Author: Fritz Ridenour
Publication: Christian Broadcasting
Network
Date: May 29, 2005
URL: http://www.family.org/teenguys/breakmag/features/a0020129.html
This story was excerpted from So
What's the Difference? How World Faiths Compare to Christianity by Fritz
Ridenour, ©2001 Gospel Light Publishing. Used with permission.
Reincarnation. Karma. Yoga and meditation.
You've heard the words, but did you know they come from Hinduism? Find
out how this major world religion compares with Christianity.
All approaches to God are good and
equal. In fact, you can be god, or at least part of god, if you search
deep enough within yourself.
Sound familiar? You might have heard
these misguided thoughts from a friend, a popular band or even a teacher.
These philosophies have worked their way into the mainstream of our culture,
but their origins lie in Hinduism, one of the world's major Eastern religions.
Just what is Hinduism all about?
Keep reading for a breakdown of its beliefs and a comparison with the Bible.
Castes and Classes: The History
of Hinduism
You may have heard of the Hindu
caste system in and around India. It's an extremely rigid social hierarchy
that began with four major castes - the Brahmins (priests), the Kshatriyas
(warriors and nobles), the Vaisyas (merchants and artisans) and Shudras
(slaves). Each caste was then subdivided into hundreds of subcastes arranged
in order of rank. Only Brahmin, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas were allowed to
take full advantage of all the Hindu religion has to offer, and the Shudras
weren't even allowed to hear the Vedas (Hindu scripture) or use them to
find salvation.
Even lower on the totem pole were
the Untouchables who, until the 20th century, were considered so low they
were outside the caste system and, most of the time, were treated as subhuman.
In the past, Untouchables always had the dirtiest and filthiest jobs, drank
polluted water, ate scraps, wore disgraceful clothing and watched their
children die of malnutrition. They were denied property, education and
dignity.
When India became a nation in 1947,
the government officially outlawed discrimination against Untouchables.
The greatest force for changing these laws and customs, which kept Untouchables
in virtual slavery, has been the influence of Christian missionaries, who
have played a major role in challenging the social-economic-religious power
blocs in India.
Two Core Beliefs of Hinduism
Hinduism isn't really one religion;
it's many religions that interact and blend with one another. There is
no known founder of Hinduism, no creedal statements of faith to sign and
no agreed-upon authority. In fact, one can be a good Hindu and believe
in one god, many gods or no god at all! This is because, for Hindus, contradictory
ideas are not a problem. All reality, contradictory or not, is seen as
"one." But there are two foundational assumptions that almost all Hindus
believe without question - reincarnation and karma.
Reincarnation is the belief that
the atman, a person's eternal soul, must repeatedly be recycled into the
world in different bodies. In some forms of Hinduism, souls may be reincarnated
as animals, plants or even inanimate objects. Reincarnation is the process
that takes the Hindu through the great wheel of samsara, the thousands
or millions of lives (all full of suffering) that each atman must endure
before reaching moksha - liberation from suffering and union with the infinite.
Karma ("action") has to do with
the law of cause and effect. For the Hindu, karma means merit or demerit,
which attaches to someone's atman according to how this person lives his
life. Karma from past lives affects a person's present life, and karma
from this life will determine a person's status in the next life.
The Bible flatly contradicts Hindu
ideas of reincarnation and karma. Hinduism teaches that the atman is uncreated
and returns in future lives. The Bible teaches that each person is created
by God, will die once and be resurrected once at the judgment (see John
5:17-30; 1 Corinthians 15:1-58).
Hinduism teaches that the atman
is perfect, free and unlimited, and no matter how many lives it takes,
eventually each and every atman will realize its divine nature. The Bible
teaches that each person has one life to live and after this comes the
judgment (see Hebrews 9:27).
Paths to Moksha
For Hindus, the great spiritual
challenge is that the atman is separated from Brahma (Ultimate Reality)
and trapped in samsara, the seemingly endless process of being reincarnated
over and over. Moksha, which is liberation from samsara and reunion with
Brahma, is the goal. In Hinduism, there are basically three paths to moksha:
(1) The path of works (dharma) (2) the path of knowledge (inana) (3) and
the path of passionate devotion (bhakti). Let's look at these three paths
one at a time.
When following dharma, the path
of works, a person has a set of specific social and religious obligations
that must be fulfilled. He must follow his caste occupation, marry within
his caste, eat or not eat certain foods and, above all, produce and raise
a son who can make a sacrifice to his ancestors as well as perform other
sacrificial and ritual acts. By fulfilling these obligations, the person
using the path of works may hope to attain a better reincarnation and may
- after thousands or tens of thousands of reincarnations - achieve moksha.
A more difficult way to achieve
moksha is the path of knowledge, inana, which includes self-renunciation
and mediation on the supreme pantheistic reality of Hinduism. This ascetic
path is open to men only in the highest castes. They believe that the world
as we experience it is merely an illusion and that Brahma is the only thing
that really exists and has meaning. This path of knowledge usually includes
yoga - the attempt to control one's consciousness through bodily posture,
breath control and concentration.
The way of passionate devotion,
bhakti, is the most popular way to achieve moksha. A devotee may choose
any of the 330 million gods, goddesses or demigods in the Hindu pantheon
and passionately worship that particular god. Most popular is the god Vishnu.
Bhakti appeals to the lower classes
(the vast majority of the people who live in India) and offers a much easier
path for their souls to progress to higher forms of birth through reincarnation
- and eventually to reach moksha. Through bhakti the worshipper bypasses
going through many rebirths and lives as the other paths demand. There
is no torture of yoga exercises to perform, and neither is there a need
to be part of the intelligentsia or a special caste.
Why the Hindu's God Is Too Small
Actually, Hinduism is more a philosophy
than a theology. The Hindus try to make a tremendous case for the bigness
of their impersonal god, Brahma. But where does the Hindu seek Brahma?
Within himself. For the Hindu, each person is "god" (or at least part of
"god"). The Hindu's god is too small.
The biblical record (see 1 John
5:11-12) states that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in
His Son. If we have the Son, we have eternal life - not a series of mythological
reincarnations.(In fact, the Hindu would say we believe in an absolutely
unproven eternal life.)
Along with their rejection of God
as sovereign Creator of the world, Hindus also part company with Christianity
on the crucial issue of Jesus Christ as God's incarnate Son. Hindu worshipers
of Vishnu, for example, believe that God became incarnate many times in
the past. The Bible teaches that God became incarnate only once in human
history (see John 1:1, 14). Jesus did not come to teach humanity various
ways to salvation but to be "the way and the truth and the life" (John
14:6) and "to take away the sins of many" (Hebrews 9:28).
The resurrection of Christ demonstrates
His absolute uniqueness as God the Son, His victory over death and His
divine approval from God the Father. It also refutes the Hindu teaching
of continuous reincarnation and their belief that Christ is just another
teacher-avatar (super-savior).
