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Rebirth In Hinduism

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When the charioteer of Prince Arjuna, Krishna (who is an avatar of the god Vishnu), tries to convince the prince to fight against his own relatives, he invokes some of the core concepts of Hinduism, such as karma, dharma, samsara, and brahman.
The avatar Krishna brought up Hindu concept of atman saying, “the Eternal [atman] in man cannot die”. Hindus believe in brahman, the essence of life. The brahman in humans is the soul, or atman. As opposed to the human body, the atman is eternal. The ultimate goal in Hinduism is to achieve moksha, or reunion with brahman. But it takes multiple lifetimes to achieve moksha, so Hindus believe in samsara, or rebirth. After the physical death of the human body, the atman then takes another form and Krishna reminds Arjuna of this by saying, “As…our mortal body wanders on in …show more content…

A person has a higher chance of being united with brahman if they build up good karma throughout their lifetime. In order to build up good karma, one must fulfill his or her dharma. Krishna repeatedly invokes this concept of dharma. Karma is a person’s actions which, if used to fulfill their dharma, lead to good karma. Good karma results in the person’s atman being reincarnated in a higher being, and so is therefore closer to achieving the ultimate goal of moksha, or reunion with the divine. Since Prince Arjuna is a warrior, his duty is to fight. Krishna invokes this by saying “Think thou of thy duty and do not waver.” Not fulfilling one’s dharma means that person will get bad karma, and therefore be farther away from achieving the Hindu goal of moksha. Since Arjuna’s duty is to fight, him not fighting, even if it means killing his own relatives, is him not fulfilling his dharma.

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