Hinduism Vs Buddhism

Hinduism is a diverse tradition. Hindu is not the personal name of a founder nor is it descriptive of a central belief or practice. ‘‘Hindu’’ is the Iranian variation for a name of a river that Indo-Europeans referred to as the Sindhu, Greeks as the Indos, and British as the Indus for those who lived on the territory (Moira). Hinduism is very similar to Buddhism. The biggest two concepts are Samsara and Karma. Like Buddhism, Hinduism belief is that life is a series of rebirths and redeaths in a continuous cycle and that a person's actions during a life produce karma that determines the place and form of the next life (“Following the Buddha's Footsteps ”) . The Vedas (ca. 1200–500 BCE), are universally regarded by Hindus as the authoritative large body of

In addition, it is listed with the most heinous actions. For example, the Kaushitaki Upanishad, an ancient Sanskrit text, includes abortion in a list of crimes which also includes the murder of one’s mother and father and theft. They saw abortion was just as bad as the other action above. There are also secondary texts like Smritis that explains feticide, destruction of fetus, as a major sin by equating it with the killing of a Brahmin (member of the highest caste probably the king or queen) (Moira). In addition, these texts go in depth about special care, respect, and concessions for the pregnant woman to make sure the fetus is well developed. The reason for the condemning of abortion are very clear. First, the atman (spirit) is present in the embryo from the moment of conception similar to that of Islam and Buddhism. The ancient Hindu physician, Charaka (200– 500 CE) conception is the time when spirit and matter combines. The embryo is regarded as a human person- thus, abortion is the termination of an human life. Therefore, it is their belief it is wrong to kill an embryo it is as if to kill a human person which is similar to that of Buddhism and