Andrew MartinPHI 150Professor Joiner4/7/14Part 1: Worldview of Hinduism Ask: "Why is there something rather than nothing?" the question is addressed by the Rig-Veda and states: “in the first age of the gods, existence arose from non-existence”. (AWS 30) One interpretation of this is that everything that exists came from nothing. Or that everything that constituted reality existed but constituted nothing. “All” is Brahman, which is the one absolute reality that is the composition of everything. Everything existed but at the same time did not exist. Creation occurred when: “Desire came up (Brahman) in the beginning; that was the first seed of the mind. (AWS 31) Brahman had such a great desire to exist that he produced the gods who then produced everything else. These gods divided reality into parts and these parts are what we have interacted with throughout history. When looking at a bottle of water people can see an entire body of water, but it is made up of billions of parts. Even if we consider ourselves separate, we are one being. In the Bri-Upanishad, Brahman is described as “one soul, in the form of a person”. The existence of humanity is also explained as "he (Brahman) has intercourse with (Yajnavalkya) and human beings (are born)". (AWS 31) Brahman was confined in him and became solitary, so he separated into two parts, a man and a woman, and they created all things. Purpose: Purpose asks, “What is the purpose of life and what gives life meaning? " For Hindus, the purpose of life is to become one with Brahman and discover the Atman. The Atman is the spirit and imprint of everything. To achieve enlightenment, people must follow the rules called Dharma to ensure that you remain in the correct caste so that you can potentially... middle of paper... a wish. So, in seeking to know Brahman, to meet it you should not want to know Hinduism has no explanatory purpose because it is highly contained in India. To keep these beliefs in check, you are born and raised in a Hindu society, or you have to face the endless cycle of samsara The only real attempt to explain this event is when Krishna says to Arjuna: “When pious men sacrifice to other deities of the faith, they sacrifice to me, Arjuna, no matter how aberrant the rites.” (AWS 58) Krishna says that whoever worships does not he is still worshiping Krishna, an extension of Brahman. This means that if someone is Muslim, Mormon or any other religion they are still praying to a different version of Krishna.