Hinduism: Beliefs and Practices

Our quote for today is from Buddha. He said, "There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting."

In this podcast, we are making our way through Garry R. Morgan's book, "Understanding World Religions in 15 Minutes a Day."

Our Understanding World Religions topic for today is, "Hinduism: Beliefs and Practices" 

As mentioned in our last episodes, Hindu practice involves the worship of a vast multitude of deities. Worship consists primarily of prayers (usually chanted) and praise songs, plus offerings of food, milk, or money placed in front of a statue or idol of the god being worshiped. Worship, both corporate and individual, may take place in a temple. Some temples are dedicated to one god while others contain statues representing a number of gods. Most Hindu homes have shrines as well, with pictures or smaller statues to represent the gods chosen for worship by that family. No one attempts to worship all 330 million gods; people choose a few that are important to a person’s family, caste, occupation, or circumstances. 

Hinduism has an elaborate hierarchical structure for both gods and humans. At the top are Brahma, the Creator (different from Brahman, ultimate reality); Shiva, the Destroyer (also the god of fertility); and Vishnu, the Preserver. These three together are called the Trimurti, which some Hindus believe represents three facets of Brahman and thus sometimes mistakenly equate it with the Christian Trinity. 

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