Religious Field Research

Religious Field Research

Introduction

When I dwell on this assignment, I wanted to learn about a religion that I had meager or you can say almost negligible information about therefore I picked up Hinduism. While considering how less I formerly knew in relation to the Hindu religion, I can say that this research has helped me expand my very limited knowledge about this diverse religion. Thus, this paper I will share the things I get to learn while exploring Hinduism. Moreover, I will discuss the misconceptions I had before and how they have altered.

Discussion

Before this class, I was not really interested in learning about religions as such. Growing up in the United States I had experiences with different sects of Christian religions, those for the most part being Protestant and Catholic. Occasionally, a family member or a friend would introduce me to some of their companions who belong to Judaism. However, I almost had no exposure to Islam, Hinduism or any other religions that are non-American based. For me, they were no more than different religions and honestly, it never concerned me that I am not very well-informed about Hinduism, since I wasn't concerned in learning about this religion. Through a few encounters either by means of reading or movies, I was pretty much convinced that this was the major religion of India. I thought that Hinduism entailed the worship of animals, especially cows. I also used to believe that women were not esteemed as much in India; however I wasn't sure if this was due to their religion or cultural issues.

Therefore, in order to explore Hinduism, I partook in some virtual worship services. I was fascinated to see thousands of followers in the audience. Another interesting aspect was the altar; there was a big screen with an image of a woman with a leg on each side of a cow, there were a countless flowers enclosing the altar. The religious head was dressed in a red or orange dressing gown and a particular hat. He was the one who actually helped me alter my prior understanding of this religion.

He began eradicating my misconceptions by telling that the antiquity and character of Hinduism have been subjects of debate. It has been argued that Hinduism is not a religion in the sense in which Islam or Christianity is so. It does not own a founder, a revealed book, or a set of fundamentals of practice and belief (Brockington, 2000). Given its sub continental extend and the presence of cultural, religious and linguistic diversities, people who are called Hindus by others, and who identify themselves as such in everyday life and at decennial census enumerations, usually display much diversity along regional, caste, and sectarian lines in matters of religious faith and practice (Narayanan, 2006). Therefore, Hinduism is more a family of religions rather than a single, homogeneous faith. However, the presence of common elements cannot be denied.

He further explained that the Hindu sects usually have the aforementioned characteristics of the Abrahamic ...