Vedas, The Upanishads And The Bhagavad Gita

Investigating Hinduism Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and the term means “the religion of India,” which was often used to encompass all the religions of the people of India (Lecture 4, 2015). Interestingly, there is no accepted founder of the religion, and there is no specific set of religious texts one must believe in to be a Hindu (Corduan, 2012). However, the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita, are the primary accepted holy books of the religion (Hallman, 2018). To be a Hindu, there are certain qualifications, which are to regard the Vedas as divinely inspired and authoritative, to accept the caste system, and to respect the deities and spirits, which includes protecting cows (Corduan, 2012). Adherents

Brahma is regarded as the creator god, and he gave the Vedas to a group of holy men (Corduan, 2012). Vishnu is the preserver god and is usually associated with the sun (Johnson, 2013). Originally, Vishnu was a Vedic minor god that eventually emerged as one of the primary gods of the Hindu religion (Corduan, 2012). Shiva is revered as the destroyer god and allows Brahma to start the cycle over again (Jayaram, 2017). Each is believed to represent one of the aspects of the being called Brahman (Johnson, 2013). There are around 330 million gods and goddess in this religion, and each of these gods and goddesses are subdivisions of these three primary gods (Hallman,

This can be quite difficult, though, as Hinduism is polytheistic, while Christianity is strongly monotheistic. Furthermore, Christians often use words such as “born again” to describe salvation, and this term can be confusing to Hindus, as they may think this means reincarnation. Also, Hindus have no concept of life after death, since they view death as a transition to a new stage of reincarnation. Hindus may also accept Jesus and worship Him along with all the other gods, as they do not understand that one God can satisfy all their needs. However, there are some similarities between the two religions. For instance, Christians and Hindus believe that the soul is separate from the body, and Christians can use this belief as a bridge to show how people either go to heaven or to hell when they die. Another concept that is similar is that the world will be destroyed and reborn, and Christians demonstrate that one God can both create the world and destroy it, since He is