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Hinduism
Hinduism is just not a religion but more of a way of life. It is being studied as philosophy. Most scholars believe that it started somewhere between 2300 B.C. and 1500 B.C. in the Indus Valley and it is the oldest religion. It is made up of a wide variety of tendencies. However, its fundamental elements are belief in Brahman as the supreme universal principle, karma, reincarnation, and liberation.
The basis of Hinduism asserts that Brahman; the universal soul, is the absolute truth and three of the most significant forms of Brahman are Brahma - the creator, Vishnu - the preserver & Shiva - the destroyer.
The term Hinduism comes from the word Hindu, a Persian adaptation of the name of the river Sindhu. Its practitioners conceive it as a lifestyle and a cosmogony. Therefore, they do not refer to Hinduism as a religion, but as "Sanatana Dharma", which means "tradition" or "eternal way".
One of the symbols of Hinduism is the Om, which represents the impersonal god Brahman, as well as the universe and essence. The Om is a sacred syllable that acts as a mantra. That is, a living song or prayer that Hindus value as a primordial sound from which other sounds are generated.
Hinduism has neither a founder nor a vertical hierarchy, which favors the wide variety of metaphysical, spiritual, philosophical currents, customs, cults, and rituals that characterize it.
Currently, Hinduism is the dominant spirituality in India, Nepal, the island of Mauritius (Africa), and the island of Bali (Indonesia), although its practice has spread to some countries of other cultures.
Judaism
The origin of Judaism dates back to the time when Jehovah commanded Abraham to leave Ur (his hometown) for the promised land of Canaan. However, when he arrived in Hebron, he died at the age of 175. Later his son Isaac became the second patriarch and his grandson Jacob was the third.
The latter had 12 children spread throughout Canaan, producing the 12 tribes of Israel. His descendants were enslaved for 400 years, but when Moses arrived, God commissioned him to deliver the people of Israel from Egypt. After 40 years of exile in the desert, they returned to the promised land. There are currently around 14 million Jews distributed around the world.
Christianity
Christianity arose from Judaism, from the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who was called 'the Messiah' by his followers. According to the gospel texts on which Christian belief is based, Jesus was conceived by his mother, Mary, through the power of the Holy Spirit. At the age of thirty, he revealed himself as the Son of God and after his baptism, began to preach together with twelve of his disciples.
Jesus Christ spent most of his life preaching to people and spreading his message of love and morality. He spread ideas that were revolutionary at the time: in the context of a society of slaves and inequality, he preached the equality of all people and a mandate to love one's neighbor and forgive enemies. Later, Jesus was sentenced to death for blasphemy by the Sanhedrin, the highest religious authority in Judea, for proclaiming himself the Messiah.
Christianity as a religion began after the death of Jesus, on the day of Pentecost; when, according to the sacred texts, his disciples received the Holy Spirit and began to spread the Christian faith as commissioned by Jesus Christ himself.
From the preaching of the apostles, Christianity spread first to Asia Minor and then to Europe. Although initially it was banned by the Roman emperors, later it became the official religion of the empire in the fourth century and consequently spread throughout Europe. Currently, in its various branches, it is the most adherent religion in the world with approximately 2.4 billion believers.
Islam
The founder of Islam, Muhammad, was born in the year 570 in the city of Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula. As a teenager, he devoted himself to the caravan trade. When he turned 40, he retired to a cave on the outskirts of town. It is believed that he was visited there by Jibril (Gabriel), who announced that he had been chosen to be the prophet of a new religion. Muhammad returned to Mecca and began preaching Islam.
At that time, the inhabitants of Mecca were polytheists, since they worshiped a large number of gods, whose images were located in the sanctuary of the Kaaba in the center of the city. The people of Kaaba felt threatened by Muhammad's preaching and had him sentenced to death. To avoid this sentence, Mohammed fled to the city of Medina in 622. This exile, known as the Hegira, marks the beginning of Muslim chronology. This means that Muslims started counting the years from this fact.
In Medina, Muhammad's power and prestige increased, and very soon the majority of its inhabitants adopted the new religion. With their help, Mohammed returned to Mecca in 630, occupied it, and turned the Kaaba into a holy place of Islam.
After the conquest of Mecca, Islam quickly spread across the Arabian Peninsula and became the unifying element of the various Arabian tribes. When Muhammad died in 632, he was succeeded by the caliphs, who became the spiritual and temporal rulers of all Muslims.
The first Caliphs were Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali. They promoted the spread of Islam in Palestine, Syria, Armenia, Asian Mesopotamia, Persia, and North Africa. In 661, Muawiyah of the Umayyad family dethroned Ali and established a caliphate in Syria. Under his rule, Muslims spread to India, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula.
Buddhism
Buddhism is based on the teachings preached by the Indian ascetic and preacher Siddhartha Gautama (better known as Buddha) after his spiritual awakening. Siddhartha was born in the 5th century BC. in the bosom of an aristocratic family in the ancient Republic of Sakia. Later, after reviewing the sufferings that people were going through, he gave up his social status and privileges to lead a life devoted to meditation and asceticism, until the day he finally found the path to spiritual awakening.
In contrast to the traditional Brahmanic practices of India, Gautama Buddha preached his methods of mindfulness, ethical training, and dhyana meditation to a growing community of devotees.
Buddhism as a religion emerged between the 5th and 4th centuries BC. and was distributed throughout India. Unlike theistic religions, however, Buddhism proposed neither the deification of the Buddha nor his kinship with God, but instead proposed the methods and beliefs of Gautama as a path to enlightenment of the mind.
Buddhism flourished among numerous empires in India between the 4th and 11th centuries, and during this period its four main branches developed: Madhyamaka, Yogacara, Tathagatagarbha, and Pramana. Buddhism soon spread throughout Sri Lanka and Central Asia. From the 19th century, Buddhism began to spread to the West, where it found a large following, especially in the 20th century.
Jainism
Also known as Jaina Dharma, it is a religion that was founded by Nataputta Mahavira. However, many sources differ as to his real name. There is no specific data on the origin of this religion while many scholars believe that the non-theistic religion may have originated in the Indus Valley Civilization to demonstrate the indigenous spirituality of that region prior to the arrival of the Indo-Aryan migration in India.
Jainism supports the belief in the non-existence of a deity who has the power to be omnipotent, as for Jainism the universe was not created by a deity and mainly it focuses on a material detachment within human life. However, they defend other ideas around different aspects like reincarnation that we can find in other types of religious beliefs.
Jainism is based on law, which ultimately provides a reward for either good deeds or punishment for bad deeds. Currently, Jainism is believed to have approximately 4.2 million adherents in India, considered a minority religion. There are also followers in other areas such as North America, the Far East, Western Europe, Australia, and others, albeit with a small excess.
Sikhism
Sikhism is an Indian religion that was born and developed during the conflict between Hinduism and Islam. The faith began around 1500 CE. The adherents of Sikhism are called Sikhs, the root of these concepts deriving from the Sanskrit term shishya. Thus, the original meaning of this term is associated with the student, someone who follows directions.
This religion was founded by Guru Nanak who was the first of the 10 Sikh Gurus. Nanak was born in 1469 to a Hindu family in northeastern India. He traveled a lot in different directions and preached to both Hindus and Muslims.
According to Guru Nanak's teachings, Sikhism was a means of uniting people. The intention of Sikhism was to achieve a reality that stood above the differences between the other two religions. In this regard, Nanak proposed Sikhism by focusing on the authority of God rather than the sole Creator.
Guru Nanak called God the "True Name" to avoid using other specific names. In this way, Nanak taught that God could be given different names depending on place and religion. However, God is unique, he is sovereign and omnipotent, which is why he called him 'true name'. Moreover, the name most widely used for God by Sikhs is Waheguru, which means 'wondrous enlightener'.
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