Hinduism

1.      Moksha is the Sanskrit word for liberation or release. It is the release from the material world and becoming one with Brahman.

2.      This doctrine is monism. An analogy for this is how there are rivers, lakes, and oceans but they are all bodies of water which connects them and makes them one.

3.      Brahman is the eternal essence of reality and the source of the universe. Atman is the eternal self of soul of an individual that gets reincarnated from life to life. They are associated as being the same.

4.      Their function is to provide points of contact with Brahman who is unreachable physically or mentally.

5.      Samsara is the wheel of reincarnation. It is the worldly realm in which rebirth occurs.

6.      It is the Bhagavad-Gita.

7.      The two principles are karma and dharma. Karma is the moral law or cause and effect and determines the nature of each reincarnation based on how good you were in this life. Dharma is the law that karma is based on. It is the ethical duty based on the divine order of reality.

8.      The four classes are Brahmin who are priests, Kshatriya who are warriors and administrators, Vaishya who are producers like farmers and merchants, and Shudra who are servants and laborers.

9.      He encourages him because according to his dharma it is his duty as a warrior to fight in a just cause.

10.  The four stages of life are student, householder, forest dweller, and sannyasin. In the student stage the boy learns and studies the Vedas and other sacred literature. In the householder stage, which is marked my marriage, his goal is to have a career and raise a family. In the forest dweller stage, which is marked by the birth of your first grandchild, the goal is to retreat from worldly bonds in order to fully engage in a spiritual quest. In the sannyasin stage they return to society but remain detached from normal attractions and distractions of social life.

11.  The four goals of life are sensual pleasure (aim to have the utmost pleasure in life), material success (yearning for artha or maerial success and the social power and prestige that comes with it), harmony with dharma (desire to do your duty), and the bliss of moksha (becoming one with Brahman and escaping samsara).

12.  The three paths of liberation are the path of works (Karma Marga) which is for the active in things like raising a family and physical activities, the path of knowledge (Jnana Marga) which is for people with a talent for philosophical reflection, and the path of devotion (Bhakti Marga) which is for those whose emotional attachment comes naturally.

13.  The three most important schools are Vedanta, Sankhya, and Yoga. The task they have in common is the attainment of knowledge over the ignorance that binds the self to samsara.

14.  Three important gods are Vishnu, Shiva, and Kali.

15.  An avatar is an incarnation or living embodiment of a deity. Two popular ones are Krishna and Rama who are both avatars of Vishnu.

16.  That is the Bhagavad-Gita.

17.  Three aspects are household and village rituals, holy places, and cow veneration.

18.  He fueled Hinduism’s tendency to accept all wisdom as lighting the way to the divine.

19.  A significant change was that it was made illegal by the Indian government in 1948.

20.  Sati is the practice of burning a widow. It has been forbidden since 1829 though it does still rarely occur.

21.  A significant development was the separation of Pakistan from India to make a predominantly Muslim country. It turned bloody and a lot of people died on both sides.