What makes hinduism different

Google Classroom. Play GeoGames! Introduction: One thing that makes India so unique is its religious traditions.

What tradition did I learn about? The temple I went to is for the Hindu god Shiva- this Shiva statue is 65ft tall! Another statue for a Hindu god at the Shiva temple, though I'm not sure which one. Hinduism is unique compared to other religions for a varied number of reasons.

Hinduism does not have one founder or core doctrine that can be referenced. The religion is an assembly of religious, philosophical and cultural ideas and practices that originated in the country of India. The name Hinduism is new, compared to the age of the religion, British writers created the name in the beginning of the 19 th century. According to some, an individual is born into Hinduism.

According to some Hindus this power is identified with the self atman while others regard it as distinct from the self. Most Hindus agree that Brahman pervades everything although they do not worship Brahman. Some Hindus regard a particular deity or deities as manifestations of Brahman. Most Hindus believe in God but what this means varies in different traditions. The Sanskrit words Bhagavan and Ishvara mean 'Lord' or 'God' and indicate an absolute reality who creates, sustains and destroys the universe over and over again.

It is too simplistic to define Hinduism as belief in many gods or 'polytheism'. Most Hindus believe in a Supreme God, whose qualities and forms are represented by the multitude of deities which emanate from him. God, being unlimited, can have unlimited forms and expressions.

God can be approached in a number of ways and a devoted person can relate to God as a majestic king, as a parent figure, as a friend, as a child, as a beautiful woman, or even as a ferocious Goddess. Each person can relate to God in a particular form, the ishta devata or desired form of God. Thus, one person might be drawn towards Shiva, another towards Krishna, and another towards Kali.

Many Hindus believe that all the different deities are aspects of a single, transcendent power. In the history of Hinduism, God is conceptualised in different ways, as an all knowing and all pervading spirit, as the creator and force within all beings, their 'inner controller' antaryamin and as wholly transcendent. There are two main ideas about Bhagavan or Ishvara:. For convenience Hindus are often classified into the three most popular Hindu denominations, called paramparas in Sanskrit.

These paramparas are defined by their attraction to a particular form of God called ishta or devata :. The terms guru and acharya refer to a teacher or master of a tradition. The basic meaning is of a teacher who teaches through example and conveys knowledge and wisdom to his disciples.

The disciple in turn might become a teacher and so the lineage continues through the generations. One story that captures the spirit of the teacher is that a mother asks the teacher to stop her son eating sugar for he eats too much of it. The master tells her to come back in a week. She returns and he tells the child to do as his mother says and the child obeys. Asked by the mother why he delayed for a week, he replied 'a week ago I had not stopped eating sugar! Gurus are generally very highly revered and can become the focus of devotion bhakti in some traditions.

A fundamentally important teaching is that spiritual understanding is conveyed from teacher to disciple through a lineage and when one guru passes away he or she is usually replaced by a successor. One guru could have more than one successor which leads to a multiplication of traditions.

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The history of Judaism is essential to understanding the Jewish faith, which has a rich heritage of law, Islam is the second largest religion in the world after Christianity, with about 1. Although its roots go back further, scholars typically date the creation of Islam to the 7th century, making it the youngest of the major world religions.

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Followers believe there are multiple paths to reaching their god. Hindus believe in the doctrines of samsara the continuous cycle of life, death, and reincarnation and karma the universal law of cause and effect. Hindus strive to achieve dharma, which is a code of living that emphasizes good conduct and morality.