Hinduism

Aim: How do Hindu values work in understanding a person’s role in

life?

• Do Now: Read Comic. Identify the four stages of life.

• How do these stages tie in with a person’s role in life?

• HW: Read pages 76-80 questions 4&5

• Outline the section.

Hinduism

• Ancient religion with no founder or known date of origin.

• Term "Hinduism" derives from the word "India"

• Most Hindus worship one or more deities, believe in reincarnation, value the practice of meditation, and observe festive holidays like Diwali and Holi

Polytheistic or Henotheistic?

• What is it called when you worship one god in many forms?

What are the three basic teachings of Hinduism?

• Karma- refers to all of the actions of a person’s life that affects his role in the next life

• Dharma – religious and moral duties of an individual –escape the wheel of faith

• Reincarnation- rebirth of the soul in another bodily form

Reincarnation

• As a person puts on new clothes and discards old and torn clothes, similarly an embodied soul enters new material bodies, leaving the old bodies.(B.G. 2:22)

What is Brahman?

• The whole universe is part of the unchanging , all-powerful spirit called Brahman.

• Too complex to understand

• Broken up the concept into a variety of gods which give a concrete form to Brahman

• Name some of these Gods. On your comic.

Classical Hindu thought accepts the following objectives of human life, known as the puruṣārthas:

• Dharma ("righteousness)

• Artha ("livelihood, wealth")

• Kāma ("sensual pleasure")

• Mokṣa ("liberation, freedom (from samsara)

Goals in Life

• Every person has an essential self called

Atman –(soul)

Ultimate goal - Achieve Moksha – union with Brahman

Can you achieve Moksha in one lifetime?

Four Stages of Life

• Dharma

• Artha

• Kama

• Moksha - can you be allowed release from the cycle of Reincarnation - Samsara

Other beliefs

• Hindus advocate the practice of ahiṃsā (non-violence) and respect for all life because divinity is believed to permeate all beings, including plants and non-human animals

• In accordance with ahiṃsā, many Hindus embrace vegetarianism to respect higher forms of life