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• Focus Points
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Where: Based in India
900 Million followers
When: Began circa 1500 B.C.
Sacred texts: Vedas (among
many others)
• Many forms of Brahman
• Reincarnation/karma/moksha
• Indian caste system
Where are the Religions?
Do Now
Who are the Aryans?
Pg 37
• Nomadic peoples who
moved into India circa
1500 B.C.
• From them grows
Hinduism.
Do Now
Describe the caste
system – How did the
Hindu belief system
offer a way out of the
caste system?
Caste System
• Set of rigid
social classes
• No mobility
until death
(reincarnation)
• Karma
determined
how you would
be reborn
Samsara – cycle of life, death, and rebirth
Hinduism
Symbol - Om
• Hindus begin their day or any work
or a journey by uttering Om. Om
represents “Brahman”. Their god
takes many different forms.
Location Where It Began
• Cannot be traced to any one
individual. But it begins in India
with the beliefs of the Aryan
people.
• The earliest of the Hindu
scriptures – The Vedas – was
composed by the Aryan priests
The term "Hindu" was
introduced by foreigners who
referred to people living across
the River Indus or Sindhu, in
the north of India.
Structure
Monotheistic?
There are thousands of various
forms of a single Supreme
Being = Brahman.
Religious Figure
•
Hindus also worship spirits,
trees, animals and even
planets.
• Cows are a sacred animal,
they represent all living
creatures. Many Hindus are
vegetarians.
Brahma :creator
Vishnu: The Preserver
The Hindu
Trinity
Vishnu: The Preserver
Brahma :creator
Shiva: The Destroyer
All these deities are
forms of the
Brahman
Ganesh: remover of obstacles
Holy Book
• The basic scriptures of Hinduism, are the Vedas
(sometimes called the Rig Veda).
• Two types of sacred writings comprise the Hindu
scriptures: "Shruti" (heard) and "Smriti"
(memorized). They were passed on from
generation to generation orally for centuries
before they were written down mostly in the
Sanskrit language.
The Caste System
Beliefs
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Reincarnation – individual soul is reborn in a different
form after death
Samsara – Repeating cycle of life and death
Karma – right action in life – determines rebirth
The goal is to achieve oneness with god, Brahman – a
union.
atman – the individual self – is the Brahman that is part
of everyone. This is what is united with Brahman
through strict practice
Samsara =(rebirth) Reincarnation
Moksha =(liberation from the cycle of Samsara/Reincarnation)
• Mahatma Ghandi (1869-1948) is NOT a Hindu god, but
is a famous Hindu. His use of non-violent resistance led
to India’s independence from Britain (1942) and inspired
Martin Luther King to use the same technique in
American Civil Rights movement.