AMU RELS201 week 2 forum

I was first introduced to the religion of Hinduism in 2008, when the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” came out. In one scene of the movie it shows Rama, the seventh avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu and a king of Ayodhya in Hindu scriptures. Rama is revered for his unending compassion, courage and devotion to religious values and duty. I wanted to know why they showed Rama in that scene and what importance he had in that scene. In that scene it shows a group of Hindu’s running across railroad tracks attacking another group of people. In a cut scene it shows Rama standing there and then goes back to the assault. The purpose of this was to show the viewers that the group attacking was Hindu’s and the group being attacked was not Hindu’s, we later find out that the people being attacked were Muslims.
Hindus answer the question of what happens after we die with samsara, the continual round of birth, death, and rebirth. “The rishis taught that the soul leaves the dead body and enters a new one. One takes birth again and again in countless bodies—perhaps as an animal or some other life form—but the self remains the same.” (Fisher 77) With karma, every act we make, and even every thought and every desire we have, shapes our future experiences. Our life is what we have made it, and we ourselves are shaped by what we have done: “As a man acts, so does he become. … A man becomes pure through pure deeds, impure through impure deeds.” (Fisher 77) The ultimate goal of life is moksha, or liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. Its attainment marks the end of all the other goals. (Fisher 101) Many believe that to achieve moksha will take many lifetimes of upward-striving incarnations are required to reach this transcendence of earthly miseries. (Fisher 77)
There is four different types of yoga, raja yoga, jnana yoga, karma yoga, and bhakti yoga. Depending on what type of person you are and what type of life that you want to live, shows what type of yoga you should practice. Raja