Vedas The Upanishads And Bhagavad Gita

After reading through the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita, I have a much clearer understanding of the foundation for Hindu religious practice. I have also formulated an opinion as to what the core teachings of Hinduism are. It is my belief that the central core from which Hinduism sprouts it’s branches contains three tenets. 1) The soul is eternal. 2) The ultimate goal of the soul is to be united with God. 3) Only when the soul is free from intertwined existence with matter, can the ultimate goal of unity with God be achieved. In the Vedas one can find the foundational principles of worship with the underlying idea of making this life in the physical realm more prosperous and fulfilling by sacrificing to the gods. They also set the stage for understanding the ultimate goal of liberation from the bondage of the cycle of birth, growth, death and rebirth. The vedas seem to imply that gods are born or become. An example of this is found on page 2 in The World’s Wisdom. The Rig Veda says that Indra “The chief wise god… surpassed the other gods in wisdom as soon as he was born” (The World’s Wisdom, 2). Again, we see this idea in a Vedic creation hymn “That one

We see here the beginnings of the Hindu belief that the gods can help humans reach their desired goal of freedom from the cycle