culture and traditions of india

7/27/2019 Culture and Traditions of India

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Culture and Traditions of India: Religions

Om Sri Sai Ram,

India is a very intense and eternal land. Many

Avatars, Prophets, and Sages were born in this

holy land. It is also a very multicultural areawhere there are lots of religions. One of the

main religions in India is Hinduism. Hinduism isspecial because it wasnt founded by any

special prophet. The Aryans who were thefounders of Hinduism were believed to have

invaded India thus ending the Indus ValleyCivilization. Hinduism is mainly based on the

teachings of the 4 Vedas. The 4 Vedas: RigVeda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Vedawere the basis of Hinduism. The Vedas were

believed to be written down around 1500 BCEbut Hindus say that the Vedas are not of human

origin. Hindus also believed in the caste system


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by Siddhartha Gautama or The Buddha whowas a Kshatriya originally but after seeing

death, poverty, old age, and an ascetic hedecided that he should be an ascetic too

because he saw that the ascetic was in a state

of supreme bliss. His teachings were mainly theFour Noble Truths and The Eight Fold Pathwhich told people to leave of desires and lead agood life. Many Shudras decided to become

Buddhists because Hindu priests told them thatthey should perform a lot of yagnas. To conduct

a yagna costs a lot of money but the Shudrashad no money so they decided to become

Buddhists. Buddhism says that you dont have

to perform sacrifices and you should just followthe Eight Fold Path. Swami also says that the

only sacrifice you can make is the mind. Thereis a yagna called the Aswhameda Yagna where

people have to sacrifice a horse but Swami says


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shouldnt discriminate about who is important

but we should do our duty which is to go back

to our source which is god. The people usuallymisinterpreted the Vedas. After Zoarasthrinism

came to India because of Muslim invasions in

Persia. Zoroastrians were very wealthy businesspeople who settled along the west coast of India. And soon enough came the Musliminvaders who looted lots of temples in India

and established the Mughal Empire. The

starting emperors didnt allow Hinduism to be

practised by Hindus. But a few emperors suchas Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan were

tolerant. About the same time Bhakti Hinduismwas also going around. People thought of it as adifferent sect of Hindus who thought that

praising the lord was the best way of reachingto him. And mostly Bhakti was practised

through Bhajan, Abhangs, Keerthana, and


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Namasmarana. Also came another religionwhich was Sikhism. It was founded by Guru

Nanak who wanted to unite the Hindus andMuslims. He created Sikhism as a cross

between Hinduism and Islam. Sikhs arent

allowed idol worship and also have to covertheir hair like Muslims do. Their Hindu practiceswere they believed in Avatars and Gurus. Theyalso believe in rebirth. After sometime came

Christianity along with the European empiressuch as the British, French and the Portuguese.

Some of these empires forced people tobecome Christians. Swami says that you

shouldnt convert people to the religion theyre

following because religion is part of theirDharma. Soon the British conquered India and

the Indians led by Mahatma Gandhi gotindependence from the British through Ahimsa

and Sathya which were Hindu traditions from


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the Vedas and Bhagavad Gita. People say thisas a revival of Hinduism which Mahatma

Gandhi did. Then came our beloved Swamiwhose teachings summarize all religions basic

teachings. Swami was born in India because of

the long traditional history. All these religionshave all the same thing: Love. Swami isteaching us all these teachings over and overagain but we still forget. India has taught us a

great lesson to have forbearance and love forevery religion. Swami has put all teachings from

all religions into the five human values: Sathya,Dharma, Shanti, Prema, and Ahimsa. If we

follow all these human values, this will surelybe a better world. We should remember his

teachings always without forgetting it.

Jai Sai Ram

culture and traditions of india

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