Beliefs and practices of hinduism
Beliefs of Hindus
There are six beliefs of the Hindu religion: Brahman, Atman, Maya, Karma, Samsara, and Moksha, which are all concepts from the Upanishads (sacred text).
There are six beliefs of the Hindu religion: Brahman, Atman, Maya, Karma, Samsara, and Moksha, which are all concepts from the Upanishads (sacred text).
- Brahman stood for the cosmic power that's present in Vedic sacrifices and chants that priests have control over; Brahman is "the God who appears in forms of infinite." It is the lived experience that all things are some way holy. This is because they come from the same sacred source. In addition, it's the experience that all things are one in some way. The experience of Brahman defies common sense because the world appears to be divided into many objects and types of reality. In order to experience the sense of Brahman firsthand, a person needs to know that every individual reality in the world is actually a wave of the same sacred ocean of energy.
- Atman is related to Brahman. Atman is also divine, holy, and timeless, but refers to the experience of the sacred within oneself unlike Brahman. According to the Upanishads, the deepest level of what a person is, is a divine reality and divine spirit that everything shares. They teach that it's true for a person to say "I am God" because the person understands reality at the deepest level; everything is God.
- Maya is translated as "illusion." Roots of the word suggest illusion and mystery (magic), but also has a positive connotation suggesting the original stuff of which something is made. With Maya, Upanishads advise people to "know nature is Maya, but God is the ruler of Maya; and that all beings in our universe are parts of his infinite splendour." People see the world as consisting of individual things and other people separately, but the world is one basic holy reality that takes on many different forms based on the Maya belief.
- Karma is the general Hindu notion of reincarnation (rebirth). This assumes that human beings have at one or another time existed as a "lower" being, such as an animal, insect, or even a plant. Hinduism recognizes grades of human life, from limited and painful to exceptionally pleasant and free. Karma determines the direction of a person's rebirth. It is seen as the moral law of cause and effect, and believing in karma is a belief that every action has a consequence; it's an essential part of the nature of how things work. Good karma brings "higher" rebirth, while bad karma brings "lower," more painful forms.
- Samsara refers to the wheel of life, the circle of constant rebirth, and suggest that everyday world is always changing with the good and bad. Its belief in reincarnation is differently viewed from the West. Present human life is short that people would want to have several lives in the upcoming future. Samsara leads up to a person wanting to be liberated.
- Moksha is said to the the ultimate human goal. Looking at our society, teenagers who go off to live on their own away from their parents is a way of experiencing Moksha. The term means "freedom" or "liberation," and implies liberation from the limitations of being an individual. A person can also attain this belief by the acceptance of limitations they have even while living with authority, which helps them gain inner peace and mental freedom.