Religion Essay 代写:印度现存最古老的伟大文明

Beginning in the third millennium BC, man began to settle in massive cities in the Indus valley. One of the civilizations that flourished in this region was the Aryans, who are believed to have been a very spiritual people. As civilized living spread throughout the Indian subcontinent, the beliefs of the Aryan civilization became the framework for the civilizations that followed. The most enduring feature of the Aryan way of life was the idea of Dharma. Simply put, Dharma is the duty that one has during life. This concept originally appeared as a result of civilized living where everyone was assigned a task or a duty: "A fundamental feature of the Hindu tradition is that there is no dividing line between the sacred and the secular." (1185) The spirituality of the Indian kingdoms came together with the everyday duties of the public to produce a religious code of conduct which also acted as a kind of legal system. Dharma became a staple in Indian society because it gave direction and purpose to the actions of the people: "A human being is a composite personality expressing physical, vital, mental, and spiritual dimensions of life. The harmonization of these aspects of life is the primary domain of dharma."(1185) It came to encompass all the various aspects of human life and directed them with the harmonized goal of doing everything to the best of one's abilities. This is the main reason for the success of the Dharmic tradition because it promoted the progress of society through individual achievement: "The Hindu king ensures the stability of society, not by strength and power of the state, but by the observance of dharma." (1187) The kingdoms of India embraced the idea and it soon became the popular ideology to rule by. By the time that the sacred Hindu texts were compiled Dharma was thoroughly embedded in the lives of the people. Naturally, it also became a main focus for the Vedas and any Hindu literature thereof. As time progressed the spiritual concept of dutiful living slowly solidified into the caste system that we are familiar with today. Once the compilation of the Vedas was complete, they were used as the rulebook of Dharma: "To each caste and to each order of life the texts apportioned their respective duties as their special dharma." (483) Everyone from a king to a peasant lived by the rules of Dharma and it became the main idea affecting their every decision. It was now part of the texts as well as the traditions of Hindus. Dharma now directed the community as well as the individual in every way imaginable and this system was pretty much unchanged for multiple millennia.