ABSTRACT
This chapter increases the battery of theoretical concepts vital for worldviews religious studies. It begins with a distinctive formula dealing with ideas, emotions, values, identity, belief, and notion of destiny. The chapter addresses ‘hope', ritual-symbolism, and especially reciprocity or gift theory as most illuminating means of studying human interaction and ideas of salvation. Sacred narratives range from doctrinal and mythological accounts of key scriptural motifs to local storytelling, performances at festivals, and liturgical events. Songs and hymns frequently carry narrative messages, enhancing them through medium of music. Acts of mutual give-and-take generate and sustain identity and social cohesion in everyday life, captured in expressions such as – ‘what goes around, comes around', invoking some natural equivalence ensuring that sooner or later people get what they deserve. In terms of education, relationship between teacher and student, and certainly between devotee and guru in Indian traditions, holds teaching, knowledge, and even wisdom, as a precious ‘gift' to be passed on.
