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Hinduism: Vedas
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According to traditional Hinduism, the life of the members of the upper three castes should be spent in four successive stages (ashramas), which are carefully regulated. First comes the "stage of the celibate" who should "abstain from wine, meat, perfumes, garlands, sweetmeats and women. He should not take acid food and should do harm to no living being. Gambling, gossip, slander and untruth are to be shunned. He should neither look at nor touch women. He should never strike anybody."22 After studying the Vedas he is to marry and begin his life as householder, with manifold duties stressing hospitality, almsgiving, industry and fidelity to caste prescription.
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Hinduism is a way of living according to the one's understanding of principles of Vedas and Upanishads. Veda is revealed knowledge. Just as the knowledge of gravity was revealed to Newton, similarly, in India, many Rishis or Seers were awakened to certain transcendental Eternal Truths. These Rishis realized that their real nature was not concerned with or linked with 'body or mind', nor was it dependent on sense perceptions, but was in fact identical with the Universal Consciousness.
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Hinduism does not just have one sacred book but several scriptures. The Vedas scriptures guide Hindus in their daily life. They ... help to preserve the religious dimensions of family and society. Hindus have developed their system of worship and beliefs from the scriptures.
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Vedanta, the basis of Hinduism, asserts that Brahman, the 'impersonal' God and the universal soul, is the Absolute Truth. Brahman has multiple roles to play: the creator, the maintainer, and the destroyer all in one. (This can be viewed as the origin of the trinity Gods namely Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, respectively). Vedanta states that the individual human soul(jiva-atman) originates and merges with the Brahman. Advaita (non-duality) implies that there is an identity of Brahman and Jivaatman while Dvaita (duality) differs from Advaita and maintains an ultimate diversity between Brahman and Jiva-atman. Visistadvaita (qualified non-duality) maintains a crucial differentiation as well as a fundamental identity.
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Hinduism is eternal with no beginning and no end. Current thinking suggests that Hinduism was formed somewhere between 3200-2500 BCE. The date of approximately 3102 BCE comes from the Mahabharata epic, where the exact positions of the stars were recorded at Sri Krishna's birth. The later dates come from linguistic and literary dating of the Rig Veda, the oldest of the Hindu spiritual texts.
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Hinduism is ... known by the names Sanatana Dharma and Vaidika Dharma. Sanatana Dharma means eternal religion, the Ancient Law. Vaidika Dharma means the religion of the Vedas. The Vedas are the foundational scriptures of Hinduism.
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Vedas