Analysis and Reflection of My Hindu Worldview

I believe worldview is an amalgamation of our beliefs, morals and core values. Being a Hindu, I do not solely believe in the beliefs of Hinduism only. I only follow the beliefs in every religion which I like, such as I like the rich history of Hinduism as it was the first religion to ever exist before Christianity, Islam or Buddhism etc. In Islam and Christianity, I like their belief that they only worship one God and they consider their God as their prime reality. Furthermore, I like how Sikhs worship their Holy book Sri Guru Granth Saheb which is a combination of the teachings, belief and values about their Gurus.

I think the prime reality in our lives is God. I do not believe in Gods or cosmos rather I believe that God is one. Considering this, I think God is the creator of this universe. It was not created autonomously, by spirits and as a part of a matter (Sire, 2019). God created this universe and one of his biggest creation are human beings. He is a great architect who has been paving our way since our creation. I believe in the reality of world that exists around me. Some people they tend to confine themselves in their solitary bubble that they forget about the realities that is existing around them. But I am not one of these people and I am quite aware about my surroundings.

In my opinion, I do not perceive human beings as an image of God rather I would define them as the complex machines which were simple machines when they were created. The realities of the world made them complex. I consider God as a pure soul, but nowadays no human being possesses this, almost everyone’s soul is polluted. It is a common saying that God resides within your heart, but I believe God only resides in our heart only if we are good hearted and have uncontaminated soul.

Being a Hindu, I believe in karma and reincarnation when a person dies. According to the beliefs of Hinduism, they believe that sum of a person’s good deeds and bad deeds in this life and previous existence decides his fate on the judgment day i.e. about his future lives. About the reincarnation, I believe that whenever a person dies, his soul leaves his body and enters the new body. So, there is a rebirth of a soul when it enters a new body. Furthermore, I think whenever a person dies, a new person is born. But some people in Hinduism they believe in Nirvana and Moksha which means liberation from the cycle of rebirth and death. The person no longer takes rebirth or reincarnates, his soul forever rests in heaven. Furthermore, I also somewhat believe in after life or eternal life i.e. part of a person continues to live even after the death of the body physically.

I think that choice about right or wrong should be determined by human beings only. Most of the time, I follow my heart or go with my gut feeling. But sometimes before taking any decision, I think in my mind that Is this what God wants? Is this right or wrong in the eyes of the God. Now discussing about the purpose of humans, I believe we are the most beautiful creation of God and he made us to take care and to love mankind. Moreover, to create a harmonious and peaceful environment for our future generations to live in. I also think that when humanity starts to take God for granted, they face the wrath of God in the form of natural calamities. I think every person’s core values depends on their religion, society, culture and with the values they have grown up. Considering this, my core values are:

Family

They are my top most priority and I can sacrifice anything for them. My parents have done and still are doing everything, they can for me. They have supported me through every thick and thin. I can only repay them in the form of love and respect.

Serving community

I believe that God created us to serve mankind or to be a servant leader. In India, me and my younger brother used to give children in government schools free books and stationary material. Furthermore, every year on Diwali my family donates clothes and food to Pingalwara, a place for kids who are left by their parents due to some disabilities.

I have another example from my personal life- when I was in India, my maid’s husband died leaving behind three children. After his untimely death, she was facing difficulty with some financial issues. It was her daughter’s birthday, she came to my house for her usual cleaning. I overheard her saying to my mother that today is her daughter’s eleventh birthday and she cannot afford to celebrate it. If her husband would have been alive, they would have celebrated it. Birthdays are special for everyone and they come once in a year. I did not want her to feel miserable on her birthday. So, I decided to bake a cake and chocolate chip cookies for her daughter on her birthday, as I am very skillful at baking. In the evening, my mother called and told her to come at our house. When she came, she was stunned to see that I made cake and cookies for her daughter. She thanked me and my mother for showing concern towards her family. She took baked goods and celebrated her daughter’s birthday, so that her children would not feel sad and miss their father.

When I had my flight to Canada, my maid’s children came to see me on the same day, before going to their school. Her daughter bought a gift for me, with her own pocket money. It really touched my heart and made me realize that even a small gesture can make someone happy and their day worth living for. Furthermore, she video called me to make sure that I brought her gift with me to Canada. It is a common saying that sometimes happiness comes in small packets. We should not rely on large things to happen just to feel happy.

Humility

The most important value which I am still trying to practice is being humble. I think that we should never humble ourselves, only God can humble us. I try to follow the words said by Blanchard et al., (2016) that we should exalt God only by embracing humility and confidence and should never inhabit our heart with pride and fear which edges the God out. Christopher Moore (n.d.) said that “The three jewels of Tao: compassion, moderation and humility. Balthasar said compassion leads to courage, moderation leads to generosity and humility leads to leadership.”

Empathy

I try to practice empathy because it helps me to connect with people on deeper level. It also helps to see through the lens of other people, moreover aids in understanding the situation by putting ourselves in another person’s shoes. Furthermore, it helps in creating a safe place for a person, so that person becomes comfortable while sharing his feelings and never let fear and pride distort the truth into false realities.

Forgiveness

Earlier, I never thought of forgiveness as a core value. But after taking this course and Leadership as Service course, it changed my whole perception towards forgiveness. As Nelson Mandela (Boehmer, 2008) said, Forgiveness is the key to move forward and to achieve peace. He also said that it liberates our soul and removes fear. If we do not forgive, we let the disappointments and discontents eat our soul away and we inhabit fear and anger with in our heart which is harmful for us. Furthermore, forgiveness is a matter of heart i.e. it should come directly from the heart.

Risk taking

I also consider risk taking as one of my core values as I am a risk taker in my life. But sometimes I might worry about the consequences and my inability to handle things, if they take the wrong track. Jesus was a risk taker too, such as he himself stood against the whole roman empire i.e.one man against the whole army and he risked coming to earth leaving behind heaven. In my personal life, I took the biggest risk of coming to Canada, leaving my whole family and life behind. Risk taking is just like exploring new things and widening our horizons.

As I mentioned earlier that I think that human beings are created by God. When they were created, they simpler machines but the world turned them into complex ones. I do not see mankind as the image of God because I believe he is the ultimate being, he can reside within our heart, but we cannot become him. No one can match his supremeness.

I believe in God only, not in Jesus (Christianity), Gurus (Sikhism) and Gods and Goddesses (Hinduism) and Allah (Muslim). According to me, they all are the forms (images) or sons of God. But my family believes in Hindu Gods and Goddesses only. This is here our worldview differs. I try to follow my core commitments by being respectful to my parents and being humble to people around me. My parents are like second God to me as they taken care of me through ups and downs same as Gods does for his children. My parents understand and supports my fundamental values and beliefs and they have never forced me to follow Hinduism only.

I believe in servant leadership which is natural feeling to serve others. Jesus is the idol example of a servant leader. I believe in the leadership where leader serves as the hidden force behind the success of his followers and never comes in the front. Because I think people will forget what you did and you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel (Angelou, n.d.). I will never ask someone to do anything which I am not able to do myself. As I mentioned earlier that humility and empathy are one of my core values which I would like to practice as a leader. Right now, I consider myself more like a follower rather than a leader.

Because I lack many aspects of servant leadership which I can learn only as a follower. At the following stage, I can explore things and can learn how to lead from the heart. Following is the core of being a servant leader (Blanchard et al., (2016). We learn to lead by first learning how to follow. As Aristotle (n.d.) said, “He who cannot become a good follower, cannot become a good leader.” Furthermore, I believe being a servant leader and follower will help me in forming a good bond and connecting with people from every religion and culture.

In today’s world human beings mostly are confined in their own safe place, thinking about their themselves only. They are mostly self-centered. They do no respect their elders and do not care about the existence of other people around them. Following my worldview, I would like to be humble in this self- centered era. In my college environment and on daily basis, I see people indulged in themselves only. I have noticed many people sitting in seats reserved for older people in buses. Sometimes they do not get up and offer them seats. Furthermore, I have seen my professors in my university praying before and after the class for the betterment of their students, as being Christians praying is one of their moral value. I have seen many people in Surrey Central Station preaching for Jesus and Christianity.

So, I can say in this world there are people who follow their own religion’s beliefs and values, and some are like me who choose the best values from each religion and try to practice them in their daily life. Considering this, I believe that God never teaches us to follow a specific religion, only society does. Moreover, I think that practicing my core values and beliefs in life will help me to become a better human being and will further help me in making a society a better place. There is a famous Chinese proverb about humility that, “Be like the bamboo, the higher you grow deeper you bow (Cynthia, 2019, slide no. 45).