Hinduism vs Buddhism

386 Words2 Pages
Hinduism and Buddhism are different in ways of having a caste system influencing gender roles. Hinduism is polytheistic and pray or worship gods, but Buddhism there is one god so its monotheistic or a philosophy judging which type of Buddhism you are talking about and they don’t worship the Buddha they aspire to be him because the Buddha doesn’t think he is devine.. They are similar in having beliefs about ending the life cycle by being enlightened and achieving Nirvana. Hinduism follows a caste system so they have people who are at the top called Brahmins or priest who preach the religion and then it subsequently goes down to the slaves or peasants. People were not equal in Hinduism. The only way to move up in your caste system is to have good karma which is doing good deeds with good karma comes good dharma which means to know your role in the caste system and doing your moral duty. Due to the religion not being equal women were still subordinate to men. So the women couldn’t help the spreading on teachings in Hinduism because only the Brahmins could do that. But in Buddhism there was no caste system it was an egalitarian environment in the religion. Which made men equal to women and there was no Brahmin class. Due to the equality women could spread the teachings of the Buddha and were not looked down upon because everyone was equal. The Buddha believed everyone was equal because of this most people in a low caste switched to Buddhism so they wouldn’t have to be treated down upon. The Hindus worship many gods. So they are a polytheistic religion. Some of the main male gods are Brahma (world’s soul), Nishnu (savior). In religious ceremonies the Hindus will pray to because they feel these gods are divine and higher they would be above the Brahmins in their caste system. But in Theradova Buddhism there is no god or deity looked up to but they follow
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