Hinduism

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Hinduism
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Origins

• Hinduism is an ancient religion
• 2000 BCE?
• Days of Brahma (1 day 4 1/2 billion yrs)
• The World is eternal but it is always changing
• Typically a tolerant religion

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Brahmanism

• Has no founder
• Has no fixed creed
• Has a number of beliefs held by most

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Key Beliefs

• There is only one Universal Spirit
• Brahman World Soul
• This Universal Spirit is the 3-in-1 God
• Brahma the Creator
• Vishnu the Preserver
• Shiva the Destroyer

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Sacred Texts

• The Vedas Hymns, Incantations Rituals
• The Upanishads Commentaries
• Written in the form of dialogues
• How can the individual soul (Atman) be
• reunited with the World Soul (Brahman)
• The Ramayana Moral and spiritual themes
• Many other sacred texts

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What Kind of Religion is It?

• It has been seen as
• Monotheistic
• Polytheistic
• Trinitarian

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What is Reality?

• A person is made up of body and soul
• The body is merely an outer garment
• The body is ruled by passion desires
• The soul is ruled by serenity the search for
  truth
• The object is to live correctly and eliminate all
  desires so as to return to the Brahman
• The World is just an illusion

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Other Concepts

• Reincarnation
• Yogas
• Caste System
• Karma
• Dharma
• Nirvana

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Reincarnation

• The soul never dies but continues to be
  transmuted into a new body until such time as
  Nirvana can be attained
• There is no reason to fear death as it is but a
  process of change, not an end
• In what form you are reincarnated is determined
  by your behavior in this life

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Yogas

• These are the special disciplines used by those
  who wish to achieve a state of oneness with the
  world soul
• They often take the form of physical and mental
  activities designed to clear the body and mind
  and open the door to enlightenment
• This quite often takes the form of trance-like
  states

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The Caste System

• Believed to have been introduced by the Aryan
  invaders prior to 2000 BCE
• Society was divided up into four main groups
  priests (Brahmin) , warriors officials, working
  people, and everyone else
• These groups further subdivided
• You were born into a caste but your previous
  lifes actions dictated which one

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Karma

• Fundamental belief that life is really a chain of
  lives and that you are the sum of those lives
  both good and bad
• Good actions produce good results
• Your next life will be decided to a large degree
  by how you live this one
• It is earned not given
• It is a form of spiritual justice

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Dharma

• The rules of right living
• These are different for different castes
• The subject matter of early legal texts
  Dharma-sutra
• In Buddhism it is one of the three jewels
• Universal truth

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Nirvana

• The state of being brought back to oneness with
  the world soul
• It is the goal of life
• It is not personal salvation but rather the loss
  of all individuality
• It can be achieved but only after extensive time
  and training in the true path