Hinduism for Christians: karma, reincarnation and the gospel.

Hinduism is not one thing

To speak of “Hinduism” is a simplification. The tradition brings together many texts, deities and schools, and it has no single creed. Among the philosophical schools of Vedanta, three are often cited:

Besides philosophy, there is the practice of the people: devotion to Vishnu, Shiva or the Goddess, festivals, pilgrimages and household rituals. Most Hindus live their religion this way, not through the treatises.

Karma and reincarnation: what Indians believe

Karma is the idea that every action has a moral consequence, and that this consequence can carry across lives. Reincarnation is the return of the soul in another body. Liberation (moksha) is the exit from the cycle.

The two ideas do not go together in everyone's mind. In the Pew Research Center survey (nearly 30,000 adults, between 2019 and 2020), 77% of Indian Hindus say they believe in karma, but only 40% believe in reincarnation. Karma is not exclusive to Hindus either: 77% of Indian Muslims believe in it.

The figure that matters most to the church is another one. Among Indian Christians of lower castes, 58% say they believe in karma; among those of upper castes, 44%. And 29% of Indian Christians say they believe in reincarnation. The idea is in the air people breathe, including inside the churches. For the overall picture of the country's religions, see what is the religion of India.

Shared questions, different answers

Hinduism asks questions that every human being asks: why there is suffering, why our actions carry weight, how to escape evil. The Bible explains why these questions exist: God has set eternity in the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and written his law on the conscience (Romans 2:14-15). The questions are a good starting point for conversation.

The answers, however, are different. And some similar words hide deep differences.

Similarities that deceive

Karma and “whatever a man sows”. Many Indians hear Galatians 6:7 (“Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return,” BSB) as if it were karma. It is not. Karma is an impersonal and automatic law, and each person pays his own debt, life after life. In the Bible, the one who judges is a personal God, and the same God offers what karma does not know: forgiveness. Christ “bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24, BSB).

The “grace” of Vishnu and the grace of God. Ramanuja and Madhva speak of divine grace in liberation, and the word sounds familiar to a Christian. The content is different. In these schools, grace comes from Vishnu and frees one from the cycle of rebirths. In the gospel, grace is God's favor to sinners who deserve nothing, and it rests on a fact of history: the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Avatar and incarnation. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says he comes from age to age to protect the good, destroy the wicked and restore dharma (4.7-8). Christ came only once and with another purpose: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15, BSB). He did not come to destroy the wicked, but to die for them.

Where the gospel is different

1. One life, not many. “Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27, BSB). There is no second chance after death.
2. The root of the problem. For Advaita, the human problem is ignorance of one's own identity with the Absolute. For the Bible, it is sin before a personal and holy God. So the solution is also different: forgiveness.
3. The way of salvation. Karma works like a scale, in which good deeds weigh against bad ones. The gospel announces the opposite: “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9, BSB). Salvation is possible because another paid the debt: “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, BSB).

And Jesus does not present himself as one way among many: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6, BSB).

The human weight of karma: caste

For many Indians, karma is not just an idea. It explains the place where each person is born. A classical Hindu text, the Chandogya Upanishad (5.10.7), says that those whose conduct was good are reborn as a Brahmin, a Kshatriya or a Vaishya, and those whose conduct was bad are reborn as a dog, a pig or an outcaste. If birth is the harvest of another life, those born at the bottom would be paying what they owe.

This is one reason why so many Dalits have sought another faith. B. R. Ambedkar, who chaired the drafting committee of India's Constitution, argued in Annihilation of Caste (1936) that caste rests on the authority of the Hindu sacred texts. On October 14, 1956, in Nagpur, he converted to Buddhism with hundreds of thousands of followers.

The gospel does not tell the Dalit that he deserves his suffering. In Christ, he receives a new identity, in the same family as any other believer (Galatians 3:28). More on this in the caste system and Dalit Christians.

How to talk

• Ask before answering. Hindus differ from one another. Asking “what do you understand by karma?” avoids speaking to a caricature.
• Start from the right questions. The weight of guilt and the desire for liberation are real questions. Acknowledging them is not agreeing with the answers Hinduism gives to them.
• Follow Paul's example in Athens, all the way. At the Areopagus, he started from the altar “to an unknown god” and quoted Greek poets, but he did not say that their religion was enough. He declared that God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30, BSB) and preached the resurrection.
• Talk about Jesus, not only doctrine. The person of Christ, the cross and the resurrection are the center of the message.
• Do not force it. In a country with anti-conversion laws and with practices such as Ghar Wapsi, respectful conversation without pressure protects both the one who listens and the one who speaks.
• Know how to act at festivals. The question of consecrated food (prasad) is in Diwali and Holi.

Why this matters for training pastors

Indian Christian leaders live among Hindu neighbors, many came from Hindu families, and some church members still think in the categories of karma, as the Pew Research Center survey shows. Those who train them need to teach the gospel with clarity and answer their questions with the Bible, without fear and without contempt. That is what the theology course in Bengali seeks to do, starting with the doctrine of God and of revelation.