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Essay / Hinduism and Salvation - 1302
First Vice President of India Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan said: “Hinduism is not just a faith. It is the union of reason and intuition that cannot be defined but must only be experienced. Evil and error are not ultimate. There is no hell, because that means there is a place where God is not, and there are sins that are beyond His love. » (Hinduism, 2008). The Hindu religion focuses on four key elements that lead to salvation: personal gods, karma, reincarnation, and moksha (spiritual liberation). In this article, I will demonstrate how Hinduism is a plausible religion, and how it compares and contrasts with the Christian faith in which I was raised. Hindus believe that there is not just one God, but many. It is estimated that there are 333 million deities in the Hindu faith. (Fisher, 2003: 79). The reason there are so many gods is that those of the Hindu faith worship piety in everything. As Christians, we believe that the world was created by God and everything in it was developed by Him according to a single master plan. We are taught to believe in one God and not to worship false idols or other gods. In contrast, Hindus believe that every living being deserves its own worship. Ramanuja, a Hindu dualist, believed that there was always a difference between humans and God. However, he believed that we are all bodies of God and therefore we are the guardians of the world. (Carruthera, 2008). I was recently talking to a person I know of the Hindu faith, wondering how it is possible to have so many gods and how one can be expected to know or even be aware of so many gods. She told me that Hindus are not supposed to know all the gods – no one does. She presented for me the Hindu perspective of God in a much simpler form. For example, a Hindu person might be walking down the road and see a rock. It could be the most beautiful rock anyone has ever seen. So, that person will pick up the rock and bring it home to place on their altar. The person will then pray to this rock, considering it a personal god that they are meant to worship..