Page 16 - Perceptions papers

HINDUISM

Prof. Dulal Borthakur, Ph.D.

The laws of karma and reincarnation are two major doctrines of Hinduism. According to the

law of karma (action), all major events in our life are governed by a system of causes and effects,

actions and reactions, in which our actions have corresponding effects on our future. The events

of our life in the future will be shaped and the people who will come to our life as family

members, friends, enemies and teachers are selected on the basis of our past and present actions.

Karma is thus a way of explaining all misfortunes and evils in the world. All fortunes and

misfortunes in our present life cannot be explained by our past actions within the present life.

Similarly, we may not harvest all the fruits of good and bad actions within the present life. Some

fruits of actions, either good or bad, are carried forward from our past lives to the present life,

and similarly, we may carry some fruits of our karma from this life to future lives. Thus the law

of karma cannot be explained fully without introducing the concept of reincarnation. According

to the law of reincarnation, the soul incarnates again and again on earth until it becomes perfect

and attains moksha or liberation from the wheel of birth and death. A soul has to be reborn

because of the illusion of the mind that creates its attachment to the body and the material

world. Living our life according to the spiritual principles should gradually lead us towards

freedom from the illusion and attachments of the material world, for achieving moksha.

When and where was it founded and by whom: Hinduism is a composite of many religious

practices that first developed after the arrival of the Aryans and their interactions with the

Dravidian civilization, possibly 5000-7000 years ago. The word Hinduism was not there at that

time, and it did not appear in any of the Hindu scriptures, such as, Vedas, Upanishads, and

Puranas. In the thirteenth century, the words Hindu, Hinduism, and Hindustan, were derived

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