The Nature and Value of Human life - Hinduism

- Purpose of human beings is to seek as an end pleasure through good action, individual liberation, liberation of society, welfare and righteousness.

- Humans search for liberation = motivated by the unceasing cycle of birth and re-birth.

- One must act for the good of the family.

- Sentient - Have higher mental faculties than other animals

- Moral freedom

- Karma

- Humans have a special value because they are instrumental by which the soul can be liberated from the body in the cycle of birth and re-birth.

- Have the freewill to act and the possibiliy through the persuit of purity and virtuous behaviour of reaching towards the universal soul

- Identity affected by hierachy, class, caste + sex

- Act in one situation may be right for one person, but wrong for another

- Difference in caste systems imply inequality

- Men retain leadership roles

- Caste system undermines equality

- Every individual has a beginning and an end

- Human life important in the cycle as a step towards union with God

"Every individual life has a beg and an end, a creation and a destruction which is part of the process of the world