Hinduism - 1

[Guest guest]

Dear friends and devotees,

 

Bhakti is eternal.

 

Some of our friends have been asking me to write about Hinduism, Vedas,

Upanishads and Puranas.   Though I am not fully conversant with the subject,

with the blessings of Paramacharya, some details have been collected.  The same

are being sent under two headings simultaneously.  One is Hinduism and the other

is Mantras.

The details are collected from many sources and consolidated and as such may not

cover the full subject.  Kindly forgive me for lapses if any.

Regarding Hindu Dharma, many more details from the voice of Holy Paramacharya

will be sent separately after completing these articles.

 

About Hinduism

 

Hinduism is the oldest living religious tradition in the world and is also known

as Sanatana Dharma and Vedic Dharma. It is not a single religion but a set of

different schools of thought and traditions. Hinduism is a mixture of many

religious rituals, sects and philosophies and all of them are different from

each other in different parts of India. Majority of Hindus follow the Vedanta

philosophy of one God (Brahman) who is worshipped in many forms like Vishnu,

Siva, Durga, etc.

 

About 10 billion people worldwide are followers of Hinduism making it the third

largest religion of the world. The followers of Hinduism regard the four Vedas

as the main scripture. Each Veda is divided into parts called: Brahmanas,

Samhitas, Aranyakas and Upanishads which are also widely followed. The other

main scriptures are the 18 puranas, 18 up-puranas, the Bhagavad-Gita and

Ramayana.

 

The basic beliefs of Hinduism are:

 

Dharma (individual ethics, duties and obligations)

Samsara (rebirth)

Karma (actions)

Moksha (salvation)

Different schools of Hinduism follow different paths or means for salvation..

The four main paths that most of the schools follow are: the path of devotion-

" Bhakti " , the path of action- " Karma " , the path of meditation- " Raja " and the

path of enlightenment- " Jnana " . The basis of Hindu philosophy is that all souls

that are born from Brahman (Cosmic Spirit) finally merge with it.

 

Contd. . . . .(Hinduism - 2)

 

With love and regards,

 

Sastry