Hindu Temple Of Greater Chicago

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Term Paper Title	Hindu Temple Of Greater Chicago
# of Words	863
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.45

Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago
     The religion of Hinduism was founded 4,000 – 5,000 years ago and originated in the Indus valley civilization located along the Indus river in India.  Since its formation it has gone through 3 main phases: Classic Hinduism, the Medieval Period and Modern Hinduism.
     Many things happened during Hinduism’s first phase.  After Aryan migrants moved into the area and brought their own beliefs the two cultures merged to form Classic Hinduism.  Some things that resulted from this merger was the idea of male gods (originally Hinduism worship female forms of god) and the language Sanskrit.  Among other things during this phase the Vedas, the basic Hindu scriptures, and the Caste System were formed.
     During the 2nd phase Hinduism split into 2 major groups: Saivaism, based on the god Siva, and Vishnavism, based on the god Vishnu.  Buddhism was also making its presence felt during the Medieval Period.  In its current state, Modern Hinduism, Hinduism has had to go on the defensive.  In the past, the people of the religion used to accept other beliefs into theirs, but now have close themselves off to protect their beliefs from further change.  However, there have been movements within the belief to change.  Mahatma Gandhi led one of these when he peacefully fought against the belief of untouchability.  One of the ways he did this was by renaming those people known as untouchables to the Havijans (“children of god”).
     There are two parts to the Hindu Scriptures, the Shuruti (heard) and the Smriti (remembered).  The Shuruti is the part of the scriptures written with a direct relation to god and contains the Vedas text, which is the primary Hindu scripture.  The Vedas contain text praising god, songs, sacrificial rules and guidelines on how to act in society.  The Smriti contains law books and epics, the two most important epics being Ramayna and Mahabarata.
     The idea of god in the Hindu belief has evolved since the conception of the religion in the Indus Valley.  It started out in the form of polytheism, assigning each aspect of life (i.e. sky, fire, preserver, destroyer) a god counterpart.  This approach ended up with a multitude of gods and followers wanted to know which was supreme.  The belief of Henotheism then came to existence.  Followers developed a seasonal understanding of god.  Later the followers began to have a monotheistic approach, where it is believed that there are not many gods, but one god with many faces.  Then they gave...

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