The Religion Hinduism
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The religion of Hinduism is very complicated and has many different aspects to it, from cultural and social influences. This paper will discuss these many different aspects that make up this belief system, along with the liberation from earthly existence. The term Hinduism is not the main word used today for this religion, the term used in this modern time is Sanatana Dharma. The religion has a wide range of expressions and beliefs that is believed to have developed of the course of approximately ten thousand years. “The spiritual expressions of Sanatana Dharma range from extreme asceticism to extreme sensuality, from the heights of personal devotion to a deity to the heights of abstract philosophy, from metaphysical proclamations of the oneness behind the material world to worship of images representing a multiplicity of deities. According to tradition, there are actually 330 million deities in India. The feeling is that the divine has countless faces.”(Fisher, 2005, p. 69). There is a philosophical and metaphysical element to Hinduism. The Vedic age is believed to exist from around 2500 BCE. Many people believe that today’s Sanatana Dharma stems from this period. This worship consists of the praising of hymns and the worship of the cow. It is believed that the cow is a sacred animal. “In the Aryan Invasion Theory of Western historians, the highly organized cultures of the Indus Valley and the villages in other parts of the subcontinent were overrun by nomadic invaders from outside India. The theory argues that the Vedas, the religious texts often referred to as the foundations of Sanatana Dharma, were the product of the invaders, and not of indigenous Indians.” (Fisher, 2005, p. 71). In the metaphysical aspect it is believed that when the body dies that the soul lives on and is reincarnated into another human body or that of another living creature. The word Karma is also used in the metaphysical aspect and it refers to how the soul continues to be reincarnated of many different life forms called Samsara. In this repetitive cycle it is believed that to escape this cycle one must achieve Moksha. Moksha is the escape from this cycle to the Immortal Absolute. There are many influences from cultures that affect Hinduism. They range from Vedas, Samkhya, Advaita Vedanta, and yoga. “All have deep roots in the Vedas and other scriptures but also in direct personal experiences of the truth through meditation; all hold ethics to be central to orderly social life. They attribute suffering to the law of karma, thereby suggesting incentives to more ethical behavior; All hold that the ultimate cause of suffering is people’s ignorance of the Self, which is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, perfect, and eternal.” (Fisher, 2005, p. 76).
In Samkhya based philosophy it is believed to the oldest and has influenced other religions such as Buddhism, and Jainism. It is also believed that this belief system could actually predate that of the Vedic. This is a duelist system that they believe in two states of reality. This however is not the case for Advaita Vedanta who believes in a single reality system. This system believes that there is no beginning and end. They believe in a harmony with oneself and the universe. Yoga has four different styles or types of influences that are practiced on a daily basis in India. The four types of yoga practiced are raja yoga, jnana yoga, karma yoga, and bhakti yoga. There are varies types of yoga to suite the needs for the different types of people who practice yoga. “The sages distinguished four basic types of people and developed yogic practices that are particularly suitable for each type, in order that each can attain the desired union with the Self. For meditative people, there is raja yoga, the path of mental concentration. For rational people, there is jnana yoga, the path of rational inquiry. For naturally active people, there is karma yoga, the path of right action. For emotional people, there is bhakti yoga, the path of devotion” (Fisher, 2005, p. 77). The life of a Hindu is full of their religious beliefs from the customs and their way of life. This religion is very complex and difficult to understand because it does not have a centralized belief like most religions. From having many deities and philosophers over the course of thousands of years it is easy to see how this religion can become very confusing. The culture is very rich with Hinduism culture that affects daily life of all believers.

Reference Page Fisher, M. P. (2005). Living religions (6th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.