Paper 1 In ancient India, religious beliefs played an important role in everyday life. Many religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Jainism, were found throughout Indian civilization dating back to 1500 B.C.E. The most predominating ancient religion, Hinduism, is still in practice today as one of the world’s oldest religions (India Religion). Indian culture exhibits interesting diversity that has been around for decades, but the main focal point discussed is about the different aspects of Hinduism. Hinduism, derived from the Indus Valley Civilization(India’s earliest known civilization), involves a variety of cultural traditions with one of its major influences from pantheism. Pantheism, the belief that God and
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Defined as the sum of a person 's actions in this and previous states of existence, and viewed as deciding their fate in future existences. The future of each individual is based on karma until the self becomes one with the cosmos. If that balance is not found in a person’s lifetime, reincarnation returns the Atman in a different physical form, in hopes to gain nirvana to Brahman (Humanities I, 74). Karma can be altered through natural and moral decisions and actions. Hinduism teaches morality of the soul, but not individual or personal morality. This has to do with the gradual rejection of the material world, as personality is part of the illusion and gets in the way of gaining the unity that many Hindu’s seek(Humanities I, 73). Through the belief of reincarnation, the soul of an individual who did not reach the goal of Hinduism, is reborn again in an altered physical state. Reincarnation is a cyclical process of one’s self working off karma to achieve unification with an ultimate (Sire, 159). This practice disregards any importance of personality to any individual in the Hindu religion, because of the fact that individual souls cannot survive death. However, the Atman that they seek to become and join as one with Brahman will survive death (Sire, 158). The Atman will actually continue to return until it reaches liberation and absorption with Brahman (Humanities I, 74). The ultimate
Defined as the sum of a person 's actions in this and previous states of existence, and viewed as deciding their fate in future existences. The future of each individual is based on karma until the self becomes one with the cosmos. If that balance is not found in a person’s lifetime, reincarnation returns the Atman in a different physical form, in hopes to gain nirvana to Brahman (Humanities I, 74). Karma can be altered through natural and moral decisions and actions. Hinduism teaches morality of the soul, but not individual or personal morality. This has to do with the gradual rejection of the material world, as personality is part of the illusion and gets in the way of gaining the unity that many Hindu’s seek(Humanities I, 73). Through the belief of reincarnation, the soul of an individual who did not reach the goal of Hinduism, is reborn again in an altered physical state. Reincarnation is a cyclical process of one’s self working off karma to achieve unification with an ultimate (Sire, 159). This practice disregards any importance of personality to any individual in the Hindu religion, because of the fact that individual souls cannot survive death. However, the Atman that they seek to become and join as one with Brahman will survive death (Sire, 158). The Atman will actually continue to return until it reaches liberation and absorption with Brahman (Humanities I, 74). The ultimate