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Hinduism the religion of over a billion
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people is the world's oldest religion
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and probably the most confusing one to
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non-hindus some say it isn't even a
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religion more a way of life
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Hindus themselves call it the
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sanatana-dharma the eternal tradition so
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what is Hinduism does viola applied them
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and who is this elephant guy well let's
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find out
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[Music]
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Hinduism is the world's oldest active
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religion it's the result of the merging
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of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation
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and the nomads that came into India
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around 1500 BC some scholars say could
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even go back many more thousands of
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years but we won't delve too deep into
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dates because dates in Hinduism are
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fairly very controversial but one thing
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is certain
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Hinduism is old like at least 36 Betty
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White's Hinduism has been around for so
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long that it and the concept of India
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itself are inseparable Hindu and India
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even come from the same word Sanskrit
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was the ancient language of the Hindus
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and the Sanskrit name for the Indus
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River is Sindhu the ancient Persians who
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sat across the Indus tended to switch
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their s's to H s so Sindhu became Hindu
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so the people living across the river
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became Hindus the Persians told the
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Greeks who dropped that ferry not Greek
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like H stuck in a fairy Creek like ear
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to the end and boom India Hinduism has a
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long long history but today we'll be
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focusing on just the core beliefs of
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Hindus because I don't have the
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willpower to animate tree arrow long
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video Hindus are a diverse group so
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restrict dedicating their lives to
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prayer while others don't believe in any
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gods but still follow Hindu philosophy
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to make things easier to understand
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let's break Hinduism down into seven
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core beliefs so here's my rap that the
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seven Hindu beliefs fine here's the
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regular version then one belief in one
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universal soul Hindus believe in a
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universal soul known as Brahman a
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formless genderless source of all
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reality Brahman is the universe and the
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material that makes up the universe
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it's a trippy concept but think of
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Brahman as an ocean and everything else
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as drops propelling out of that ocean
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separate for a time but still the same
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thing that makes sense to belief in an
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immortal individual soul in Hinduism
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souls are known as Atma
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actions of the soul while in a body have
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effects on that souls next life when you
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die your soul moves to another new body
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this is called transmigration the kind
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of body the soul inhabits next is
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determined by karma tree belief in karma
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karma is action usually good or bad
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actions that affect society for Hindus
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karmic actions in the past affect us
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today and our actions today affect our
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souls future for belief in moksha the
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goal in hindu life is to some help get
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back to Banamine
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if a hindu can do this they will be
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freed from the cycle of life and death
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this is called moksha you can achieve
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moksha by realizing your oneness with
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Brahman how you realize this is up to
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you for this reason Hindus pray lead me
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from the Unreal to the real 5 belief in
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the valus the Vedas are Hindu sacred
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books of knowledge there are 4 valence
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Hindus believe that all forward divinely
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revealed to ancient Hindu sages will
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take a closer look at the Vedas in a
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while 6 belief in cyclical time for
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Hindus there are no beginnings or
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endings time is a series of cycles each
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cycle containing four ages our use is
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accreta the treta the dawah Lapera and
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the kali added together the four use
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total about 4.3 to million years at the
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end of each cycle declining human
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morality leads to the total destruction
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of reality Hindus believe that we are in
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the fourth and final youg Kali
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seven belief in Dharma Dharma is a
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difficult word to translate to English
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proper behavior is the best that I could
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come up with Dharma maintains balance in
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the universe as long as everything in
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the universe like animals plants and
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humans follow their Dharma and
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everything will be fine if they break
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from the Dharma though things will be
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super not fine
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each beam has its own Dharma Alliance
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Dharma is to kill and eat antelope a
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king's Dharma is to rule well a
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subscribers Dharma is to smash the like
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button and ring the notification bell
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for humans their specific dharma is
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usually based on their age and their
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caste an old priest will have a very
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different dama than a young merchant for
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example so those are the seven core
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beliefs of Hinduism with them you can
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understand the Hindu mindset unlike
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Christianity or Islam Hinduism is a
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non-profit organization there is no
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Jesus or Mohammed for Hindus there is no
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Bible Koran or Torah instead they have a
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bunch and I mean a bunch of different
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sacred texts the four Vedas form the
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basis of the Hindu faith so let's take a
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look at them one the Rig Veda the Rig
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Veda is a collection of songs that
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praise and discuss ideas like truth
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reality and the universe along with
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discussions and war weddings and rituals
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to the Yahoo Veda the Ayurveda covers
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stuff such as sacrificial rites and
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rituals tree the sama Veda sama
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literally means sweet song that destroys
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sorrow it is mostly songs dedicated to
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praising gods it's different than the
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rest of the Vedas because it's set to
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music for the atharvaveda
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the attire of a Veda is my favorite one
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do you want to curse your enemies our
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charm that special someone maybe learn
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to invoke rain or discover herbal
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medicine along with tips on warfare like
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how to make poison arrows
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well this Veda has you covered along
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with a bunch of other charms and curses
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it even has a curse against cursors
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avoid us Oh curse as a burning fire
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avoids a lake strike him here that
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curses us as the lightning of heaven the
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tree and link to the atharvaveda
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is in the description just in case you
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need a spell to get a wife or another to
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banish pigeons from your presence it's
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it's great after the Vedas come to
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Upanishads which are like a sequel that
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makes the original make much more sense
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they were probably written down between
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800 BC and 500 BC during a time when
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some Hindus started to
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the Vedas their ideas became the
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Upanishads Upanishads are books on
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philosophy like we would expect from
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Plato or Aristotle they're all about
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questioning doubt debate and finding the
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answers to life's difficult questions a
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theme in the Upanishads is that people
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are not their minds or bodies or egos
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but they're Atman
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your soul is you everything else is
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unreal and temporary after the holy
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texts like the Vedas and Upanishads are
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other less divine but still important
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texts
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these include stuff like the Puranas the
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Bhagavad Gita and Jeremiah and the
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Mahabharata the Puranas are like
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encyclopedias of Hindu beliefs there are
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18 well-known Puranas the Puranas cover
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things from yoga to army organization to
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taxation to the caste system to hell
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guards and everything in between the
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bhagavad-gita get over short is one of
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Hinduism's most important texts the gita
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takes place on a battlefield where
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arjuna a great warrior refuses to fight
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lord krishna steps in to urge a unit to
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fight and their discussion covers things
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such as dharma and how to live your best
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life
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Arjuna eventually fought after Lord
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Krishna taught him the truth about
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Dharma as a member of the warrior caste
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a Yuna's Dharma was to fight against
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evil the lesson of the Gita is that
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everyone faces difficult choices but
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they must on them according to their
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Dharma no matter how unpleasant along
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with all these philosophical texts
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Hinduism has two action-packed epics
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jeremiah and the Mahabharata jeremiah
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the early of the two texts tells the
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story of Prince Rama in the epic you
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find out about his 14-year long exile
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the abduction of his wife Sita his
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battle with the evil demon Ravana and
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his awesome monkey sidekick Hanuman the
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second epic the Mahabharata is a longest
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poem in the world five times the length
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of the Bible and eight times the length
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of the Iliad and Odyssey combined it
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rivals any soap opera you've ever seen
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when it comes to drama
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murder betrayal love love murder and
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giant battles the Mahabharata has it all
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the theme willing true their Amaya and
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the Mahabharata is that Dharma must be
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followed for society to function in
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Hinduism there are four goals a person
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should aim for to have a good life the
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first of these is Dharma followed by
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artha the pursuit of prosperity and good
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reputation kama pleasure both in body
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and in mind and a moksha release from
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the cycles of rebirth Hindus should
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practice artha and kama with Dharma in
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order to achieve moksha there are also
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six temptations Hindu should try and
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avoid kama lost and materialism this
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camera is different from the good camera
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mentioned above I know
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Nexus cruda which is anger loja which is
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greed maha which is unrealistic
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attachment to things people and power
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mother which is pride and mattes area
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which is jealousy by following their
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Dharma and avoiding these six
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temptations a Hindu can break the cycle
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of rebirth and have their soul merge
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back into Brahman but even though
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everything comes from Brahman who is the
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one real thing in Hinduism Hindus do
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after all have thousands of gods so
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let's take a look at them first
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there's Brahma the Creator he created
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everything in the universe but he is not
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the universe itself because that's
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Brahman they aren't the same thing
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that last letter changed a lot
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apparently he has four heads
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the heads face each of the four
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directions to represent the four Vedas
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which he created and the four Yuke's
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he also holds a book which represents
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knowledge oh and he rides a giant Swan
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because he's just fancy his consort is
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Saraswathi the goddess of learning
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Vishnu the preserver is the second
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member of the Hindu Trinity he preserves
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the world created by Brahma until is
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eventually destroyed by Shiva he holds a
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discus which he used to cut down anyone
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that hasn't messed with his Dharma along
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with a conch which symbolizes victory
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and the five elements Vishnu has many
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many avatars such as Krishna or Rama who
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he uses to defend Dharma
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on earth oh and he rides a giant eagle
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named Garuda Vishnu has two consorts the
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Goddess Lakshmi and Boo Devi
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boo Devi is the earth goddess and
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Lakshmi is the goddess of good fortune
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and wealth next is Shiva the destroyer
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the third member of the Hindu Trinity
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it's his job to destroy the universe in
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order to prepare for its renewal at the
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end of each cycle of time the most
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identifiable of his features is his
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third eye which he almost always keeps
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closed if he does open it and you're in
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front of them then you will have your
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face melted off when not on making
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existence Shiva enjoys long walks with
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his bull named Nandi at the end of the
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Kali Yuga the fourth age of the world
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Shiva will perform a dance that destroys
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the universe which is odd because people
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have told me that my dance moves make
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them wish the world would end so me and
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Shiva have quite a lot in common
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Parvati and sati are Shiva's consorts
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Shiva also has two sons Ganesha and
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Murugan Ganesha is the worship as the
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remover of obstacles and Murugan is the
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God of War
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Ganesha holds a very special place in
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the heart of Hindus due to him being the
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remover of obstacles the elephant head
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is the most obvious clue to identifying
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him he was actually born with a human
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head but after Shiva cut that one off he
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kind of had to make do with an elephant
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one if you're Christian or Muslim you're
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aware that your religion has a bunch of
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different denominations like Catholics
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or Protestants Sunni and Shia Hinduism
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has these two Hindus developed four
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major denominations some of which have
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their own subdivisions the Vicodin Ava's
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primarily worship Vishnu and Chavez
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primarily worship Shiva and his sons
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smart does follow sacred texts like the
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Puranas Jeremiah and the Mahabharata
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rather than the Vedas they worship five
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gods and goddesses Ganesha Durga storia
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Shiva and a preferred avatar of Vishnu
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finally Schachter's worship the goddess
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Devi chapter C Devi as the ultimate and
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eternal reality like a feminine Brahman
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even though there are all these
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variations and more
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the core beliefs of hindus remain mostly
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the same hindus believe that dharma
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keeps the balance in the universe if the
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scales between good and evil start
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tipping towards evil then something
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needs to intervene to fix the universes
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dharma this divine intervention is known
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as an avatar the literal meaning of the
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word avatar is descent avatars are gods
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that descend to earth to intervene
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whenever help is needed to restore
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Dharma for example when the earth was
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dragged underneath the ocean Vishnu
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descend to earth as the avatar of raha a
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bore and dragged the earth back out in
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other cases Vishnu was born on earth as
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a human avatar like Rama or Krishna
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where he spent his avatars life fixing
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Dharma
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so the caste system if you only know one
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thing about Hinduism this is probably it
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people see it as an oppressive system
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that locks people in place based on
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their birth and for a huge part of
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history that's all it's been
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unfortunately let's do a quick
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explanation of what the caste system is
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in Hinduism there are four castes or
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classes that you can be born into
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there's the Brahmin the priest the
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Kshatriyas the Warriors the vicious the
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traders and the sudras
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the manual laborers the main basis for
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the caste system can be found in the
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back by Geeta
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and the Rig Veda Krishna says in the
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Gita I have created a fourfold system in
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order to distinguish among most
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qualities and functions the Rig Veda
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also refers to the forecast
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it says humans were created from parts
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of the God
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Purusha the Brahmin from his face the
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Kshatriya from his arms the Asia his
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thighs and the shudra his feet this
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system was supposed to assign people
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functions based on their abilities not
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their birth if someone had the qualities
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of a Brahmin or a visa they could fill
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those roles the Gita
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didn't restrict movement among castes
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and the caste system functioned as
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intended for a while until a document
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known as the laws of Manu came about
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around the fifth century BC popularly
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referred to as the
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Schmidty day created hard rules for
00:15:44
hindu life - rules presented in it
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contributed to the way the caste system
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turned out man who state that the
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Brahmin were the Lords of all castes and
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he forbid moving among the castes the
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cash you were born into was now the
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caste you're stuck in if you give humans
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a hierarchy that exploited and things
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will go sour pretty quickly
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as time passed hindus began thinking in
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terms of upper and lower castes soon
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cleaning toilets tanning leather and
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dealing with meat products were thought
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to be impure the people doing those jobs
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became Untouchables the lowest of the
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low a people without caste and the rest
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is history the modern world has brought
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many changes though now Hindus mix
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freely while working together in the
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same businesses attending the same
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schools and generally just living
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together Bona comes to marriage many
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Hindus still stick to their own caste
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but this too is changing and on Hindu
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dating websites you can actually see
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people list a non-preference forecast
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it'll say caste no bar so those are the
00:16:53
basics of Hinduism it isn't even close
00:16:56
to covering everything one video simply
00:16:58
can't do it Hinduism is too diverse too
00:17:01
deep and means too many different things
00:17:03
to different people but learning even
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the basics of this fascinating an
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ancient religion gives us an insight
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into the worldview of over a billion
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people and I hope you enjoyed it
00:17:16
you can find all the sources used in the
00:17:18
description below if you would like to
00:17:20
follow your correct Dharma then please
00:17:22
subscribe if you're interested in
00:17:23
supporting the channel there are links
00:17:25
to my t-shirt store and patreon also in
00:17:27
the description thank you so much for
00:17:30
watching
