Hinduism

Society and Culture Assessment task 1 The effect of Hinduism in everyday life What is Hinduism' Hinduism is the world's oldest existing religion, with a billion followers, which makes it the world's third largest religion. Hinduism is a collection of religious, philosophical, and cultural ideas and practices that originated in India, characterized by the belief in reincarnation, one absolute being of multiple manifestations, the law of cause and effect, following the path of righteousness, and the desire for liberation from the cycle of births and deaths. Hinduism differs from Christianity and other monotheistic religions in that it does not have: • a single founder, • a specific theological system, • a single concept of deity, • a single holy text, • a single system of morality, • a central religious authority, • The concept of a prophet. Hinduism is not a religion in the same sense as Christianity is; it is more like an all-encompassing way of life much as Native American spirituality is. Hinduism is generally regarded as the world's oldest organized religion. It consists of thousands of different religious groups that have evolved in India since 1500 BCE. Because of the wide variety of Hindu traditions, freedom of belief and practice are notable features of Hinduism. Most forms of Hinduism are henotheistic religions. They recognize a single deity, and view other Gods and Goddesses as manifestations or aspects of that supreme God. How I went about to find the answer to my question: After quite a lot of research on the internet and books it was clear that the only way to really get a clear answer on the effect of Hinduism on an individual’s everyday life was to conduct interviews on people who I knew believed in Hinduism. Growing up in an environment with religion playing a big role I could understand a lot more about the effects of this religion and how someone who might not have the same beliefs looked at you. What I found: Interview 1 The first person I interviewed was a mother of two kids and is a strong believer in Hinduism. Q. Do you believe your culture affects your everyday life in any way' I believe everyone who believes in something is affected by it throughout their life, definitely not always in a bad way, sometimes it affects you in a way where you become someone who is much more understanding of their surrounds and have a more diversified view on life. Some people believe that having a belief is something that hinders what you see around you and causes you to not look at what is really their but I don’t believe that. My culture is who I am and I am proud of it. Q. Is Hinduism something that you were born into, forced upon you or did you decide to follow it by yourself' Hinduism was a big part of my life when I was a child but my parents never forced me into it, it was something that I enjoyed being a part of and wanted to keep learning and experiencing everything that this religion gave. It’s a religion that not only accepts other religions but keeps your mind open to the views of everyone around you. Q. Is it hard having a religion in an area where Hinduism isn’t quite as known to people where as other religions such as Christianity is' Well I guess at the start it was a little bit hard to practice the things I wanted to openly because it was something that was very different to what other people did but as time went by I got used to being different and slowly people began to accept it. Q. What do you have to say to those people who may have trouble with expressing or practicing their religion just because it is different' What I would say to these people is that our religion is something that helps us have a belief that we are not only in this world for nothing we are here for a reason and that we should not be scared or intimidated by the thoughts and actions of another. Believe what you believe and that’s all you should care about. Interview 2 The second person I interviewed was a male who was married to a strong believer of Hinduism so I decided it would be good to understand the way Hinduism affects everyday life from their point of view. Q. What are your views on Hinduism and religion in general' I’m not a huge believer in god or some sort of creator of all things but that does not give me the right to disrespect the religions and beliefs of others. I can see a lot of people these days judging others by their clothes their beliefs even their skin colour, I believe that’s wrong. For some people religion is the only thing they have to get strength and happiness from we should not take that away. Q. Do you think that being a different colour or being of a foreign religion changes the way you are treated in Australian society' Unfortunately I believe colour and religion does affect how you are treated, you can see it on TV and news about the wars on racism and people being killed for practicing what they believe in. Even though this is a free country and is supposedly empty of racism it is still a factor. It’s pathetic how I see people looking at my wife when she dresses in her traditional clothes and they aren’t educated enough to understand the differences between religions. Q. Has being married to someone who strongly believes in Hinduism changed the way you live life' Yes I believe it has, in a way it’s helped me grow a stronger bond with my wife. Even though we believe in totally different things we both respect and accept each other’s beliefs. People who are unfamiliar with different religions and cultures need to become informed about them and be able to experience how the way people feel about these religions and not just judge from what we see on the media which is completely wrong. Interview 3 I decided that I needed an interview from a person of a younger age just to get their perspective of how life is when being part of the Hindu religion. I was able to interview a girl who was at her second year at university and was willing to participate. Q. Is your religion something you share or keep to yourself' Yeah I guess I keep it to myself, I really respect my religion and like it but I can’t really share it openly with friends because they don’t know anything about it and they can’t really understand it. I participate in all the ceremonies and events of Hinduism with family but never really get my friends involved. Q. Do you think Hinduism is a religion people should be educated in and be open to' Yes definitely, it’s one of the few religions that don’t push you into believing that it is the only good and only right religion. It accepts all beliefs and allows you to make decisions for yourself. It really makes you want to fulfil the most in your life and that’s something I believe everyone should try and do. Q. Do you feel like religion in your life causes you to be different around your friends and your family' Well in a way I guess it does. I have to be much more respectful in a way when I’m with the family but with friends it’s a little more laid back but I guess that’s with most people though. It’s not really me changing when I’m with friends or family it’s just there’s different ways of being part of a group. Like how you act around children differs from how you act around adults. Q. Overall are you proud of your religion' Yes I am for sure. I think that even though there are people who believe different things we should all respect each other and love what we love and do what’s best for our life, our family, our friends and ourselves. How I feel about Hinduism and my daily life: Well I’m part of a very strong Hindu family and to me I believe that all religions are right in their own way I don’t just follow one religion I’m a strong believer in respect and that the choices we make are the key to who we are. I believe that what goes around comes around harder and I believe that if you don’t live life trying to make another life better each day than you’re not living. What I believe in and the religion that is close to my family Hinduism does not affect my life in any sort of negative way only positive. Reflecting on the interviews: I had much interest in the interviews with each of these three people, it really exposed me to the different views people have in our society about a religion that I am very close to. The way I prepared for these interviews was that I constructed around 8 core questions that I would ask these participants but once I had met with them and started the interview I realized that not only did some of the questions did not quite feel right but as we spoke more interesting and suitable questions came to mind. I also had a different almost individual vibe from each participant. The more mature participants spoke in a way that really showed passion for what they believed in whereas the younger participants were more reluctant on putting forward what they believed. I guess this just shows how when we are young religion is something that we carry as part of us but as we grow older it really sinks in and almost becomes us. What I noticed during the interviews was that not only did anyone say that their religion was a burden on them but even if there were people looking down on them there belief was strong enough to overcome that. I feel that the methods I used for this was best suited and I will continue to use these methods in further PIP related assignments although if this assignment were on a larger scale a broader range of people from different ages, religions and races could have been interviewed giving a much more diversified answer . Also during the interviews not every question could be asked, different interviewees required a different sort of question to relate to who they were and what situation they were in.