Hinduism... Heather Mathis

What is the human condition? What is the solution to this condition? How do we move from problem to solution? How best to live the solution in our own lives?

In Hinduism the problem is samsara, you keep coming back until you awaken and realize that you are god, everything is god, Atman is Brahman. We keep producing karma in our past lives that we have to deal with in the present life until we finally achieve the real goal sat, chit, ananda, pure being, consciousness, and bliss. By practicing one of the four yogas, Bhakti, Karma, Raja, and Jnana you can become awakened and achieve monksha or liberation.

I really liked that Hinduism is very accepting and open to peoples personalities. You can choose your own path to enlightenment. For example if you are are more work oriented you could practice Karma yoga, or if you do better studying you could choose to practice Jnana yoga. Something else that I like is that there are no sinners in Hinduism just different people on different paths to enlightenment. So even if you are a drug addict in this life because some karma in your past life you can choose to end the addiction and in return end that karma and produce better karma. Everyone wins because eventually everyone will realize that you are god. Once a person does realize that they are god and achieved sat, chit, ananda they can play in this life because they no longer attached to the body.

Hinduism also has 4 stages of life, student, household, retirement, and sannyasin. I really like this concept when you are a student, thats all that you have to focus on. I am currently taking seven classes this semester and working a job. It would be nice if we could learn something from Hinduism and let students just focus on our education and not have to worry about working and providing while we are busy with school.

Growing up in a very Christian culture, I think for most people it is really hard to open our minds to this way of thinking. We are taught that Christianity and Jesus is the right path to heaven and that all other religions are not accurate. In one of the first classes Rabbi Rami Shapiro compared all religions to a mountain range, saying that they all might look different and have different features, but under the surface they are all from the same land mass. I think this is what I like the most about Hinduism, that it doesn't matter what god you are praying to there are no losers. We are all god, and we will all eventually realize this.