Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Hinduism
Largest religion of India
Over 80% of Indians follow Hinduism
Also found in South Asia
Third largest religion in the world
Over 915 million Hindus in the world
Around 1 million Hindus thought to be in the U.S., so there is purpose and reason to use learning about it
Richmond
Myth
They don’t pray to cows.
They revere the cow as a symbol of life
Origins and Founder
There is no founder of Hinduism
Hinduism, having no set founder or structure of beliefs, has many, and I mean many different forms
So, there is no “set” belief, which makes it a little more tricky for us to know how to counter their faith when we aren’t entirely sure what each Hindu we encounter believes.
There are some set beliefs, but they are set very loosely.
It started around 4,000 years ago
What happened was Indo-European tribes invaded North India and brought with them the teachings of Vedism
Vedism is polytheistic, but didn’t focus too much on sacrifices, but worshiped nature.
Vedism shaped much of the Hindu belief
So, you’ve got the Vedism religion mixing with the beliefs of the Indians leading to:
Reincarnation
Spiritual unity of humankind
Polytheism - many gods
Pantheism - god is everything and everything is a god
This belief system was passed down orally until it was finally written down in what is called “The Vedas”
The Vedas - written and composed between 1800 and 500 bc
Four sections or beliefs to the Vedas
Rigveda - hymns to various gods recited by priest
Samaveda - used for chants at the Soma sacrifice
Yajuraveda - book of sacrificial prayers and formulas
Artharaveda - Songs, spells, and incantations for healing disease and exorcising evil spirits.
The Upanishads
A collection of writings that marked a change to the ideas about humanity and existence.
Had a large influence on the founder of buddhism
The Ramayana
One of two epic tales about the life of Rama, who is believed to be an incarnation of the god Vishnu
The Mahabharata
Second epic tale about the deeds of the Aryan clans
The Bhagavad Gita
Most sacred, most widely read book that describes man’s duty and impacts the Hindu belief of bhakti, or devotion to a particular god as a means of salvation.
The caste system
Basically, a class of society
Born into a caste and can never leave that caste
Brahmans - include the priests, genealogists, astrologers and traditional physicians
Dalits (lowest) - “Untouchables” - have dirtiest filthiest jobs if they have any jobs at all
Who do Hindus worship?
There are over 300 million gods that Hindus worship
All these gods are thought to be re-incarnations of the “Supreme Being”, named Brahman
Brahman
created everything as an illusion with no beginning or end
Some believe that the different gods represent the different aspects of the One Divinity who is too large for humans to comprehend.
Others see a singular god with millions of different forms.
Still other traditions of Hinduism believe in a triune view of god with Brahma as the creator, Vishnu as the preserver, and Shiva as the destroyer.
Very individualist, not communal
Hindus practice their religion however they want, whenever they want, and to whatever degree they want.
Which makes sense, if you have no founder or guidelines to go by, you can just kind of make it up as you go
Like watching my kids play “spies” or some crazy game.
It never makes any sense to me, so when they ask if I want to play, I always want to say no because I like structure
How do they worship?
In temples.
Temples everywhere.
You get a temple, and you get a temple, and you get a temple
Temple in Richmond
people go in and out of temples at all times of day, no set service
filled with shrines to several gods with statues and places to leave offerings
feed their gods
clothe their gods
change their gods clothes
They also worship by prostrating on the floor, meditating in front of a statue, or walking around a shrine a certain number of times.
Most hindus also have a shrine, or shrines at home to whom they worship certain gods
Each family has specific gods that they worship in the form of idols
morning and evening worship each day
Yoga
a path of mental, physical and spiritual discipline that leads to moksha
Yoga is a Hindu practice which uses the body to clear the mind and connect to Brahman on the path to moksha
This smacks right in the face of the Gospel.
The Bible never tells us to empty our minds, but instead to fill our minds with the truths of God’s Word.
Mantras
Prayers, chants, and utterances
Ritual bathings
Rivers with cleansing power
Kumbh Mela - Ganges river, millions flock to it each year to bathe in it to be made spiritually clean
What do they believe?
Two common beliefs
Reincarnation (samsara)
Cyclical - born, live, die, born again, live again, die again, etc
Past lives determine present lives and present lives determine future lives
Which is where the idea of KARMA comes from
Salvation (moksha)
Moksha is when you finally break free from samsara
How do they worship?
In temples.
Temples everywhere.
You get a temple, and you get a temple, and you get a temple
Temple in Richmond
people go in and out of temples at all times of day, no set service
filled with shrines to several gods with statues and places to leave offerings
feed their gods
There are three paths to achieving salvation
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