Religion has always been sacred for any society, and each member of such society has been trying to preserve religious traditions and pass them to the subsequent generations. Religions are to some extent similar with languages for there are as many religions as there are people.
However, the main difference is that religions vary not from people to people, but from century to century because each time the humanity ascends a new stage of development, its views on religion change. The development of people’s religions can be traced through the ages, from the primary religions to the modern ones which can be characterized by higher stability. Irrespective of the peculiarities of each of these religions, they have one commonality. All they unite people in their striving to deity and serve to sustain their faith and support them in hard times.
Each religion that has been sustained by people throughout the centuries has its own peculiarities, which accounts for the differences, sometimes even complete differences, between them. Comparing primal religions, the religions of antiquity and such Indian religions as Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism is especially interesting for similarities and differences between them are easy to single out.
Primal religions, the religions of antiquity, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism are all united by their understanding of religious meaning which the followers of these religions see in different rituals, as well as by the presence of deity that they worship; nevertheless, religious rituals and deities are different and unique in case with each of these religions.
Belief systems of primal religions, the religions of antiquity, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism are similar and different in many ways. The followers of these religions saw religious meaning in rituals that were meant to satisfy different human needs (Martos 52). For example, primal religions can be regarded as tribal. Examples of people practicing primal religions include the Dieri tribe, the Aborigines of Australia and the majority of the traditional African tribes.
The members of these tribes constantly involved into ritual acts that took place to please their gods or to ask something from them. This was mainly done through ritualistic dances and making sacrifices. Similar behavior can be observed in the followers of the antique religions. Egyptians, for instance, are also known to have had a number of rituals; however, in their case, the rituals were “primarily concerned with maintaining the image of deity and offering it food and sustenance” (Silverman 148). With the help of the rituals, they ensured the benevolence of gods and goddesses that, according to their beliefs, controlled the universe.
Religious worship was also typical for the ancient Greeks for who animal sacrifices were the central event. The ancient Greeks believed that sacrifices could make the gods give people what they wanted (usually, good crops or even information about future). Pleasing gods through religious rituals was also characteristic for the ancient Romans; they believed that worship and sacrifice could make the gods change people’s lives for better. Shedding the blood of the sacrificed animal over the altar was obligatory, after which the animal’s inner organs were burned and the flesh was divided between everyone participating in the ritual.
Though religious rituals are common to all the religions under consideration, they are almost entirely different in case with Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism. For Hindu, religious rituals limit to worshiping statues and pictures of gods that are present in every family’s house. As far as the Sikhs are concerned, rituals and religious ceremonies are of little use for them. They believe that more benevolence of God can be obtained through prayers and meditation.
Quite supportive of this idea are the Jains for who worshipping the gods consists in meditation and praying to the images of gods; unlike the Sikhs and the Hindu, they attribute special power to the anointing of these images. Thus, the followers of primal religions, antique religions, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism all see the meaning of their religion in religious rituals, but each of these religions has its unique ways of worshipping the gods.
Moreover, these religious beliefs point at another similarity between primal religions, the religions of antiquity, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, namely, the presence of some deity which people worshipped. Primal religions cannot be characterized by the presence of definite gods. They were primitive because in those times people were primitive as well. They lived by associations; for instance, they believed that movement took place because of the object’s or person’s will. This will was the spirit, or god.
So, god was not a concrete deity; it was present in everything that surrounded people: sun, earth, wind, water, forest, etc. This is why the most of the natural phenomena were believed to occur because of the will of these gods, or spirits. Everything that was beyond human understanding was regarded as magic (for example, lighting, thunder, rain, or even the birds’ ability to fly). Gods were the agents through which everything took place on the Earth. Primal people interacted with these gods, sometimes even the way they interacted with each other; if something was needed from a specific spirit, it should have been asked of this (and this is what the rituals were for).
For the religions of antiquity, however, gods were something more concrete. They were either people or creations similar to humans. Ancient Greece is, perhaps, the richest in the number and variety of gods (Sartre 297). Greek gods (the Olympic ones) were mythical figures and practically each of them represented something related to nature (for instance, Poseidon was the god of the sea, while Hephaestus was the God of fire and Demeter was the goddess of harvest and agriculture).
Ancient Romans had similar idea of gods; most of their gods represented natural powers as well, though they had names different from the Greek ones (for instance, the main god of the sky was Zeus for the Greeks and Jupiter for the Romans). As it can be seen, the belief that everything natural takes place owing to the will of gods is still retained in the antique religions, though people’s understanding of deity has changed much.
As far as the Indian religions are concerned, god is the highest deity in all of them. In Hinduism, just like in case with primal and antique religions, there are several gods that people worship. The followers of Hinduism believe in Shiva, Krishna, and Hanuman. At this, however, not al the people believe in multiple gods. It is possible to worship only one god, but, at this, admit that other deities also exist. Though for the Hindi gods have more concreteness than for the followers of the primal religions, they do not have a concrete shape as in case with the antique religions.
Every person is considered to be an emanation of god and it is impossible for the humans to describe or even completely understand the gods. What differs such Indian religions as Hinduism from the primal and antique ones is the belief in ten gurus, figures who possesses much wisdom and have the right to declare the will of god. In Hinduism, guru is a divine figure that is considered to be a spiritual guide of a person on the earth.
It is remarkable that Sikhism differs from all the religions under consideration when it comes to deity. The matter is that Sikhism is uncompromisingly monotheistic, which means that, unlike the primal and antique religions, as well as unlike Hinduism, Sikhism admits the existence of only one god that is a Real Entity. This god is indescribable and abstract, though the fact that He exists is unquestionable (Cohen 111). The gurus in Sikhism do not even speak about the proofs of the god’s existence; it is perceived as something natural that does not require a logical proof.
For the Sikhs, god is not represented anywhere in nature, nor there is a specific place where god resides (as in case with the Greek gods who were believed to live on Olympus) for god is everywhere. To prove their faith to god, some the Sikhs opt to be vegetarians though this is not obligatory because, as it is believed, the food taken hardly influences the spirituality of a person (Matthews 63). The Sikhs are extremely careful about hurting themselves or other people; they seek peace and believe that there is always a way to avoid violence and war with other people or animals (at this, war can never be justified).
Sikhism has been much influenced by Jainism in terms of vegetarianism. However, the difference between these religions is that the Jains are strict vegetarians. Jainism differs in the perception of deity from the rest of religions discussed above. Jains have multiple gods, but their gods completely differ from those that the followers of primal religions or the ancient Greeks, Romans, etc. used to have. Just like the Sikhs and the Hindu, the Jains believe in gurus who have the sovereign authority, as well as in reincarnation (in contrast to the life after death that is believed in by the followers of primal religions and the religions of antiquity).
Unlike primal religions, religions of antiquity, and Hinduism (and similar to Sikhism), the Jain gods are not represented in nature or associated with natural phenomena. The uniqueness of the Jains’ understanding of deity lies in their rejection of god as a creator, but their admitting that god (and even gods) exists. According to their beliefs, any person who managed to achieve the state of godliness (infinite knowledge, power, and peace) can be god.
Any human soul possesses these qualities, but not everyone succeeds to disclose them because of karmas. The souls of those who get rid of karmas are perfected and this perfection is called Bodhi (Kulasrestha 87). When the soul is perfected, it becomes liberated of everything that it has been going through during the person’s life (or lives). Finally, it gets liberated of body and achieves a state that is called Moksha (or Nirvana). This is how the state of godliness may be achieved.
As it can be seen from the information presented above, similarities between the primal religions, religions of antiquity, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism are their ritualistic perception of religion and their worshipping a definite deity. Nevertheless, the differences between them are also numerous and evident. For instance, primal religions were tribal and they are the only ones of the discussed that did not have any scriptures to preserve their teachings.
Besides, what differs primal religions from the religions of antiquity is that the latter had definite gods who the majority of people worshipped, while in primal religions the names and number of these gods varied from tribe to tribe. In addition, primal religions and the religions of antiquity differ much from Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism. The three latter recognize meditation and prayers as the way to get closer to god or gods), whereas the two former express their devotion to gods with the help of sacrifices. The number of gods is also a great point of distinction between all these religions.
Among them all, Sikhism is the only monotheistic religion. Besides, Jainism and Sikhism are the only religions that believe in gurus and their sovereign authority. Among all these religions, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism seem the most complicated for me because the religious values of their followers are not easy to understand (especially their stating that the Universe was not created and that it exists by itself, but at the same time asserting that god (or gods) exists and he (or they) is all-powerful). Nevertheless, I respect any religion because it is an integral part of definite people’s culture.
Works Cited
Cohen, Yehuda. Why Religion?: About One of the Strongest and Most Productive Motifs in Human Life. London and new York: Routledge, 2003.
Kulasrestha, Mahendra. The Golden Book of Jainism. New Delhi: Lotus Press, 2006.
Martos, Joseph. The Sacraments: An Interdisciplinary and Interactive Study. Boston: Liturgical Press, 2009.
Matthews, Warren. World Religions. London: Cengage Learning, 2008.
Sartre, Maurice. The Middle East under Rome. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005.
Silverman, David P. Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 2003.