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Indian Religions

India is a multi-religious country, and world's every major religion has its followers here. Major religions native to this country are Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Islam and Christianity are not native to us, but now they command more followers than any other religion except Hinduism. The chief reason for this is the proselytizing nature of these religions.

I will concentrate on hindusim for two reasons. One, I do not know much about other religions, two Hinduism is the most prevalent religion in India.

The Hindu religion prophesies an eternal cycle of life and death until the being does something which liberates him from this cycle. We, the people who live in this world see and feel what is not the reality. All of us are bound to this world's pleasures and grief. In other words we are deluded by Maya.. To be freed from this eternal cycle of life and death and to attain Nirvan, we need to follow either of the following four paths:

Raj Yog.
The Raj yogi practices Vairagyam even while he is involved in the day to day matters of this world. By detachment, he thus frees himself from the bondage of Maya and sees himself as he really is: The Infinite Being ( More on this later).

Karm Yog
The Karmi denounces the fruits of his work. He works and does his duty and does not expect any rewards for that. By detaching himself from the fruits of his labor, he detaches himself from Maya and thus rises above it. An excellent exposition of Karma Yog can be found in Bhagwad Gita.

Bhakti Yog
The Bhakt(devotee) renounces all little loves for the almighty and the omnipresent love. The yogi renounces his experiences, because his philosophy is that the whole nature(prakriti) although it is for the experience of the soul, at last brings him to know that he is not in nature. The Bhakta mediates upon the forms and images and all such things and upon God. This is a natural method, but a slower one.

Jnana Yog
The Jnani(philosopher) renounces every thing, because his philosophy is that Nature never existed, either in the past, present or future. He recognizes that he himself is the absolute being. The Jnani says, the mind does not exist, neither does the body. This idea of mind and body must be driven off and is therefore a foolish one. The Jnanai wants to tear away the universe from the self by the sheer force of analysis. The Jnani cares not for perfection or imperfection; none exists for him. as soon as he is free, he sees good nor evil; none exits. All that exists is he himself, the infinite being.

So, that was about the methods of achieving nirvan. What I left unsaid, of course, is that what nirvan is and what Maya is. The Hindu religion recognizes the fact that all of us are absorbed in our material pleasures, our sense of self, acquiring new amenities which we see as progress. But all this is Maya(Illusion, Just as in matrix the movie. This conveys the idea more clearly) and nothing really exists except the one being who is whole and infinite. That being is the self. Every thing in this universe is Maya, and thus non-existent the moment on recognizes this fact and sees this as the reality, he frees himself from this worldly existence and sees himself as he really is: the infinite and the undescribable. Just as the reflection of one sun on water droplets creates a thousands of suns, In a similar fashion we perceive a multitude of beings and objects wherein reality only one exists. This the view of the Advaties.

The belief of people in god can be categorized into Four(Or more) levels. (Uh-oh! this is getting too complicated!). At the first( and the lowest) level are those who believe in gods and goddesses and worship them as the supreme beings having forms. e.g Shaped like a human etc. These people worship idols and are on the lowest rung of the ladder of knowledge. They are stumbling along their path to final illumination. They go up a step further when they realise that the God is formless. Notice the use of word God. They still believe in the existence of one or a multitude of gods, and still believe in the cycle of life and death. They also believe that by worshiping gods they will find a place in heaven. But heaven is recognized as a temporary place, the cycle of life and death goes on until good deeds accumulate so much that the soul is finally liberates and becomes one with God. This state is called nirvan.

The next state of belief is of the Samhkyis. They believe that the world is composed of Prakriti , which is composed of three Bhutas. In the beginning of a cycle, these bhutas-rajas, tamas and sattva are in equilibrium. In the beginning of the creation cycle, this equilibrium is disturbed and by the interaction of these bhutas the whole universe evolves. These are the finest material in the universe. These interact with the Akasha and the Prana to produce progressively the grosser matter in the universe. There are a lot of intermediate products, but I will stay away from them and will only note that the flow of creation is from the finer particles to the coarser ones. The Prakriti itself is Jada (insentient). Then what is the source of Chitta? It what the Samkhyis call Purush. It is not in the ambit of this Prakriti but is still the unwitting source of all. According to the samkhyis, every human being itself is the Purusha and thus an infinite being. He only has to liberate himself from the bondage of Maya to realise himself.

The Advaitists agree with all of the Samkhyis views except for the fact that they believe that there is only One Purusha, the infinite being himself. Every man is the same infinite being and it is only when he is caught in Maya that he begins to see this world. And what about the heaven and hell? They are all Illusions, of course!

This completes the overview of hindusim. The interested (and most likely, confused) reader is referred to books and tikas written by Swami Vivekananda, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (He is a former president of India) and Bal Ganga Dhar Tilak (see the history section for finding out who he is).