Paths to Moksha (Release From

¶ … paths to moksha (release from birth, death and rebirth) found in Hinduism, to a path to salvation or release from one of the following; Islam, Jain or Sikh traditions

Indian Religion

Indian religion comprises one of the most influential religious traditions in the globe. The religion incorporates spirits and philosophy in salvation and God. These religions have their focus on spirituality. The religion highly centralizes itself in spirituality where an individual integrates the mind creating seclusion from the self mentally and physically with an idea of conquering the continuum of space, time, and causality. Religion in India represents the practical manifestation of this principle while philosophy has a role to play when it comes to the theoretical approach of this religion. There are several Indian religions, but they share in the same beliefs, but they vary when it comes to the practical application of beliefs (Zavos, 2005).

Hinduism constitutes one of the oldest forms of religion in the globe. It forms the third largest religion after Christianity and Islam. The Hindu trinity constitutes the Brahma the creator Vishnu involved with the role of preserving, and Shiva who is the destroyer. This religion does not have a holy book; rather it follows the Bhagwad guitar meaning the song of God, which constitutes an epic, called the Mahabharata. Hindus worship in the temple and they do not have a set day for worship. They keep a small altar or a temple in the residences with idols or pictures of their gods. In this religion, there is a belief that all the deeds of a person when alive will determine the person's next birth or rebirth. They also believe that in the case of death, the body dies, while the soul remains. Rebirth of the soul continues in the cycle of life, death, and goes on until it reaches the highest state, Moksha (O'Reilly, 2010).

Sikhism religious tradition came to be, some 500 years ago by Guru Nanak. This man was born in the village of Pujnab. He was compassionate and determined to fight the harsh circumstances that fell on his fellow citizens. Pujnab also known as the Land of Five Rivers in northwest India comprised the middle class Hindu family of Katriya. Guru Nanak had the spiritual revelation, an experience that marked the inception of his holly mission. The spirit showed him that God transcended the divisions of the Hindus and Muslims. However, Guru Nanak emphasized the need of religion unity declaring that there was no Hindu or Muslim. Sikhism views every human being as having the divine light contained in human form.

Hinduism, Sikhism, and Moksha

The notion of Karma and the undisputable belief in rebirth is very important in Hinduism, and Sikhism religious traditions, because they are of the essence when it comes to birth and death. There is a great difference in the way Christianity, Islam, and Judaism perceives death in comparison to these two Indian religions. For Hindus and Sikhs, birth, and death repeat for every single person in a continuous cycle. The main idea is that each person repeatedly undergoes birth, and death in order his or her soul may be completely purified to join the divine cosmic consciousness (Harold, 2000).

A typical example of Indian religions is the Hinduism and Sikhism. These two religions share in the same core beliefs. Their way of worship and rituals, citing their communal origin, traits, and literary pieces are similar. The ultimate common belief found in Hinduism and Sikhism is the Moksha. Moksha stands for deliverance from the life cycle, the frustrations, and torments from the physical life. In Indian religion, Moksha is equivalent to the deliverance from sin in the Christian religion. Moksha perceives liberation as the separation, or rather the disintegration from the sense of self as an excessively conceit individual with which hinders the pure amaranthine spirit. As such, there exist a similarity on this path of Moksha, but the application of these religious traditions may vary.