New Movie Avatar Shines Light On Hindu Word

December 18, 2009

Author: Arlene Nisson Lassin

Source: The Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/6777326.html

In James Cameron's new film, Avatar, the Titanic director creates a world where humans take on the form of avatars to exist on a planet called Pandora. The humans that belong to these avatars control them through technology, but some use their powerful avatar bodies for evil as they try to ruin the resources of the planet.

The term “avatar” might already be familiar to those who play virtual reality games where avatars are movable images representing real people.

Avatar's origins, however, come from the Sanskrit language in sacred Hindu texts, and it's a term for divine beings sent to restore goodness to Earth.

Hinduism, the third-largest religion in the world with about 1 billion adherents, began many centuries ago on the Indian subcontinent, and a majority of the world's Hindus reside in India.