The various ways in which the Hindus image God or the divine - Essay Example

What are some of the ways in which Hindus image 'God' or the divine in light of these texts The various ways in which the Hindus image God or the divine Hindus worship idols. Idols are graven or carved images that are formed in the minds of a person. The Hindus convert the mental idols into physical form from the graven idols or sacred images .The temples of the Hindus have got sacred images of God and have special ways of installing and interacting with the images in the temples and at home. The images are viewed as spiritual not material images that can assist the worshippers in reaching their God. Hindus describe the nature of God in various ways such as Acintya, Sanskrit, Shasta and murti. Acintya means the nature of God that is inconceivable beyond the thoughts and understanding of human beings. Sanskrit is a form of describing the nature of God .This means that when travelling from one place to another, this image can protect a worshipper throughout their destination. The Hindus also worship specific images that are known as arcya-vigraha.This means an image that can be worshipped .Another term that is used to describe the nature of God in Hindu religion is that of murti referring to a divine form of God (Clooney, 2005: 250). The scared images that are found in the Hindu temples and homes are installed according to specific rituals that are described in the scripture. For instance, devotees can go to the temple to take fruits and flowers and later on stand before the scared images in order to offer their hopes and prayers to them. In this case, the worshippers do not bow down to the stones or worship the statutes but they approach the images as a means of reaching God their maker (Clooney, 2005: 250). Hindus worship the Supreme Being in form of templates known as the image or the idol. The Sanskrit murti is translated to mean a form of embodiment or incarnation of a divine power. In times of the consecration of rituals known as the prana pratisha, the image ceases to be a gross matter and later on becomes an actual presence or an incarnation of the divinity of the earth. The divine spirit is believed to remain in the icon as per the wishes of the devotees (Johnson, 2001:71). India's towns and cities have got dozens of temples and shrines that are dedicated with very many deities. The images of gods and goddesses are normally displayed in the stores, hospitals, altars and shrines of the Hindus homes. Hindus acknowledge the deities, but they consider only one to be supreme. They may also consider all gods and goddesses to be equal but they worship only one who is their favorite. They view all the divinities to be the manifestations of a single godhead (Clooney, 2005: 250). The Upanishads is a Hindu sacred text that refers to the Supreme Being known as the Brahman and is considered to be ineffable and it's beyond all human comprehension. Texts referred to as the purana claim that there is a divine entity that assumes a form and name that makes itself accessible to human kind. The Hindus speak of the Supreme Being as being the nirguna one. Are Buddhists being extreme or pessimistic when they assess that humans are rarely compassionate in a truly pure or selfless sense Buddhists are a family of beliefs and practices that are considered to be a religion that is based on the teachings that are attributed to Buddha. Buddha was also known as Siddhartha Gautama which means bound by a Nepal. This person lived and was taught in the Northern Eastern region of the Indian subcontinent where he died around 400 B.C.E in India. Buddha was believed to be a teacher who shared his insights in order to help the sentient beings so as to end their sufferings through understanding the nature of the phenomena; he escaped from the cycle of suffering and rebirth. Buddha passed a message of peace, hope, compassion, tolerance, understanding, wisdom, truth, respect and regard for life to persons that followed the Buddhism religion (Gyatso, 2001:51). The Buddhists that did not understand their religion are the ones that state humans are not compassionate in a truly and selfless sense. For instance, some people blemished Buddhism as a religion and gave the impression that it encouraged superstitious beliefs and dependence on charms and omens. These Buddhists were ignorant of their own teachings as they were unable to refute the false allegations posed against them. Buddhism is not pessimistic or optimistic but it is a realistic religion that taught people to live a happy and peaceful life. It helped people to get rid of miseries and be liberated from evil deeds. There were some critics who stated that the religion was morbid, cynical, hovered on the dark side of life and was an enemy of harmless pleasures of life. These critics based their arguments on the first noble of truth that stated that all conditioned things were in a state of suffering. They had forgotten that not only had Buddha taught cause and effect of suffering but he had taught about the ways of ending suffering in human mankind (Gyatso, 2001:51). Buddha taught people to have heart of wisdom, love and understanding so as to overcome the suffering of humanity .For instance, he was detached from his wife, child, kingdom and worldly pleasures in order to discover the solution of suffering that existed in the world. Prince Siddhartha stated that the world was full of lust, anger, greed and defilements that ignited fires of lust, but Buddha was determined in preaching the gospel of truth and love so as to end suffering of human mankind in the world. Buddha's wife supported her husband and this was a sign of respect to him as he found the practices of the religion to be good (Gyatso, 2001:51). During the period when Buddha was a teacher, he enlightened people and requested them to follow a noble life that was right to human mankind.In case people were inflamed by lust, rage; he gave them advice on how to avoid such actions. In addition, he gave love and compassion to the persons that were forsaken or wretched in life. Today, Buddha is recognized by different kind of people such as religious, atheists, historians, rationalists and intellectuals in the world .They recognize him as being a liberal minded and compassionate leader. Although he did not have a mentor he was a perfectionist, had supreme qualities, discipline, wisdom, endurance, truthfulness, goodwill and determination to achieve in his entire life (Gyatso, 2001:51). Buddha radiated his love and compassion to people. His image was personified with peace, serenity, hope and goodwill. He also cultivated humor such that his opponents joined his religion due to his acts of goodwill. In his sermons, dialogues and discussions he was poised with dignity that earned him dignity, affection and respect from his people. Buddha's teachings taught people to view the world has been neither pessimistic nor optimistic but to view it in a realistic manner and to accept changes as they occurred (Gyatso, 2001:51). How does the land of Israel fit into the Jewish religion How is it shown in specific practices and symbolisms The ways in which the land of Israel fits into the Jewish religion Abraham was a Jewish who was called by God to leave his homeland together with his descendants to go to a place known as Cannan.This land was a land that God had promised to give to the people of Israel (Gen 12).Abraham's grandson was called Israel whose descendants were the Jewish people. The land was also known as Torah a land flowing with milk and honey. It had been abused by the conquerors that made it to be inhabitable to Jews. During the period when the Jewish people took control of the land, there was improvement in the agricultural business that produced high yields to its people. In 135 C.E, the Jews had been exiled from the land of Israel by the Romans after they had been defeated by the Jews in a three-year war and the Jews did not have any control over the land again until the 1948 C.E.The Jewish people lost hope of returning to the promised land .Their hope of returning to the land was expressed through singing songs such as Ha-Tikrah (the hope), the anthem of the Zionist movement and the State of Israel (Fine, 2005:135). The desire of the Jewish to go to the Promised Land was hindered by the problems they faced as they did not have any concrete plans that would enable the Jews to achieve. A political movement known as the Zionist was founded in the late 1800s by Theodor Herzl and Chainm Weizmann as they were determined in creating a Jewish state. They saw the state of Israel as a refuge for the victims of oppression, especially for the Russians who were the pogroms that had decimated from the Jewish population (Fine, 2005:135). Zionism was derived from the word Zion which was a stronghold of Jerusalem. Zion was also applied in Jerusalem that covered the trial of Alfred Dreyfus .Alfred Dreyfus was a Jewish captain in the French military that revealed the governments' secrets to the Germans. The charge levied against this Jew led to the anti-Jewish sentiments that shocked the Herzl in recognizing the need for a Jewish state. Zionist were desperate for a refuge that lead to the creation of the Jewish homeland in Uganda, Alaska and Siberia. Israel was a land that inspired the Jewish people which was an ancient homeland that was part of the Ottoman (Turkish) empire which was called Palestine. During the period of World war I, the British government expressed an interest in creating a Jewish homeland that was in Palestine.However, the British stated that they would give the Arabs freedom on condition that they assisted in defeating the Ottoman empire that controlled most of the Middle East states such as the Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Northern Africa. The British promised the Arabs to limit the Jewish settlement in Palestine for a period of a month when there was a Belfour declaration of establishing the Palestine of the national home for the Jewish people (Fine, 2005:135). The Arabs that lived in Palestine opposed Jewish immigration into the territory and the Jewish homeland .It is at this point that the Palestine nationality began to appear. There were several riots in the territory and the British came to understand that conflicts would not be reconciled in an effective manner .In 1937, the British recommended for the portioning of the territory. The holocaust brought stated the need of having a Jewish homeland into sharp focus for both the Jews and the rest of the world. The Jews that tried to flee from the Nazi government were turned back due to the immigration limitations at the border of every country including United States, Britain and Palestine. The persons that were sent to Germany were killed in death camps in a serial of murder cases. The British were unable to find a solution that would be satisfactory to either the Arabs or the Jews thus handed the problem to the United States which developed a partition plan. This plan was ratified in November 1947 whose mandate expired in May 14 1948 and the British troops pulled out at that time. Jews of the Palestine declared the creation of state of Israel that was recognized by the western countries (Fine, 2005:135). Currently the Jewish people live in the land of Israel that represents eighty percent of the population of Israel and the Jews are in complete control of the land although the non-Jews who are citizens of Israel have got the same rights as the Jewish citizen in Israel. The Arabs that had been forced from the Arabian countries became Israelites' who were known as mizrachim. The other Israelites came from black Ethiopia Jews who had fled during the period of the brutal Ethiopian famine that was experienced in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The way land of Israel fits in the Jewish religion and how it is shown by specific practices and symbols The Shield of David was a symbol that acted as a Zionist flag from the time of its inception as Israels flag in the beginning of May 15 1948.It was described by Shelom to signify a hollow that was invested with meanings that were imposed by Jews that had varying allegiances.He also stated that at the time of dissemination in the 19th century, the Shield of David acted as an empty symbol of Judaism whose meaning was declining each day. It addressed issues that related to the hope for the future and redemption of sinners. The Star of David was a historical symbol that was intended to set Margen David within the Symbolic framework. It symbolized a period of religious decadence when the Israelites were in exile that was later followed by the Zionist redemption. (Fine, 2005:135). The Yellow Jewish star was a sign of exclusion and ultimately was annihilations as it accompanied belief of humiliation, horror and a battle and of heroic resistance. The sign stated that the Israelites had been murdered and showed how they went to the Promised Land. It was believed that the sign marked a way of annihilation and to the gas chamber was a sign of life. The sign signified suffering and indeed that had become a worthy illumination of the path of life and that of reconstruction (Fine, 2005:135). The emblem of the state symbolized the depiction of memoral from the Arch of Titus that expressed the return of Memoral from Rome to the land of Israel. It also signified the end of exile and a close connection to the history of people of Israel that lived there. Olive branches signified the peaceful aims of the state; it had been inscribed in a Hebrew name of the state of Israel. Ancient symbol of Judaism was chosen so as to express and represent continuity and creation of the old to the new state of Israel. References Clooney, F. X. (2005) Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary New York, United States of America: Oxford University Press US. Fine, S. (2005) Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archaeology. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Gyatso G.K. (2001) Introduction to Buddhism: An Explanation of the Buddhist Way of Life .2nd Ed.Pocklington United Kingdom: Tharpa Publications UK. Johnson, L. (2001) The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hinduism .Hanoi, Vietnam: Alpha Books. Read More