How is dharma determined

The partition of India occurred in , and Gandhi was assassinated in British India was split into what are now the independent nations of India and Pakistan , and Hinduism became the major religion of India.

Starting in the s, many Hindus migrated to North America and Britain, spreading their faith and philosophies to the western world. An early 18th century depiction of Devi revered by Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Hindus worship many gods and goddesses in addition to Brahman, who is believed to be the supreme God force present in all things. Followers of Hinduism can visit the Mandir any time they please.

Hindus can also worship at home, and many have a special shrine dedicated to certain gods and goddesses. The giving of offerings is an important part of Hindu worship.

Others believe that all the deities are a manifestation of one. The caste system is a social hierarchy in India that divides Hindus based on their karma and dharma. Many scholars believe the system dates back more than 3, years. Many subcategories also exist within each caste.

Today, the caste system still exists in India but is loosely followed. Many of the old customs are overlooked, but some traditions, such as only marrying within a specific caste, are still embraced. A Pakistani Hindu family offers prayers and light candles as they mark Diwali, the Festival of Lights, in Lahore, History of Hinduism, BBC.

But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. With about million followers, scholars consider Buddhism one of the major world religions. Its practice has historically been most prominent in East and Southeast Zoroastrianism is an ancient Persian religion that may have originated as early as 4, years ago.

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Although its roots go back further, scholars typically date the creation of Islam to the 7th century, making it the youngest of the major world religions. Wicca is a modern-day, nature-based pagan religion. Dharma includes ritual action. The proper performance of rituals is important to the ordering of individual lives and the life of the community. The texts called Dharmashastras detail the various categories of rituals. Rituals are not simply acts which lend dignity to critical transitions, but acts which have a role in the ordering of the world as it should be.

Dharma is also social order. In Rig Veda X. From his head the priests and scholars brahmins arose; from his arms the kings and warriors kshatriyas arose; from his thighs the farmers and merchants vaishyas came to be; and from his feet came the servants and laborers shudras.

Thus it could be said that in this world, a spiritual being, the atman, has a human experience rather than a human being having a spiritual experience.

Dharma is an important term in Indian religions. In Hinduism it means 'duty', 'virtue', 'morality', even 'religion' and it refers to the power which upholds the universe and society. Hindus generally believe that dharma was revealed in the Vedas although a more common word there for 'universal law' or 'righteousness' is rita.

Dharma is the power that maintains society, it makes the grass grow, the sun shine, and makes us moral people or rather gives humans the opportunity to act virtuously. But acting virtuously does not mean precisely the same for everyone; different people have different obligations and duties according to their age, gender, and social position.

Dharma is universal but it is also particular and operates within concrete circumstances. Each person therefore has their own dharma known as sva-dharma. What is correct for a woman might not be for a man or what is correct for an adult might not be for a child. The importance of sva-dharma is illustrated well by the Bhagavad Gita. This text, set before the great battle of the Mahabharata, depicts the hero Arjuna riding in his chariot driven by his charioteer Krishna between the great armies.

The warrior Arjuna questions Krishna about why he should fight in the battle. Surely, he asks, killing one's relatives and teachers is wrong and so he refuses to fight. Krishna assures him that this particular battle is righteous and he must fight as his duty or dharma as a warrior. Arjuna's sva-dharma was to fight in the battle because he was a warrior, but he must fight with detachment from the results of his actions and within the rules of the warriors' dharma.

Indeed, not to act according to one's own dharma is wrong and called adharma. Correct action in accordance with dharma is also understood as service to humanity and to God. The idea of what has become known as sanatana dharma can be traced back to the puranas - texts of antiquity. Those who adhere to this idea of one's eternal dharma or constitution, claim that it transcends other mundane dharmas - that it is the para dharma , the ultimate dharma of the self.

It is often associated with bhakti movements, who link an attitude of eternal service to a personal deity. An important idea that developed in classical Hinduism is that dharma refers especially to a person's responsibility regarding class varna and stage of life ashrama.

This is called varnashrama-dharma. In Hindu history the highest class, the Brahmins, adhered to this doctrine. The class system is a model or ideal of social order that first occurs in the oldest Hindu text, the Rig Veda and the present-day caste jati system may be rooted in this.

The four classes are:. People in the top three classes are known as 'twice born' because they have been born from the womb and secondly through initiation in which boys receive a sacred thread as a symbol of their high status. Although usually considered an initiation for males it must be noted that there are examples of exceptions to this rule, where females receive this initiation. The twice born traditionally could go through four stages of life or ashramas.

The ashrama system is as follows:. The idea of what has become known as sanatana dharma can be traced back to the puranas. It is often associated with bhakti movements, who propose that we are all eternal servants of a personal Deity, thus advocating each act, word, and deed to be acts of devotion.

In the 19th Century the concept of sanatana dharma was used by some groups to advocate a unified view of Hinduism. In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. Karma is a Sanskrit word whose literal meaning is 'action'.

It refers to the law that every action has an equal reaction either immediately or at some point in the future. Good or virtuous actions, actions in harmony with dharma, will have good reactions or responses and bad actions, actions against dharma, will have the opposite effect. In Hinduism karma operates not only in this lifetime but across lifetimes: the results of an action might only be experienced after the present life in a new life.

Hindus believe that human beings can create good or bad consequences for their actions and might reap the rewards of action in this life, in a future human rebirth or reap the rewards of action in a heavenly or hell realm in which the self is reborn for a period of time.

This process of reincarnation is called samsara , a continuous cycle in which the soul is reborn over and over again according to the law of action and reaction. At death many Hindus believe the soul is carried by a subtle body into a new physical body which can be a human or non-human form an animal or divine being. The goal of liberation moksha is to make us free from this cycle of action and reaction, and from rebirth.