Hinduism is the predominant religion A religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth. Religion is commonly identified by the practitioner's prayer, ritual, meditation, music and art,[1] of the Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a large section of the Asian continent consisting of the land lying substantially on the Indian tectonic plate, including Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Hinduism is often referred to as Sanātana Dharma, a Sanskrit Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India phrase meaning "the eternal law The term dharma (Sanskrit: dhárma, Pāḷi dhamma), is an Indian spiritual and religious term, that means one's righteous duty or any virtuous path in the common sense of the term. In Indian languages it can be equivalent simply to "religion", depending on context. The word dharma literally translates as that which upholds or supports,", by its adherents.[2] Generic "types" of Hinduism that attempt to accommodate a variety of complex views span folk Folk Hinduism or Popular Hinduism is the aspect of Hinduism as a folk religion, i.e. nominal Hinduism mixed with Animist practice, as opposed to its scholastic or mystical aspects . Folk Hinduism is emphatically polytheistic, as opposed to Brahmanism or Vedantic Hinduism, which emphasize Monism or Monotheism and Vedic Hinduism to bhakti Bhakti in practice signifies an active involvement by the devotee in divine worship. The term is often translated as "devotion", though increasingly "participation" is being used as a more accurate rendering, since it conveys a fully engaged relationship with God. One who practices bhakti is called a bhakta, while bhakti as a tradition, as in Vaishnavism Vaishnavism is a tradition of Hinduism, distinguished from other schools by its worship of Vishnu or his associated avatars, principally as Rama and Krishna, as the original and supreme God. This worship in different perspectives or historical traditions addresses God under the names of Narayana, Krishna, Vāsudeva or more often "Vishnu",. Hinduism also includes yogic Yoga refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. In Hinduism, it also refers to one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy, and to the goal toward which that school directs its practices. In Jainism it refers to traditions and a wide spectrum of "daily morality" based on the notion of karma Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म kárma , kárman- "act, action, performance"; Pali: kamma) is the concept of "action" or "deed" in Indian religions understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e., the cycle called saṃsāra) originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and and societal norms such as Hindu marriage customs The Hindu religion has a deep significance and meaning for the institution of marriage. It is viewed as a sacrament and not a contract. Hindu families are patrilocal.
Among its roots is the historical Vedic religion The religion of the Vedic period is the historical predecessor of Hinduism. Its liturgy is reflected in the Mantra portion of the four Vedas, which are compiled in Sanskrit. The religious practices centered on a clergy administering rites that often involved sacrifices. This mode of worship is largely unchanged today within Hinduism; however, only of Iron Age India The Iron Age in the Indian subcontinent succeeds the Late Harappan culture, also known as the last phase of the Indus Valley Tradition. The main Iron Age archaeological cultures of India are the Painted Grey Ware culture (1100 to 350 BCE) and the Northern Black Polished Ware (700 to 200 BCE), and as such Hinduism is often stated to be the "oldest living religion Urreligion is a notion of an "original" or "oldest" form of religious tradition. The term contrasts with organized religion, such as the theocracies of the early urban cultures of the Ancient Near East or current world religions. The term originates in German Romanticism. The Oeconomische Encyclopädie of J. G. Krünitz (1773 -"[3] or the "oldest living major tradition".[4][5][6][7] Hinduism is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder.[8] Hinduism is the world's third largest religion In the 20th century study of comparative religion, major religious groups or "world religions" were divided up[citation needed] by adherence to a specific philosophy or theology. However, there is no consensus[citation needed] among researchers[who?] as to the best methodology for determining the religiosity profile of the world's after Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in the New Testament. The Christian faith is essentially faith in Jesus as the Christ (or Messiah), the Son of God, the Savior, the manifestation of God to humankind (Immanuel), and God (Yahweh or the "Lord") himself and Islam Islam (Arabic: الإسلام al-’islām, pronounced [ʔislæːm] [note 1]) is the religion articulated by the Qur’an, a book considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of the single incomparable God (Arabic: الله, Allāh), and by the Islamic prophet Muhammad's demonstrations and real-life examples (called the Sunnah,, with approximately a billion adherents, of whom approximately 905 million live in India India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of 7,517.[9] Other countries with large Hindu populations The percentage of Hindu population of each country was taken from the US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2006. Other sources used were the CIA World Factbook and adherents.com. The total population of each country was taken from census.gov can be found across southern Asia.
Hinduism's vast body of scriptures Literature regarded as central to the Vedic Hindu literary tradition was predominantly composed in Sanskrit, Indeed, much of the morphology and linguistic philosophy inherent in the learning of Sanskrit is inextricably linked to study of the Vedas and other Vedic texts are divided into Śruti Śruti is a term that describes the sacred texts comprising the central canon of Hinduism and is one of the three main sources of dharma and therefore is also influential within Hindu Law. These sacred works span the entire history of Hinduism, beginning with some of the earliest known Hindu texts and ending in the early modern period with the ("revealed") and Smriti Smṛti , literally "that which is remembered," refers to a specific body of Hindu religious scripture. Smṛti also denotes non-Shruti texts and is generally seen as secondary in authority to Shruti. The literature which comprises the Smriti was composed after the Vedas around 500 BCE. Smriti also denotes tradition in the sense that it ("remembered") texts. These scriptures discuss theology Astika and Nastika (नास्तिक, nāstika; "heterodox") are technical terms in Hinduism used to classify philosophical schools and persons, according to whether they accept the authority of the Vedas as supreme revealed scriptures, or not. By this definition, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa and Vedanta are, philosophy Hindu philosophy is divided into six Sanskrit āstika schools of thought, or darshanas (literally, "views"), which accept the Vedas as supreme revealed scriptures, and three nāstika ("heterodox") schools, which do not accept the Vedas as supreme. The āstika schools are: and mythology Hindu mythology is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas. As such, it is a subset of Indian mythology. Many Indians believe that these narratives are sacred and that they communicate profound truths, and provide information on the practice of dharma The term dharma (Sanskrit: dhárma, Pāḷi dhamma), is an Indian spiritual and religious term, that means one's righteous duty or any virtuous path in the common sense of the term. In Indian languages it can be equivalent simply to "religion", depending on context. The word dharma literally translates as that which upholds or supports, (religious living). Among these texts, the Vedas The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in Ancient India. The texts are composed in Vedic Sanskrit and form the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature, and the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism and the Upanishads The Upanishads are Hindu scriptures that constitute the core teachings of Vedanta. They do not belong to any particular period of Sanskrit literature: the oldest, such as the Brhadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads, date to the late Brahmana period (around the middle of the first millennium BCE), while the latest were composed in the medieval and are the foremost in authority, importance and antiquity. Other major scriptures include the Purāṇas The Puranas are a group of important Hindu (or Jain and Buddhist) religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the Universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of the kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography. Puranas usually give prominence to a particular deity and the epics Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent. Originally composed in Sanskrit and translated thereafter into Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, it includes some of the oldest epic poetry ever created and some works form the basis of Hindu scripture Mahābhārata The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa. The epic is part of the Hindu itihāsa (literally "history"), and forms an important part of Hindu mythology and Rāmāyaṇa The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is attributed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon (smṛti). The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India, the other being Mahabharata. It depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal. The Bhagavad Gītā The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most important Hindu scriptures. It is revered as a sacred scripture of Hinduism, and considered as one of the most important philosophical classics of the world. The Bhagavad Gita comprises 700 verses, and is a part of the Mahabharata. The teacher of the Bhagavad Gita is Krishna, who is regarded by the Hindus as, a treatise from the Mahābhārata, spoken by Krishna Krishna is a deity worshipped across many traditions in Hinduism in a variety of perspectives. While many Vaishnava groups recognize him as an avatar of Vishnu, other traditions within Krishnaism consider Krishna to be svayam bhagavan, or the Supreme Being, is sometimes called a summary of the spiritual teachings of the Vedas.[10]
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abhambhani
hu, 24 Sep 2009 16:53:10 GM
Date: Friday, November 6th, 2009 Time: 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM. Tutorial: Basics of . Hinduism. Topic: Practicing . Hinduism. Everyday For Children &
Q. I'm doing a school project and I need some info on what is disallowed or rather prohibited in Hinduism.
Asked by nickolas_lai - Thu Jan 29 22:55:11 2009 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments
A. no beef or pork
Answered by frankie - Thu Jan 29 22:58:13 2009
