Role of Hinduism in Australian Society
Hinduism is a major world religion mostly practiced in India and Nepal, with a total of 900 million people who follow Hinduism worldwide. Hindus first came to Australia in the 19th century for work on cotton and sugar plantations. “Through the 1990s Hinduism became one of Australia’s fastest-growing religious groups, with over 95,000 people identified as Hindu in the 2001 census.” (ABC, 2014) This religion continues to expand across Australia as the majority of new hindu people into our country are immigrants.
Belief system
Hinduism is thought to be the world’s oldest religion. Within Hinduism, there is 4 different denominations being Shaivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism and Smartism. Each of which follow…show more content… They believe that the four Vedas are sacred and are God’s words. The four Vedas are The Rig Veda: The Book of Mantra, The Sama Veda: The Book of Song, The Yajur Veda: The Book of Ritual and The Atharva Veda: The Book of Spell. A common Hindu belief is that creation, preservation and dissolution is a continuous cycle within the universe. Hindus believe in Karma and each individual having the power to effect their destiny through thoughts, words and deeds. They believe in the reincarnation of their soul after death until all karma is resolved. Through numerous births it is thought that their soul will evolve and liberate them. Another belief is that divine beings exist in unseen worlds and through temple worships, rituals and sacraments, communion can be created with them. They believe that all life is sacred. During life, it is important to be loved and respected. In order to respect and love others, Hindus practice ahimsa through thought, words and actions. Ahimsa means not causing harm to others, hatred is replaced with love. Hindus believe that all religions teach different ways to salvation and no path is considered more valuable than others. In saying this, the genuine paths direct towards the Facets of God’s Light and being worthy of tolerance and