Free Term Paper on Hinduism in American Life
| The English word religion loosely translates into “rules” in Latin.
Therefore, a religion teaches us how to think, how to act, and basically
everything except what to eat in the morning. The Hindu and Christian religion
agree on many things and our society follows some of the rules too because
religion and laws are based on humanity. From holy literature many different
ideas have been pawned but they are all supposed to lead you to the same things:
a happy, healthy life, contribution to the world around us, and some kind of
liberation after death. Concerning these ideals the Hindu religion has come up
with three ways to make sure that everybody will get what they want out of life
and those are the four stages, the four goals, and the four castes of life.
There is so much holy war about which religion is right and wrong but if they
all are striving for the same thing it is hard for me to see why they take
place. In this essay I will show that Christianity is very similar to Hinduism.
The first thing that the Hindus follow to insure that you grow up to be productive (if you are in the upper three castes) is having specific stages of life. In other words throughout our life we have different responsibilities and duties which are spelled out by the Holy Scriptures. The four stages are student, “family man”, forest dweller and ascetic. The first stage of student requires you to go to school (if you were a male) and be initiated with the Upanayana ceremony. If a kid was at the top of the caste system and was preparing to be a priest he needs to get trained and before he gets trained he must have a Upanayana ceremony because without these he won’t know what he is talking about and won’t know and won’t have any credibility when he becomes a priest. It isn’t enough just to get an education and a little plaque on your wall, you must have lived a celibate life and you must be provided for by your family. This is a way of getting them to think a certain way since according to Hindu laws believe all members of a certain caste are supposed to do the same thing in the same way. The next stage of “family man” is also one that gets you not only to act a certain way but think a certain way. In this stage a man is supposed to get a wife, get a family, and repay his debts to everything that helped him including society. If you can do these two things you have led a successful life even though you can “be more holy” by following two final stages written in the Laws of Manu. The stage of forest dweller is very much life the family man stage but there are three main differences, he can retire to a forest, he has no obligation to pay back society or work and he is supposed to spend time reading the Vedas. After that if he wants to be ultra holy you can detach from life by staging your own social death and do nothing but pursue salvific knowledge. Many people in The United States lead a life almost exactly like this. They start off as a student to learn knowledge for jobs and spiritual journeys later in life. The law requires that we go to school until at least 16 and most of our parents require us to go to church. If you do not go to school there are consequences in each religion and to receive awards you must be first be a student. In our culture today we can live off of the government. The next stage of life Hindu life is like American life because most of us start families and provide for them and a lot of us do things for society like working at a research university or donating clothes to charity. In fact our society rewards charity by giving us tax exemption and Nobel peace prizes for science achievements and discoveries. The Christian and Jewish religion stress that you must do things for society to be a better human being. After the family man stage many old people retire and many people become more religious at this time. If you are religious you get accepted to heaven so many old people take their extra free time to get more intimate with god so they can receive their rewards. Just like in Hinduism very few people will reach the final stage of life because to stage your social death means to break off communication with our offspring and grandchildren. Although when people go into nursing homes they get very few of their old friends and family visiting them so in a way it is like Hinduism but most people in nursing homes don’t have the energy or health to dedicate their life to salvific knowledge. Most of them have a hard time seeing words on a page. Even though the book and the lecture say there are 4 goals in a Hindu’s life I would argue that there is only one: liberation. We all want to go to heaven and all of these things are meant to do just that. According to the book though there are four different yogas that you are supposed to harness through discipline in your every day life. Those four yogas are of spiritual knowledge, meditation, offering yourself to god, and doing your duty. Again, we practice things very similarly to Hindus and we have the same exact goal, to go to the afterworld. Hindus have atman=Brahmin and we have heaven; it’s a wish that everybody has. Here it is Christianity and Judaism that influence our people into doing the same things. The biggest rule to get into heaven is you must believe in god and you must accept him and only him as god. This is like spiritual knowledge yoga because you must know about their god (Christians) before you can believe in him. Meditation as defined Webster's Unabridged Dictionary is “The act of meditating; close or continued thought; the turning or revolving of a subject in the mind; serious contemplation; reflection; musing. When people “pray to god” they are in a state of meditation because when you pray you don’t talk and you continue thinking. According to The Bible god has an image in his head over how he wants the earth and we are supposed to follow in his vision as if it were our duty. If you do your duty to him by being nice, generous etc than you are dedicating yourself to him because I’m sure everybody gets at least the temptation to do “evil” things and the bible even admits it. The bible tells us to do so many different things so if you follow them you are following your duty. One thing the Hindus have to make duties and responsibilities more straightforward is the caste system. The caste system is based on reincarnation and the better Hindu that you’ve been in past lives makes you who you are. The highest people up on the social pyramid are the priests followed by kings, then merchants and finally the servants. It makes clear just how good and pure the person has been in this and past lives because they are either high up on the ladder or they aren’t. There is something beneficial about being seen as a good person. Since most of our morals in America come from the Bible if you are seen as a good Christian than you will get special job offers and when you meet your girlfriend’s parents they won’t hate you. In India you can tell who is a servant apart from who is a king because of what they do in a day and what kind of clothes they wear etc. In America we have little status symbols such as crosses that go around our neck and making conversation of what you learned in the bible or church. The whole point of the caste system is to segregate people and give some people certain advantages based on how well they accord with the popular religious beliefs based on region of the world. |
1.
Hinduism And Budism Hinduism and Buddhism The idea of “religare” or binding oneself back to one’s religion is key to many religions. In Christianity, we bind our selves back to the truth unveiled through scripture, myths 2. Hinduism And Buddhism Hinduism is the main religion of India. Honduism has no founder or formal church. This religion's roots are from ancient Aryan beliefs and practices. It is the way a way of life. Unlike Hinduism, Budd 3. Bhagavad-Gita: Relationship Between Arjuna And Krishna One on One: Religion’s New Attitude In the Bhagavad-Gita, the relationship between Arjuna, the story’s hero and Krishna, the avatar, or incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, is indeed a very personal o 4. The Bhagavad Gita Upon the reading of chapters 1-6 of the Great Scripture of Hinduism, (the “Lord’s Song”), I am completely and utterly fascinated. The story’s emphasis on selfless acts, devotio 5. Hinduism The name means the civilization of the Hindus(originally, the inhabitants of the land around the Indus River). The basic form of incorporates all forms of beliefs. One major characteristic of includes 6. Buddhism, Hinduism, And Christianity Religious beliefs affect the lives of the followers of the religion. Three such religions are . The lives of these certain people are affected socially, economically, and politically. Buddhism evolves 7. Hinduism And Buddhism are two very old and sacred religions. Although they are very similar in many ways, the differences are distinct enough to separate them completely. One significant difference is the idea of a god or 8. What Is A Hindu? ? Well, as scholar Jayesh Singh says, "A Hindu is one of lucid mind and spirit." (Article, WWW, hindunet) This is because Hinduism is a way of life, rather than a religion. It consists of many princip 9. Hinduism And Buddhism are two of the five major religions in our world today. They are widely practiced, and have survived for centuries. Both have similarities and differences, as do all forms of religion. Hopefully, in t 10. Buddha Indian philosopher and the founder of Buddhism, born in Lumbini, Nepal. He was the son of the head of the Sakya warrior caste, with the private name of Siddhartha; in later life he was known also as S 11. India Around 2000 B.C. people called Aryan started invading . This process continued to approximately 1000 B.C. Aryan tribes were led by kings. The Aryans conquered the native population, intermarried with 12. Hinduism People known as the Hindus practice . is practiced all over the world, including countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and other areas of the world. evolved from the ancient 13. Hinduism And Buddhism have different similarities and are in some ways connected to each other. Some of the practices of the two religions are similar in various ways and there are several examples to show this. Hinduism f 14. Buddhism And The Six Point Att In explaining Buddhism, one must first understand Hinduism from which Buddhism grew. Buddhism is a reaction against Hinduism as protestant is against Catholicism. According to The World’s Religi 15. Buddhism Buddism is of the world`s fasting spreading religion. At this time there 313 million buddist in Asia. And aproximatly 500 thousand in North America. Buddism is the is not just a religion, but a way of 16. Meditation: A In-Depth Look In-Depth Feature- Meditation by Courtney Martin In this modern day and age, the negative effects of stress are unavoidable. People have tried various methods to help cope with stress, everything from 17. Christian Evidences Buddhism was spawned in a Hindu environment, and therefore has some similarities to Hinduism. Just as is the case for Hinduism, there are countless forms and expressions of Buddhism. Many of the same 18. Violence In Religions Such As Islam, Christianity, And Hinduism To say that all religions are spread by violence is equally unfair and untrue - because contrasted religions has been spread in exceedingly diverse regions of the world, by vastly different cultures. 19. Siddhartha Gautama was born about 563 BC in what is now modern Nepal. His father, Suddhodana, was the ruler of the Sakya people and Siddhartha grew up living the extravagant life on a young prince. According to custom, 20. Religion In Ancient India And Rgypt In 560 BC the world saw two great civilizations, India and Egypt, developing at a striking pace and contributing a lot to the future development of mankind. The politics, religion, and achievements pl |