Exploring religions: Hinduism

Continuing the series on minority religions, a glimpse of Hinduism.

With more than 950 million followers, Hinduism is the world’s third largest religion, and one of the oldest — dating around 2,000 B.C.E. Focused largely in their native India, Hindus nevertheless are found all over the world — fitting for a religion which embraces diversity and preaches many paths to emancipation from worldly ills.

This ancient religion is henotheistic: followers believe in only one god, but recognize multiple manifestations of god’s qualities, with names such as Brahma, Lakshmi, Vishnu, and Shiva. That’s why Hindus are sometimes mistakenly thought to believe in many gods.

Hindus emphasize practice over principle, so the line separating belief and ethic becomes indistinct. It’s a complex religion with a complex history, multiple levels of study, and seemingly endless theories of practice, so Hinduism varies significantly by culture. Meditation, vegetarianism, yoga, and individually-based lifestyle choices are a few aspects.

Nevertheless, six themes are basic to the Hindu world view:

Diversity — of thought and class (e.g., the caste system)

Cyclical time — no beginning or end, so history is not significant

“Tension” — adding new ideas to old, rather than replacing them. This can make Hinduism seem ambiguous or conflicting.

Tolerance — of other ideas, religions, peoples, cultures

Monism — reality is not dual (good/evil), but made of only one essential thought-essence

Religious integration — religion can’t be separated from other aspects of life

Two widely used Hindu terms are “dharma” and “karma.” Dharma loosely translated means duty, but represents more than that. Dharma also means “right living” — a very individualized concept in Hinduism.

More familiar is karma. Hinduism’s karma describes a moral law of cause and effect, a belief that nothing happens by accident. Different from the American concept of fate, karma teaches that each thought or deed we produce effectuates something that happens to us in the future — everything we do brings about some part of our destiny.

Another Hindu concept is moksha, a term without equal in English. Moksha describes liberation, transformation, and bliss — the idea that we may transcend the ego into a conscious awareness, then intuitive realization, of the oneness of mankind, of a universal spirit.

Next Thursday: Hinduism’s uncommon cousin, Zoroastrianism.

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Email [email protected].