Hindu understanding of samsara

Hindu understanding of samsara

Critically Discuss the Hindu Understanding of Samsara and Moksha


Hinduism is a religion of many complexities.   When looking at this religion, it is important to firstly look at the origins to gain an understanding of how the religion came to be before focusing more critically on the beliefs, in particular the belief in samsara and moksha; a continuous cycle of birth, death and rebirth leading to liberation.

Hinduism is not merely a religion but also a cultural tradition and social structure.   Unlike many of the other world religious, the term ‘Hinduism’ does not stem back to its founder.   It was not founded by one teacher and does not originate from any one book.   It is believed to be a …

… “unified, coherent field of doctrine and practice; a colonial construction based
on the miscategorisation of indigenous cultural forms.”
(Flood, G (Ed), 2005, Pg2)

The term ‘Hindu’ comes from the Persian ‘hind’ for the area of the Indus Valley which was derived from the Aryan ‘Sindhu’ meaning ‘ocean’ at the time during the eighth century when Muslims settled in the area.   From this, any non-Muslim was distinguished by being called ‘Hindu’.   During the eighteenth century, the term was adopted by the British when referring to people form Hindustan in the northwest South Asia who did not follow any of the other of religion Islam, Christianity, Sikhism or Jainism.   During   the nineteenth century, the term was widely used to establish a national identity opposed to colonialism whilst seeking to create a religion …

… “that could match Christianity and meet it on a   basis of equality.”
(Flood, G (Ed), 2005, Pg3)

Other people have considered Hinduism not from a post colonialism view but from a philological one that it is an attempt to unify into one religion what is actually a number of distinct religions.

From ancient times, Indian people have possessed a tradition of self-discipline and purification....