Class 8 NCERT Solutions Civics Chapter 2 - Understanding Secularism

The various types of religious practices found in my neighbourhood are

• Hindus performing Puja and celebrating their various festivals.
• Muslims offering Namaz.
• Sikhs visiting the Gurudwara.
• Christians praying in the Church.

Yes, it does implicate freedom of religious practice because many people belonging to different cultures and religions stay together and celebrate festivals.

Yes, the government needs to intervene if some religious groups say that their religion allows them to practise infanticide because it involves killing of an innocent child, which is against an important fundamental right - The Right to Life. No one is allowed to go against a fundamental right. Infanticide leads to a variation in the male-female ratio, and it results in the number of boys increasing with respect to the number of girls.

The government either interferes in this tradition by coercion or by support. 

There are three main schools of thought in Buddhism:

1. Theravada

2. Mahayana

3. Varjayana

Let us understand each of these individually.

Theravada: In the Theravada school of thought, the Theravadians believe in self-enlightenment where they perfected themselves with morality, meditation and insight in order to gain enlightenment themselves.

When the perfectly enlightened Lord Buddha attained the stage of enlightenment, he questioned himself as to whether his fellow humans could understand his teaching or the Way of Life to get out of the suffering state of mind. He was coaxed by his followers that although not all humans can understand his teachings, there were a very few who could. Lord Buddha thus proceeded to teach these very few to attain enlightenment by themselves. This was the birth of Therava Buddhism.

Mahayanas: This school of thought believed that in their course of enlightenment, they would help others to the stage of enlightenment as well.

To attain Wisdom, you need to meditate in order to realise the true nature of things; to meditate, you need a pure state of mind, and to uphold this pure state constantly, you need to conduct yourselves morally. Therefore, morality was an important stepping stone to wisdom. Later, where morality became more focused, great compassion was generated, and the wish to help others along as one seeks enlightenment became part of Buddhism. The birth of Mahayana was born.

Varjayana: This school of thought believed that not only to bring others to enlightenment but also to have the power to do that.

The birth of Varjayana was largely due to the empowerment of the energies in the process of concentration, where you are empowered not only by the natural elements but also the linage with supreme beings.

It must be noted that Lord Buddha taught not only humans but beings of formless realms, including gods and deities.

Yes, the idea is confusing as sometimes the Indian State keeps away from religion and sometimes intervenes in religion. Please discuss the rest of the question in your class with your subject teacher. 

The sentences in the poster are trying to convey that in order to achieve peace we need to find something in common among ourselves. We need to know that we all are the same although we have our differences. Ignoring differences or overlooking them will not help us in any way, as sometime or the other, they are surely going to surface. In addition, peace that is not from within is not peace. All this can be done only if we work together to achieve peace, and it should be done mutually.

Differences can be removed among people by breaking existing barriers, developing common dialogue and promoting peace.

This relates to the need of religious tolerance because if peace can be brought about in this matter, the whole world will automatically achieve peace.