Welcome to our A-Z of Faith Series: articles written by Peter Mansfield, an insurance litigator and member of our church leadership team. We hope you find these reflections on faith and religion insightful!
By weird coincidence, the alphabet gives us three of the world's major religions in a row:
H is for Hinduism, I is for Islam and J is for Judaism. This blog is on Hinduism and was written by my colleague Sakshi Buttoo and is reproduced with her permission.
"Hinduism is a dharma (a way of life) and is often credited with the title of the world's oldest religion, with a civilization and traditions dating back more than 4,000 years.
So, how can we summarise this ancient religion in a short blog? With great difficulty. This is mainly due to the fact that Hinduism has evolved over time and geography, and means different things to different people.
Hinduism does not have one central doctrinal authority, which means that there are no hard and fast rules for Hindus to follow. Hindus are therefore left to their own devices to interpret the religion in the way that they want. Therein lies the beauty of Hinduism - religious freedom (with some guidance if you want it) to live life 'on the right path'.
A good example of this plurality in Hindu doctrine is the concept of 'God'. Hinduism is usually synonymous with polytheism i.e. the belief in many gods (apparently a whopping 33 million Hindu gods). However, Hindus in fact believe in one God (Brahman or the ultimate reality).
So why are there so many 'gods' in Hinduism? In the same way that a child may not understand a new concept without being shown pictures and objects to help with their understanding, it is said that humans cannot truly understand God without the presence of many deities which represent the many qualities of a formless and limitless God. Krishna, one of the most popular deities of Hinduism, embodies the quality of friendship. Hanuman, the 'monkey god', embodies the quality of strength. And, so on.
Despite a divergence in beliefs, practices and even gods(!), most Hindus follow the interlinked concepts of karma (action), samsara (reincarnation) and moksha (liberation). Put simply, these concepts mean that Hindus believe in being good and doing good in order for goodness to come back to you. This goodness may come back to you in your current life or you may be rewarded in your next life. The ultimate reward is to break free from the cycle of reincarnation, to achieve liberation and to be at one with God. But karma works both ways. If you are bad and do bad, badness will come back to you. Every action has a reaction.
These fundamental concepts are guiding principles for Hindus and encourage Hindus to live life 'on the right path' i.e. to be good humans. It's as simple as that. So, how can we summarise this ancient religion in a short blog? It's easy. Hinduism is a faith that guides Hindus to be good people."
Written by Pete Mansfield
