Hinduism is a religion based on the principles of harmony and tolerance.

Hinduisms
oldest text, the Rig Veda, said of other gods God is one but men call him by many names.
The primary goal of a Hindu is to be released from the cycle of reincarnation. This
liberation is known as Moksha, which is the release into the infinite ocean of the divine.
Although hindus worship many gods and goddesses, most hindus also believe that all
reality, including those gods and goddesses are all one thing. This belief is known as
monism. Everything shares a common essence, this essence is known as Brahman. It is
thought that Brahman is beyond human perception. The Upanishads, the philosophical
texts that form the basis for many hindu beliefs, say that Brahman can only be described as
not this, not that. The ultimate reality that is Brahman when referring to all existing
things can be described and understood another way, via the ultimate reality within oneself
known as Atman, the eternal self. Hindus have a cyclical view of time, wherein the universe
goes through a cycle of being created, destroyed, then recreated, and then re-destroyed.
Within this cyclical universe, it believed that the individual is also goes through a cycle of
birth and rebirth, until they achieve Moksha and are released into the ocean of the divine.
This is known as samsara, or the wheel of rebirth. This is an essential idea of hinduism,
and is discussed in hinduisms most popular sacred text, the Bhagavad-Gita. Karma is what
determines the nature of each reincarnation. Karma basically dictates that every morally
good action taken will eventually bring about a good result for the person acting. The
reverse holds true for immoral actions. The standard for good karma is known as dharma,
or ethical duty based on the divine order of reality. Dharma is not just a set of rules, it is a
way of life. For every activity there is a way of acting that that conforms to dharma. When
seeking guidance on how to fulfill dharma hindus turn to four sources: divine revelation,
sacred tradition, the practices and examples of the those who are considered wise, and
your own conscience. Hinduism features a caste system that consists of four distinct
classes: brahmin (priests), kshatriya (warriors and administrators), vaishya (farmers,
merchants, and artisans), and shudra (servants and labourers). Karma determines what
caste you are in, and caste in turn determines what kind of dharma should govern your
actions. There are also four stages of life: brahmacharya (the celibate student), grihastha
(the married man), vanaprastha (the hermit in retreat), and sannyasin (the wandering
ascetic recluse). Unlike other religions, hinduism describes pleasure, or kama, as an actual
goal of life. Whereas all religions admit that humans desire pleasure, many hold that we
most withhold from fulfilling our desire. Kama in particular refers to the pleasures of
sensual love. Once kama comes to its limits, and can no longer fulfill, many people turn to
artha, which is the pleasure of material success and the social prestige that follows. There
are three main paths to liberation in hinduism, known as margas: karma-marga (the path
of works), jnana-marga (the path of knowledge and truth), and bhakti-marga (the path of
devotion to god). Within jnana-marga there are three schools of philosophy regarding the
true nature of reality. Vedanta is the school that is most faithful to the traditional hindu
form of monism. Sankhya asserts that reality is made up of two categories: matter, and an
infinite number of eternal selves. Yoga, in general, refers to any sort of spiritual practice.
The goal of a yogi is to free the eternal self from the bondage of personhood.