Core+Beliefs+of+Hinduism

People who follow the religion of Hinduism pray daily. These prayers or worship can take place in usually three different places: the home or dwelling-place of the Hindu person, a street side or road side shrine or an official temple. Although there are three options for Hindu worship locations, usually the prayers would be conducted at home, even though the facilities offered by temples and shrines are usually more luxurious and well set up, and there is a particular room in the household that is set up dedicated just towards worship. The prayers and worship are conducted towards a picture of a Hindu God as well as a picture of their guru and teacher. At these household shrines, worshippers usually give up offerings of flowers, incense, food and drinks and after prayers the leftover offerings of food are then incorporated into the family meals. This type of food is known to Hindus as //prasadam//. These offerings are part of the idea that everything that a person owns or possesses should be given back to god in gratitude as all comes from him or her originally. The pictures, food, drink and incense are part of the idea that all the senses are to be engaged into the service of God. For example, the food engages the sense of taste, the incense engages the sense of smell, the picture engages the sense of sight and so on and so forth. People who are especially strict wake up at dawn, take a bath or wash before prayers to ritually purify themselves, and then proceed with their normal daily prayers. Hindus who belong to higher castes perform incantations and prayers at the rising of the sun, midday and at the setting of the sun to commemorate God’s pervasive nature and to represent that God is a big thing in their lives every day. After prayers, the head of the household or the religious leader of the temple or shrine will read out sacred texts and comment on them. ** Yoga ** Yoga is a major part of each Hindu person’s life. The word Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word //yuj// which literally translated means “to link up with” or “to combine” and this is the root of the significance of yoga, to connect with God. Every Hindu person practices the art of yoga and there are various types of yoga that one can be associated with. When we think of Yoga, we usually link it to contorted body positions and breathing exercises and the much-stereotyped western idea of yoga. This, however is not the type of Yoga that most Hindus practice but is actually a subdivision of yoga, something Hindus call //Raja// yoga or, as it is more commonly known, //Hatha// yoga. It is also known sometimes as the “Eightfold Path” because this type of yoga has eight steps. In all types of yoga, the human body is viewed as the “Temple” of the human soul and yoga is used as a way in which a person can learn to control and “fine tune” the body and mind. By implementing breathing control (//pranayama// as it is known otherwise) and postures (asanas), yoga improves physical health and wellbeing. This is important in yoga as it is viewed to help “strengthen” the temple of the soul, or the human body. **Karma and reincarnation ** Karma is a Hindu belief that when put simply means “whatever goes around comes around”. An example scenario is if a young boy steals something from his friend, eventually he will get something stolen from him. There is also something called “bad” Karma when you have done more bad things than you have good things and this would affect you greatly when you pass away and enter the afterlife. The afterlife is simply a place where your soul would wait until it was reincarnated. Depending on your karma, the amount of time your soul would spend in the afterlife is varied. If you had a bad karma, you would obviously spend more time in the afterlife however, if you had a good and well balanced karma, you would spend considerably less time in the afterlife than if you had a bad karma. ** Cows ** Cows play an important role in Hinduism and most Hindus support the idea of cow protection. The reason that the animal known as the cow is so highly held up in the Hindu religion is because cows are a very important thing within the economy of India, a place that is the centre of Hinduism as a religion. Because of this, many Hindus are vegetarian and only rarely eat meat or anything red such as beetroot because it resembles blood. Indians, or Hindus use many products created by the cow. These products include, cow milk, dairy products such as ghee (a clarified butter) and the cow’s dung and urine. The dung of the cow is used as a disinfectant and cheap fertilizer among Hindus. The urine of a cow is used also as a disinfectant because of its high ammonia content and is also used in certain medicines. The fact that the cow supplies humanity with all of these different things is the root of the Hindu belief that cows act as “one of humankind’s mothers”.
 * Prayers **