Hinduism Paper

Hinduism Paper

Bill Jackson

Axia College of University of Phoenix

HUM 130 Religions of the World

Professor Naomi Doumbia

October 21, 2007

Hinduism Paper

The term Hindu was introduced by the British in the nineteenth century as term to classify the people who lived near the Indus River (Fisher, 2005, p.69). The term Hinduism was derived from the term Hindu in order to categorize the religion of this same region. The religion of Hinduism is actually comprised of several traditions and religious beliefs. This has lead to a lack of a uniting belief system and makes Hinduism hard to classify in the Western idea of a religion. Despite the lack of a uniting belief system, Hinduism has had a profound affect in India, the region in which it originated. Hinduism is driven by the concept of moksha, which, as Fisher (2005) explains, is the “liberation from the limitations of space, time, and matter through realization of the immortal Absolute”.

The term Hinduism is out dated and most Hindus prefer to call their religion Sanatana Dharma. Fisher (2005) states that there are over 330 million deities in India, and that a reason for this great number of deities is that the divine can not be identified by a single object, but instead has many faces. A majority of Indians live in villages, and the deities that are worshipped in these villages vary vastly from village to village. One common theme is that runs through most of these beliefs is that truth is obtainable and a person may directly experience this truth.

Another common theme is the unwillingness to have a fixed name or form for their deity. This had lead to the misconception that Hinduism is a polytheistic religion. Most people observe that Hindus have many forms deities and give their deities many names. These people fail to realize that all of these forms represent a single deity, and the Hindu’s on supreme God answers to many different names. What separates most Hindus is the path they believe will help them to achieve enlightenment. Most variations of Hinduism accepts the statement “truth is one; sages call it by various names”, which was stated in the Rig Veda. The Rig Veda is an ancient collection of Vedic scriptures that are one of the oldest existing scriptures in the world (Fisher, 2005, p. 72).

Hinduism is a vital aspect of Indian society. Since Hinduism believes that all truth is universal, just a different way to observe and practice it, India is able to be unified in a way that is impossible without Hinduism. As mentioned before, there is a myriad of different variations of Hinduism. If these variations were not united under the title of Hinduism, secular fighting might occur. This is not the case due to the fact that each sect considers themselves Hindus. There is very little else that unites these villages.

This diversity and the ability to incorporate any belief system is India’s greatest asset. The fact that Hindus believe all truth is one, allows the Indian people to be more tolerant and acceptable towards different faiths.