Hindus Yoga Through Pure Thoughts And Devotion example essay topic

Throughout the Hindu and Christian religion various rituals are performed by followers. These rituals allow the followers to celebrate in their beliefs. The most popular practice performed in almost every religion is prayer and or meditation. Prayer and meditation allow followers to come together and praise a God or gods. Hinduism has commonly been viewed as a polytheistic religion, one that worships multiple deities: gods and goddesses, while Christianity is a Monotheistic tradition. Hindus believe in the repetitious transmigration of the soul.

This is the transfer of one's soul after death into another body. This produces a continuing cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth through their many lifetimes. Karma is the accumulated sum of ones good and bad deeds. Karma determines how you will live your next life. Through pure acts, thoughts and devotion, one can be reborn at a higher level.

Hindus practice yoga as a form of meditation. Yoga is a discipline for achieving psychological, mental, and spiritual isolation form ordinary reality. The act of meditation involves eight steps. The first being restraint control. This ethical discipline should lead to inner detachment. The second step is observance, the devotion to the god of one's choice.

Posture, breath control, abstraction of the senses, concentration, and deep meditation are the last few steps. "The yoga discipline seeks escape or release from the world and from the human self, as it is known in the world". Bhakti yoga is the yoga of deity devotion. This yoga hopes for a rebirth into a heaven of the worshipped god.

You would love the deity not in the Christian God-like sense, but as you would love a friend, parent, or a child, Christians do not practice yoga as a form of prayer or meditation, but rather gather weekly to meet for worship in commemoration of the Lord Jesus' resurrection. They rejoice and reflect on the life and teachings of Jesus. Prayer is a form of meditation for Christians because it requires observance and concentration. When we pray to God we are observing his power and concentrate on what it is we wish to reflect on. Christians pray to God to repent on certain acts that are sinful, by asking God for forgiveness one will be saved and given eternal life. Hindus believe for everything you do wrong you will be punished.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, if not in this life, then the next. The yoga discipline allows, through pure acts, thoughts and devotion, one can be reborn at a higher level. Christians, on the other hand do not believe in rebirth, but rather eternal happiness in the afterlife. Our afterlife being heaven or hell. Both religions have very distinct beliefs and are extremely opposite but their idea for prayer and meditation is similar.

Both religions use the daily ritual of prayer and or meditation as an act of reflection and a process for reaching the ultimate goal of an ideal afterlife. For Hindus yoga through pure thoughts and devotion, allows them to be reborn at a higher level. Prayer allows Christians to repent on their actions and ask God for forgiveness, which in turn will grant them eternity in heaven. It is very interesting to see that even though the cultures of the two religions are quite possibly exact opposites, the underlying message of prayer and meditation is quite similar. It seems that human nature all over the world needs something or someone to believe in and entrust their faith in which helps them live a comfortable life.

Bibliography

Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Christian Doctrine, 5 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971-89 Elia de, Mircea.
Pant anjali and Yoga. New York: Schock en Boks, 1975.
Bush, Richard C. The Religious World. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993.