Hello, explorer Noah Matricciani writing. I am now writing this from ancient India. In this entry of my journal, I am going to talk about all of my findings and interesting thoughts about India. In the peninsula, or subcontinent of India, I am now visiting at the time of the summer monsoons. where the strong winds from the ocean sweep up and bring tons of moisture from the ocean. This is great for the inhabitants of ancient India because it the moisturized air is good for the crops. However, if there is too little amount of moisture in the air, their won't be any food for the inhabitants; and if there is too much, there will be flooding. I asked one of the inhabitants about the winter monsoons and he said that they bring very dry air from the Northeast or mountain ranges. India also had a very geological advantage. On three sides, it is surrounded by water and on one side, there are mountains. This must be very good for the inhabitants.
There are also magnificent cities here too. Like in the Indus River Valley, there is a wonderful city known as Mohenjo-Daro. This beautiful city is mostly dominated by artists and merchants and the houses have open courtyards where kids can play. This city also had plumbing which is very advanced.
India also had a social class system, or a caste system. The top people were priests or otherwise known as Brahmins, the second class consisted of warriors, the third class had regular people or workers, and the fourth class had prisoners of war. What is very interesting about this class is that unlike ancient Egypt, it is impossible to move up in your social class. The only way you can possibly move up is if you die and get reincarnated to a higher social class.
Now about reincarnation, I just met a man on the street the other day who persuaded me to become a Hindu. This religion had very interesting views. This religion is a mix of Aryan beliefs, and Indian belief and is also one of the most popular religions with about 700,000,000 followers. The Hindus believe in one spirit, but many Gods. The spirit being yourself. The Hindus believe in one main God called Brahman, and that Brahman is made up of three parts; the Gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. This religion believes in something known as Dharma, where in each section of the caste system, the people have certain religious and moral duties to follow. So if you follow your Dharma, you will be closer to Brahman. Hindus also believe in Karma which means that if you do good things now, good things will come. Another very big topic that Hindus believe in is reincarnation. Where if you die, your soul is transferred into a new body. However, your past life affects on your new one. So if your good in your past life, you'll most likely be reincarnated into a higher position in the caste system, and if you live a bad life, you won't be reincarnated into a higher class. If you follow your Dharma to its full extent, then you can even be released from the wheel of reincarnation and you can spend the rest of your happy eternity with Brahman. Hindus also believe in Ahimsa which is non-violence unless in self defense because they believe that Brahman created everything.
Another religion in Ancient India is Buddhism. This religion is very similar to Hinduism. Buddhists also believe in non-violence. But Buddhists follow the 4 noble truths and the eightfold path which talk about ending suffering and how to end it. Buddhists also believe in Nirvana where you find everlasting peace and end suffering so you can be released from the wheel of reincarnation.
Out of these two religions, Buddhism is doing a lot better. Since Buddhism thinks everyone is equal, their is no Dharma to judge people by their place in the caste system so people think as Buddhism as freer than Hinduism and you can practice any way you want.
After looking at these two religions, I'm still at a stand still of which religion I should practice; Hinduism or Buddhism. They both have great reasons to join. Maybe staying here in ancient India will help me decide.
-NM
No comments:
Post a Comment