We had an hour long class this afternoon sitting in the lovely courtyard of our hotel facing the Bay of Bengal across from the Promenade in Pondicherry. Today's topic was to explore the basic beliefs and get some understanding of the world's oldest religion, Hinduism.
Here's a couple of the few basic beliefs that we covered.
Hindus belief in a one, all pervasive Supreme Being. Hinduism is monotheistic. Only one God not many gods as many people have the misconception of. Hinduism has many angels (Devas) and great angels (Mahadevas) which are often misconstrued to be gods. Referring to them as gods only create confusion and puts Hinduism in the category of being polytheistic when it is monotheistic.
Hindus also believe in ahimsa which is the practice of non-violence in thought, word and deed. All life is sacred. This encourages Hindus to be vegetarians.
