This week in class, we looked at an introduction to Hinduism. I thought it was interesting how the word “Hindu” was only used because of the Persians mispronouncing the word “Sindhu.” I noted that unlike Legalism and Confucianism that we have previously studied, Hinduism has no single founder. It also has no single holy book that is followed.

The concept of reincarnation is essential to Hinduism. Hindus believe that people continue to be reborn as new beings after they die in a continuing cycle. The reading calls this cycle “samsara.” For Hindus, the main goal is “moksha.” That is oneness with the main Hindu god Brahman. For this reason, it seems like people are trapped in samsara. This might be why moksha is defined as a release from samsara. Why would you need to be released from something that you are not trapped in somehow? Karma is important as well. It is like, “What goes around comes around.” Hindus believe that if people are good in one of their lives, they will be born into another good life. If people are bad in one of their lives, they will be born into another bad life. Either way, however people act bounces back at them.

The main way to get to moksha is through “dharma.” Dharma is fulfilling one’s own duties and tasks faithfully. The animated video we watched on dharma stressed the importance of spiritual dharma. Fulfilling one’s spiritual tasks are the most important tasks on the way to moksha. The reading also said that focusing on material accomplishments will only continue the samsara cycle. One must focus on spiritual dharma to achieve moksha.

I do wonder a few things about Hinduism, though. If everyone is reincarnated, and every being is the reincarnation of another being, how does a being come into existence for its first life? It seems like it takes many lifetimes for someone to get to moksha. Do Hindus believe that someone can be born into his or her first life, complete his or her entire spiritual dharma all in one lifetime, and go straight to moksha without having to go through samsara first?

We also looked at a part of the Ramayana. In it, Rama has to rescue his wife Sita from a demon. The text is sacred and tells Hindus important lessons about life. One of the lessons is that dharma is a priority. To me it seems like a wife’s dharma is always to help her husband’s dharma. This is because Sita will not be rescued by herself or anyone else other than her husband Rama. Rama’s dharma seems to coordinate with Sita’s dharma because he is supposed to be brave and get Sita out of danger. I also thought it was interesting how Bharata, Rama’s brother, did not take the throne when Rama was in exile from the kingdom. In class we talked about how it was Rama’s dharma to become the new king, and Bharata knew that he was not supposed to take Rama’s dharma. This makes me think that dharma is based completely on whatever a person is born as and has nothing to do with any special skills or talents at all. If a person is really good at songwriting, but he or she was born as a farmer, he or she must work on farming as his or her dharma and not the songwriting that he or she is talented at doing.

So far I think this has been a good introduction to Hinduism, and I am looking forward to learning more about the caste system and the Bhagavad-Gita next week!