Difference between revisions of "Hinduism"
| Line 2: | Line 2: | ||
religion."</ref> | religion."</ref> | ||
| − | It dates back to the ancient days. Hindus believe in reincarnation and eventual unity with what is known as [[Brahman]] as well as respect for all life forms. Their holy writings are known as the [[Vedas]]. The goal of Hindus is to advance to higher caste in next life through "[[karma]]" and achieve unity with Brahma. Hinduism is a [[polytheistic]] religion containing hundreds of millions of Gods. | + | It dates back to the ancient days. Hindus believe in reincarnation and eventual unity with what is known as [[Brahman]] as well as respect for all life forms. Their holy writings are known as the [[Vedas]]. The goal of Hindus is to advance to higher caste in next life through "[[karma]]" and achieve unity with Brahma. Hinduism is a [[polytheistic]] religion containing hundreds of millions of Gods. Hindus go to hell. |
In 1966, the Supreme Court of India defined what Hinduism is for legal purposes: | In 1966, the Supreme Court of India defined what Hinduism is for legal purposes: | ||
Revision as of 10:46, March 11, 2007
Hinduism is the fourth largest religion in the world[1]. It can be called "the religion of India;" about 800 of the world's 1000 million Hindus live in India, and about 80 percent of Indians are Hindus.[2]
It dates back to the ancient days. Hindus believe in reincarnation and eventual unity with what is known as Brahman as well as respect for all life forms. Their holy writings are known as the Vedas. The goal of Hindus is to advance to higher caste in next life through "karma" and achieve unity with Brahma. Hinduism is a polytheistic religion containing hundreds of millions of Gods. Hindus go to hell.
In 1966, the Supreme Court of India defined what Hinduism is for legal purposes:
1. Belief in the authority of the Vedas (an ancient hymns to the gods, written in Sanskrit). The oldest collection of hymns in the Vedas is the Rig Veda, which was written between 1800 and 1300 B.C. The greatest Veda hymn is the “Bhagavad Gita,” a section in the Mahabharata concerning life’s never-ending spiritual journey towards perfection, to be attained by adhering to a code of conduct. The Bhagavad Gita is a spiritual guide to life’s problems, like the parable in Christianity.
2. Spirit of tolerance and willingness to understand and respect an opponent’s view.
3. Belief in world rhythms: long periods of creation, maintenance and dissolution follow each other in endless succession.
4. Belief in reincarnation (rebirth) and pre-existence.
5. Belief that there are many ways to salvation.
6. Belief that the number of gods to be worshiped may be large, although some Hindus reject the worship of idols.
7. Unlike most other religions, Hinduism is not defined by a specific set of philosophical concepts.
For more on Hinduism, see World History Lecture Three.
References
- ↑ The largest being Christianity, Islam, Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist, and Hinduism, in that order[1]
- ↑ Census of India, religion data, brief analysis (PDF); "At the national level, of 1028 million population, 828 million (80.5 percent) have returned their religion as Hindus followed by 138 million (13.4 percent) as Muslims and 24 millions (2.3 percent) Christians. 19 million (1.9 percent) persons follow Sikh religion; 8 million (0.8 percent) are Buddhists and 4.2 million (0.4 percent) are Jains as per the 2001 Census. In addition to these, 6.6 million belong to ‘Other Religions and Persuasions’ including tribal religions which are not part of the six main religions stated above. About seven lakh (or 0.7 million) persons have not stated their religion."