The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Hinduism by Cybelle Shattuck. Epiphany-OviedoELCA library section 7 A: The Church in the World, World Religions. This short informative book introduces readers to Hinduism, the dominant faith in India and Nepal. Hinduism means dharma: law, duty, justice and virtuousness. It refers to religious and social obligations of behavior. Hinduism originated in India around 2500 B.C.E. As time passed, many new ideas and traditions were added to it, making its beliefs rather fluid and continually evolving. Hindus worship many gods. Villages can even have their own special gods. Hinduism’s sacred language, Sanskrit, is related to Persian, Greek and Latin.
Its most ancient sacred texts are epic poems. The Mahabharata centers on the struggle between two brothers for rulership of northern India. Part of this poem, the Bhagavad Gita, is a dialogue about three areas of knowledge which can help humans escape the constant cycle of reincarnation: the disciplines of knowledge, action and devotion. The Ramayana, a shorter epic poem, concerns the struggle to rule the earth between humans and demons, with Rama its hero. The Vedas and the Upanishads are later sacred texts.
Other chapters in this book cover later additions to Hindu thought, as well as its holidays and festivals, domestic worship, rites and rituals, and revival and reform movements.
This book includes sidebars of supplemental materials for further reading, definitions of terms, and other helpful information. Still, it is hard to condense a 4500 year-old faith into one small book, so every sentence counts, and the information is densely packed. It helps to read each chapter twice, and then to read some other basic books about this faith.
Hinduism is extremely different from Christianity in just about everything – EXCEPT for the fact that both faiths stress devotion, faithfulness, ethical dealings, justice, and virtuousness. It seems to me that most religions offer a way to live a more meaningful, ethical life, and then it is a matter of individual choice; though often people adopt the religion of their family or ethnic heritage. While I feel Christianity offers me a way to live a virtuous life, what amazes me about the world is the incredible variety of ways people have found to express their faith in a supreme being. To learn a little bit about world faiths can be illuminating, confusing, and daunting – all at the same time! Yet, I think it is good to learn about the way others live and what they believe. Just as travel to foreign lands helps us grow, learning about other faiths and cultures broadens our outlook, makes our lives richer, and helps us grow more tolerant and compassionate. Then we are not so easily led when someone tries to demonize all the members of another group, and we feel more comfortable as members of the global village. ( )