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Liberation in Islam and Hinduism Islam and Hinduism are largest world religions, taking respectively second and third place after Christianity. Twenty-two percent of the worlds population consists of Muslims, while approximately fourteen percent are Hindu followers. Most of the Hindus are concentrated mainly in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Muslims populate Middle East, Asia, and Northern Africa.
Hinduism was founded sometime between 1500 and 500 BC in the area of the Indus valley civilization. There is no individual founder and no names given to say who developed it. Muhammad founded Islam in Arabia between 610 and 632. Muhammad was dubbed the prophet of Allah, who is the only god. He was considered last in line of prophets they went from Abraham to Jesus. Here are two texts from Bhagavad-Gita and from Koran.
I will try to compare and discuss them, while having a look at each religions view supporting these texts. It is written in Bhagavad-Gita: The one who has faith, and is sincere, and has mastery over the senses, gains this knowledge. Having gained this, one at once attains the supreme peace. (4. 39) One who finds happiness with the Self, who rejoices the Self within, and who is illuminated by the Self-knowledge, such a yogi becomes one with Brahman and attains supreme nirvana. (5. 24) Koran says: And preach with this (Koran) to those who reverence the summoning before their Lord - they have none beside Him as a Lord and Master, nor an intercessor - that they may attain salvation. (6: 51) These texts successfully describe the ways of reaching liberation in Islam and Hinduism. However, the views of these religions differ a lot. It can be explained in looking at basic values and concepts of each religion. Hindus believe that the soul is immortal and re-enters a body of flesh and blood to resolve experiences and learn all the lessons that the material life has to offer.
Hindus also believe in karma. They believe that karma is one of the natural laws of the universe. If you do good things, good things will happen to you. If you do negative things, negative things will happen to you.
The Hindu purpose is mainly to learn all that they can from this life so that they can pass their knowledge to the spiritual world. Hindus believe in reincarnation, or samsara. They see the individual as composed of two parts: the jiva tman and the atman. The jiva tman is the personality of the individual that is constantly changing. It is the sum of all thought and feelings learned throughout life. The atman, on the other hand, is a part that does not change.
It is simply there and is manifest in the world. The jiva tman is subject to reincarnation. The next reincarnation form of the jiva tman depends entirely on the personality of the individual in the present existence. Karma is what determines the state of the individual in the next existence.
Karma means actions and reactions and it refers to both the body and mind. Actions taken are followed with result. These results are stored and are what make up each individuals karma. It is interesting to note that actions taken by the mind may not produce results until several lifetimes later. Yet, these results are still attached to the jiva tman. Each persons karma is what is responsible for his / her next life.
Because of the belief that each thought and action has direct effect on the next life, to a Hindu the best course is to be good and do good, believe in a good conscience and respect the worthiness of the individual and the ethics of life and worship your ancestors. Simply put, Hindus believe that your present life is resultant of the actions done in a previous life. Live life according to Dharma to get good karma. If you are faithful and virtuous, you will be rewarded in your next life. If you are disgraceful or evil, your next life will reflect your current actions. Some (not all) Hindus believe in the concept of heaven and hell.
After death, the deceased will be judged before the God of Death, Lord Yama. Vedic Hindus believe that if one is good and virtuous, he may go to heaven. The conception of heaven is a place where the departed souls go to reap the fruits of their virtuous deeds. They remain there for some time until the fruits of their virtuous actions are exhausted. Then they come back to this world. They eat in heaven the divine feasts of the Shining Ones or the Divas (gods).
Various kinds of Divas (gods) dwell, feast, dance, and sing in heaven. There is no disease. There is no trouble of hunger and thirst. The inhabitants are endowed with brilliant bodies and they wear shining garments. Heaven is a thought-world, a realm of intense ideation.
Whatever one wishes, he gets it at once by immediate materialization. Therefore, it is a happier world than the earth-plane. Hell is a particular locality that is walled off from the surrounding regions of space by the messengers of Yama. Sinners get a thick body called "Yatana-Data" when they are punished. The punishment in hell is not remembered by the soul when it is reborn. The punishment in hell is reformatory and educative.
The permanent educative effect remains in conscience. The innate fear, which some souls feel at the sight of temptation of sin, is due to the finer development of conscience in the furnace of hell-fire. This is the permanent gain acquired by the soul. The soul is reborn with keener conscience after being purified by hell-fire.
Because of this, one can make better use of his faculties in the next birth. Well, actually life is just viewed as transition towards reincarnation. It is also interesting to see how Hindu percept death. Death to a Hindu is a polluting time. The ultimate goal of every Hindu is to achieve liberation from samsara, which can be also called Moksa.
Moksa is the process of reincarnation. It usually happens when there is no arrogant self, in other words no I or Ego remaining. This occurs when the jiva tman goes away forever and the atman merges with Brahman. The result of this process is pure consciousness and bliss.
Many reincarnations may be required in order to achieve this state. In Bhagavad-Gita, it is said Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure but is always in trance, enjoying the pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on the Supreme. (Chapter 5: Karma-yoga Action in Krishna Consciousness) This is the primary goal in order to achieve liberation by Hindu. In this state, a person is considered to be absolutely liberated from different problems and complications that might exist in life. In Hinduism, there are three main ways to liberation. These three paths could also be otherwise identified as Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Karma Yoga.
Many teachers, including Ramakrishna, identify a fourth main path as Raja Yoga, differentiating between the pursuit of knowledge (Jnana Yoga) and the psychophysical techniques aimed at subduing the mind and experiencing the super-conscious state (Raja Yoga). These methods include body postures, breath control and concentration or contemplation: all aimed at the ultimate goal of achieving samadhi. Following one or all of these paths can finally deliver a person from samsara (the cycle of rebirths). Many Hindus would say that total liberation (moksha) comes when the soul achieves undifferentiated union with Brahman.
In contrast, the Sankhya Yoga School within Hinduism teaches that final liberation is not signified by an absolute, monistic oneness with Brahman: a perception of everything being in the Self and the Self in everything. Instead, it involves the freeing of the individual soul from the cycle of rebirth, yet simultaneously, an isolation from all other Selves within the sphere of its own personal, omnipresent, omniscient, divine, eternal existence. In this viewpoint, absorption into Brahman does not mean the absolute loss of individuality. There are three paths for liberation in Hinduism, which are also called tree marga's.
Hindus disagree about the way (marga) to final emancipation (moksha). Three paths to liberation (variously valued but nonexclusive) are presented in an extremely influential religious text, the Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord; c. 200 BC), according to which it is not acts themselves but the desire for their results that produces karma and thus attachment. The first way to salvation is the karma-marga "the path of duties", the disinterested discharge of ritual and social obligations. The second is the jnana-marga "the path of knowledge", the use of meditative concentration preceded by a long and systematic ethical and contemplative training, yoga, to gain a supra-intellectual insight into one's identity with Brahman. Moreover, the third one is the bhakti-marga "the path of devotion", the devotion to a personal God. These ways are regarded as suited to various types of people.
Although the search for moksha has never been the goal of more than a small minority of Hindus, liberation was a religious ideal that affected all lives. Moksha determined not only the hierarchical values of Indian social institutions and religious doctrines and practices but also the function of Indian philosophy, which is to discuss what one must do to find true fulfillment and what one has to realize, by direct experience, in order to escape from samsara and obtain spiritual freedom. While those who have not been reached by formal Indian philosophy have only vague ideas about the doctrines of karma and moksha, in semi popular milieus these doctrines gave rise to much speculation. For the ordinary Hindu, the main aim of worldly life lies in conforming to social and ritual duties, to the traditional rules of conduct for one's caste, family, and profession.
Such requirements constitute an individual's dharma (law and duties), one's own part of the broader stability, law, order, and fundamental equilibrium in the cosmos, nature, and society. Santana (traditional) dharma -- a term used by Hindus to denote their own religions a close approximation to "religious practices" in the West. Thus, religion for Hindus is mainly a tradition and a heritage, a way of life and a mode of thought. In practice, it is the right application of methods for securing both welfare in this life and a good condition in the hereafter. This approach leads to understand liberation as...
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