Belief: To trust in something without proof.
Faith:
Belief that...
....death is not the end,
.....there is more to life than fulfilment of desires
.....there is a supreme being
Adhyatm :
The journey of spiritual evolution that initiates with faith and ends at realization of the truth. Its mostly unorganized and no set rules, codes or manuals ,rituals.
Religion:
Is the institution , an organization that builds itself around the above faith, sets itself in the de jure properitorship of the faith.
Issues instructions and sets rituals, authorizes it's officers as sole authorities to govern faith. Religions sometimes become a nation state of faith.
Religion is understood to have come from the latin word Re-ligare ,the word ''ligare'' meaning "to bind".
The presently prevalent recognized religions can be categorized in two groups:
1. Abrahamic Religions: Judaism, Christianity & Islam.
2. Dharmic Religions: Hinduism, Buddhism. However both are inseparable and not mutually exclusive.
Mostly religion if taken more seriously prohibits spiritual growth and delays realization. Sometimes puts one back on his journey also.
Also, Religion is mostly a concept of Mid East Asia, with the major religions having roots in ME and having following common elements or concepts of:
Singularity of faith- 1 book, 1 prophet type, all other faiths considered false and satanic
Believer/Non believer
Saved/doomed
Heaven/Hell for believer/Non believer
Crusade
Conversion
Objective of Global Domination
Due to the above religions have been probably the worst catastrophe to humanity.
Hinduism:
Hinduism is a mist complex subject, however to proceed systematically:
1. There is no Hinduism or Hindu religion. In fact there is no word "Hindu" of Indian origin. Hindu/Hind words were used by Persians and Greeks for the land beyond Indus river and the people who lived there. Hence the word Hind,Hindu,India,Indian are synonymous and a geographical identity, eg Hindukush, Hind mahasagar , Hindustan
2. There is no concept of "Religion " in India as such as well. The above mentioned features of "Religion" have been alien to Indian Philosophy . That's why there is not even a word for religion in any Indian Language. The word Dharma used for Religion simply means "duty" or model conduct.
3. What "Hindus" today have is neither faith ,spirituality or religion but a complex combination of all of these with faith in biggest proportion, spirituality the guiding principle and instutionalization or religious infrastructure the weakest and smallest component.
