This weeks religion blog will be over Hinduism, which is a monistic religion or simply put, a religion that does not have a personal god but an non-personal ultimate reality. In Hinduism, we are everything and everything is interconnected through life, death, and karma. Karma is the deeds done, whether it be good or bad will affect the person and everything else (universe). When one is tainted and then goes through the cycle of life, they will then taint the rest of the ultimate reality and will have to go through many rebirths to fix their mistake and cleanse the ultimate reality.

This week we also went through the three Hindu gods that represented the Ultimate Reality (UR) and other representations. The first god is Brahma, the creator, he represents life and creation of life. The second is Vishnu, the preserver, he is responsible for holding the UR together and maintain balance. The last is Shiva, the destroyer, his purpose is to destroy the person who is suppose to die and bring them back to Brahma to be reborn. Shiva is also known as the god of sex, because sex (usually) causes pregnancy and that means rebirth.

In class we also went over the three points that make Hinduism aka non-western religion different from the Western religions: monistic religion, non-linear, and praxis. As mentioned before, Hinduism and a lot of non-western are not monotheistic or the belief of one personal god, they are monistic or one, non-personal ultimate reality aka higher power. The religion is considered non-linear because it is on going, it follows an eternal cycle unless the person or object reaches Nirvana or the state of nothingness; otherwise everything goes through life, death, and rebirth respectively. Furthermore, reincarnation is another chance to improve one’s karma so the chance of being reborn repeatedly will finally end and they can become nothing. In western religions, people only have one life and when they die they go to heaven. The last key point is praxis, which is similar to the English word practice, is based on what a person/thing does and the many paths they can take.