Distribution of Wealth in the Jian and Hindu Religions - Research Paper Example

? Distribution of Wealth Throughout the years passed by, humans have developed, urbanized, and flourished themselves in many facets of life. However, one of the aspects that have been of prime importance for humankind that silhouettes their lives is religion. Religion comprises of the perceptions and faiths of humans that they have in god (s) or goddess (es) along with the other divine concerns. Different religions have their own set of principles, ethics, and consecrated histories that defines and elucidate how the life and universe came into existence and the significance of life for an individual. Many of the religions and their belief systems have gained the acceptance by the universe, but it cannot come under consideration for the innumerable religions that exist in the world today. Many of the religions have defined themselves in sacerdotal hierarchies; have set structured behaviors for their members, where one should devote himself in the practices of the religion and should honor and give respect for their prayers and the immaculate places. Sermons, festivals, funeral ceremonies, meditation, wedding rituals, cultural characteristics like art, dance, and music are all components that make up a religion. Different cultures follow different values as some religions give more importance to their faiths and beliefs while others highlight the aspect of practice, thus the phenomenon of religion has taken various embodiments. Religions even focus and give high importance to the experiences and the actions of the spiritual leaders along with the incidents that occurred in their times. It has been an observation that a religion also plays a great deal of importance and comes under alliance with government, constitutional and legislative rankings. Although today, the world is living in technological and scientific era, still, religion plays a significant and imperative part in one’s life as it has attained the focus of an individual due to the reason that it revolves around human’s life all the time. Individual tend to react in a calm and tranquil way to their problems and personal disasters and catastrophes as religion and its practice provides a person with the relief of their worries/tragedies. One can shape and enhance their personality, character, and social behaviors in a culture or nation through a source that comes under religion. Another important aspect of religion is that it helps in developing and controlling willpower in young generation as they undergo different changes around and inside them. Religion also teaches to have faith in God and stay away from the undesirable acts that may cause harm to them. As almost every religion has an essential learning that teaches us to maintain peace in the society and world and to have respect for all, but sometimes the religious discrepancies may lead to bloodshed, battles and biasness or unfair treatments. Religion is a source of influence and has a lot of supremacy in it, which can bring people of various environment, surroundings, and cultures under one roof for the sake of worship. With the numerous religions practiced all over world, Hinduism and Jainism are one of them that come under practice by the community of Indian subcontinent. The practices of Indian religions including Hinduism and Jainism involve concepts of dharma, karma, reincarnation, mantras, vantras, caste, and darsana. Hinduism is an ancient, primeval and one of the biggest religions practiced in the subcontinent. The concept of karma comes under application in the fundamental customs, everyday principles, and the wedding ceremonies of the Hindus. Hinduism is a religion that comprises of abundant of different philosophies of dharma and the major texts and epics that are of immense importance with respect to their beliefs includes “Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and Puranas” (Das, pp. 5-45). The distinguished aspects of this religion also include the conviction of Hindus in reincarnation that is associated with the law of karma and dharma that is one’s own deeds. The concept of reincarnation is the thought and perception that with the recurring cycle of life and deaths or rebirth, the individual will come under restoration from its appalling deeds. In addition, karma is the performance, conduct, work, or deeds of an individual that he performs during the span of his life. According to the beliefs of Hindus, the atman that represents the soul or spirit of an individual comes under consideration as an eternal entity. Mantras are another component of Hindu religion, where an individual in order to express the devotion to their gods, make prayers and beseech through a sound or hymn technique. Mantras also help the adherents to make them concentrate on the sacred thoughts. Pilgrimage is also an element in Hinduism as their traditions, though it is not obligatory. Hinduism is a religion of many festivals that celebrates to recall the events from their mythology. Some of them are “Holi, Diwali, Raksha Bandhan, and Durga Puja” (Das, pp. 5-45). On the other hand, Jainism is also a prehistoric and primitive Indian religion, whose tradition and customs lay down on the alleyway of non-violence, non-aggression, and peaceableness towards the entire humanity. The souls are of the utmost importance to Jains; therefore, the ideology of this religion is to focus on the importance to uplift the souls towards the celestial realization. Jina comes under the reference of the defeater, a person who fights with his own soul to take over his inside enemies and attain the conditions of a Supreme Being or Jina. The existence of Jainism is in limelight in today’s time as well. Practices of this religion have extensively manipulated and have bestowed in the fields of politics, economics, and social. Due to one of their oldest convention, Jains are one of the most literate and uppermost-educated people (Long, 125-175). According to Jainism beliefs, the souls are the decisive entity in one’s life and every soul has its own responsibility of designing its own life in this world and hereafter. They also belief in the triple gems that are “Right View/Perception, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct” (Long, 125-175). According to this gem, the world does not come under the creation of an eternal entity; neither there is any destructive force. Every soul in this universe is capable of accomplishing its celestial realizations through their deeds and endeavor. This perception provides a way for souls to conquer emancipation from the re-birth cycle. Jainism’s core aim is to make the souls free from all the unconstructive thoughts, deeds, and communications. Jainism also teaches to articulate the complete truth but, through an undisruptive approach. In addition, this religion does not allow stealing and one should be thankful with all that he possess (Long, 125-175). The concept of Karma is opposite to what the Hindu believes. The notion of karma states the response or reaction of a person due to the disliking of an action performed. The Karmas are often termed as Destructive Karmas in Jainism, as it is a thwart of the basic characteristics of the soul. The elementary mantra or prayer that a Jain can recite any time during the day is Navakar Mantra. Jains celebrate their festivals by meditations, renunciation, and religious studies. Some of the famous Jains festivals include “Paryushan, Mahavir Jayanti, and Gyan Panchami” (Long, 125-175). Hindu and Jain, both religion and civilization discriminates the followers of the religions on the grounds of social stratum, represents a cast system, and comes under the division of four classes usually called as Varnas. The first class with a strong financial, social, and even political background and the most valued group of people are Brahmins who represents as educators, teachers, scholars, and priests. They come under consideration to be the intermediaries between gods and other people as they belong to the human race that comes from a strong social environment. They are the preservers of their customs and are anticipatory to present ideal performance for others. The people representing the second class are the Kshatriyas who are the dignified, combatants, law enforcers, controller, and emperors (Long, 125-175). The Kshatriyas are the fighters who not only govern, dictate, and guard his territory and its people, but also put forward his forfeit in front of his gods and the Brahmins. The individuals who belong to the third class are the Vaishyas who are agriculturist, cultivators, farmers, traders, businesspersons, barons, and bureaucrats. The people of the fourth class are very poor are the Shudras, the ones who are servants, journeyman, skilled worker and drudges. The people of this class do not have any right to monitor, to study, or hear the holy mantra. Where Hindus believe in recurring cycle of re-births, Jains have the concept of ‘twice born’ where the male members have the blessings and are surrounded by a sacred thread, due to which they undergo the cycle of re-birth (Das, pp. 5-45) (Long, 125-175). According to the religion of Jainism, a person is more likely to be sad and sorrowful if he possesses expensive material goods and riches as he may initiate to commit sins. The outcome of the worldly sins results in hunger, ego, abhorrence, envy, distrusts, and self-centeredness as there is no limit to the needs of a person; therefore, it is advisable to evade consumptions on personal lavishness and comfort (Das, pp. 5-45). One of the beliefs and traditions of Jainism focuses on charity to the monks, nuns, and devout individuals. The charity should include distribution of food, clothing, medical remedies such as pills, and other belongings. One should make the charity of food with great deal of respect and clean and unadulterated. Monks and nuns come under subject of prohibition from consuming the food particularly made for them. The thought of donation of personal belongings leads to an internal happiness and contentment for an individual and increase the intensity of self-satisfaction. This theory of endowment also helps an individual in reduction of committing sins. Another practice of Jainism says that a Jain should only keep half of their earnings and save a quarter of it for their retirement age or for medical needs and the rest should come under the proportion of the charity. Through this approach, an individual will experience a smooth death (Das, pp. 5-45). While looking at the other end of the spectrum, Hindus also have the concept of charity in their religion but it is not restricted to monks and nuns only unlike Jainism. Hinduism teaches to be kind, liberal, and openhanded when it comes to charity (Das, pp. 5-45). Charity is not only limited to monks and nuns, but Hinduism asks for an offering of a faction from the earnings of an individual for temples, old-age homes, orphanages, spiritual organizations, schools, hospitals and to all those people who are financially unfortunate or poor people. According to some sources, existence of charity was not the initial practice in Hinduism but the affect of Christianity and Islam integrated the practice of charity into Hinduism (Long, 125-175). Religion is one of the foremost important aspects in the life of an individual. From the above discussion, it is clear that religion helps in shaping one’s character and their thoughts and beliefs. With the numerous numbers of practices and customs that a religion can have, one of its imperative practices is charity, though the concept of charity defers in every religion. Amongst the largest and ancient religions of the world, Hinduism and Jainism are few to mention that are in practice in the Indian subcontinent (Das, pp. 5-45). The cast system in both the religions is same and it comprises of four classes where the people of the lowest class come under restriction of all those privileges that the people of upper three casts enjoy. The theory of charity also exists in both the faiths but Jainism focuses only on the charity to monks and nuns, whereas Hinduism believes in charity to all those who are needy and cannot afford the necessities of life along with the charity to monks, nuns, holy places and social institutions. Works Cited Das, Rasamandala. Hinduism. World Almanac Library, 2005. Long, Jeffery D. Jainism: An Introduction. I. B. Tauris, 2009. Read More