human beings have wondered,

"Where did we come from?

What's our place in the world?

What happens to us after we die?"

Religions are systems of belief

that have developed and evolved over time

in response to these

and other eternal mysteries,

driven by the feeling that some questions

can only be answered by faith

and based on an intuition

that there is something greater than ourselves,

a higher power we must answer to,

or some source we all spring from

and to which we must return.

Hinduism means the religions of India.

It's not a single religion

but rather a variety of related beliefs

and spiritual practices.

It dates back five millennia

to the time of Krishna,

a man of such virtue

that he became known as an avatar of Vishnu,

an incarnation of the god in human form.

He taught that all life follows karma,

the law of cause and effect,

and our job is to do our duty, or dharma,

according to our place in society

without worrying how things turn out.

When we die, we are reincarnated into a new body.

If we followed our dharma

and did our proper duty in our past life,

we get good karma,

which sends our soul upward in the social scale.

Our rebirth into the next life

is thus determined by what we do in this one.

The wheel of rebirths is called samsara.

It's possible for a very holy person

to lead a life with enough good karma

to escape the wheel.

This escape is called moksha.

Hinduism teaches that everything is one.

The whole universe is

one transcendent reality called Brahman,

and there's just one Brahman

but many gods within it,

and their roles, aspects, and forms differ

according to various traditions.

Brahma is the creator,

Vishnu is the preserver

who sometimes takes on human form,

and Shiva is the transformer,

or Lord of the Dance.

Durga is the fiercely protective divine mother.

Ganesha has an elephant head

and is the wise patron of success.

Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world.

And although most Hindus live in India,

they can be found on every continent,

one billion strong.

Now, let's travel west,

across deserts and mountains

to the fertile crescent about 4,000 years ago.

Judaism began with God calling

Abraham and Sarah to leave Mesopotamia

and migrate to the land of Canaan.

In return for their faith in the one true God,

a revolutionary concept

in the polytheistic world of that time,

they would have land and many descendants.

From this promise came the land of Israel

and the chosen people,

but staying in that land

and keeping those people together

was going to be very difficult.

The Israelites were enslaved in Egypt,

but God freed them with the help

of the prophet Moses,

who received the Ten Commandments

and later hundreds more.

They conquered the Promised Land,

but could only keep it for a few hundred years.

Israel sits at a crossroads

through which many armies

marched over the centuries.

And in the year 70,

the Romans destroyed the temple

in their capital, Jerusalem.

So, the religion transformed itself

from a temple religion

with sacrifices and priests

to a religion of the book.

Because of this, Judaism is a faith

of symbolism, reverence, and deep meanings

tied to the literature of its history.

The many sacred scriptures make up

the Hebrew bible, or Tanakh,

and hundreds of written discussions and interpretations

are contained in an expansive compendium

of deeper meanings,

called the Talmud.

Jews find rich, symbolic meaning in daily life.

At the Passover meal,

every item on the menu symbolizes

an aspect of the escape from slavery.

The importance of growing up

is emphasized when young people

reach the age of bar and bat mitzvah,

ceremonies during which they assume responsibility

for their actions

and celebrate the weaving

of their own lives

into the faith, history, and texts

of the Jewish people.

There are 14 million Jews in the world today,

6 million in Israel,

which became independent

following the horrors of genocide in World War II,

and 5 million in the United States.

But now let's go back 2500 years and return to India

where Buddhism began

with a young prince named Siddhartha.

On the night he was conceived,

his mother, Queen Maya,

is said to have been visited in her sleep

by a white elephant who entered her side.

Ten months later, Prince Siddartha was born

into a life of luxury.

Venturing forth from his sheltered existence

as a young man,

he witnessed the human suffering

that had been hidden from him

and immediately set out to investigate its sources.

Why must people endure suffering?

Must we reincarnate through hundreds of lives?

At first he thought the problem

was attachment to material things,

so he gave up his possessions.

He became a wandering beggar,

which he discovered certainly made him no happier.

Then he overheard a music teacher telling a student,

"Don't tighten the string too much, it will break.

But don't let it go too slack,

or it will not sound."

In a flash, he realized

that looking for answers at the extremes

was a mistake.

The middle way between luxury and poverty

seemed wisest.

And while meditating under a bodhi tree,

the rest of the answer came to him.

All of life abounds with suffering.

It's caused by selfish craving

for one's own fulfillment at the expense of others.

Following an eight-step plan

can teach us to reduce that craving,

and thus reduce the suffering.

On that day, Siddhartha became the Buddha,

the enlightened one.

Not the only one, but the first one.

The Buddhist plan is called

the Eightfold Path,

and though it is not easy to follow,

it has pointed the way

for millions to enlightenment,

which is what Buddhahood means,

a state of compassion,

insight,

peace,

and steadfastness.

From the time he got up from under that tree

to the moment of his death as an old man,

the Buddha taught people how to become enlightened:

right speech,

right goals,

a mind focused on what is real,

and a heart focused on loving others.

Many Buddhists believe in God or gods,

but actions are more important than beliefs.

There are nearly a billion Buddhists

in the world today,

mostly in East, Southeast, and South Asia.

2,000 years ago in Judaism's Promised Land,

Christianity was born.

Just as Hindus called Krishna "God in Human Form,"

Christians say the same thing about Jesus,

and Christianity grew out of Judaism

just as Buddhism grew out of Hinduism.

The angel Gabriel was sent by the God of Abraham

to ask a young woman named Mary

to become the mother of his son.

The son was Jesus,

raised as a carpenter

by Mary and her husband Joseph,

until he turned 30,

when he began his public career

as the living word of God.

Less interested in religiousness

than in justice and mercy,

Jesus healed the sick in order to draw crowds

and then taught them about his heavenly father --

affectionate, forgiving, and attentive.

Then, he would invite everyone to a common table

to illustrate his Kingdom of God,

outcasts, sinners, and saints all eating together.

He had only three years

before his unconventional wisdom

got him into trouble.

His enemies had him arrested,

and he was executed by Rome

in the standard means

by which rabble-rousers were put to death,

crucifixion.

But shortly after he was buried,

women found his tomb empty

and quickly spread word,

convinced that he had been raised from the dead.

The first Christians described

his resurrected appearances,

inspiring confidence that his message was true.

The message: love one another as I have loved you.

Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus

in December at Christmas,

and his suffering, death, and resurrection

during Holy Week in the spring.

In the ceremony of baptism,

a washing away of sin

and welcoming into the Christian community,

recall Jesus's own baptism

when he left his life as a carpenter.

In the rite of Communion,

Christians eat the bread and drink the wine

blessed as the body and blood of Jesus,

recalling Jesus's last supper.

There are two billion Christians worldwide,

representing almost a third of the world's people.

Islam began 1400 years ago

with a man of great virtue,

meditating in a mountain cave

in the Arabian desert.

The man was Muhammad.

He was visited by a divine messenger,

again the angel Gabriel,

in Arabic, Jibril,

delivering to him the words of Allah,

the one God of Abraham.

In the next few years,

more and more messages came,

and he memorized and taught them.

The verses he recited were full of wise sayings,

beautiful rhymes,

and mysterious metaphors.

But Muhammad was a merchant, not a poet.

Many agreed the verses

were indeed the words of God,

and these believers became the first Muslims.

The word Muslim means one who surrenders,

meaning a person who submits to the will of God.

A Muslim's five most important duties

are called the Five Pillars:

Shahada, Muslims declare publicly,

there is no other God but Allah,

and Muhammad is his final prophet;

Salat, they pray five times a day facing Mecca;

Zakat, every Muslim is required

to give 2 or 3% of their net worth to the poor;

Sawm, they fast during daylight hours

for the lunar month of Ramadan

to strengthen their willpower

and their reliance on God;

and Hajj, once in a lifetime,

every Muslim who is able must make a pilgrimage

to the holy city of Mecca,