Translated from the original by Costas Balomenos
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religions,
not only the oldest but also the newer, we separate them in polytheistic and monotheistic,
i.e. to those who accept the existence of many gods and to those who accept
the existence one God. Apart from the above distinction, the religions are divided - regardless if they are polytheistic
or monotheistic -
in those who they owe their existence to a founder
and in those that there were traditionally without having been
founded by someone. We will deal with religions
that have a founder. We would mention the founders of
religions, not in turn of their appearance, but in
alphabetical order to assist the
readers.
The founders of
religions are:
1. Buddha
2. Zoroaster
3. Jesus Christ
4. Confucius
5. Lao Tse
6. Mencius
7. Muhammad
8. Nanak
Before
mentioning
to the biography of Buddha, it
is beneficial to make two clarifications necessary because most people are confused about them. First, that
Buddha did not had that name (Buddha), as most believe,
nor that the name Buddha means God.
Besides, Buddha never argued that is a God or even
a son of God.
The Siddhartha or Sincharta
Gautama - this was
the real name of Buddha – was a son of a rich ruler of Sountontana that
ruled over the Sakya,
a small province in the north of India , which today is bisected by
the border with Nepal
For the year of birth there is
not unanimous, because the
different Buddhist schools
do not agree
absolutely when their Master lived. So it's hard to identify if he was born in the
7th century, or in 6th century, or
in 5th century BC. The Theravada prevailing in South Asia puts his life of between 623 and 543 BC The Mahayana Buddhists
supporting various viewpoints. For many years prevailed
the theory that he lived between 563 and 483 B.C. But they all agree that he
lived 80 years.
According
to some Buddhist stories
appearing speculations
that was preceded one immaculate conception of Siddhartha from Maya
his mother, in which the Holy
Spirit - in responding to the customs of the country
- took the form
of a white elephant. His mother died
before he could bring him to the world and thus they entrusted in Machapratzapati,
in her sister, who was the second
wife of his father.
He
spent his childhood and early
youth into luxury and
opulence. At 16 years
married a beautiful and gentle new, the Giasontara or Bantakakana, who was his cousin. The couple acquired a son, Rachoula 13 years after
his marriage.
According to tradition, he saw successively “four pageants”: an old man paid up, a heavy sick, a
dead body and a peaceful ascetic. Then realizing the futility of life and the
possible outlet for this - in the face of an ascetic - he abandoned everything he had,
such as comfortable life, woman and child
and in the age of 29 years went as apprentice at
Alara Calama, a religious teacher and ascetic, who was teaching methods of self-immersion and
self-consciousness.
But disappointed
by his complicated theories and he abandoned him,
becoming a student at Ountaka Ramapoutta, another
ascetic. But gasped the same disappointment and there and after he left him and engaged in
a relentless pursuit
of the body believing that in this way he will find the redemption. Finally, he dedicated himself to a
prolonged deep meditation under a sycamore tree, now
known as the “Bodhi – Tree”. After 49 days of
intensive introspection, a
night of full moon May
had reached to an internal flare,
realizing suddenly that the problem
in humans is the "tahna", i.e. the desire from which man must be relieved, to
enter into the eternal blessedness the "nirvana". Thus
became the Siddhartha
Gautama, the “Buddha” = "Enlightened," the one who discovered the truth, hereafter he put purpose in life to convey
to people. Immediately he did and the first
students in the face of the first five ascetics who approached him, who by accepting the teachings of Buddha were admitted as “Bikou”= monks. Soon the
number increased to 60, to
which it entrusts - as himself he did
- to tour in towns and villages preaching his theory. Quickly
across the entire western
region of the river Ganges
were founded the first men's Buddhist monasteries
and much later, after several
hesitations, gives his consent to get up and the first female monastic orders,
in which accede his stepmother and
his wife.
Many kings and rulers of India
His followers and the
local inhabitants burned his relics
and
yielded values to him for seven days. His
ashes were shared in the eight states of
the region where he lived and
taught, and later were placed in
special mausoleums known
as “stupas”, which then have
become places of worship and
pilgrimage of the faithful.
He
is the founder of the
Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. As is the case other
founders of religions, the biographical information is covered by veil of myth
mainly for two reasons. First, that very few and disjointed biographical information have been
rescued until today and secondly the myths about his life confused with
reality. First, we do not
know exactly when he lived.
The older researchers place him in the period of the 7th or 6th
century BC, while the younger ones choose the time between 1400
and 1000 BC. We see that is a time difference, which reaches the 700-800 years. His name, which is the Hellenized form of the ancient Persian
“Zarathustra”, meaning “he with the light brown camels” or more likely “he who
directs the camels”. Member
of the sub-race Spitama,
was probably born in the province of Bactria , an area which is
currently located on the border between
Afghanistan and Turkestan . Belonged
to the Indo-Iranian wave that arrived in Persia
When he reached the age of 30 years received
the call to prophetic work through a vision.
This vision puzzled
him and when they followed and
others, was confirmed that he was the chosen
one, who ought to
convey to people the religious revelation for the uniqueness of the God of Good, who called Ahura Masda. To achieve this, had to
confront the religious establishment until then, which it did, resulting to
cause warm devotion to his face but also violent reaction. Deplored
some bloody sacrifices
and rituals of traditional Parcism, i.e. the traditional religion of the Persians, while on the
contrary he insisted on the purity
of the soul. But he kept the respect to the fire, which it considered that expresses the brilliance of Ahura Masda, but also because it also has laxative significance. The teaching of
Zoroaster was not to find resonance and response directly from the Persians,
but nevertheless he was not disappointed.
Had to go through ten long years to find his first follower, who
also was a relative person, i.e. his cousin. Because of the reaction,
which he met was forced to leave his tribe and eventually
resorted to the court of
King Vistaspa, who
became his follower. With the support of Vistaspa,
Zoroastrianism was declared the official religion of Persia
All
sources agree that Zoroaster
died at age 77 years. According to some subsequent information, he was killed by a priest of
the old religion in front of an altar in a raid against the capital of
Vistaspa.
He
is the founder of the
religion of Christianity. It is
the only religion whose the
founder argued to be God, who became
incarnate to save the
people from evil and death.
The name Jesus means “Savior” and Christ is “one who
is anointed”. The
arrest from his mother became supernaturally without the participation of a man, but with the energy of the Holy Spirit and the power of
the Most High.
He
was born in Bethlehem
in an insignificant town of Judea
when Octavian Augustus was emperor of Rome Temple of Jerusalem Nazareth
He
is the founder of the
eponymous Chinese religion
Confucianism. It is he who has said the famous phrase
“when the finger pointing to
the moon, the idiot looks at the finger”,
phrase meaning our involvement in life with unnecessary and non-essential things. Of
course to be perfectly accurate,
Confucius there has been no
just the founder of religion, but he formed the existing
traditional religion of China Sung
In
482 BC lost his son Lee and the
following year his favorite disciple
Yen Hui, which cost
him much. He died in 479 in
obscurity at the age of 73.
Many disciples mourned
him for three years.
In
today's folk religion
of China Confucius still plays an important role. In Taiwan
In
classical temples in which is honored the spirit of the ancestors, there are
not statues of him but tables of soul as
guardians of the ancestral spirit
of the teacher and the most important
disciples.
Famous Chinese philosopher is the founder of
the Chinese religion of Taoism.
The biographical details of his life are full of
mythological elements and therefore
be quite cloudy the time of his action. It is most likely that he was born in 604 BC He was curator
of the royal library, located in the capital Loch which were lying not far from today's Loch
- Yandong of the province Ho - Nan .
The first
name
was Erch which means ear and his surname was Li which means plum. Stayed however
known in history under the name of
Lao - Tse meaning "old man - teacher" or “old man – philosopher” but
literally rendered as “senile child”, because according
to tradition pregnant in the belly
of his mother for 81 years and when he
finally born his hair was white and he had face old man. By researchers of ancient Chinese history is considered certain that he met
several times with the other big Chinese physiognomy, the famous Confucius
who, however, considered being much earlier than him. One
of these meetings took place in 571 BC, but it is anything but friendly it was,
but the wisdom of Lao - Tse made vivid impression in Confucius. As
for the date of his death,
historically nothing is absolutely certain. The
Chinese historian Schi - ma - Chien reports that Lao - Tse was lived for a long time in
the capital. Seeing the forfeiture of Cheu dynasty, wanted to leave
the capital and make a marching in the NW China. But in the corresponding NW
city gate, was recognized by the guard of this, who was named Yin - Xi, who urged him to write the book “Tao - Tech
– King” i.e.
the book about the divinity and
the virtue. And
indeed Lao - Tse wrote this book, which is the principle of the religion of Taoism. This historian mentions then that Lao - Tse, after
he wrote this book, it delivered to the guard of the city and he
departed to an unknown address
and it was not learned then
neither where nor
when he died. Tradition says that he lived as a
hermit until old age to the one hundred and
fifty to two hundred years. The
format of Lao - Tse has never ceased to
be respected in all strata of Chinese society. For the
people became saint and
was deified. An inscription
dating from 165 AD
describes him as “a result of
the primordial chaos”, “co-eternal
with the luminous bodies”, i.e. the sun, the moon and the stars. The primitive simplicity is his ideal. The proposed attitude
about life is summarized
in the famous phrase “Wo Wai”, i.e. “do
nothing” or “do everything,
doing nothing”.
Meng - Che or Mencius as he
is known in the West was another great Chinese wise, for whom many they consider to be the same level as Confucius. Previously,
the researchers considered that lived from 372 to 289 BC, but now argue that he lived from 390 to 305 BC. His contribution to the growth and prevalence of
the teaching of Confucius was
huge, thereby affected and the culture of China and
the whole of East
Asia . By analogy, it is considered as an "Apostle Paul" of Confucianism. His name is Latin transcription
of Meng - Che
or Mong - Ngi or Mang - Ngie and it means the teacher
Meng.
He was born from old noble family in the
state Chu , in an area that is now part of the province Santoungk. His life has similar proportions to
that of Confucius. At age three was orphaned from his father, so his mother took over his
upbringing, which in Chinese tradition
being the symbol of excellent
mother.
A disciple of Confucius who was his grandson,
Ju Ssu initiated
him to the teachings of Confucianism, which it had embraced
with such enthusiasm and passion to become the most famous teacher
of his teaching. For a short
time he served as an dignitary
in the state of Chi, but the bulk of his life was spent traveling to different
regions of the vast China as in Tang, Liang,
Lu, in which he benefited not only of hospitality but also large prices,
he and his accompaniment, since the
various rulers hired him as
their mentor. This period of
Mencius, he was famous as the period of “warring kingdoms”. But
what you happened to Confucius happened to him. Because was giving great importance to good, which
was not necessarily useful and because was stressed
the
value of
the common people, displeased the Chinese rulers, since this attitude of the Mencius
did not like, resulting in to abandon them and come back
full frustration in
his hometown, where dedicated himself until his
death in the teaching of the multitude of his disciples and recording of
philosophical and political ideas.
The
basis of his teaching was
the boundless optimism that harbored for human nature, despite the frustrations
that had experienced by
her, who sometimes touching the limits of
utopia. Elevated the simple people by saying that the ruler to govern needs the silent consent, and the agricultural reforms that proposed were moving in socialist levels.
It is particularly
popular in Chinese people,
because the cultivation of moral equality which advocated,
gave him his lost dignity.
He
is the founder of the
religion of Islamism or of Islam. Born in 570 AD the Mecca of Arabia . His father died shortly before being
born. So he orphaned by her father at a
young age and he entered to the
service of the wealthy widow named Chantitza,
which he eventually married although he was much older
than her. At
age 40, as referred to in Koran - the holy book
of Muslims - appeared
in front of him
the angel Gabriel,
announcing him that the God (Allah) chose him as his
last prophet. Muhammad was
preaching that Allah is not the leading among the gods, but it
is the only God and the worship of
other gods is a sin.
The polytheistic environment of his hometown
Mecca
and
especially the rich class that has encountered with hostility the
preaching of Muhammad and even attempted to exterminate him, because he preached the social responsibility, praising the mercy of
Allah
and
the prospect of Paradise's joy.
The powerful and wealthy feared that the spread of his views would
have had a negative impact on trade and businesses of their, mainly
because the pilgrims of the sacred stone Kaava
- a black meteorite
- can be to not returned. So, in 622 AD Muhammad
and his followers resorted to Medina
In Medina Union
of the Arab tribes.
The political activities of Mohammed in the Arab united match often led to doubts concerning to the fact of revelation and became the cause be attributed of his rivals the title of “false prophet”, which is
evident in the Koran.
Muhammad himself, though he
was considered himself as the last prophet, however he believed that as a man was not the standard of human infallibility. In the course of the formation of the tradition
of Islam he changed to an infallibility absolutely perfect man. His teaching has profound effects from
Judaism and Christianity, which
was however seen by monks of the sect of Nestorianism. This is who gave the order to Muslims turn to Mecca Mecca
He is the founder of the religion of Sikhism or Sikhs.
Seeing the differences and the hatred that existed between Hindus and Muslims of India, which
often had led them to heinous crimes, he wanted to combine on both religions, taking elements from the one from the other
and believing that this will
solve the problem and bring the religious peace.
Born in 1469 AD in
Talvanti of Punjab in Northern India , about 65km southwest of Lahore
Without renouncing the world, work and
family, after he
had
wife
and
two sons, was sunk for years to intense contemplation. At
age 30 lived a spiritual
experience that supposedly
was found in the courtyard
of God, from which he received directly his religious messages. For this, he began touring in various regions of India
In
1521 AD with few staunch followers settled in Kartarpur, a village of central Punjab , where he
founded the first community
of “Sikka” (students). He had already been
identified as “guru” (teacher). He taught that only one God exists, but it is
not possible to do a human being. He accepts, like Hinduism, the cycle of incarnations for humans and the law of “karma”, i.e. that the form of each new birth
established by the acts of the previous existence.
In
his community were welcome everyone, regardless of gender and caste to which they belonged.
Some of them stayed permanently
with him, but some others were visited
him frequently, to take his
blessing and advice. Before died, he had appointed Lechna, as his
successor, naming it “Angkant”,
i.e. “part of
my body”.
REFERENCES
Anastasios Giannoulatos: Traces of
searching the transcendental.Dimitris A. Triantafyllou: Further help in Religious of second grade Lyceum
Hans - Christian Huf: Hell,
Encyclopedia Eleftheroudaki
Encyclopedia “Larousse Papyrus”
Encyclopedia of Religions
Religious Ethical Encyclopedia
Writer Christos Pal
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