Beliefs of Hindus
- Published in Needs in Neighbourhood
By C Barnabas
- The View of God: The following are some of the views of God among the Hindus.
- Animism: Animism is worshipping and offering sacrifice to nature. Many Hindus worship nature gods like heaven, thunder, and fire. Even now some Hindus worship nature gods and they are animists.
- Monism: Monism is the belief in one god. The belief that there is only one God in this world also was accepted and practised by Hindus.
- The name given to the god was Brahma. They believed that Brahma was one, real and he is above all definition or description. This concept of abstract god, with whom man cannot relate, was not accepted by Hindus. They wanted a personal god. So polytheism was introduced into Hindu belief in God.
- Polytheism: Polytheism is the belief and worship of many gods. This was introduced through Tirumurti (three gods).
- Brahma – the creator
- Vishnu – the preserver
- Shiva – the destroyer and reproducer of life.
- All these gods are said to have definite functions and all of them had wife and children. This led to the worship of many more deities and thus to polytheism in Hinduism.
- Monotheism: Monotheism is the belief in one god. Some Hindus began to believe in one personal and loving god to whom they prayed.
- Incarnation: The Hindus believe in incarnation and call it avatar. Vishnu is said to have come to the earth many times in various incarnations in the past. They wait for the tenth incarnation of Vishnu as Messiah.
- The View of man: The Hindus believe that man has no separate identity from god. God is seen everywhere, and exists in everything. So they accept the belief that man is part of god and god is part of man. Hence god and man are same. They believe that man has an eternal spirit and it continues through many incarnations.
- Sin: There is no belief of original sin in Hinduism. Sin is considered as the ignorance of the oneness of god. Sin is considered as illusion, and there is no recognition of sin and guilt of sin.
- Salvation: The Hindus believe that man can be saved by works and all ways lead to God. They believe in reincarnation and in the concept of Karma. When man is united with Brahma, then it is called as Moksha. This can be achieved by three ways.
- The path of knowledge or Gnana marka: It is controlling the body, mind and the spirit by yoga. When yoga is practised, one is freed from all earth binding desires, and united with Brahma. The yoga is practised to such an extent that the desire is controlled and there is no new Karma.
- The path of works or Karma marka: By doing good works one can build Karmato such an extent that he can get a release from Samsara.
- The path of devotion or Bhakti marka: This is the most popular way to attain Moksha. In Bhakti marka one can liberate and merge with god, by involving oneself with much love and adoration to Vishnu or other deities.
- Life after death: The Hindus believe that once a man dies his soul obtains release and gets itself absorbed into the ultimate. There the soul ceases to exist and it becomes part of the things. Hence there is no heaven or hell in Hindu belief.