for prayer or around havens. The rituals include sixteen rites that purify and sanctify a person in their journey of life. Twelve of the rites are “rites at the time of conception, the braiding of the pregnant mothers hair, birth, name-giving, beginning of solid foods, starting education, investing boys with a sacred thread, first leaving the family house, starting studies of Vedas, marriage, and death.”( Fisher, M. P. (2005). Many convert to the Hinduism way of life based on the information from the Yogi.
The castes system had a great influence that made Hinduism vital to their region. The castes system was broken down to four occupational groups that made life revolve. The Brahmins were the priest and people that specialized in the spirit life. The Kshatriyas were the kings, vassals, and warriors that were to guard and preserve the society. Next were the Vaishyas who were the economic specialist such as farmers and merchants. There was also the Shuudra caste which were the people that did manual labor and the artisans. At the bottom of the chain of castes was the untouchables who were referred to as outcastes. The outcastes did the work like removing corpses, sweeping streets and working with the skin from dead cows to make leather. All the castes and even the untouchables were vital to life in the region in which they lived to help protect, preserve, and clean the environment.
Hindus have a great desire for liberation from earthly existence. They believed that birth to a human was a chance to make their spirit perfect, and they also feel that it may take many lifetimes to achieve spiritual perfection. Karma has a great influence in this belief because Hindu people believe that instead of dieing and going to heaven or hell, you will one day work off all bad karma and achieve enlightenment