HinduismDPD5

__**﻿ ﻿ Hinduism**__ __**By JD Durdach**__ 

**__What is Hinduism? __** Hinduism is a very, very, very old religion. It started 4,000 years ago in the Indus River Valley. There was a very intelligent civilization living there. Through the years, they evolved a religion from everyday beliefs they had. Now, today, Hinduism is a very popular religion, mostly in India. They believe in many gods (Polytheistic). **__Beliefs __** Many Hindus believe in many gods. Their "main" god is Brahma. Other gods that play an important role in Hinduism are Ganesha and Maya. They believe that they should be nice to everything because they are Brahma's creations. They also believe in a system of reincarnation. They believe the cycle goes Life, Death, and Rebirth. They believe in a social ladder called "The Caste System." If a Hindu has good karma in their previous life, they will go up a step. If a Hindu reaches the top, the go to "Moksha" or heaven. Karma is how good you were in your previous life. For say, if before a Hindu died, they prayed, worked hard, and were good people, they would have positive karma. If a Hindu never prays, slacks off at work, and were not very good people, they would have negative karma. Negative karma brings Hindus down on the Caste Ladder. Here is a Diagram showing the social classes:



__**Holidays**__ ﻿Hindus celebrate many holidays. Their main holiday is Holi or "The Festival of Colours." Th e day before this festival, Hindus throw colored powder at each other.  "In [|Vaishnava Theology], [|Hiranyakashipu] is the great king of demons, and he had been granted a boon by [|Brahma], which made it almost impossible for him to be killed. The boon was due to his long penance, after which he had demanded that he not be killed "during day or night; inside the home or outside, not on earth or on sky; neither by a man nor an animal; neither by astra nor by [|shastra]". Consequently, he grew arrogant and attacked the Heavens and the Earth. He demanded that people stop worshipping [|gods] and start praying to him. Despite this, Hiranyakashipu's own son, [|Prahlada], was a devotee of Lord [|Vishnu]. In spite of several threats from Hiranyakashipu, Prahlada continued offering prayers to Lord Vishnu. He was poisoned but the poison turned to nectar in his mouth. He was ordered to be trampled by elephants yet remained unharmed. He was put in a room with hungry, poisonous snakes and survived. All of Hiranyakashipu's attempts to kill his son failed. Finally, he ordered young Prahlada to sit on a [|pyre] on the lap of his demoness sister, [|Holika], who could not die because she also had a boon which would prevent fire from burning her. Prahlada readily accepted his father's orders, and prayed to Vishnu to keep him safe. When the fire started, everyone watched in amazement as Holika burnt to death, while Prahlada survived unharmed, the burning of Holika is celebrated as Holi."  --Wikipedia   <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; line-height: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">