Hindu worldviews

Abstract

In Hinduism, animals are generally given great importance, which extends to religious worship; humans and animals have a special relationship to one another according to Hindu ideas, which is the subject of this treatise. To explain these in more detail, the author first offers an exemplary look into the understanding of the essence of humans and animals by explaining some important theological-philosophical foundations and terms of the Hindu religion and describing how the eternal divine, called brahman, relates to the world of matter, to humans and to animals. According to the idea, the divine self is the epitome of all living beings, so that the animals also have a soul which, out of respect for the divine, is to be treated with respect and dignity like humans. With this, Hinduism formulates a special animal ethic which, as the second chapter illustrates, considers humans and animals together, since both are, as it were, integrated into the rebirth cycle and subject to the principle of karma. Another aspect of the relationship between humans and animals is shown in the religious cult of the Hindus, which is the subject of the third and final chapter. Here the author goes into the numerous mythological and iconographic depictions of animals that are worshiped as symbols of the divine and that can ultimately also be understood as signs of the substantial bond between humans and animals.