The pancha mahabhuta, or " five great elements ", of Hinduism are kshiti or bhūmi ( earth ), ap or jala ( water ), tejas or agni ( fire ), marut or pavan ( air or wind ), vyom ; or shunya or akash ( aether or void ).

The name Muralitharan is derived from murli dhar ( Devnagri: म ु रल ी धर ) meaning " the bearer of the flute ", which is a synonym for Lord Krishna, a deity in Hinduism who is said to play upon his bamboo flute while looking after cattle.

Among extant " major religions ", Bonewits would count as Paleopagan Hinduism as it stood prior to the Islamic invasions of India, Shintoism and Taoism.

The actual process of change from one life to the next is called punarbhava ( Sanskrit ) or punabbhava ( Pāli ), literally " becoming again ", or more briefly bhava, " becoming ", and some English-speaking Buddhists prefer the term " rebirth " or " re-becoming " to render this term as they take " reincarnation " to imply a fixed entity that is reborn .< ref >" Reincarnation in Buddhism: What the Buddha Didn't Teach " By Barbara O ' Brien, About. com < sup > Popular Jain cosmology and Buddhist cosmology as well as a number of schools of Hinduism posit rebirth in many worlds and in varied forms.

In Hinduism, Truth is defined as " unchangeable ", " that which has no distortion ", " that which is beyond distinctions of time, space, and person ", " that which pervades the universe in all its constancy ".

One episode, " The Way ", which loosely interpreted elements of Hinduism as major plot points, generated controversy, requiring the producers to add a disclaimer at the head of the episode and a tag explaining the episode's intentions at its end.

It has been characterized as a religion, a cult, a charismatic movement, a " sect ", " plastic export Hinduism ", a progressive millennialism organization and a " multinational, capitalist, Vedantic Export Religion " in books and the mainstream press, with concerns that the movement was being run to promote the Maharishi's personal interests.

According to one view, some scholars misinterpreted the word koti-which is meant to mean " class ", claiming that there are 330 million gods within Hinduism.

In Hinduism, Daksha / Dakshesha, " the skilled one ", is an ancient creator god, one of the Prajapatis, the Rishis and the Adityas.

As the conception of Bhārat Mātā predates The partition of India, she is intended to represent " Aryavarta ", the motherland of Hinduism in Hindu nationalism, not merely restricted to the secular Republic of India, and Bhārat Mātā remains a symbol of the " vision of a unified motherland " in Hindu nationalist thought.

Samsāra or Sangsāra ( Sanskrit: स ं स ा र ) ( in Tibetan called " khorwa "), literally meaning " continuous flow ", is the repeating cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth ( reincarnation ) within Hinduism, Buddhism, Bön, Jainism, Yoga and Sikhism.

In Hinduism, time is cyclic, consisting of cycles or " Kalpa ", repeating infinitely.

Hinduism has preached about humility and egoless state through numerous sacred scripts and sages which dates back to 5500 – 2600 BCE. Hinduism has influenced many originating religions like Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism regarding egoless state and nirvana or mukti. Eknath Easwaran writes that the Gita's subject is " the war within, the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage if he or she is to emerge from life victorious ", and " The language of battle is often found in the scriptures, for it conveys the strenuous, long, drawn-out campaign we must wage to free ourselves from the tyranny of the ego, the cause of all our suffering and sorrow ".

In some lineages of Hinduism, Purusha ( Sanskrit, प ु र ु ष " man, Cosmic man ", in Sutra literature also called " man ") is the " Self " which pervades the universe.

In 1995 Goel sent Pat Robertson his book " Jesus Christ: An Artifice for Aggression ", and a letter in protest to Robertson's remarks towards the religion of Hinduism.

Lila (, IAST ), or Leela is a concept within Hinduism literally meaning " pastime ", " sport " or " play ".

It is only the idea that we are the body that keeps us from living what he calls our " original essence ", the True Self, in Hinduism referred to as Atman.

In Hinduism, the goddess Tara ( Bengali: দ ে ব ী ত া র া ম া )( Sanskrit: Tārā, Devanagari: त ा र ा) meaning " star " is the second of the Dasa ( ten ) Mahavidyas or " Great Wisdom ", Tantric manifestations of Mahadevi, Kali, or Parvati.

** Karma, literally " deeds ", in Hinduism

Guru Ji is also known as " Hind Di Chadar " i. e. " The Shield of India ", suggesting that he gave up his life to protect Hinduism.

Allegory has been used widely in ancient sacred texts of Hinduism and all the religions that have sprouted off it ; and throughout the history of art in all forms of artwork.

The area's early history featured a succession of Indian empires, internal squabbling, and a tussle between Hinduism and Buddhism for dominance.

The Wheel of time or wheel of history ( Kalachakra ) is a concept found in several religious traditions and philosophies, notably religions of Indian origin such as Hinduism and Buddhism, which regard time as cyclical and consisting of repeating ages.

Although there is this special history of debate concerning reason and faith in the Islamic, Christian and Jewish traditions, the pursuit of reason is sometimes argued to be compatible with the other practice of other religions of a different nature, such as Hinduism, because they do not define their tenets in such an absolute way.

Hinduism teaches that there have been multiple avatars throughout history and that there will be more.

According to Hinduism, history is a divine creation, and one may live contentedly within it as long as one maintains a certain degree of detachment from it: " One is devoured by Time, by History, not because one lives in them, but because one thinks them real and, in consequence, one forgets or undervalues eternity.

it rises to importance in the medieval history of Hinduism, where the Bhakti movement saw a rapid growth of bhakti beginning in Southern India with the Vaisnava Alvars ( 6th-9th century CE ) and Saiva Nayanars ( 5th-10th century CE ), who spread bhakti poetry and devotion throughout India by the 12th-18th century CE.

In fact for all of its history the Bhakti movement co-existed peacefully with the other movements in Hinduism.

Each world religion, including but not limited to, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, Sikhism and Buddhism, is an interpretation of this universal truth adapted to cater for the psychological, intellectual and social needs of a given culture of a given period of history.

Despite its minority designation today, Hinduism has been greatly influential in Burmese history and literature.

These sacred works span much of the history of Hinduism, beginning with some of the earliest known Hindu texts and ending in the early modern period with the later Upanishads.

These include Hinduism, Qigong, Greek philosophy, Greek mythology, Roman history, Roman mythology, parts of the Abrahamic religions, Confucianism, Shintō, and Taoism, not to mention countless cinematic precursors.

While mendicants are the original type of monks in Buddhism and have a long history in Indian Hinduism and the countries which adapted Indian religious traditions, they didn't become widespread in Christianity until the High Middle Ages.

Hinduism has a history of co-existence with Buddhism and Jainism ( the Shramana traditions ), and more recently, with Sikhism, within the Indian subcontinent.

Hinduism and Islam, from the arrival of the Arabs as far back as the 8th century AD, has had a checkered history.

It is mentioned in history that Swargadeo Rajeswar Singha who was influenced by Hinduism gave the direction that the dead bodies should be cremated and not buried.

Christian Lee Novetzke, associate professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Washington, summarizes this controversy as follows: " Wendy Doniger, a premier scholar of Indian religious thought and history expressed through Sanskritic sources, has faced regular criticism from those who consider her work to be disrespectful of Hinduism in general.

The reason for this is that both Hinduism and Buddhism have common roots as dharmic religions, and over most of their history have not been seen as separate communions, but rather rival tendencies within a shared religious tradition.

For a brief history of Hindustani music and an overview of his musical training, see the article, " The Magic of Hindu Music ," in Hinduism Today ( October 2007, pp. 20 – 31 ).

The north, however, remained culturally the most active, where Buddhism was spreading and where Hinduism was being gradually remade by the Upanishadic movements, which are discussed in more detail in the section on religious history.

However, the recorded history of the Chitpavans in India and Hinduism begins in the 18th century.

Hinduism in Iran has a history stretching back to the middle ages.