Death is a natural occurrence, one that every human being knows with certainty that he or she will die at a particular time. Humans all over the globe agree on death; death involves the death of the physical body. However, religions and cultures around the world believe that a person's journey does not just end when they die. They believe that there exists life after death (Hopkins, 1992). Most religions across the globe share this belief in life after death. There exist several similarities between Hinduism and Western religions in terms of beliefs about life after death.
Both Hinduism and Western religions believe in the death of the physical body and that a person will resurrect to heaven. They believe that after death, the deceased gets a new body. In Hinduism, the Rig Veda hymns mainly concentrate on the afterlife (Hopkins, 1992). Hindus believe that the dead gets a new body after death, and cremation consumes the physical body. Second, both religions believe that after death, the deceased will reside in heaven, the new home, and their forefathers who also live there. Lastly, both Hinduism and Western religions believe that life after death depends on a person's choices and actions in the previous life (Hopkins, 1992; Hunt, 2017).
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Although the two forms of religion have some similarities, they also differ to some extent. According to Hopkins (1992), Hindus believe in reincarnation after death. They believe in the rebirth of the deceased's soul in another body in a continuous cycle. Unlike Hinduism, Western religions believe that God resurrects the soul to heaven but not the rebirth of the deceased in another body. Furthermore, Hindus believe that death is just the beginning of another cycle called the samsara, a cosmic process in which a person can only stop through the ending of personal rebirth. However, for Western religions, death marks the end of the previous cycle and the beginning of the afterlife where the soul of the deceased will either go to heaven or hell depending on their actions in the previous life (Hunt, 2017).
References
Hopkins, T. J. (1992). Hindu views of death and afterlife. Death and afterlife: Perspectives of the world religions , 143-155.
Hunt, S. J. (2017). Religion in Western society . Macmillan International Higher Education.
