WORLD: I’m a Hindu, and This Is What I Believed

Source: International Mission Board, October 19, 2018

Editor’s Note: Author Sai Anand is a neuroscientist from India. He studies how the brain works and uses innovative approaches to share the gospel and speak intelligently about God’s design of the human body and brain.

During college I heard about true liberation offered from the true God: Jesus Christ. He has changed my life and beliefs about everything. This, though, is what I used to believe as a Hindu.

God(s):

It’s difficult to fix a number to how many gods there are in the Hindu faith—the highest estimate is 333 million. The gods have different characteristics and abilities, so Hindus will pray to different gods for different requests. The concepts of omniscience or omnipresence aren’t attributed to Hindu gods, so Hindus don’t know whether the gods or the particular god they’re appealing to, recognize or acknowledge their sacrifices.

Worship:

Worship, most of the time, means sacrifices to appease the anger of the gods, who are known for lashing out against sin. They will punish you if you do something wrong. The inevitability that you’ll do something that angers a god is overwhelming.

Hindus visit local temples to make sacrifices, give offerings, pray, light incense, and meditate. Worship can also be performed at shrines in the home or along the road. For Hindus, the morning rituals usually include self-purification and prayers to the sun. Many Hindus will also visit the temple in the morning. But they can’t go to the gods whenever they want; the temple isn’t open at all hours of the day.

Salvation:

Hindus believe in the unceasing cycle of life, death, and reincarnation. Your karma—the result of your actions, good or bad—determines how you will be reincarnated in your next life.

There isn’t a way to know if you’ll be reincarnated to a better life or whether what you’ve done is deserving of hell. There is a general belief in a “hell” where you are punished, though there are believed to be many different hells.

» Full article has great pictures and includes advice about what to keep in mind when sharing the gospel with a Hindu.

» The Hindu festival of Diwali is coming up November 6-10, and, as we’ve mentioned before, many Christians will be participating in 15 days of prayer for the Hindu world October 28 to November 11.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Missions Catalyst welcomes comments, especially those that provide additional insights on a topic or story as a help to other readers. We reserve the right to screen comments and may provide light editing. Note that comments including links may be delayed so we can make sure they are not spam; we hope you will include relevant links, anyway!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.