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| February 2009 |
| Billie Silvey |
| Religion in India |
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| Hinduism |
| Hinduism indentifies four major desires—for pleasure, success, duty and liberation—and seeks to answer each through knowledge, love, work, and psychophysical exercises. Hindus see life in four stages: 1. The student, which begins between 8 and 12 and lasts 12 years. The student lives with his teacher and serves in return for instruction. 2. The householder is centered about family, vocation and community. The householder finds pleasure through marriage and family, success through vocation and duty through community service. 3. Self-discovery comes with retirement, leaving involvement and going into the forest to seek a philosophy and a way of life. 4. Renunciation—re-entering society as a different person, place doesn’t matter. There are four major castes in Hindu society, though numerous subdivisions. The Brahmins are seers, intellectual and spiritual leaders, philosophers, artists, religious leaders and teachers. They seek respect. Kshatriya are social and political administrators. They seek power. The Vaishya are producers, artisans, farmers, and engineers. They seek money. And the Shudra are followers, workers who merely seek wages. Hinduism is polytheistic. There are three basic gods—the Creator, Brahma; the Preserver, Vishnu; and the Destroyer, Shiva. |
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| Buddhism |
| Buddhism began in India, growing out of Hinduism, when a pampered Hindu prince who had been protected from all unpleasantness slipped away from the palace and came across an old person, a sick person, and a dead body. Realizing that there was more to life than he’d been allowed to experience, he ran away into the forest and meditated under a Bodhi tree. There he became enlightened and |
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| taught his disciples what he had learned, advocating a Middle Path between the extremes of self-indulgence and abstinence. The Four Noble Truths are that: 1. Life is suffering, is out of joint. 2. Suffering or disjointedness is caused by desire, our ego pulling against wholeness, against seeing others as extensions of ourselves. 3. The cure lies in overcoming our self-interests and desires. 4. The way out is by the Eightfold Path—right knowledge, right aspiration, right speech, right behavior, right liveliness, right effort, right mindfulness, and right absorption. Currently, Buddhists compose just .77% of the population of India, though it has had profound influence in Japan, China and Southeast Asia. |
| Religion is a way of life in India, permeating every aspect of life. India is a secular society. Its constitution mandates equal treatment and tolerance of all religions and the right to practice, preach and propagate any religion. |
| The dominant religion of India is Hinduism, which is followed by over 80% of the population. Just as India is made up of many people, many castes, many languages, and many types of geography, Hinduism coexists with Jains, Buddhists, Parsees, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians. It sees the various religions as alternate paths to God. |
| Islam |
| Islam is a monotheistic religion professing submission to Allah and following the teachings of the prophet Muhammad. It is the largest minority religion in India, making up over 14% of the population. The interaction of the two faiths led to a synthesis of Hindu and Islamic elements in many spheres of life and culture. Arab traders brought Islam to India in the early 8th century, where it was spread by Mughal rulers in the 16th and 17th centuries. In its first phase, Islam was aggressive, but the mystics of Islam, or the Sufi saints, taught peace and universal love and helped loosen the bonds of the caste system. |
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| Christianity |
| Christians comprise about 2.5% of the population of India, making them the largest non-native Indian religion. Tradition has it that Christianity came to India by way of St.Thomas, who lived and died in Southern India. |
| Over 60% of Christians in India are Catholic, but all denominations are represented. Historically, Christian missionary activity was begun in 1544 by St. Francis Xavier. Protestants as well as Catholic missionaries contributed to social improvement and education. British rule had little to do with the growth of Christianity in India. |
| Sikhism |
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| Sikhism began in the early 16th century in the Punjab in northern India. Buru Nanakk, founder of the faith, was a Hindu who was also inspired by the teachings of Islam, and preached unity. He was succeeded by nine other gurus. . Sikhism teaches monotheism and the equality of all men, but it also accepts the Hindu ideas of karma and rebirth. |
| Jainism |
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| About .4% of Indians follow Jainism, a nontheistic religion and philosophical system. Jainism rejects a creator god, but accepts the divine nature of every soul and its potential to achieve God-consciouness. Jainism promotes a culture of wisdom and self-control. |
| The Triple Gems of Jainism include right perception, right knowledge and right conduct, which liberate from the cycle of birth and death. The basic ethical principles of Jainism include nonviolence, truth, never taking things that are not offered, abstinence from sex and renunciation of property and wealth. |