DIAMLA, SITTIE HASHREENAH BAYABAS

Assignment in Indian Philosophy:

Research
Cultural Practices:
1. Paying respect to the dead.
- when a parent has died and the children live far away, other family members hold the body until
the children arrive to do the last rites. And according to Hindu tradition and its sacred text,only a
male family member (such as a husband,father or son) can perform the last rites. In most Hindu
families, the body is bathed immediately after death. The ritual marks of the community,along
with sacred ash, may be applied on the person's body, under the guidance of the priest who chast
holy mantras,which vary in different Hindu communities. Before the body is criemated,the
immediate family members put flowers on the body,rice in the mouth and coins in the hands.

2. Food preference
- According to Sheevani Ti, Indian food is as varied as its culture and people. In every region,
food changes its flavours and techniques of cooking. As Indian food is influenced by its religions,
cuatons, and traditions,it is not easy to group it like the food of the Western world. India is the
country where the climatic conditions are also so varied, that the availability of produce too
determines the way the food is cooked.

3. Their view regarding the Ganges River

- In article nepaltourism.net, the Ganges in Sacred texts it described in the Mahabrata as the best
of rivers, born of all the Sacred waters. The Ganges is personified as the goddess Ganga. Ganges
river is considered a Tirtha which means a crossing point between heaven and earth. And in Hindu
mythology the Ganges river was created when Vishnu, in his incarnation as the dwarf Brahmin,
took second Vishnu's big toe accidentally created a hole in the wall of the universe and through it
spilled some of the waters of the River Manda Kini.

4. View about dead.

-According to Ganeri,2007, Indian scholars have shown that philosophy, religion and medicine
belonged together in ancient India and that they together captured Indian worldview. The
concealed art of the soul: Theories of self and practices of truth in Indian philosophy, the
University Press the historical overview of all the major Indian philosophical traditions,observes
that despite variations between the different traditions, and there are three main doctrines remain
commonly significant for all of the: the doctrines of Karma or the principle of causality,second is
mukti or the release from the cycle of life in this world, and soul, and the third is atma or the
inner-self of the human person. These common doctrines of Indian philosophical traditions also
testify to the relationship between philosophy and spirituality in the Indian context.

5. View about god.

 - The oldest text in India,many gods and goddess are mentioned by name ; and most of them
appear to be deifications of natural powers such as fire, water,river,wind,the sun, dusk and dawn.
The Mimamsa school started by Jaimini adopts a nomirialistic interpretation of the Vedas. There
are words like 'Indra' , 'Varena', and so on, which are names of gods but there is no God,over the
above the names. So the Indian view about God, is God as a soul different from inidividual souls
in that God does not have any blemishes and is eternally free. The ultimate aim of life is not to
realize God, but to realize the nature of one's own soul. God realization may help some individuals
to attain self realization. But it is not compulsory to believe in God to attain the summum bonum
of human life. Indian philosophy agrees that God-realization is not the ultimate aim of human
life.Plurality,and therefore this world, are more appearances, and God, as a creator of the world,is
himself relative to the concept of the world.