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
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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.
enlightenment after he had given up looking for it. Siddhartha is only able to find his
Arjuna does not want to kill his family, but Krishna tells him you cannot kill the spirit only the body, so his family is not being killed only set free, and that Arjuna is fulfilling his work that the G-ds have bestowed on
Arjuna is faced with an internal dilemma during the Second Discourse of the Bhagavad Gita, and although the God Krishna seeks to help guide him towards an understanding of the meaning of his life, Arjuna is still wary of making the wrong decision. This decision concerns itself with either fighting in a civil war against family relatives, having to kill those Arjuna cares most about, or abandoning his dharma as a warrior and jeopardizing fulfilling his duty the greater Self that plays such a pivotal role in his people’s culture and beliefs. While advocating for the battle and fulfilling one’s dharma, Krishna utilizes the point that the Self – an overarching force in life – is a formless, eternal entity that cannot die and is more than the mere vessels that encompass the human beings across the battlefield. It is more important to the greater vitality of one’s existence to complete a duty to the Self rather than live with the temporary benefits of living in what may appear to be a more pleasurable life, but one with no fulfillment.
The paths help to explain that for one to evolve they should worship more, "Men who worship me, thinking solely of me, always disciplined, win the reward I secure" (Gita 9:20 p.58) and be following and doing your duties, "Look to your own duty do not tremble before it" (Gita 2:31 p.57). These two ways of fixing the problem are explained by Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita. Arjuna is set to fight in a battle but in the last minute he twirls around the idea of retreating because of the fear of dying and killing. He believes that the act of killing will be bad in karma. Krishna is outraged with this non-sense and makes it his duty to open Arjuna's eyes to see and realize that he has a duty and that it is to be a warrior and fight. Krishna argues that by not fulfilling his duty in reality will be what brings him the bad karma that he so truly fears. In the end, Arjuna can not back down into his fears because that would be like turning your back on the God. A Hindu must follow their duties, beliefs, and many rituals in order to reach their inner peace, to receive good karma and possibly a better ranking in the caste system and stages of life.
* Krishna pointed out in Bahagavad Gita “that the impermanent has no reality”, that “the spirit was not born; it will never die” and thus, “the spirit kills not, not it will be killed.” (2.16) in the same section, he also described the ones who thinks a spirit kills and the ones who think a spirit can be killed, are both ignorant. The spirit then in Krishna’s view, is immortal and everlasting.
India gave birth to Hinduism which expanded quickly. This spiritual tradition focused on finding peace and eternal tranquility rather than temporary satisfaction from the worldly pleasures. In order to transmit the idea to other people and guide them through it, they came up with different writings to illustrate this. The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads are popular writings that exemplify the beliefs and thoughts of Hinduism. The Bhagavad Gita addresses the question about how a person can be one with Brahman, the universal soul or god, while living in this world. This document is set as a dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and his guide and charioteer Krishna. Arjuna is being encouraged by Krishna to fulfill his duty as a warrior and part of the Kshatriyas, one of the higher divisions in the caste system. Arjuna has to enter this battle and fight in order to live up to his duty and consequently live free from attachments and walk in the path of finding himself as one with Brahman. On the other hand, the Upanishads guided all kinds of people regardless of
Buddhists do believe in rebirth implies that when they die, they will be reborn, back to life again. The purpose is to break out the phase of death and rebirth and achieve nirvana (heaven) or a state of ideal peace. There are many diverse types of Buddhism and many different ways of dealing with death. It is believed that a dying person may seek a monk or nuns in their scrupulous Buddhist tradition to assist them make the transition from life to death as peaceful as possible. Buddhists believe that a person’s state of mind as they die is very important as it can assist them to find a happy state of rebirth when they pass away. Before and at the moment of death and for duration of time after the death, the monk, nun or spiritual friends
Hindus believe in an everlasting soul (atman) that is reincarnated almost intact from birth to birth, and through spiritual practice Hindus seek release (moksha, also known as liberation) so that the soul can join with the Divine God, known as Brahmin.
In the Bhagavad Gita, the fourth discourse which is composed of forty-two verses, Lord Krishna, the narrator guides Arjuna- a warrior who is finding himself pondering about the simple principles of life while he is fighting the war. In the fourth discourse Arjuna learns from Lord Krishna about faith, wisdom sacrifice, ignorance, doubts of the soul, action and inaction, selfless service, and self-realization which ultimately leads to the ultimate truth, which is the path for the spiritual soul to reach its maximum potential here on earth and the afterlife.
One of the most important divergences between Buddhism and the Gita is how dharma is interpreted. In the Bhagavad Gītā Krishna is able to shed some light on the significance of dharma. On the subject of dharma Krishna says: “It is better to strive in one’s own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another. Nothing is ever lost in following one’s own dharma. But competition in another’s dharma breeds fear and insecurity” (BG 3:35). Here Krishna is talking to Arjuna. Krishna is trying to get the point across that Arjuna is always better off following his svadharma rather than adhering to what others want him to do. It is important for Arjuna to follow his own path in order to reach moksha. Krishna is stressing that Arjuna must follow the path that has been carved out
Without the concept of dharma there is no Hinduism. Following ones dharma is to maintain the well being of oneself and others, and to depart from it leads to misdirection and ruin. Dharma in Hinduism is thought of as being an individual’s duty to themselves and their society in both a faith and societal obligation context. Three of Ninian Smart’s dimensions where dharma is most relevant are the ethical, social and mythological dimensions. Dharma details how a follower of Hinduism should go about their life and so relates to the ethical dimension, it describes the interconnection of Hindu society which pertains to the social dimension, and lastly is a central theme to nearly all epics present in Hindu thus representing the mythological dimension. Where dharma is expressed within these dimensions individually it also serves as a pillar to which the three facets are connected.
that if X can be without Y then X and Y are distinct. This view that a
It’s no easy thing a Hindu’s way of understanding of divine reality. Hinduism has two major viewpoints, that seem fundamentally at odds with one another. One is the monistic viewpoint that says all of reality is one thing--Atman or Brahman. The Upanishads describe this monistic idea that in the beginning there was just Being, and from Being stems all things in the universe. In this monistic sense of reality, all is one with the Atman, with Brahman.
Within some forms of SD, there is the belief that regard Atman and Brahman as one, which is better known as a monistic point of view, (monism). What this simply entails is that, “all reality is ultimately one” (91, 5). Now, in order for Atman [the undying soul (OUP, 8/14)] to achieve moksha (the final release from the cycle of death and rebirth) and at last reunite itself with Brahman as a single entity, Atman must first rid itself of its karma. Karma can be compared to that of a checklist when putting it in simpler terms. Because Atman is stuck within samsara [cycle of death and rebirth (91, 3)], it must complete this list of actions [karma, (cn, 9/8)], whether it be during one life or many lives, until the undying soul has achieved moksha,
This can also be explained in the concept of Krishna stating to Ajurna that his Dharma- law if the universe is to be a warrior whether Arjuna is on board or not. This justifies the position taken by Krishna as the serpent and as the thunderbolt. In most circumstances Krishna appears to be the protector of the realms of the oppressed and often