4 Major Facets of HINDUISM
Published in
1 min readFeb 1, 2017
**this article is a major oversimplification of the Hindu religion meant to be a
1. Reincarnation
- All religions have a way of addressing death and the afterlife
- For Hinduism, it isn’t so much death as birth, and it isn’t so much the afterlife as another life
- Hinduism preaches a cycle of eternal life where people are re-assigned a new life to live once they die, based on a bunch of factors such as their…
2. Karma
- Karma literally means ‘deed’ or ‘action’ and is about how cause and effect
- Basically what this means is our fate or destiny is determined by our karma, or our deeds
- If you do good, you’ll be repaid for your good (ex: be reborn in a higher caste), and if you do
3. Dharma
- The closest translation for dharma is “duty” or “obligation”
- This means that you are one with the universe and your place in the universe
- Dharma = obey what your caste dictates and conform yourself to the great spirit
- This is part of what makes India have such a rigid and stably structured society despite so many diverse ethnic groups
4. Polytheism and Pervasive Divinity
- When I say polytheism, I mean POLYtheism
- Whereas Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are monotheistic and only believe in 1 God, Hinduism supports around 33 Million Gods that are all part of one transcendent, pervasive deity that is present everywhere