Religions of the world: Hinduism

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Religions of the World
Hinduism is one of the most interesting religion around the world. It is one of the most seasoned religion around the world. This is because it is comprised of numerous beliefs and practices. For many years, other religions have known Hinduism as a polytheistic religion which embraces the worship of many gods (Brockington 1). What many never realized is that the many personal gods and multiple belief system are what makes Hinduism to take the form of a monotheistic religion. According to the Upanishads or Vedanta, there is only one Reality among the Hindus, and that is Brahman. Initially, the people considered Brahman to be an impersonal being, whose form was Nirguna (Sumati 101). As the religion continued to develop, the people understood Brahman to be more personal thus, assuming the form of Saguna. In wholeness, Saguna Brahmna came to be called Ishvara, whose manifestation to humanity took three forms namely: Siva (the Destroyer), Brahma (the Creator) and Vishnu (the Preserver) (Krishna 31). Each of these manifestations got for themselves wives, whom the people refer to as goddesses.
Ishvara further became personified through Vishnu into ten legendary lives called avatars. These incarnations took the forms of animals: a boar, fish and tortoise, and humans: Buddha, Rama, Matsya, Parashurama, Kalki, Veraha, Vemana, Kurma, Narasimha, and Krishna (Sumati 105). These avatars usually dwell on the earth to protect and save it from danger. Together, there are around 330 million gods among the Hindus. However, all these are just a manifestation of one god called Brahman (Krishna 31). The Hindus view Brahman as eternal, without gender and without form, omnipotent (all-powerful), omnipresent (present everywhere) and omniscient (all-knowing). In Addition, Hinduism has it that everything in the universe, including human beings, are just an extension of and one with Brahman and though they live and die, they get reborn in another life and form (Brockington 1).
This wheel of life is carried on in the soul, called Atman, and the only way to find liberation from it is by focusing on Brahman (Krishna 32). This focus leads to detachment from the physical ego thus, enabling people to live in oneness with Brahman, a state called Moksha. However, most people are usually unable to attain their...