Hinduism
Core Beliefs:
- All Hindu's believe in one All Powerful Being who is the Creator and the Truth.
- Four Vedas are sacred scriptures and Agamas are sacred hymns
- There are endless cycles of change in the universe.
- Karma is the belief that what you do comes back to you.
- Once you cleaned karma through reincarnations you are free of rebirth.
- Divine beings exist in a spiritual universe that we find through prayer.
- In order to get to the Transcendent State a practitioner needs a master to guide them. They also need personal discipline, good conduct, and a surrender to God.
- All life is sacred and not to be harmed through words deeds and physicality.
- They do not believe there is only one path to God and they appreciate other beliefs.(https://www.himalayanacademy.com/readlearn/basics/nine-beliefs)
Gandhi
National leader of India Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar Kathiawar. His father was a minister in Porbanbar and other states. His mother was a religious women who fasted regularly. Vishnu was the Hindu god He grew up worshiping. He followed Jainism, an ancient Indian religion. As a young boy Gandhi was timid and shy he slept with the lights on. At thirteen years old he married Kasturba Makanji in an arranged marriage. In the next years he rebelled by smoking stealing and eating meat. In 1885 his father and baby died His father wanted him to become a minister for the government so he was forced to become one. After this he had four surviving children and then sailed to London. He stayed for three years and joined the executive committee of the London Vegetarian Society. He also started learning more about the religious world through sacred texts. In 1891 a returning Gandhi found out his mother died only a weeks earlier. As a lawyer he not very successful. In his first case he fled the courtroom. After another sons birth he sailed to Durban, Natal in April 1893.
Accomplishments:
Gandhi is possibly most famous for the salt march. When he went to South Africa he found the racial treatment of Indians was terrible. Gandhi was there to protest Britain's salt acts. It prohibited Indians from selling or collecting salt. There was also a tax on it that hurt the poor badly. Gandhi planned a Satyagraha campaign that included a 390-kilometer/240-mile march to the Arabian Sea. He would defy the government by collecting salt. Before he marched he wrote to the British viceroy, Lord Irwin “My ambition is no less than to convert the British people through non-violence and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India". Wearing a white shawl and carrying a walking stick he set out from his retreat in Sabarmati on March 12, 1930. When he started he had only a few followers, but when he got to Dandi 24 days later the ranks of them swelled. He made salt by using evaporated seawater. This started a mass of protests across India. Including Gandhi about 60,000 Indians were jailed in 1930. In 1930 Time magazines gave him the honor of "Man of the Year". Gandhi continued his activism till he was assassinated on January 30, 1948 he was 78 years old. Nathuram Godse a Hindu extremist upset at the Mahatmas tolerance of Muslims. Shot him three times. Many other famous activists have been inspired by his work.