My Book Of Bible Stories From The Puranas, The Ganga

Religions unites and fulfills basic functions of a society. Many aspects that make up a Religion can be applied to sports, family events, and important life events, such as marriages or births. Hinduism in India can develop a riff between people based on caste but also fulfills the basic function of its society. Three of the most intriguing aspects of Hinduism that I am able to connect to my personal experience are the use of the Puranas, the Ganga river, and their view and response to death.
Today, people across India know stories from the Puranas, “a collection of myths, legends, lessons, and stories…” ( Robson 28) that simplify and teach the Vedic texts. I grew up reading “ My Book of Bible Stories” giving me an idea of the Bible’s
every kind of pollutant yet cleanses the souls who wash in her” (Robson 39). The Ganges is “...also the place where the cremated remains of the dead come to rest … to be returned to Heaven by Mother Ganga” (Robson 39). The Ganga river in which people immerse themselves in hopes of washing away their impurities resembles that of a baptism. I was brought up as a one of Jehovah’s witnesses and recognize baptism as a similar ritual to the bathing in the Ganges river. Just as there are thousands of people bathing along the Ganges there are thousands of people getting baptized every year taking place within an assembly or convention of Jehovah's witnesses. A baptism occurs in pool, smaller in size than the river, but same idea. The difference between bathing in Ganga and baptism is that baptism does not cleanse us from sin, but symbolizes a person's dying of his past course of life and beginning of a new one. Similar to the cremated remains of the dead being scattered along the Ganges for rest and hope for return to Heaven Jehovah’s witnesses when immersed in water, means that you have died, or abandoned your former way of life. When you come out of the water, you will begin a new life doing God’s
developed many different funeral rites…” (Robson 46). After a loved one has passed, “ … mourners place the corpse on the floor with the head… pointing in the ritual direction of the dead. Family members prepare the body… bathing it, trimming hair and nails, and wrapping a shroud around the corpse… mourners light an oil lamp… burning it for three days” (Robson 46). Cremation, the beginning of the mourning period, takes place on the eleventh day, one more ritual occurs before the family returns back to society with the hope that their loved one has been reborn, further along the path of enlightenment. When my grandparents died I didn’t understand but my mother, being raised one of Jehovah's witnesses, told me that my grandparents would be resurrected in paradise. Later, I learned the whole world would be made into a paradise and the dead will be resurrected with the opportunity to live forever on this Earth in peace. Hinduism belief of life after death is reincarnation which depends on the soul’s karma and its desire to enjoy the Earth. I’ve been taught that if I dedicate my life to Jehovah God and I die in the process I gain the hope of being resurrected in paradise on