What are the cultural adn societal influences that have made Hinduism vital to the region in which it originated? Explain the desire for liberation from earthly existence.
2007-04-12 04:54:36 · 8 answers · asked by mothercubs 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Christianity also lacks a uniting belief system.
2007-04-12 04:57:20 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
I'm not sure there is no "uniting belief system," but rather that it is not easy to explain to a non-Hindu. The desire for liberation from the wheel of existence is easy enough to explain: many people find life more a burden than a blessing, and a tradition that grew up in a very poor, hot and difficult country might reasonably be expected to call "OK, you can quit now" as the ultimate blessing.
But India is also a very beautiful country in many ways, and so an appreciation of the fact that the material world can draw us back with desires and unfinished business is also logical.
It is true that there are not many materials in English that do a very good job of explaining Hinduism to English-speaking people. But that does not imply that there is no uniting principle or principles.
Let's hear from our English-speaking members of Yahoo Answers on this subject. Batman?
2007-04-12 12:03:04 · answer #2 · answered by auntb93 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
What unites Hinduism and the whole world is the desire to attain true bliss...something that transcends temporary labels, gender, race, ethnicity, and religious lables like 'Christain' and 'Islam'. Hinduism pursues the Truth which is why despite hundreds of years of attempts to destroy it, and without pursuing aggressive methods of conversions or holy wars, it is still a living way of life that has outlived great cultures/civilisations like that of the Greeks or Romans, and is why it will still exist long after religions like Islam have died out. "Truth Alone Prevails"
2007-04-15 10:42:21 · answer #3 · answered by hindu_jawan 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
About liberation...it comes from the idea that this material world is temporary and full of distress. We should use our lives for spiritual realization, not waste it on temporary sense gratification - it will get us nowhere. So naturally, people want to get free from this world, get liberated.
Two main belief systems view "liberation" in opposite ways:
1) The Vaisnavas (monotheistic) and Hindus (polytheistic) believe that we are all spirit souls in material bodies, in this material world. We are spirit, but embodied. We are naturally servants of God, there to serve Him, give Him pleasure, and by serving Him, we get pleasure. The analogy given is that when we feed the stomach the whole body is energized. We are parts of God, inferioir and small, but nonetheless, we are spirit. Unfortunately we have come to this material world for disobiedience to Him. So the goal of out life is spiritual realization, to get liberated, or free, from this material world and the never ending cycle of reincarnation, and go back to the spiritual world, where we truly do belong.
2) The mayavadis (impersonalists) believe that we are all spirit, and that this world is all an illusion. They believe that actually nothing is real, its all false, not reality. They think that all souls are actually God themselves. They just need to realize it, and then they will be liberated. Their liberation means "to merge" into nothingness, a light. And what happens after that? Nothing.
Both perosnalists and impersonalists believe that we are spirit. But the personalists believe that, "yes, we are all individual souls, but we are embodied." They accept the existence of this world as real. It is reality, and it happens to be temporary and full of only flickering happiness. The mayavadis (impersonalists) completely reject the existence of everything. To them, everything is nothing. Which doesn't quite make sense...
2007-04-12 12:11:54 · answer #4 · answered by Nanda 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It *is* united in that all believe in the Supreme Being. Then you have the trinity of Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver) and Shiva (destroyer) and of course the feminine counterpart of each. A Hindu may become a devotee of Shiva, or of Vishnu (or of one of Vishnu's avatars - Ram and Krishna being the most popular). But the unity is in the knowledge that there is ONE God, ONE Supreme Being.
Moshka is the obtainment of liberation from the cycle of reincarnations. You are no longer seperate from the Supreme Being but are a part of her/him.
2007-04-12 12:03:45 · answer #5 · answered by Jade 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
What do you mean? Hindus are most united than any system known this days. And their faith is hundred of times stronger than Christians.
2007-04-12 12:09:21 · answer #6 · answered by ? 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Where do you get the idea that it lacks a uniting belief or is not a uniting belief system.
Your premise seems flawed
2007-04-12 11:59:42 · answer #7 · answered by U-98 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Can't the same be asked of Christianity?
2007-04-12 11:59:48 · answer #8 · answered by Radagast97 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋