Religious Orientation, Self-Esteem and Happiness among Undergraduate Students

India is the birthplace of many religions. Religion has a pervasive influence on a person's life since it affects every aspect of life, from daily chores to larger issues in education and politics. In this way plays a crucial role in one's life. It affects how an individual perceives and values himself as well his level ofhappiness.Religion and religiosityThe word classically denotes the relationship of human and the Divine. It is an ideology, meaning 'that part of the culture which is actively concerned with the establishment and defense of patterns of beliefs and values' (Geertz, 1964).Religiosity refers to the numerous aspects of religious activity and belief. It is the degree to which one believes in and is involved in Practices based upon religious beliefs include prayers, assemblies, ceremonies, religious functions, codes for behavior to ensure consistency with the set of beliefs as well as maintenance and study of scriptures andtexts held as sacred.James (1902), said to be the founder of the study of religion, distinguished between Institutional and Personal While Institutional refers to the religious group or organization, Personal religion, in which the individual has mystical experiences, can be experienced regardless of the culture. Freud (1961 ) in his book 'The Future of an Illusion' spoke of as an illusion. He proposed that is a fantasy structure from which man must he set free. Freud viewed that the concept of God is a version of the father image, while religious belief is infantile and neurotic. On the other hand, Jung (1969) expressed a positive appreciation of religious symbolism.Religions orientationThere has been a lot of confusion regarding howto study and classify religious commitment. A solution to this confusion came from Allport's work on In his classical book 'The Individual and His Religion', Allport (1950) made a distinction between Mature and Immature Mature religious sentiment is characterized by a person whose approach to is dynamic and open-minded. In contrast, Immature is self-serving and represents the negative stereotypes that people hold about More recently, his distinction has been embodied in the terms religion and extrinsic religion. This has generated a great deal of empirical research. This distinction pertains to the different means, ends, and functions ofpeople's religious beliefs and practices.Religious Orientation is defined as the extent to which a person lives out his/her religious beliefs (Allport & Ross, 1967). The 'extrinsic religious orientation' is basically utilitarian and describes those who use their as a means of obtaining status, security, self justification, and sociability and the reasons for being religious are usually external to the person. In intrinsic religious orientation, the reasons for being religious are mostly within the person, religious faith is internalized and is considered as an end in itself. The intrinsic orientation describes people who have a genuine devout faith, who live their and embrace its fundamental teachings.A third form of religious orientation refers to treatment of as an open-ended search (Batson, Schoenrade & Ventis, 1993). It pertains to a willingness to view religious doubts in a positive manner, acceptance that religious orientation can change, and existential complexity, the belief that one's religious beliefs should be shaped from personal crises experienced in one's life. Batson et al., (1993) refer to extrinsic, intrinsic and quest respectively as religion-as-means,religion-as-endandreligion-as-quest.HappinessPhilosophers and religious thinkers often define happiness in terms of living a good life, or flourishing. Aristotle (2004) stated that, Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. …