Charities

• Sewa


  Selfless service
• Charity in Hinduism


  • Helping others without expecting something in return
  • Doing the right thing
• Ahimsa


  • Not harming or killing anything living
  • Protecting the environment
  • Looking after other people and animals
• Dana


  Dharma
• Purity and pollution


  Religious acts presuppose some degree of impurity or defilement for the practitioner, which must be overcome or neutralized before or during ritual procedures
• Purification


  Usually with water, is a typical feature of most religious actions
• Avoidance of the impure


  Taking animal life, eating flesh, associating with dead things, or body fluids
• Respect


  Those individuals or groups who manage to avoid the impure are accorded increased respect
• Sacrifice


  Includes the performance of offerings in a regulated manner, with the preparation of sacred space, recitation of texts, and the manipulation of objects
• Merit


  Gained through the performance of charity or good works, that will accumulate over time and reduce sufferings in the next world
• Pollution (Hindu)


  Differs from the western term in that it is about impurity or defilement that must be overcome through purification rituals
• Pollution


  Caste System
• Friends of Vrindavan


  • Protect the forests by cleaning areas
  • Educate people about how to look after the environment
  • Join together all people who care about sacred forests
• Hindus believe that Krishna, who was Vishnu's eighth incarnation or avatar, lived in Vrindavan forest
• Hindus believe that the forest should be looked after and protected, especially because of the industrial growth that has happened in India, which has been harming the environment
• Tree conservation movement


  • Prevent trees being needlessly removed
  • Arrange protests to stop them being cut down
• Cows


  Sacred animals in Hinduism
• Cow protection movement


  • Look after cows in special places called goshallas
  • Cows have always provided people with everything they have needed to survive, such as milk and butter, and therefore need to be treated with respect
• Hindus want to follow the example set by Krishna, who was respectful to cows
• The Bhagavad Gita, one of the Hindu holy books, says that cows should not be slaughtered and that cows are "the mothers of all things"
• Bhaktivedanta Manor, in the UK, was set up in 1996 in reaction to many cows being killed because of the BSE crisis to protect and look after these animals
• Cows


  Krishna and Shiva
• Cows


  Untouchables
• Traditional role of Hindu women


  • Supporting family life
  • Playing an important role in the religious activities of the family
• The role of a Hindu woman in the family has changed greatly over time due to many factors including globalisation and the impact of Western cultures
• Many Hindu women have stepped forward to promote the rights of women and many charities have worked hard to raise awareness and promote the well-being, inclusion and rights of women
• The Manushi organisation has devoted itself to the campaign for women's rights and its interventions have influenced change and the way women are viewed by many
• In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna pointed out to his disciple Arjuna that women are as worthy and as capable as men of achieving liberation, or moksha