all are faces of the supreme power "Brahman."
After several hundred years, Hindu beliefs were finally written down in a number of holy books, including the "Vedas," the "Ramayana," and the "Mahabharata" (Ibid.). As these scriptures show, the scope of beliefs and practices are great, ranging from village goddess cults such as that of Manasa, the protectress against snakes, to that of modern "gurus," meaning protector or teacher, such as Sai Baba, one of India's best-known. It varies also, often in significant detail, from region to region. These differences may include the deities worshipped, the scriptures used, the Caste structure, the holy days, and so on. The result is that Hindus follow a number of different cults: Durga, Kali, Krishna, Rama, Shiva, Vishnu, to name a few (Hinnells 149). In many of the cults, the deities are female.
Central to Hinduism is the principle of "reincarnation," the belief that people are reborn after they die ("Religion, ..." 8). It is based on the premise that each living thing has a soul, a "jivas." But when the body dies, the soul does not. And, as the body of one particular species is spiritually outgrown by the soul, it moves up to a higher organism until finally acquiring a human form. This process is called transmigration of the soul or reincarnation. Further, when the
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