Hinduism Beliefs

Hinduism Today

2009-02-15T06:33:00.000-08:00

Here we will reflect on modern life and Hinduism’s responses to it. If there is a dominant theme that characterizes Hinduism during this period is the matter of its relationship with the non-Hindu world. The modern era has brought great challenges to Hinduism through the advent of Islam and western culture. Both incursions into India have left profound and lasting effects on Hinduism. In many ways, 21st century Hindus continue to struggle with issues associated with Islam and westernization.

Hinduism and the Challenge of Islam: We in the West generally associate Islam with the Arab world. We often fail to remember that the majority of Muslims live in South Asia and eastwards. The most populous Islamic country is Indonesia, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. Islam first came to India late in the 8th century C.E., with several military conquests by Muslim leaders from central Asia.
British Imperialism in India: In many ways, the British imperialism in India was far more significant than the presence of Muslims, although the British directly ruled India for only 90 years. The British brought with them western folk ways and culture. Many Indians sought to imitate them by speaking English, playing cricket and having afternoon tea. Yet the effects the British brought were deeper and more complicated than just this.
The Philosophy of Gandhi and Hinduism: I mentioned in another article that India was a western idea before it was an Indian idea. Christianity itself would lend to national Indians some of the ideas they would use to achieve independence. Gandhi was greatly impressed by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the writings of Leo Tolstoy. It may very well be that the British unwillingly implanted the very seeds of the independence movement within the soul of India.
Hinduism Today and Its Incursion in the Modern World: We’ve discussed the incursion of the West in Hindu life in India. Let’s turn to discuss the reciprocal reaction: the movement of Hindus and Hinduism into the West. The history of this movement is far briefer than the other. By the late 19th century, the main vehicle for the transport of Hinduism to the West was literary. Some of the most important Hindu scriptures had been translated into European languages in the 18th century and were available to intellectuals in the West.

Hinduism Today and Its Incursion into the Modern World

2009-02-15T06:27:00.000-08:00

We’ve discussed the incursion of the West into Hindu life in India. Let’s turn to discuss the reciprocal reaction: the movement of Hindus and Hinduism into the West. The history of this movement is far briefer than the other. By the late 19th century, the main vehicle for the transport of Hinduism to the West was literary. Some of the most important Hindu scriptures had been translated into European languages in the 18th century and were available to intellectuals in the West.

Because western impressions were based principally on these translations from the Hindu scriptural traditions, many thinkers had a rather obscure understanding of Hinduism that neglected its more popular expressions. At the same time, westerners who actually visited India saw a different side of Hinduism: the many colorful festivals and images, the astrologers and fortune tellers, the caste system and the rituals. They were more often than not repelled by what they saw. To these western visitors, Hinduism wasn’t more than superstition, idolatry and cultural backwardness.

These impressions, based on translations of its philosophy on one end, and the observation of its popular practices on the other, contributed to an extremely ambivalent western view of Hinduism. Some who knew Hinduism through scripture regarded it as morally and spiritually superior to the western traditions. Many who knew it from popular practice regarded it as vastly inferior to western ways.

The First Missionary

It was in this context of western ambivalence that the first significant representative of Hinduism came to the West. Swami Vivekananda is sometimes known as the first Hindu missionary to the West. He appeared in Chicago in 1893, at the First World Parliament of Religions. Vivekananda’s address to this international gathering of delegates from the major religious traditions was extremely well received and widely celebrated. Vivekananda subsequently established centers for the study and practice of Advaita Vedanta, the monistic Hindu philosophy that he embraced.

Vivekananda was followed by numerous Hindu gurus to the West. Many of their names or the names of their orders are familiar to westerners today. We should mention the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The name Maharishi Yogi became well-known to many in the West as the guru of the Beatles in the 1960’s, and as the promoter of a spiritual practice called transcendental meditation.

The names of these modern teachers continue to evoke ambivalent feelings among many westerners. Many celebrate these teachers and their messages and many consider them dangerous. It is unclear at this point what will be the future of Hinduism beyond the Indian subcontinent. In India and the surrounding area Hinduism remains firmly established and its future seems secure, although how Hinduism would negotiate the challenges of westernization is not certain. Nor is it clear how the West would negotiate the challenges of Hinduism. Already western culture is beginning to accommodate Hindu immigrants as great number of temples and Hindu societies multiply throughout the United States and Europe.

It is evident that many westerners find much in Hinduism worth of adoption and admiration. Ultimately, what effects the advent of Hindus and Hinduism would have on the religious practices of the west remains to be seen.

The Philosophy of Gandhi and Hinduism

2009-02-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

"Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress."
Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi was greatly impressed by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the writings of Leo Tolstoy. It may very well be that the British unwillingly implanted the very seeds of the independence movement within the soul of India.

Mahatma Gandhi was the most important figure in that movement, and his life may well illustrate the best of modern Hinduism. Gandhi was perhaps most fundamentally a devout Hindu. Although he was educated in England, Gandhi’s politics were based less on jurisprudence and more on religion. The title by which Gandhi was known in India an throughout the world emphasizes the spiritual foundation of his life. He was called Mahatma, the “great soul”, a title that is reserved for the most spiritually accomplished Hindus. Yet, Gandhi was not a Brahmin or a Kshatryia, he was of the Vaisha varna. He was also not a theologian or a systematic religious thinker. His political vision and practice, however, was rooted in his understanding of sacred scriptures from many of the world’s religions, specially Hinduism’s Bhagavad Gita and Christianity’s New Testament.

This kind of openness to spiritual truth regardless of where it is found is characteristic of much of Hinduism. Indeed, Gandhi had an appreciation of all the major religious traditions. This is the reasons why he was opposed to the partition of India and Pakistan.

Gandhi called his philosophy Satyagraha, a term that meant grasping forth and holding on the truth. It might also mean “grasping forth and holding on to God”, because for Gandhi God is truth. Gandhi believed that truth is more important than political expedience. While others in the independence movement argued that India’s freedom from Britain should be gained through armed conflict or other means, Gandhi maintained that just ends could never be attained through evil means.

This conviction spurred the development of his philosophy and practice of non-violent resistance, a notion that also owed much to the Jains. In Gandhi’s childhood community, he frequently interacted with Jains and learned from them the practice of Ahimsa, the non-harming of living beings.

The result of these many influences in Gandhi’s life was a political vision of achieving justice by revealing the truth of oppression to the oppressor. Non-violent resistance endeavoured to demonstrate in a powerful and vivid way the oppressors’ own brutality.

In order to demonstrate the brutality of oppression, however, one must be willing to endure the wrath of the oppressive force without retaliation. For that, one needed great courage and the discipline of a yogi. In a sense, Gandhi opened a new avenue for the Karmamargra, the way of action, by making the political sphere an acceptable arena for the practice of religion.

In 1948, Gandhi was assassinated by a fellow Hindu who believed that he had conceded too much to the Muslims.

British Imperialism in India

2009-02-13T04:43:00.000-08:00

In many ways, British imperialism in India was far more significant than the presence of Muslims, although the British directly ruled India for only 90 years. The British brought with them western folk ways and culture. Many Indians sought to imitate them by speaking English, playing cricket and having afternoon tea. Yet the effects the British brought were deeper and more complicated than just this.

British presence introduced into India western values and social dynamics. Britain’s initial and foremost interest in India was commercial. The East India Company was Britain’s first established involvement on the subcontinent. The British developed the cities of Calcutta, Mombay (which they called Bombay), and Chennai or Madras into large and industrialized trading centers. Industrialization and urbanization had uprooting effects on the traditions of Indian society. All restrictions imposed by caste and family could be more easily disregarded in urban areas.

Traditional practices and beliefs were placed in doubt and reevaluated. Industrial economies also raised expectations of material success. India had for thousand of years explicitly favored the transcendence over the material world. Wealth and pleasure were goods, but moksha, the bliss of ultimate release was the sumum bonum, the supreme good. Now, in view of the western focus on the material world, many Hindus begin to reassess this world’s significance.

Many Hindus began to consider that perhaps the way to happiness is not to transcend the world but to transform it. The British encouraged literacy. Learning to speak and read English was and still is regarded as an avenue to success. This, of course, is not a uniform trend. Still today, 30% of the Indian population is illiterate. The encouragement of literacy and English was sufficient, however, to generate interest among many in reading the western classics, including the Bible.

When one reads the literature of the western tradition it is easy to learn the values of the western world, such as the principle of the equality of all persons, which stands at odds with the assumptions of the caste system.

The Responses to the New Ideas: The Brahmo Samaj

The founding of two important Hindu movements in the 19th century can serve to illustrate different Hindu responses to westernization. The first is the Brahmo Samaj or the “society of believers in Brahmins”. The Brahmo Samaj was founded in 1828 by Rammohun Roy, an important modern Hindu reformer.

Rammohun Roy, who was born just about the time the American colonies were beginning their revolution from the British, was educated by Muslims and early on developed an intense dislike for the British occupation. As a young man, however, Roy began to work for the East Indian Company. He learned English and came to appreciate western ways. Eventually, Roy came to support British rule and to value western education. The movement he initiated, the Brahmo Samaj, reflected Roy’s critical appreciation of the West.

The Brahmo Samaj might be described as traditional Hinduism transformed by encountering Christianity. Roy studied the Bible and admired Jesus, but he could not accept the idea of Jesus’ divinity. He was troubled by the polytheism of popular Hinduism and denounced it. He also criticized the practice of Puja, the veneration of images. He called it “idol worship”. Roy preferred the Upanishads to all other Hindu scriptures and he contended that they taught a simple form of monotheism.

He adopted what I would call a liberal approach to scripture, because he argued that the Vedas should be authoritative only when it is shown to be reasonable. In this respect, Roy’s view parallels that of 19th century liberal Christians, who said similar things about the Bible. He even established weekly congregational worship services like the Christians.

Roy may be best remembered, though, for his efforts to improve the treatment of women in India, specially the widows. He was instrumental in the abolition of Sati, “widow burning”, in 1829.

The Arya Samaj

While the Brahmo Samaj had a liberal approach to Hinduism, the Arya Samaj, another religious movement that began in the 19th century, had a more fundamentalist outlook. I am aware that I’m using western labels, but perhaps this adjectives may help us grasp the situation. The terms liberal and fundamentalist categorize two responses to modernity itself.

The Arya Samaj was fundamentalist in its approach to the Hindu collection of scripture. It not only regarded the Vedas as the only authoritative sacred text, thus denying the sacredness of popular books like the Bagahvad Gita and the Puranas, it also maintained that the Vedas were source of all truth: scientific and spiritual. Such view is not unlike that of Christian fundamentalists who consider the Bible historically and scientifically accurate. Just as Christian fundamentalists consider the Bible open and available to anyone for interpretation, the Aryasamage said that the Vedas are available to all for study.

The Arya Samaj was founded by Swami Dayanand, in the late 19th century, about the time fundamentalism got started in the United States. Like the more liberal Rammohun Roy, Swami Dayanand disliked much of what he saw in popular Hindu practice of his day, specially Puja and pilgrimage. He viewed much of popular Hinduism as mere superstition. Dayanand even went to deny divinity of popular avataras, such as Rama and Krishna, and to reject the idea of jatis, the hereditary birth classes, simply because these words do not appear in the Vedas.

Like Rammohun Roy, Dayanand was an advocate of fairer treatment of women. He contended that women should be educated and widows should be allowed to remarry. He also held that Hinduism was superior to other religions and that all other religions attempt to approximate to it. Anyone familiar with 19th and 20th century Christian theology might recognize that some Christians argue the same point about the superiority of their faith.

The Brahmo Samaj and the Arya Samaj are both responses to the disrupting effects of westernization. They simplified the complex ways Hinduism encountered western culture and values. The Brahmo Samaj demonstrated a critical openness to Christianity and the values of reason and human equality. The Arya Samaj, like all fundamentalisms, reacted with suspicion towards the agents that bring change and it sought to restore authority to a single text.

The effects of the British in India of course had political as well as religious ramifications. The western idea of nation-state sovereignty stimulated a national spirit that would eventually lead to the movement that established India as an independent nation.

Hinduism and the Challenge of Islam

2009-02-12T03:41:00.000-08:00

We in the West generally associate Islam with the Arab world. We often fail to remember that the majority of Muslims live in South Asia and eastwards. The most populous Islamic country is Indonesia, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. Islam first came to India late in the 8th century C.E., with several military conquests by Muslim leaders from central Asia. Islamic influence in India was not consolidated, however, until several centuries later, when Muslims Sultans established a capital at Delhi, now considered Old Delhi.

By the 15th century, Muslim Sultans ruled most of India, but their power was concentrated in the Northern regions. Today, Indian Muslims live throughout India, though mainly in the Northern region. The South is considered the most Hindu region of the country.

It is hard to imagine two religions that contrast as starkly as Hinduism and Islam. Hinduism embraces both polytheism and monotheism as we have discussed in detail. Islam, however, is singularly monotheistic. It has even criticized Judaism and Christianity for not being sufficiently monotheistic. Hindus venerate images of the divine. Muslims are iconoclastic. In Islam the greatest sin is idolatry. From the Muslim perspective, images are idols.

A Tense Coexistence

When Islam began to spread in medieval India, Hindu temples and temple images were often destroyed. Hindus have an ages-long practice of cow reverence to honor the life-giving and life-sustaining qualities of the cow. Muslims, however, have no reservations about eating beef. Today, much of the butchery in India is performed by Muslims.

Still, Muslims and Hindus did coexist in India for centuries. The relationship was frequently tense, although not always and everywhere so. Although Islam’s presence in India was openly antagonistic to Hinduism, Hinduism survived because it was so deeply rooted in the everyday routine of India. India’s other major religion at the time was Buddhism. Buddhism did not survive the coming of Islam, but Buddhism was in decline and had long passed the era of its dominance in India.

Eventually, Muslim rulers granted Hindus religious toleration similar to the sort granted to Christians and Jews in other Muslim countries. To Hindus, Muslims were merely another caste and Hinduism usually ignored the challenges Islam presented to its religious way of life. Of course, Muslim rulers ignored the challenges of Hinduism. They did not try to convert Hindus to Islam. As non-Muslims, Hindus were susceptible to a greater tax-rate. Later, however, Sufi orders began to proselytize Hindus in great numbers. The Sufis were successful in part because their version of Islam was much like the Bhakti religion that was well established among Hindus.

Sufi Islam thus began to appeal to lower castes who were attracted to its message of human equality. It also appealed to others who aspired to upward social mobility. Adopting the religion of one’s rulers has frequently helped people gain social power.

Certainly, there have been some bright moments in the Muslim-Hindu relationship. The rise of the Mogul emperor Akbhar the Great in the 16th century marked the beginning of a fine syncretistic culture. Akbhar was highly esteemed by Hindus as a tolerant ruler. Despite the tolerance of emperors like Akbhar, frictions between Hindus and Muslims increased. These tensions are the background noise in the history of modern India.

The Creation of Pakistan and Subsequent Conflicts

In 1947, centuries-long stresses came to an end when India was partitioned into India and Pakistan at the moment of its independence from Great Britain. Mahatma Gandhi strongly resisted the creation of Pakistan. But the President of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, argued that Muslims needed a separate State to be true to Islam, since Islam does not distinguish between religious and political law.

The partition of India, however, did not end Hindu-Muslim hostilities. Tensions between India and Pakistan are extremely high as they continue a long standing dispute over the region of Jammu and Kashmir. Within India itself, Hindu-Muslim frictions often erupt in violence.

Although the Hindu-Muslim tensions have been long and tragic, Muslims actually gave up the rule of India in the 18th century, when the British defeated them. This initiated the period of British colonialism in India. As the British established their Indian empire, they tended to favor the Hindus over the Muslims, and granted them greater administrative power.

Hindu Tantra

2009-02-11T05:06:00.000-08:00

Closely connected with the worship of the Goddess is a large connection of writings known as the Tantras. They were composed in the medieval period. These texts are essentially technical manuals for how one may attain liberation and enlightenment through dedication to the Devi. The yogi practice of Tantrism or more simply Tantra is based on the techniques described in these writings.

Tantra practice has become relatively well-known in the West as a manner for improving one’s sexuality. There are even books offered in western countries that teach how to increase sexual pleasure by using Tantric methods. Whether or not these practices are authentic Tantra is debatable, but it is clear that the purpose of Hindu Tantra is not physical pleasure but spiritual bliss and enlightenment. Yet, certain varieties of Tantra seek to attain this happiness in unconventional ways, including sexual ritual.

When westerners think of Tantra they usually think of what is called left-handed Tantra. The so called right-handed Tantra is a worship practice that is not altogether unlike the worship of Vishnu or Shiva, although the Tantric form emphasises the repetition of a special mantra given to the initiate by a female guru.

Both varieties of Tantra are open to males and females of all castes and operate independent of Brahmanic authority. Tantra has had an specially strong influence on the development of the religion of Tibet. It is considered by its practitioners to be an advanced form of yoga. One must master other yogi practices before attempting Tantra, else it can prove dangerous.

Left-Handed Tantra

What many find scandalous of left-handed Tantra is what others find intriguing. That is its ritual use of certain things that are ordinarily forbidden to Hindus. These elements include the eating of meat, the drinking of wine and sexual intercourse between partners who are not married to each other. Tantra is not the casual practice of these activities, but their deliberate usage for the purpose of enlightenment.

Tantric rituals are practiced in a sacred space in the presence of a guru on a specific carefully determined day. In the first part of the ritual both male and female participants ritually bath, dress and apply cosmetics. They undergo ritual purification through meditation and mantra recitation. Male-female couples then form a circle around the guru and the guru’s partner. The female partner sits on the man’s left, which is the traditional position of the goddess relative to the god. This is the how the practice acquired the name left-handed Tantra.

Then they ritually consume the meat and the wine and eventually end with sexual union. Before each of these activities, mantras are pronounced to consecrate the elements, otherwise they would be highly polluting. Mantras are recited to sanctify the woman as the Goddess. Sexual union then is envisioned as a form of worship and devotion to her.

The Purpose of Tantra

Of the numerous accounts to explain the purposes for these practices, perhaps the most basic is that which argues for directing human desires towards liberation rather than repressing them. This philosophy argues that trying to deny certain desires only empowers them further. Rather than repress potentially harmful impulses, Tantra tries to harness them in service of salvation.

Ritual provides a controlled and highly structured context for indulging forbidden desires. In addition to ritualize sex, this practice serves to awaken a participant’s own awareness of the non-duality of the world. Duality, that is thinking in absolute terms of yes and no, black and white, good and evil; is precisely what keep us from realizing the identity of Brahman and Atman.

These activities are meant to break down the conventional duality we have constructed. To awaken this awareness by bodily as well as by intellectual means is a tremendous aid on the path to enlightenment.

Along these lines, the aspect of ritual sex is regarded as the reenactment of the cosmological union of shiva and shakti. Deva and Devi meet each other. Shiva without shakti is a curse. Shakti without shiva can be overwhelming. The male is unable to appropriate the active feminine powers. And the female can’t appropriate the passive masculine powers. Dualism is thus transcended.

A final theory explains how Tantric yoga arouses the latent energies in what is called the subtle body. This conception tells of a vast power source that resides near the base of the human spine. Hindus call this source the kundalini. Enlightenment can be attained by stimulating the dormant kundalini energy and allowing it to flow through the centers of the subtle body called chakras. Chakras are power centers in the shape of lotus flowers that lie along the spine, from its base to the top of the head. Releasing k allows energy to flow upward, causing the practitioners to realize oneness with ultimate reality.

Worship of the Goddess and Tantric yoga are two ways in which Hinduism really differs from the mainstream religious traditions of the West. Some westerners, however, are coming to regard these Hindu religious forms as embodying some things worth embracing. Some have argued that masculine gods of the western religions are to be balanced with a more consciously appropriated feminine element.

Others see value in viewing the body as a source of revelation and truth. Whether or not the western tradition would be ever find a place for the Goddess as Hinduism has remains to be determined.

The Independent Hindu Goddesses and the Creative Power

2009-02-09T04:52:00.000-08:00

The most terrifying form of the Devi (Goddess) is called Kali. She is black and fond of blood. She wears a necklace of seven human heads. Theologically, Kali reveals that life is inherently painful. In a not too distant past, human sacrifices were offered to Kali in South India. These sacrifices were practiced up until the 19th century. In the late 18th and early 19th century, a group known as Thugs was known for committing crimes in the name of Kali. They often murdered innocent victims by strangulation as a sacrifice to their patron Kali. The Thugs were often respectable men who had regular jobs during the day, but served the goddess at night. Although the British banned the Thugs in the 19th century, their name lives on in the English language as a synonym for a brutal criminal.

Although human sacrifices in honor of Kali had by far disappeared, animals are regularly offered to her in Calcutta. Nonetheless, animals are only a substitute for humans. The Puranas say that the goddess is pleased for a while with the sacrifice of goats or buffaloes, but a human sacrifice pleases her for a thousand years. Even today there are sporadic reports of human sacrifices to honor the goddess.

The autonomous goddesses were often and still are associated with the outbreak of epidemics, specially smallpox, the disease that has ravaged India more than any other. Epidemics have frequently believed to be the result of the goddesses’ anger directed toward a particular village or district. There are innumerable local village goddesses and many of them are smallpox goddesses. When epidemics occur, Devi worship intensifies. Still today many Hindu villagers would refuse to take smallpox inoculations because they believe the goddess has a greater power to prevent the disease. To submit to human science would be to anger her.

The Unsatisfied Goddesses

The contrast between the independent goddesses and their married female counterparts is striking. It is a difference that has not gone unnoticed among scholars, specially those working in the area of women studies. A common explanation for this difference is as follows. The rage to which the Goddess is subject derives in essence from her childlessness. Without children she is seen as not having fulfilled the central role of the female. Hindus do not deem it appropriate for the goddesses and gods to have children, except in a few remarkable cases, since children would mean a loss of immortality.

The view implied here is a common one in the history of religion. Children are what humans have instead of immortality. Perhaps it is ironic then that Hindu women seek help from the Goddess to have children. Being childless and perhaps sexually frustrated, the Goddess’ emotional energies are triggered and usually directed towards those who might upset her in the slightest way. It is therefore in one’s best interest to cool the Goddess’ ardor with appropriate gifts and offers.

What might motivate a Hindu to choose such a deity to worship? The sufferings that one endures in this life are regarded as the chastisement of an ultimately loving mother, to whom one clings in all circumstances.

Shakti: The Female Creative Power

Being childless, the married goddesses are also subject to the propensity of rage. But their relationship to male gods keeps them cool, channeling their anger into nurture. Perhaps this Theology sounds blatantly steorotypical of a patriarchal society that believes that a woman is never fit for independence. Yet, there is also a relatively complex understanding of the divine nature that supports this view, one that is not wholly stereotypical. In this understanding, the female aspect of divinity is considered its creative and activating power. The word for this power is Shakti, and it is the root word in Shaktism, the religion in which the Goddess is worshipped as supreme. A devotee of the Goddess is called a Shakta.

Shakti is the active principle in Hinduism, not unlike what the Chinese call Yang. Yet the word Yang is associated with the masculine, Shakti is feminine. The masculine principle, or shiva (note the small “s”), is, by contrast, passive. In fact, the masculine principle is so passive as to be dead. “Shiva without Shakti is a curse”, as a proverb says. Male gods require goddesses to empower and enlighten them. This is why in the temple images the gods are usually accompanied by their consorts. The indispensable nature of the Shakti is suggested in a macabre image depicting Kali dancing on Shiva’s dead body. This idea is also suggested by the goddesses’ red forehead markings, as contrasted with the white forehead markings for the gods. Red is the color of power and energy. White is a cooling color often associated with death.

As the goddesses are essential for the functioning of the gods, at the same time goddesses require passive gods to give form to their dynamic power. Without form and restrain, the energy embodied in the Goddess can become dangerous. Thus we witness the fury of the independent goddesses. With too much restrain, though, the goddess may become too passive. It is for this reason that we find both the dependent and independent form of goddesses in Hinduism.

The Hindu Goddess

2009-02-08T05:52:00.000-08:00

The worship of female deities has a long history in India and today it remains one of Hinduism’s prominent religious features. In the Indus Valley civilization numerous female figurines suggest that women were given a sacred status by virtue of their capacity to nurture new life. The Vedic pantheon as well contains several goddesses. It is true that during the Vedic period male gods were in the ascendancy, but in later classical and medieval Hinduism, the worship of the Goddess came into its own and regained a central place in popular religion. Today, Shaktism, the worship of the Goddess, is regarded as a major Hindu religion alongside Shaivism and Vaishnavism.

The Names of the Goddess

When speaking of the female divine in India it is common to refer to the Goddess in singular. This is because all the particular goddesses are form of Devi or Mahadevi, the great Goddess. In myth and in worship there are countless goddesses, which are often treated as distinct deities, particularly at the popular level. Just as different gods represent the one God, so the different goddesses manifest the one Devi. Ultimately, Devi and Deva symbolize the trans-personal Brahman.

Although the name Devi is commonly used, more frequently she is known to devotees with various words meaning “mother”. Interestingly, however, not but a few goddesses have children. And those who do have children acquire them by unusual means.

We can classify the many manifestations of the Devi into two broad categories. The first is the category of consorts: those goddesses who are the wives and companions of the great gods. The second group comprises the independent goddesses, those who are not associated with male divine figures by way of marriage. A goddesses’ relationship to a male god determines her basic character. Those who are divine consorts are seem as benevolent, gentle and life-giving. The independent unmarried goddesses are malevolent, terrifying and lustful.

The Gods and Their Consorts

Each of the great gods of Hinduism is married. Brahma, the creator, is married to Saraswati. Shiva is married is to Parvati. Vishnu is married to Lakshmi. We can also mention the consorts of Vishnu’s avataras. Rama is married to Sita. Krishna’s consort is Radha. In temples, the male gods rarely appear without their female counterparts. But the goddesses, even the married ones, may appear without their husbands in temple icons. For example, Lakshmi is not only Vishnu’s wife, she is also the goddess of good fortune and wealth. At the start of a new fiscal year, business persons commonly worship her and pray for prosperity.

The Devi Saraswati is almost always worshipped alone and never with her consort Brahma. Saraswati is the goddess of music and education. Brahma, despite his status as one of the three cosmic deities, has very little role in popular Hinduism. Temples devoted to him are extremely few. Saraswati, on the other hand, is very important. She is often venerated at school festivals and prayed to before tests.

Unlike Lakshmi and Saraswati, Parvati is usually not worshipped alone, but together with Shiva. In mythology, Shiva has many different wives, such as Durga and a host of others. They can all be viewed as forms of Parvati. Shiva’s wives were probably local village goddesses that were incorporated into Shaivite religion.

The consorts of Vishnu’s avataras are revered mainly for their relationship to their male counterparts. Sita, the wife of Rama, is considered the ideal wife because of her fidelity and obedience to her husband. Radha, Krishna’s consort, is the image of the devotee with a passionate love for god.

The Independent Goddesses

It seems quite clear that the independent goddesses are not considered divine exemplars of femininity. Of course it would be a mistake to say that the gods and goddesses are necessarily, by virtue of being divine, images of the ideal human life. The goddesses and gods are different from us no matter how much like us they may appear.

The goddesses who are independent and autonomous often appear as celestial deities, like Vishnu and Shiva. Many of the myths about the Devi depict her engaged in activity akin to that of the great male gods, such as protecting the cosmos from powerful demons. Sometimes she is portrayed as accomplishing difficult tasks that the male gods cannot.

The great Durga Puja, celebrated in Bengal, is a nine-day affair that memorializes the victory of the devi as Durga over a powerful buffalo demon. This is one of the most popular festivals in Hinduism. The celebration is based on a story that tells how the gods were too impotent to defeat an army of demons. Vishnu and Shiva themselves were unable to control the demon army and had to create the goddess to do so. Thus Durga was born from the combined anger of these two great gods.

Durga proceeds to defeat the demon leader after a long and vicious battle. After her triumph she promises to return whenever the demons grew too powerful.

One of the striking differences between the gods and goddesses is their realm of activity. In general, the gods are seen as celestial. Goddesses are terrestrial. Although the earth is the stage for many of the gods’ activities, the link between earth and goddess is much stronger. This connection is shown in many ways. For example, the earth itself is a goddess. She is named Budeive, literally “earth goddess”, or more loosely “mother nature”. Rivers are also goddesses, such as the Ganga. As rivers, goddesses nourish the world with their water. The entire land of India is a goddess, Barat Natta, or “mother India”.

It is important to mention one final manifestation of the Goddess. This is the embodiment of the Devi as actual human women. Such incarnations of the Goddess are not uncommon. For some, specially powerful woman, such as Indira Gandhi, might be regarded as the Goddess in flesh. Sometimes the incarnation is a less well-known woman who is believed to personify the qualities of the mother Goddess.

Continues at: The Independent Hindu Goddesses and the Creative Power

A Summary of the Bhagavad Gita

2009-01-23T17:18:00.000-08:00

The Gita is the universal mother. I find a solace in the Bhagavad Gita that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavad Gita. I find a verse here and a verse there , and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies - and my life has been full of external tragedies - and if they have left no visible or indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavad Gita."

Mahatma Gandhi

The Bhagavad Gita is probably the work of Indian literature with which Westerners are most familiar. Gandhi referred to it as his eternal mother. Despite its message urging war, he found in it support for his practice of non-violence.

The Gita is essentially a dialog between Vishnu, in his avatara as Krishna, and a warrior named Arjuna. Their conversation takes place on the battlefield, just as two armies are about to go to war. The combatants are the kauravas and the pandavas. They are fighting over the right to rule a Northern Indian Kingdom. The kauravas and the pandavas are members of the same clan, and it is precisely because the enemy numbers include his uncles, cousins and teachers; that Arjuna aggrieved.

When the battle is about to commence, Arjuna and Krishna, who serves as his driver, steer their chariot between the two armies and suddenly all the action is suspended. It is as if time has stopped, like a moment of eternity placed in the midst of time. Arjuna surveys the scene and begins to get melancholic and philosophical. When he sees his family members across the enemy lines, he drops his bow, having lost his will to fight.

Arjuna tells Lord Krishna that he cannot go to war. He has no desire to fight members of his clan whom he reveres. Arjuna concludes that such a battle can only lead to chaos. The term he actually uses is “adharma”. He sees no value in gaining wealth or earthly pleasure if this entails destroying his own family.

Fear of ruining the family remains a tremendous influence in individual behavior in India today. In South India, bottles of bear actually carry a warning label that frankly tells the purchaser: “Drinking liquor will ruin the family”.

Rather surprisingly, Krishna’s first response to Arjuna’s claims is to try to shame him. He taunts Arjuna and questions his masculinity, and commands him to get up and fight. Krishna tells Arjuna that fighting is his dharma. As kshatryia there is no greater honor or glory than to do battle.

When Arjuna still refuses to fight, Krishna tries another tactic. He tells Arjuna to think what people would say. According to Krishna: “People would tell of your undying shame. And for a man of honor, shame is worst than death.”

Arjuna does not respond to these appeals. He becomes much too thoughtful and philosophical to be bullied or shamed. Arjuna’s conflict is deep and genuine. His inner conflict is a familiar one. It is the dissonance that one feels when competing values clash. The most poignant dilemmas are not those between good and evil, which are relatively easy to solve. The problems in life arise when we must choose between the lesser of two evils, or the greater of two goods.

For Arjuna, the values he must negotiate are these: to refuse to fight and hence disobey his dharma as a warrior; or to go to war thereby inviting the negative consequences of karma, including family ruins, social chaos and continuous rebirth.

Arjuna wisely asks Krishna to be his guru. When such a moment of confusion arises one knows that a great opportunity of breakthrough has occurred. The student is prepared for insight.

Krishna’s first lesson recalls the teaching of the Upanishads. Indeed, Krishna essentially paraphrases a famous Upanishadic passage. Krishna’s point is simply the logical conclusion of a philosophy based on the immortality of the soul. Life and death are ultimately meaningless.

Arjuna pressures further. He is concerned with another matter now: the problem of karma. Perhaps it is true that one cannot kill the soul, but killing the body still is action and all action generates karma. How does one avoid the negative karmic consequences. Arjuna’s was schooled in the idea that karma of any sort cannot bring one to ultimate salvation.

Krishna now responds with another lesson. Krishna says: “It is not possible not to act. But it is possible to act without creating karma. One does this by performing all action without hatred or desire. Be intent on action, not on the fruits of action. Avoid attraction to the fruits and attachment to inaction. Perform actions forming discipline, relinquishing attachment. Be impartial to failure and success. These equanimity is called discipline or yoga.”

Krishna maintains that the true effects of karma conform to the will and the heart, not the action itself. Thus, an equanimous disposition frees one from bondage to karma. Krishna says: “Action imprisons the world unless it is done as a sacrifice. Free from attachment, Arjuna, perform action as a sacrifice”.

When Arjuna asks how one may learn to perform karmaless action, Krishna tells him that it takes discipline and proceeds to discuss over the span of many chapters the entire panorama of Hindu practices. Krishna discusses the value of asceticism, renunciation, study of the sacred Vedas, the sacrifices of the Brahmins, fasting, prayer, meditation. One can get a comprehensive view of the entire Hindu world just by reading the Gita.

The discussion continues. Arjuna makes objections and Krishna responds. At one point Arjuna becomes terribly confused and frustrated, and he plied to Krishna: “You can fuse my understanding with a maze of words. Speak one truth so I may achieve what is good”. Like all of us, Arjuna longs for clarity and simplicity. He just wants to know what to do. Simplicity, however, is not forthcoming. Krishna continues to spend many words as rich and as complex as Hinduism itself.

I think that this richness and this lack of clarity is one of the reason for the Gita’s vast appeal. Every Hindu finds something of value here. They find some wisdom that pertains to his or her place in life. The Brahmins find their sacrifices on it. The sannyasis see the renunciation and asceticism value. The warriors have their dharma affirmed. All ways of genuine spirituality are embraced and accepted.

As the dialog proceeds, Krishna’s lessons begin to focus more and more on himself. Now the teaching becomes increasingly characteristic of the path of devotion. Krishna encourages Arjuna to focus his mind, will and heart on God, and to let all else go.

“Men who worship me, thinking solely of me, always disciplined; win the reward I secure. The leaf, the fruit, the flower or the flower that he offers with devotion, I take from the man and respond to his devotion. Whatever you do, whatever you take, whatever you offer, whatever penances you perform, do it offering it to me. You will be freed from the bonds of action, from the fruit of fortune and misfortune. Armed with discipline, you will join me.”

For Bhakti practice what is done is not as important as how it is done. All that matters is that one does all things with faith and devotion to the god. It doesn’t even matter whether or not one is devoted to the god Krishna by name. One can worship other gods as long as they do so with fidelity.

The tradition has come a long way from Vedic times, when the priest insisted that the mantras of sacrifice had to be pronounced at just the right pitch.

As the teaching started to center more and more on the path of devotion, Arjuna feels his doubt melts away. In a climatic moment he asks Krishna to grant him the ability to see him in his full glory as god. Krishna gives Arjuna a divine eye with which to gaze on the gods form. The passages that describe this great vision are fascinating and memorable. The narrator tells us: “The light of a thousand suns would arise in the sky at once. That would be like the light of that great spirit. Arjuna saw all the universe in its many ways and parts, standing as one in the body of the gods of gods. Fulfilled with amazement, his hair bruising on his flesh, Arjuna bows his head to the god and joins his hands in homage.”

The Director of the Manhattan Project said that when he saw the atomic bomb detonated in the desert of New Mexico he immediately recalled the first two lines of this passage, comparing the light of Krishna to a thousand suns rising at once in the sky.

Arjuna’s response to this awesome vision is characteristic of such experiences as recorded in the history of religions. Ruddolf Otto called such events “experiences of the holy”. Otto said the experience of the holy is marked by a highly ambivalent reaction, just as we observe in Arjuna.

Arjuna is both terrified and fascinated with the sight. What Arjuna sees accents the absolute utterness of divinity. “I see no beginning, or middle or end to you. Only boundless stream in your endless arms. The moon and the sun in your eyes, your mouths of consuming flames. You alone fill the space between heaven and earth. Seeing the many mouths, eyes and your great form, the world trembles, and so do I.”

Now Krishna speaks: “I am time grown old, creating world destruction, setting in motion, to annihilate the worlds. Even without you, all these warriors raide in hostile ranks will cease to exist. Therefore, arise and win glory. Conquer your foes and fulfill your kingship. They already are killed by me. Be just my instrument, the archer at my side.”

After this vision Arjuna arises and goes to battle, claiming that his doubts have been dispelled.

We should try to get clear what precisely resolves his misgivings. Has he been persuaded by Krishna’s arguments or by the vision of Krishna and his manifest form? Is he convinced by seeing that Krishna embraces all things in life and death? What about Arjuna’s first uncertainty about fighting against his own clan? I’m not the first to thing that much in the Gita is left unsettled despite the fact that Arjuna himself seems to have gained clarity.

Conclusion

The battle commences and Arjuna and his brothers, the pandavas, ultimately win. Significantly, the Gita itself ends before we know the battle’s outcome. The question of who wins and who looses is not the issue in the Gita. Nor does the Gita really solved the problem of war. The two sides are not identified as good or as bad. There is no clear favorites here. War is, by almost any standard, tragic, according to the Gita. And yet, the context of war is significant in the Gita because the battlefield is really a metaphor for the soul itself, the mind and its struggle.

Ordinary Hindus restling with the issues of dharma is a much more present reality than the subjects of the Vedas or even the Upanishads. As a metaphor for the self and its eternal struggles, perhaps the Gita is a reminder that often there are no clear avenues of choice. Our decisions must be made in ambiguity and uncertainty.

The Way of Devotion

2009-01-23T16:50:00.000-08:00

Hinduism affirms multiple ways of conceptualizing the divine and many spiritual disciplines for achieving the ultimate goal of release from the Samsaric world. We explored the Way of Action, which provides the great majority of Hindus with a manner for improving future rebirths in order to attain a life from which moksha can be realized. We’ve also studied the Way of Wisdom, which provides those who are so inclined with a path for gaining enlightened freedom in this very life. The way of wisdom, however, is arduous, and it doesn’t appeal to everyone. Many Hindus find the Way of Devotion more compelling.

The approach of the devotional path is to focus one’s passionate nature on the love of a personal deity. Bhakti, the term for devotion, tells those who take this path that the love of god is paramount above all things. From a complete whole-hearted love for god all good things come.

The way of devotion became important during the late classical and early medieval period. At this time, new texts were added to the cannon of Hindu writings. These writings include the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the two great epics of India, much like the Iliad and the Odyssey in ancient Greece. Also composed and accepted was a collection known as the Puranas. This collection, assembled between 300 and 1000 A.D., provided the sources for much of the mythology of the Hindu gods and goddesses. Consequently, these texts were very important in shaping Hindu piety and the Bhakti movement, and continue to influence popular Hinduism.

We will discuss the Bhakti path by means of the Bhagavad Gita, probably the most popular religious text among Hindus. Although it is not the most sacred or most authoritative Hindu writing, the Gita is widely read and extremely well-known. Many Hindus have it completely memorized.

Studying the Gita will not only provide us with an exposition of the path of devotion, but will also demonstrate how Hinduism embraces the other ways to god as well.

The Hindu God Vishnu: Before adventuring into the Gita itself, let’s first get acquinted with the god Vishnu, who in his manifestation as Krishna, is one of the story’s central characters. According to Hindu mythology, Vishnu is a member of a cosmic triad, the three gods who have the responsability for creating, maintaining and destroying the universe. The destroyer we have already discovered in the figure of Shiva. The cosmic creator is Brahma. The god who sustains the cosmos between the times of creation and destruction is Vishnu.
A Summary of the Bhagavad Gita: The Bhagavad Gita is probably the work of Indian literature with which Westerners are most familiar. Gandhi referred to it as his eternal mother. The Gita is essentially a dialog between Vishnu, in his avatara as Krishna, and a warrior named Arjuna. Their conversation takes place on the battlefield, just as two armies are about to go to war.

The Hindu God Vishnu

2009-01-23T16:40:00.000-08:00

According to Hindu mythology, Vishnu is a member of a cosmic triad, the three gods who have the responsibility for creating, maintaining and destroying the universe. The destroyer we have already discovered in the figure of Shiva. The cosmic creator is Brahma. The god who sustains the cosmos between the times of creation and destruction is Vishnu.

Vishnu and Shiva are each at the center of a vast religious following among Hindus. The religion of Vishnu is known as Vaishnavism, and it is the most popular Hindu religion. Brahma, on the other hand, does not have a significant following. Do not confuse Brahma, the personal creator god, with Brahman, the Upanishadic term for the absolute reality that is beyond conception.

Vishnu was a deva in the Vedic period, but he was not specially prominent. The Vedas referred to him as the younger brother of Indra, and called him the three-stepper. Other sources relate the story of how Vishnu acquired this epithet. Bali, a demon king, invited the gods to a great sacrifice in their honor. Bali offered to fulfill any wish of each of his divine guests.

Vishnu, who appeared only as a dwarf, asked only be given as much land as he could take with three steps. Bali reluctantly agreed. Vishnu suddenly grew to immense proportions. His first step covered the earth. The second step reached the sun. According to the story, there was no space left for a third step. Bali then lowered his head in acknowledgement of Vishnu’s superiority.

In iconography, Vishnu is identified by the symbolic attributes he carries in each hand. In one hand he has a conch shell or Shankha, which represents his power to create and maintain the universe. In another, a sharp-spinning discus-like weapon, signifying the purified spiritualized mind. In a third he has a mace or Gada, which symbolizes Vishnu's divine power. In the fourth he holds a lotus flower or Padma, which represents represents spiritual liberation and divine perfection.

Vishnu’s Avataras

Vishnu’s most salient feature is his avataras or incarnations. The word avatara literally means to descend into. According to Vaishnava mythology, the god descends to earth and assumes an earthly manifestation at critical junctures in the world’s history. Tradition maintains that Vishnu has done this nine times in this era, and would do so again before the end.

Vishnu’s previous avataras include a boar, who carried the earth out of the primordial waters; a fish, that rescued the first human named Manu in the Hindu flood story; a turtle, a dwarf and a man-lion. He also appeared as the Buddha in his 9th incarnation. Thus the Buddha, the sage and teacher of Buddhism, has become incorporated into the Hindu pantheon.

Finally, in his tenth avatara Vishnu will return at the end of the age as Kalki, a horse-riding apocalyptic judge.

From the standpoint of religious practice, Vishnus’s most important avataras have been Krishna and Rama. Both figures are widely revered among Hindus. As Rama, Vishnu appeared on earth as a royal figure who defeats his wife’s abductor in the great epic the Ramayana. Rama is regarded as a great example of moral conduct and his marriage to Sita is appalled as the Hindu ideal.

Krishna’s Popularity in India and in the Western World

Krishna is a name that many Westerners would recognize. In the last half century, many in the West have become familiar with the name Krishna due a movement known as ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The Hare Krishna (as it is also known) was founded in 1966, by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. It belongs to the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, a devotional tradition based on the teachings of a 15th century saint and reformer named Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The focus of this tradition is abstinence of karmicly negative activities, such as eating meat, abusing sex and intoxication. It also involves the frequent chanting of the name of god. Its from their chanting that these Vaishnavites acquire the name Hare Krishnas, which is the name of one of the mantras that they recite.

Krishna’s popularity in India derives from two sources specially. One is his image as a playful and adventurous young man. One of the most delightful pieces of Vaishnavite literature is the Gita Govinda. This book tells the story of Radha’s passionate love for him. It is easily some of the most erotic literature in world religion. The Gita Govinda illustrates how on the path of devotion one might long for god as a lover longs for his beloved.

The other source of Krishna’s popularity is his role in the Bhagavad Gita. This text, which is usually translated as “Song of the Lord”, is probably composed between 1400 B.C.E. and 100 C.E. Its author or authors are unknown. Although it is usually read as an independent story, the Bhagavad Gita is actually part of the Mahabharata, which is probably the world’s longest epic poem, with around 100,000 verses. The Gita has been a great influence on Indian thinkers throughout its history, but it has also impressed many intellectuals in the West, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Thomas Stearns Eliot.

The Hindu God Shiva

2009-01-04T04:41:00.000-08:00

In our discussion of the Indus Valley civilization we encountered the figure of the meditating horned man, who many identified as Shiva. Shiva also has connections with the Vedic tradition as the god Rudra, who was also called “the howler”. Today, Shiva is at the center of one of the three most prominent religions within the Hindu family of religions. Shaivism is the name of this religion and its followers as known as “Shaivites”. The other two major religions are focused on Vishnu and the Goddess.

The iconography and mythology of Shiva depict him as an extremely paradoxical and immensely complex deity. He is both the destroyer and creator of the universe. In Hinduism, the world itself undergoes birth, death and rebirth. Different gods are associated with different functions in cosmic creation and destruction.

Shiva is movement and tranquility. Light and darkness. Male and female. Celibate and promiscuous. One scholar in fact calls him the “erotic ascetic”. He afflicts with illness and yet he is the physician that possesses a thousand medicines. He is wild but he is compassionate.

These paradoxes serve to symbolize the limitlessness and freedom of the divine. They also suggest that the kinds of things that we might ordinarily consider oppositions are in fact closer than we might think. Destruction must precede creation. Birth comes before death, which leads again to birth.

The Images of Shiva

Three prominent images of Shiva illustrate this theology: Shiva as a meditating yogi, as lord of the dance or Nataraja and then as the half-woman lord.

The great yogi image accents Shiva’s ascetic aspect. It provides a model for many Shaivites who seek to practice asceticism. Shiva is depicted here in a meditating posture. His eyes are half-shut to the world, suggesting that he is in the world but no of it. He wears wild animals skins, emblematic of his primal energy. His home is in the Himalayas.

The Meditating Shiva

He carries a trident that represents control over mind, body and intellect. Around his neck is a tamed cobra symbolizing his triumph over the ego, because the ego, like the serpent, harasses us with desires. In the top of his hair lies the goddess Ganga. From here, the river Ganges flows softly to earth, suggesting Shiva’s compassionate nature.

The Nataraja is one of the best known images of this Hindu deity. The image depicts Shiva’s cosmic dance during the auspicious occasion of the Maha Shivaratri, the great night of Shiva. Shiva dances the night away dispelling the ignorance of the night. Now, the ascetic yogi is a dancer. He dances wild and free as indicated by his flying hair, but his face is tranquil and composed. His forearms indicate his great power, and each of them expresses a meaningful gesture. In one hand he holds a dhamaru (a two-headed drum). In the other he holds a flame. With the drum he sounds the world into existence. With the flame he destroys it in order to create another.

Shiva as Nataraja

One hand is upraised in a gesture that tells the devotee to fear not. The other hand points down to the uplifted foot, where the devotee may find refuge. It is an invitation to approach. His feet also make significant gestures. With a planted foot he crushes the demon of ignorance and sin. The lifted foot symbolizes his freedom from the world. Surrounding the entire image is a ring of fire.This is Samsara, the phenomenal world.

One final image of Shiva illustrates his endogenous nature. All the great gods of Hinduism have their essential female counterpart. This female aspect of the divine is depicted in a variety of ways. One of the more interesting ways is illustrated in the image of Shiva as the half-woman lord. In it, Shiva’s endogeny is shown as a single individual with male and female halves. Such an image suggests the all-encompassing nature of the divine. It reminds one of the limitations of anything in human experience to capture it.

Shiva as the half-woman lord

How Many Gods do Hindus Believe In?

2009-01-04T04:16:00.000-08:00

The American philosopher William James once remarked that he thought that the issue of the “one” and the “many” was one of the most difficult and yet one of the most important philosophical problems. Most Westerners probably have little idea of what James is talking about or why it is important, but the issue may be quite familiar for Hindus, who have struggled with it for thousands of years.

For James, the question was whether it is philosophically better to conceive reality as a whole or as a collection of various events, experiences and things. In other words: Is reality one or is it many?

The same concern applies to our conceptions of god or ultimate reality. To Hindu ways of thinking, James’ dichotomy is a false dilemma. Reality can be both, one and many. It depends all upon how you look at it.

A famous story from the Upanishads relates how a great sage was questioned about the number of devas or gods. The sage answered by providing his interlocutor with a conventional pious answer: 3306. The interlocutor was not satisfied and pressed for another answer. The sage offered another answer: 33. This is the traditional number of Vedic gods. Once again the questioner was not satisfied. He asked again. The sage offered the number 6, then 3, 2, 1 and a half, and finally 1.

How many gods are there according to Hinduism? Although a Hindu tradition puts the figure at 330000000, perhaps a better answer would be simply: as many as you like. Although the questioner stops with the number one, the passage does not say that the other answers are wrong. Indeed, the sage continues to explain rationally each of his previous answers. By this account they are all true.

The many devas are just different expressions of the one reality: Brahman. At this level, the devas are said to represent ultimate reality as it is known or as it is revealed to human beings. Brahman is ultimate reality as it is unknown and unknowable.

The many gods of Hinduism are ways to enrich the understanding of the divine. To Hindu ways of thinking, ultimate reality is so far beyond our imagination that a single image, or even a handful of images would not do. If it must be portrayed, then many images and symbols succeed better than just one or a few.

Alain Daniélou once commented that 330 million is closer to infinity than 1.

The very number of gods and their complex manifestations serve to astound and overwhelm the human mind. That reminds us of ultimate reality’s unspeakable nature. With just a few images the human mind may be more likely to come to believe that they are not merely symbols but the reality.

Even though the Hindu pantheon is immense, individual Hindus do not give worship to all the gods equally. Those who wish to worship god usually have an Ishta Devata, a personal deity of choice. Often this personal god is the deva worshipped by one’s family or one’s village. It is certainly not uncommon for family members to be devoted to different gods. One’s decision to worship a specific god is uniquely one’s own and may be based on a special affinity that one feels for the deva. It might also be suggested by one’s astrological horoscope.

Devotees worship their particular deity as the supreme god, but they do not feel compelled to deny the reality of the other gods or even their supremacy for their followers. In this manner, both the one and the many are preserved.

The Power of Symbols and Images in Hinduism

2009-01-04T03:54:00.000-08:00

Our discussion of the way of wisdom focused on the idea of Brahman. Brahman is the name for the absolute ultimate reality in Hinduism. It is so far beyond our human capacity to conceive that all efforts to think and speak about it are futile. It simply cannot adequately be conceptualized and described. It can only be realized.

The renouncers that seek to realize Brahman give up everything to which they were attached, including images of the divine and religious rituals. However, anyone who knows much about India knows that Hindus are anything but silent about gods. India is a land of an astounding array of divine images. There are pictures and statues of members of the Hindu pantheon everywhere you go. In public buildings, on buses, in taxis and on the sides of the road. The gods and goddesses of Hinduism cast a watchful eye over everyone. This is without mentioning the images in the temples and homes, where the gods are usually worshiped.

The tension we observe in these two impulses is a familiar one in world religious history. It derives from what may be the central religious endeavour: to conceptualize that which is beyond conception. There are two approaches that can be taken in the face of mystery. One approach is to say nothing at all. To think nothing, to imagine nothing. That is the mystical approach, the approach of the path of wisdom. The ultimate is unutterable. Say anything about it and it becomes distorted.

Once I got to the two final pages of a book and realized that they were completely white, except for these words printed neatly in the center of each page: “This page left intentionally blank”. I couldn’t keep myself from bursting into laughter. Saying the page was blank made it no longer blank. By simply uttering a truth, these words told a lie. This is the anxiety that some religious folks have about discussing or depicting God or ultimate reality.

A Zen saying puts it very succinctly: “Open mouth already a mistake”.

Images are Everywhere

There is another approach that is more characteristic of the mainstream of the world religions. This method is based on the belief that we are not at liberty to discard language, symbols and images of the divine. If we are to relate at all to ultimate reality, we must think about the unthinkable. We must imagine the unimaginable.

Even those traditions that consider themselves iconoclastic, such as the Western monotheism, still use images and theological language. One of the Ten Commandments forbids the making of graven images of the Biblical God. Yet, linguistic metaphors and images are used in abundance throughout the Bible.

As Aristotle wrote: “The soul never thinks without an image”.

Certainly, this is the most common approach among the religions of the world. The mystical traditions of image-less silence may appeal to some, but by far most religious persons need symbols to guide their spirits.

Many may make the great mistake of believing that our concepts are actually adequate to describe God. This is the sin of idolatry: confusing divine reality with what is merely the product of our minds and hands. If we are to speak at all about the divine, it must be done in such a way as to reveal truth without creating a lie.

Hindu Images

Now we will explore how Hindu theology tries to mediate divine reality to devotees by means of symbols and images without slipping into idolatry. This discussion is intended to bridge our explorations of the path of wisdom and the path of devotion. The way of wisdom gives expression to the religious impulse towards silence and unity. The way of devotion manifests the impulse towards symbol and plurality. This discussion seeks to show how and why the Hindu tradition embraces both.

We will also explore several aspects of Hindu theism that seem to be the greatest stumbling blocks for Westerners. Why do Hindus worship so many gods? Why do they make images of their gods?

The practice of creating icons of the devas often seems scandalous to many in the Western world. Many today continue to refer to physical representations of the divine not as images but as idols.

The easy identification of divine images with idolatry actually portrays a very superficial understanding of the nature and function of religious iconography. Images of the devas can be anthropomorphic or non-anthropomorphic. The countless array of non-anthropomorphic symbols include natural phenomena, such as stones, trees, rivers, even celestial bodies.

Other prominent non-anthropomorphic representations are the lingams, that symbolize the presence of Shiva; the footprints of Vishnu; and Yantras, which are geometric designs signifying the goddess.

Brahman pervades all there is, therefore, anything can manifest the divine reality and can yield access to the sacred for those who have the eyes to see it.

The Anthropomorphic Images

The anthropomorphic deities are those that appear human-like. Certainly, depicting divine reality as human-like is an extremely common practice in world religions. Humanity can conceive no form more beautiful and more sublime than the human. To imagine ultimate reality in some measure like us: with intelligence, will, emotions, perhaps even a body; helps us to grasp the mystery and to relate to it in ways not possible with non-anthropomorphic representations.

The danger, though, in personalizing the divine world in this fashion, is to bring it too close to the human. Making it too much like ourselves until it seems finite. Hindu images of the gods endeavour to avert this danger by incorporating elements that remind devotees that gods are also not like us. Many of the Hindu images seem simultaneously human and non-human. Ganesha, who is the remover of obstacles, has a human body but the head of an elephant. Lord Rama, a manifestation of the god Vishnu, appears to be completely human, but his blue skin reminds us of his divinity. Durga looks like a woman, but her eight arms tell us she is not.

Each of these instances helps give shape to the unseen and allow Hindus to glimpse some aspect of the divine. Durga’s many arms, for example, indicate the great power of the god. For many Hindus (many that cannot read), an image of a god is the source of their theology.

The Essence of the Self and Reality

2009-01-02T16:17:00.000-08:00

We all like to believe that we are special. Almost all creation myths from the world religions reserve special mention for the creation of human beings as distinct from non-human beings. What is that that accounts for that sense or desire for uniqueness among human beings? What is our essence that makes us different from other beings? And perhaps different from each other?

Religions and philosophies of the last three thousand years have said that the essence of being human is something other than the material body. They call it with various names, such as self or spirit, but the word soul may be the most common. The sages who composed the Upanishads also called the human essence soul. They used the Sanskrit word Atman.

In the early Veda, the Atman was closely associated with breath. Based on the commonsensical view that as breath leaves the body at death, breath must be the soul. By the time the Upanishads were being composed, the identification of Atman with breath was unsatisfying to most thinkers. Breath was seen as too physical, too closely associated with the body.

These developments started a quest for a permanent immortal human essence. This greater sense of individual uniqueness introduces the desire to discover that within ourselves which endures the ravages of time, that which makes us special. If not the breath, what does constitute the human essence?

Perhaps the most likely candidate might be what we call the mind. The mind seems to be for many of us the center of our experience in the world, the seed of our personality. The authors of the Upanishads were reluctant to identify the human essence with the mind. Even the Buddha, an Indian contemporary of the writers of the Upanishads, thought that the body would be a better candidate for the soul than the mind (although he ultimately rejected the existence of the soul). The body does not change as often and as rapidly as the mind. How can anything as unsettled as the mind be our immortal self?

One of the earlier Upanishads says: “It is not the mind what we should want to know. We should want to know the thinker.” Where do those thoughts of the mind come from anyway? Who is in control of our thinking? In the Upanishads, the mind came to be seen as just another organ of sense, similar in function to the other five senses. What was of greater interest was not the content or the activity of the sense but what existed beyond them.

The Upanishads concluded that what is beyond the senses and the mind itself cannot be sensed or thought about. From this insight derives unique qualities of the soul. The Upanishads describe the Atman as imperceptible, spiritual, beyond human categories of thinking, beyond comprehension and immortal.

The Atman does not come into being in a specified moment. It simply always has been. This is a troubling notion for many Westerners who have assumed that the self or the soul comes into existence at a particular time and may receive or attain the state of immortality.

Since it cannot be identified in any way with the body, the Atman is not subject to the experiences of the body, such as death and birth. Yet the Upanishads affirm that the soul exists within a physical nature. It is interesting that although the writers of the Upanishads sharply distinguish the soul and body, they almost always resort to physical metaphors to express their views. The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset said that given our human limitations we have to talk about the spiritual in physical terms. Even in the TV show The Simpsons when Bart sells his soul to Millhouse the cartoonist had to depict the soul in a physical and ghostlike way.

Ultimate Reality

The Upanishads sought to determine the human essence by turning inward but at the same time they sought a deeper understanding of ultimate reality, that which explains the totality of it all. What is the source of the universe? Where do we come from? Who rules over our joys and sorrows?

Many of these questions have not been answered in a satisfying way by the Vedas. To answer them, the Upanishadic sages reworked the conception of Brahman that we find in the Vedas and gave it a new meaning. Brahman means “that which makes great”. In the early Vedic era, Brahman was the power that resided in the gods. In the later Vedic tradition it was the mantra or the reality behind the sacrifice.

During the evolution of classical Hinduism, Brahman came to refer to the power of all powers, the deepest reality of the cosmos. This was a natural evolution of thought since the Vedas viewed a sacrifice as the reflection of the cosmos itself. It is a short step from the view that Brahman is the sacrificial power to the idea that it is the universal power.

As the concept of Brahman came to be identified as the ultimate reality, this concept became increasingly abstract and difficult to grasp. Although Brahman is removed from the world of everyday experiences, the Upanishads assure as that it is closer to us than we are to ourselves. Some passages in the Upanishads tell us that Brahman is one and undifferentiated unity. It is called the thread that strings together all creatures. Brahman is the source and sustainer of all that is. Brahman is also the destroyer of everything. Brahman is in everything. Brahman encompasses all that is good and all that is evil and yet transcends good and evil. It is beyond morality altogether.

Indeed, Brahman transcends all human categories. It is nirguna, a Sanskrit term that means “without qualities”. Its only quality is that of having no qualities. To try to describe it makes it into something that can be comprehended, which by definition it’s not.

You are God

As the sages of the Upanishads continued their quests for the human essence and ultimate reality, a new insight begins to break into awareness, an epiphany that comes to full expression in the later Upanishads. As they increasingly grasp the incomprehensible and unutterable nature of both Atman and Brahman, these two ideas converged. They concluded that that which is called soul is identical with ultimate reality itself.

To put this notion in more characteristically Western terms one might say that the soul and God are one and the same. The soul is not part of God as some traditions might be willing to say. In this view that is not possible because Brahman is indivisible and undifferentiated. Rather, the identity of Atman and Brahman means that they are consubstantial: two names for the same reality. The true self is God, it is ultimate reality.

The Upanishads express this insight in a variety of ways. One text asserted: “Whoever denies God denies himself. Whoever affirms God affirms himself.”

It is hard to imagine a more exalted view of humanity. This assessment of the self seems almost diametrically opposed to that of the mainstream of modern Western monotheism in which man must become poor so that God can become rich. “What is man that Thou are mindful of him” tells one of the verses of the Bible.

This view is what led the otherwise pessimistic philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer to call the Upanishads the most elevated reading in the world. “It has been the solace of my life and will be the solace of my death”.

Despite this quite exalted view, the soul finds itself in an endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Like many traditions that affirm the existence of the soul, the classical Hindu view understands that the embodied soul is not at rest. It is not its true home. It continues in this restless state seeking ever new manifestations until it finds rest with God.

According to the Upanishads, Samsara is the consequence of our own ignorance. Although our true selves are consubstancial with ultimate reality still we suffer and undergo transmigration because we are ignorant about the way things really are. Later philosophers developed the notion of Maya, a veil over reality. This idea is implicit in the Upanishads.

Maya causes us to perceive plurality when in reality there is only unity. We perceive and conceive the world as many things rather as the one reality that it is. Maya deceives us into thinking about ourselves as separate entities rather than as intrinsically connected. That very desire for being special is precisely the source of our misery.

Conclusion

The principle of the unity of Brahman and Atman is foundational for the path of wisdom. This idea gives shape to the characteristic elements of the path.

Taking the path of wisdom means living life in such a way that one’s very existence expresses the truth of this principle. It’s not enough that we have the knowledge of Brahman and Atman as a unity. It’s not enough that we grasp this intellectually by the mind alone. Mere knowledge must be transformed into a wisdom that deeply pervades the whole of one’s being.

To gain this kind of wisdom one must live as if there is no individual self separate from reality. Thus, accepting the path of wisdom requires renunciation, giving up all attachment to anything that encourages a sense of separateness or individuality.

When we talked about the men life cycle we briefly noted the stage known as Sannyasa. At this final stage of life a man may appropriately pursue this manner of being. As a sannyasi he gives up everything that has formerly marked his life: his possessions, his family, his occupation, even his religious practices, his caste and his name. All these ultimately keeps one entangled in Maya, the web of illusion.

The Upanishads put it like this: “When all desires that cling to the heart are surrendered, then a mortal becomes immortal”.

The path of wisdom entails a different orientation to discovering truth. Whereas conventional religion may encourage us to look for truth in a book or somewhere else, the Upanishads tell us that truth is not “out there”, but within. Within your deepest self. To discover one’s self is to discover God.

The Way of Wisdom

2009-01-02T15:56:00.000-08:00

Although all Hindus take the path of action at least for much of their lives, it doesn’t bring oneself to final liberation from the wheel of Samsara. Karma, even good karma, keeps a person bound to the cycle of transmigration. Ultimately, one needs to transcend karma to realize moksha. One way the Hindu tradition offers for this attainment is the path of wisdom or knowledge.

As an austere and demanding discipline it is not a path that all Hindus wish to follow. Yet, it has been a very influential vision for the whole of the tradition and for those in the Western world that are familiar with Hinduism.

The path of wisdom is rooted in the Axial Age, when classical Hinduism took shape. This mode of spirituality was initially a response to the changing Vedic system and the religious and philosophical issues that affected Indians with a new urgency. These issues included a developing sense of the separate self and anxieties about death and rebirth.

The most important responses to these matters were recorded in a collection of texts called the Upanishads. The authors of these works are not known to us today. The oldest were probably composed between 800 and 400 B.C. but actually written down much later. Today, the Upanishads are regarded as revealed knowledge, which means that they share the same sacred status as the Vedas. In fact, they are considered to be part of the Vedas although they were developed much later.

The perspective they represent is often called Vedanta, which means the “end of the Veda”. One of the six orthodox philosophies of Hinduism takes as its name Vedanta. Although they are seen as continuous with it, the Upanishads are actually much more philosophical and more speculative than the earlier Vedas. This difference may be attributed to the change of emphasis in Indian religion that begins in the middle of the first millennium B.C. Shifting concern from ritual to understanding the self and ultimate reality.

The title of the Upanishads takes its name from the Sanskrit syllables that mean “to sit down beside”. This term suggests that what the Upanishads contain is knowledge that is transmitted from guru to student. The Upanishads were an esoteric form of wisdom, one that could only be gained from someone who knew.

There is not universal agreement about what works are included in the collection of the Upanishads. According to some, there are as many as 200 to 300 Upanishads, some of which were written as recently as a few centuries ago. The more commonly given number is 108, a particular sacred number in Hinduism and Buddhism.

Like the Vedas, the Upanishads are not always systematic or internally coherent. One of the purposes of the philosophy called Vedanta was to make the Upanishads systematically rigorous. As it is not always systematic, my presentation would make the Upanishadic world seem more orderly than it actually was.

The Upanishads focus on two central trajectories of thought. What is the essence of this human self and what is the essence of ultimate reality. We will look at each of these ideas in turn.

Continued in The Essence of the Self and Reality

The Way of Action

2009-01-02T15:41:00.000-08:00

They way of action is one of the three ways Hindus live their spiritual life (and try to get closer to the goal of liberation). In a sense, all Hindus pursue the way of action in one way or another. Although moksha is the ultimate goal of all Hindus, most people are not primarily concerned with attaining it. For the most part, moksha is seen as a distant objective. Something that would be best pursued in another life time. The concerns of this life are demanding enough.

For many Hindus, just getting the daily bread consumes the greater part of the day. Even those who do not struggle with mere subsistence have good reason to let final liberation be the concern of a future life. Properly attending to one’s obligations in this life puts one in a better position for the next. So, one needs not seek Moksha to be a pious Hindu.

The Four Goods and Moksha

The Hindu tradition speaks of four goods of life. There is the good of dharma or duty. The good of Artha, or wealth. The good of Kama, or pleasure. And Moksha. Each of these constitute valuable and worthwhile aims in life. It is good to do one’s duty, to live with material abundance and to enjoy the many pleasures life has to offer. All of these things can be pursued by generating good karma.

As long as the pursuit of pleasure and wealth occurs within one’s moral obligations and dharma, these aspects of life are karmicly positive. Moksha, however, is a different matter. It is not just one of the four goods of life. It is also the highest good. In other words, to attain liberation from Samsara one must be willing to forsake the other three. The reason for doing this is simple. Even though doing one’s duty and pursuing wealth and enjoyment are viewed positively, they also keep one bound to the will of rebirth.

Generating good karma will certainly improve one’s status in a future life, but karma, even good karma, binds one to Samsara. For those who are not yet prepared to abandon a life of duty, material acquisition and enjoyments, the religious life means doing one’s best to improve this life and the next.

Positive karma may be produced by meritorious religious activity. In particular, rituals, festivals and pilgrimages; all of which are extremely important aspects of everyday Hindu life. Participating in these activities creates the karmic merit that yields favorable future lives. To learn about these rituals please read the article Hindu rituals.

The Tradition of Pilgrimages

Pilgrimage or sacred journey is an extremely common phenomenon in the world of religions. All the major religious traditions feature pilgrimages of one sort or another. Pilgrimages, as distinguished from other kinds of travel, entails undertaking the rigours of journeying for the explicit purpose of spiritual renewal, insight or enrichment.

Usually, the pilgrimage involves a sacred destination, a location associated with a god or a goddess. Actually, visiting such a place is believed to bring one closer to the divine. Thus, the outer physical journey mirrors the deeper and more significant inner spiritual journey.

There are many and varied pilgrimages in India. On any given day millions of Hindus are participating in them. Pilgrimage is an important and widely practiced aspect of Hinduism. Not only because pilgrimage is religiously meritorious, but because India itself is holy. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of India itself for Hindus. India is the holy land sacred to Hinduism as Israel is to Judaism. Hindus refer to the land as Bharatmata, “mother India”. The very trees, rivers, mountains and villages of India are often identified with the gods and important sacred events.

The Sacred City of Benares

The river Ganges is not only a sacred body of water but also a manifestation of a goddess. The city of Benares on the Ganges is specially auspicious and a particularly popular pilgrimage site. As the holiest place in all of India, Benares is regarded as the earthly home of the great god Shiva. Pilgrims by the thousands arrive to Benares daily just to bath in the sacred river.

It’s not uncommon to meet pilgrims who have saved all their lives to make the journey to Benares, or who walked on foot across India. Leaving home and taking the arduous journey to view this and other sacred sites is an activity that brings great spiritual benefits. Pilgrims often shave their heads or wear special clothing to mark their passage into the sacred. They frequently travel in groups to the pilgrimage site.

Many people travel to Benares as they approach death, actually hoping to die there. Dying in the holy city can cover a life time of sins and ensure a better rebirth. There are even hostels in Benares that specialize in serving the dying. Such places frankly state that those who take lodging there expected to die, usually within a few weeks. Those who hoped to live seek accommodations elsewhere. Upon death, deceased pilgrims are immediately carried to the Ganges, where their bodies are cremated by the untouchables.

Hinduism and the Path to Salvation

2009-01-02T15:21:00.000-08:00

Here I would like to talk about how Hindus seek salvation, or how they call it, liberation from the cycle known as Samsara. In our examination of the beliefs in transmigration of the soul and the law of karma we noted how Samsara was not merely a description of the way things are. It is also life’s problematic.

It is crucial that we appreciate the fact that reincarnation is not seen as ultimately desirable. Many in the Western world think of reincarnation considering rebirth a good thing.

Considering death the dissolution of the self, they think reincarnation would spare them from oblivion and give meaning to their lives. A Western perfume company markets a fragrance called Samsara. They advertise it as a “timeless fulfillment”. I’m not sure if that slogan is the result of sheer ignorance or a reflection of a positive assessment of the idea of reincarnation. Hindus would nowise think of Samsara as a timeless fulfillment.

Samsara is the realm of suffering. The idea that one might continue wandering in the Samsaric world for eternity is absolutely horrifying. This view was intimated in the fact that rebirth was originally called “redeath”.

The idea of rebirth is appealing if we imagine that we return to this life with the privileged status that many of us enjoy right now. If that is the case, the law of transmigration would be a wonderful opportunity to experience and learn everything that the world has to offer. Samsara, however, implies the possibility of returning to life in forms that are not specially conducive to pleasure.

Many kinds of life, both human and animal, experience great amounts of suffering. Their lives are “nasty, brutish and short”. Even if we were to come back continually to a life of privilege and pleasure, we will probably find that ultimately tedious and distasteful. Forever is a long time.

The ultimate goal of Hinduism is thus to gain freedom from Samsara. The Hindus call this achievement Moksha, which means “release” or “liberation”. Finding Moksha is what each of us must do in this life time or in the next, or in one hundred life times from now. Eventually, we will all tire of Samsara and will muster the discipline it takes to be liberated.

We shall begin to explore the ways in which Hindus seek ultimate liberation. There is not a single prescribed path to salvation but several. In the final analysis, liberation comes in a multitude of ways.

Traditionally, Hinduism has maintained that there are three ways to live the spiritual life. These are known as margas. The word marga or marg is a common word in India and it is often used to designate streets or avenues. The three margas categorize certain emphasis within the Hindu tradition. An ordinary Hindu would often incorporate elements of each in his or her daily life.

The three paths are known as:

These three paths might be viewed as providing suitable spirituality for persons of different temperaments or proclivities. Those whose personalities are more orientated towards the will or volition may find the way of action more appealing. Those who are disposed towards a life of contemplation might gravitate towards the way of wisdom. Those whose lives are characterized by strong emotion and passion may be attracted to the way of devotion.

The word yoga is often used interchangeably with marga to describe these types. The term yoga, which many in the West identify with a specialized form of physical yoga, means discipline. The meaning of the term yoga is much broader than simply discipline of postures. It involves all manner of practices relating to one’s spiritual well being. It includes meditation, fasting, ascetic practices, ethical behavior and study.

Hindu Rituals

2008-12-31T05:57:00.000-08:00

When I first introduced the concept of karma I mentioned that its original meaning was ritual action, later it acquired moral connotations. I talked in another article about how rebirth might be improved by following the moral law. Now it is time to explore how positive karma may be produced by meritorious religious activity. Participating in these activities creates the karmic merit that yields favorable future lives.

The Daily Rituals

Almost all Hindus practice daily rituals of some sort, depending on caste, family custom and geographical region. A typical pious householder would rise before the sun and utter the name of his personal god, his ishta devata. He touches the earth and then bows to the images of the deities in his room. Almost every Hindu home contains sacred images of the gods, particularly of those who one is most devoted.

The guidelines for rituals prescribe a bath. This is widely practiced. Besides serving the purposes of hygiene, the bath helps to remove pollution that one might accumulate during the course of a day. After this, one applies forehead markings using color paste to indicate one’s devotion to a particular god and to a religious community. These markings are important, without them rituals are ineffective.

Following the bath, the householder recites a morning prayer comprised mainly of the repetition of an ancient mantra, called the Gayatri Mantra. This prayer is repeated daily by million of Hindus. This is followed by hymns, readings from sacred texts, worship performed by burning incense and prostrating. This form of worship is known as puja. Varied forms of puja are prescribed by each religious community. The morning rituals are followed by similar but less elaborate rites that happen at noon and at the evening.

The Rituals for the Stages of Life

Hindus celebrate and ritualize the moments of transition in the life of an individual. These events are more than just occasions for individuals. They are intended for the entire community to recognize the significant changes that individual members undergo. Hindus mark the changes of life with a series of celebrations known as samskaras. Some Hindu communities observe as many as sixteen different samskaras. The most significant ones for all Hindus are those that concern birth, initiation, marriage and death.

The rituals of birth include samskaras that are celebrated before and after the child arrives. Some Hindus conduct a “parting of the hair” ritual to ensure a safe and healthy pregnancy. For this rite, the husband parts his wife’s hair and applies red powder to protect her and the child from evil spirits. Ten days after the child is born a naming ceremony is performed. Even the first haircut, when the child is about three, is frequently the occasion for a ritual.

Initiation usually occurs when a child reaches the teen years. We already discussed the initiation of upper caste boys. As you may recall, the initiation marked a boy’s second birth and his entrance into student-hood. Although the orthodox traditions of the Brahmins do not prescribe an initiation for girls, many Hindu communities in fact celebrate a girl’s passage to womanhood. The rite often consists of a period of seclusion, a ritual bath and a feast.

Wedding rituals signify what many Hindus consider the most important rite of passage in life. We already discussed this ceremony in the article about the role of women in Hinduism. By way of brief review let me remind you that the wedding rites are always grand and frequently expensive. They are celebrated in various ways throughout India with each region contributing its own distinctiveness to the ritual. The ceremonies are conducted by a priest and involve the giving of a wedding necklace and the circumambulation of the sacred fire.

The final samskara in any individual’s life is the funeral. Cremation is by far the most common funeral custom. Only very small children, sannyasins (wandering ascetics) and members of small and atypical sects are buried rather than burned. Ordinarily, the funeral rites begin almost immediately after the person dies. After the body is washed and clothed is taken by a procession to a cremation ground. Funeral processions are a common sight throughout India. The body is surrounded by flowers. There is usually no coffin, so the body is not hidden from view.

At the burning grounds, often located near a river, untouchables take charge of the cremations. If it is near sacred rivers, such as the river Ganges, the corpse is immersed and placed on a pyre wood. Such wood is scarce in India. Funerals can be expensive. Many times poor people can’t afford a funeral and just place the corpse in the river. The cremation fire is usually lit by the eldest son, who prays to the fire god Agni to transport the soul to the place of the ancestors. After the cremation, the family members turn and without looking back take a purifying bath and return home. The ashes are later committed to the river.

The Role of Women in Hinduism

2008-12-27T20:04:00.000-08:00

Historically, the female life cycle in Hinduism has been different from that of males. In the classical, medieval and most of the modern periods, females have followed a three-stage pattern. Today, the roles of women in Hindu society are changing, as they are throughout the world. Increasingly, the life pattern of females resembles the stages of life for males.

The basic principles governing the roles of girls and women in Hindu history were set forth in the Laws of Manu. This ancient code specified that women must be honored and adorned by their fathers, brothers, husbands and brothers-in-law who desired their own welfare.

“Where women are honored, there the gods are pleased. Where they are not honored, no sacred rite yields rewards.”

In the Vedic world, women were required to be present for the rituals to work, even though they had no official role to play in them. Manu continues:

“Day and night, women must be kept dependent to the males of their families. If they attach themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under one’s control. Her father protects her in childhood. Her husband protects her in youth. Her sons protect her in old age. A woman is never fit for independence.”

These final sentences implicitly sets forth the three life stages for the female.

The Early Stage

As a girl, the female lives under the watchful protection of her parents, who are jealously concerned with protecting her virginity. She is considered pure but inauspicious, because she lacks a life-giving power. When she marries, she becomes impure but auspicious. The impurity is caused by sexual intercourse and menstruation.

For most of Hindu history, the girl was not allowed to have the same kind of education as her brother. Boys left home to receive their education from a guru. Girls always had to be under their fathers’ watchful eye. What education she got came from her parents. She spent most of her time learning domestic skills from her mother, as well as some ritual aspects of religion. She was not considered capable of studying the Veda.

The Arrangement of Marriage

In classical medieval and modern times, girls often married early in life, thereby entered the second stage, that of the householder. Today, young Hindu women do not usually marry until their twenties, but this has not always been the case. Frequently, the arrangement of marriage took place just after the girl was born, or some time later in her childhood. Occasionally, the marriage would be arranged to a boy who was relatively close in age, but it was not uncommon for a young girl to be matched to a much older man, perhaps twenty or thirty years her senior.

A girls’ parents had interest in arranging her marriage as early as possible because of the great concern with virginity. When girls’ marriage was arranged when they were young, their purity became the responsibility of the groom’s family.

Obviously, marriages meant something quite different in Hindu society that it does in the present day Western world. In India, marriages has been regarded as alliances between families for the purposes of reproduction and economic stability, not so much an avenue for personal enrichment as they are often considered in the West.

Accordingly, Hindu marriages had historically been arranged by the groom’s and bride’s older relatives. Bride and groom did not meet until shortly before the wedding, or at the wedding itself. In seeking a suitable spouse for one’s son or daughter, family members took more into account than simply personal compatibility between the man and the woman. Certainly, the prospective families’ wealth and social standing, caste and sub-caste, health, the prospective spouse’s occupation and the compatibility of the pairs’ astrological charts were issues of prominent concern.

It’s worth noting that marriages in India historically and to the present day rarely end in divorce. This is in due in part to Indians’ view of the purpose of marriage and in part to the social, economic and legal pressures impending on the marriage. Getting a divorce was extremely difficult and socially stigmatized. Yet, it is worth reflecting whether having marriages arranged by one’s elders might not also have contributed to its longevity. Having seen many happily married Hindus whose marriages have been arranged, I marvel at the success of this custom.

A New Life

Historically, the onset of menstruation was a girl’s right of passage. It marked her change in status from inauspicious to auspicious. Shortly afterward, her wedding would take place on a day and time determined by a reputable astrologer. Even if her marriage has been arranged much earlier, she would not actually move to her husband’s house until after the wedding.

Specific wedding rituals vary from region to region, but they are usually conducted by a priest and usually involve circumambulating a sacred fire. This is a practice probably dating back to Vedic times.

Following the wedding, the new bride goes to live with the husband’s family. The pattern in traditional India was for male children to continue to live with their parents until the parents’ death. As a result of this pattern, grandparents, parents, brothers and their wives and children all lived together under the same roof.

Entering the new home, the bride becomes subject to her mother-in-law. The young wife is expected to obey her mother-in-law and contribute to the well being of the family. The mother-in-law-daughter-in-law relationship still is a notoriously painful one in India. The transition to marriage could be terribly traumatic for the young woman. One day she was in the affectionate and protective atmosphere of her parents’ home, and the next day she finds herself in the home of strangers, where she is often treated no better than a servant.

The Duties of the Wife

As a wife, the Hindu woman was expected to live up to the ideals of the Stri Dharma, the duties of the good wife. According to Stri Dharma, a wife should regard her husband as a god. She should serve him, follow him, pray for his well being and eat after he eats. She shares his karma and his destiny, for this reason she sometimes should fast and go on pilgrimages to ensure her husbands’ long life and success. If he dies prematurely, it was often regarded as her responsibility, her bad karma.

The husband should provide for his wife’s material needs, her security, protection and social status. The husband should also revere his wife as a goddess. The Laws of Manu tell husbands that the happiness of the wife is the key to the stability of the family. According to Manu, where women are honored, there the gods are pleased.

Today, in many places throughout India, there are special public buses for women only. Women are allowed to avoid waiting in lines by going to the head of long queues to purchase such things as train tickets.

If a woman gave birth to a son her status was even further enhanced. Giving birth to sons vastly improves her standing with her mother-in-law and with the rest of her husband’s family. A proverbial blessing for a woman among Hindus is “may you be the mother of a hundred sons”.

Popular Hinduism has even produced “male producing rituals” to help a couple ensure the birth of a son. There are not corresponding female producing procedures. A recent study about abortions in Bombay showed that 999 out of 1000 abortions where performed on female fetuses. The economic liability of female is sighted as the rationale.

In the past, female infants were even abandoned. Today this is rarely the case. Even though it is clear that most couples want boys more than girls, once a child arrives it is loved for its own sake, whether male or female. Hindus have great affection for babies and there are even lullabies about infants as gifts from gods.

Following Her Husband to Death

The death of her husband is a crisis for every Hindu wife, and marks her entrance into the third stage of life. As a result of the sometimes great disparity in the ages of husband and wife he almost always is gone first. Up until the 19th century, this crisis often meant a choice between two undesirable realities: sati or widowhood.

Sati is the name for the ritual in which the wife burns alive on her husband’s funeral pyre. According to traditional belief of many Hindus, for a woman to immolate herself at her husband’s cremation guaranteed great rewards for the family and an opportunity to be with her husband in the next life. Even the place where the sati occurred was consecrated and often became a pilgrimage site.

The term sati is taken from an epic story of Sati, who was one of the wives of the great god Shiva. In the myth, Sati’s own father insulted Shiva. Sati burst in rage. In her anger, she burst into flames and dies. When Shiva returns he finds the corpse and in his grief, he picks it up and carries it aimlessly all over India. As he wandered, parts of the goddess’ remains fell to earth. At the locations where they fell temples were built to honor those body parts.

The story is often told to suggest that a good wife would follow her husband to death. Yet, there is great debate about the extent women actually chose this fate for themselves. There is a good deal of evidence that many women were thrown on to the burning pyre against their will by their sons or other family members. In other cases, they were drugged or intoxicated when they performed sati.

The British outlawed sati in the 20th century when they ruled India. Since that time the ritual is extremely rare. Some scholars have suggested that some women may have chosen sati when they considered the alternative, which was widowhood.

The Hard Life of the Widow

The life of the widow historically has been very difficult. Even a horrible death might seem preferable. Generally, widows could not remarry. This has been the case even in modern times. Forbidding marriage to widows has been an important issue of concern because many women were widows in their 30’s and even 20’s. Usually a widow was required to shave her head to be unattractive to other men. Often she was given the hardest household tasks to perform and was forbidden to eat with the rest of the family. The widow was viewed as unlucky, inauspicious and dangerous, the embodiment of all negative qualities in women.

Some families have even reportedly taken their widows on pilgrimages to the city of Vrindavan, a city known for its widows. Then, they abandoned them there. An estimate made in the year 2000 indicated that there are between 25 and 35 million widows in India. Their luck in life has been so rough that there are movements within Hinduism today seeking to make their lives better. There is evidence that these movements are having positive effects.

In fact, there are ongoing movements throughout India seeking to improve the situations of all areas of women’s lives. These changes could not be made simply through legislation. The vast majority of Hindus live in villages and laws made in New Delhi are often hard to enforce. Changes in lives of women and men therefore must be encouraged at the local level.

Women in Politics

Women’s access to political power has also had a positive effect on the general treatment of women. With models such as Indira Gandhi, females have had images of successful women working in what has traditionally been a man’s realm of responsibility. Interestingly, powerful women in politics are common throughout the Indian subcontinent. The countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have all had women Prime Ministers.

Although these movements indicate the roles of men and women are changing, perhaps more today than even before in India’s history, social changes in India evolve slowly. Patterns of behavior are deeply edged in the soul of Hindu India.

The Role of Men in Hinduism

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When we talked about the caste system we observed how in classical Hinduism there are particular dharmas or duties for individuals according to their standing in society. At about the same time in Hindu history, specific expectations also arose concerning one’s sex, resulting in different patterns of life for men and women.

Regulations formulated in classical Hinduism prescribe particular stages of life to be followed by upper caste men and women.

The same text that specifies dharmas to each of the castes, the Laws of Manu, also set forth an ideal pattern of life for upper caste males. The Laws of Manu were written by and for these men. At about the same time, a parallel pattern begins to emerge for females of high castes. Most ideals were based on the notion of stages, a very common way of thinking about an individual’s life: from childhood to old age. It is important to keep in mind that these stages of life were regarded as ideals and pertaining to the three upper castes. For that reason, they did not necessarily described the life cycle of each and every member of Hindu society.

They did, and they still do to a large degree, depict the way life should be lived according to the believe of millions of Hindus.

According to Manu, males undergo four orders or Ashramas during the course of a life time.

The Brahmacharya or the “Student Stage”

This Ashrama begins when the boy is initiated into the “twice born” through a special ritual in which he would receive a sacred thread (read about the caste system to learn more about this). This thread signifies his standing as an upper caste member, although this does not indicates to which caste he belongs.

The Laws of Manu specify that initiation should take place when the boy is seven if he were a Brahmin, ten if he were a Kshatriya, or eleven if he were a Vaisya. This initiation is what constitutes the second birth.

In the classical and Medieval period of India’s history, the initiation would mark the time when the initiated left home to live and study with a guru. During this period, the young man lived a highly disciplined life and studied the Vedas and religious rituals.

The teacher would teach him the ways of personal purification, morning and evening devotions to the gods, and sacrificing. He was expected to be completely devoted to his teacher and his studies. The Laws of Manu forbade specific things: honey, meet, perfumes, spicy foods, girlfriends, dancing, singing, playing musical instruments, gambling and even looking at women. All of these things were believed to pollute or to detract attention from studies.

A young man remained a student until it was time for him to marry and to become a productive member of society. Marriage was regarded as the natural state for adult men and women. To deviate from this path was considered unusual and shameful.

The Household Stage

The student entered the household stage in his early twenties. During this period, the young man would rise a family, pursue an occupation appropriate to his caste, establish himself as financially independent and as a responsible contributor to society.

Due to the householders’ importance to the well-being of the social order, the Laws of Manu proclaim this is the most excellent stage. It is at the householder stage that we see life of males and females most closely intertwined. Indeed, this is the only stage of life that the two sexes share, according to this patterning.

The Third and Fourth Stage

The Laws of Manu go on to specify a third and fourth stage for men beyond the householder stage. These final two Ashramas pertain to the pursuit of religious objectives. In the third stage, that of the “forest dweller”, a man and possibly his wife move to a more modest dwelling, usually to the edge of a village near a forest. Here he, and perhaps she, begin to withdraw from active social life in order to become more introspective and devoted to the life of the spirit. It is important to note that this stage begins only after a man has raised a family, earned an income and discharged his obligations to society.

The Laws of Manu were very interested in keeping men in their prime at the householder stage, where they could be productive members of society. It seems that these codes were a response to what had become something of a problem: Young men leaving off searching religious experience before they could be of any use to society. In this sense, the Ashramas were intended to regulate religious behavior by delaying religious experience until one’s later years.

The fourth stage of life is an specially interesting one. It is a stage of rigour and austerity that few men would embark upon it. This is the Ashrama known as Sannyasa, or “renunciation”. When a man enters this stage, he renounces his former identity and everything associated with it: his name, his wife and family and all material goods. He lives his remaining days as a wandering solitary ascetic. He performs no rituals, no works and subsists only on the generosity of others. Those who contribute to the well-being of the sannyasi could accumulate good karma by doing so.

With no incumbencies, the sannyasi is free to devote full energies for the search of god and salvation. Today, these holy persons are a familiar sight in India, easily recognized by their orange robes.

Further reading:

The Role of Women in Hinduism

The Founder of Hinduism

2008-12-11T05:25:00.000-08:00

One of the most frequently asked questions about Hinduism (or any other religion), is who was its founder? Who was the founder of Hinduism? Who started this religious tradition that today has around one billion followers?

Although in other major world religions like Buddhism, Christianity and Islam we can trace the origin of the tradition to a single man, Hinduism is so ancient and complex that it is impossible to find that historical person. In fact, it is unlikely that such an individual even existed.

What we can do, however, is to trace the origin of Hinduism to various historical and cultural sources. There are two main sources which influenced the emergence of Hinduism as we know it today: the culture of the Indus Valley civilization and the culture of the Aryan civilization.

The Indus Valley Influence

The Indus Valley civilization is considered one of the great cultures of the ancient world. Although Hindus would not regard the Indus Valley civilization as part of their sacred history, there is evidence that elements from this culture contributed to the great amalgam of Hinduism.

One of the most important aspects that Hinduism inherited from this great civilization is its sense of purity and pollution. Great concern with cleanliness is evidenced throughout the Indus Valley civilization. Large cities had large central baths with public access. These baths were not only build with hygiene in mind, but specially to maintain ritual purity.

In these baths, people came to restore the pristine order that may have been disrupted by inappropriate behavior or simply by coming into contact with a person that is seen as unclean. This tradition is still present today in Hinduism, as many people regard certain things and persons as unclean, as we see with the caste system.

The Aryan Influence

The second important source that influenced Hinduism is the Aryan civilization. The Aryans were very different from what we know about the Indus Valley dwellers. The Aryans were nomads rather than settled down agriculturalists. They didn’t build great cities like the Indus Valley civilization.

Since the Aryans were migratory, they left in the way of archeological evidence. Almost everything we know about them is based in what is now a collection of writings called the Vedas. These writings are considered Hinduism’s holy book.

The Veda is a rather unusual collection of literature. It is not narrative like the Bible. It tells no grand story of gods and humans. The Vedas are more like a liturgy manual. It includes hundreds of hymns addressed to various deities, as well as myths, some spells and a bit of philosophical speculation.

According to the beliefs of most Hindus today, the Vedas existed prior to this world and embodies an eternal law that transcends even the gods. The words of the Vedas, according to traditional conviction, were revealed to ancient sages called Rishis in a distant past.

Today, the Veda is regarded as the most authoritative and sacred Hindu scripture. So important is the Veda that Hinduism is sometimes called Vedic Dharma: the religion of the Veda. Acceptance of the authority of the Veda has been a criterion for determining which schools of Indian thought are orthodox and which are heterodox.

Further Reading:

The Dharma of Hinduism

2008-11-30T08:17:00.000-08:00

When we explore the classical Hindu view of karma we may note that this notion takes on decidedly moral overtones with the ideas of positive and negative karma. What we didn’t talk about is what determines wether the karma is good or bad and how to know the difference. To answer these questions I must introduce the concept of Dharma.

Dharma is one of those difficult to translate notions that have various meanings and associations, so I prefer to leave it untranslated. In the present context, Dharma means the pattern for proper and appropriate living. It is in another words the moral law. Yet it is more than this, because it shares a cosmological dimension with the older Vedic idea of Rita (the cosmic order). This cosmological element conveys the sense that the pattern for appropriate living is rooted in the order and nature of things. It is not based on the whims of human beings.

The Axial Age, when Hinduism was started, was a time of new or perhaps renewed interest in the proper regulation of human behavior. Confucius in China, the prophets in Israel and Plato and Aristotle in Greece were deeply concerned with the way human beings should treat other humans. In India as well, new codes for human action were elaborated in this early period of Hinduism.

Dharma, as a moral principle, is rather abstract and requires concretization to make it applicable to daily life. Accordingly, numerous attempts to specify and codify the Dharma were made. There emerged a whole genre of literature known as the Dharmashastras, which has since become the largest literary genre in India.

The Laws of Manu

The most important and influential representative of the Dharmashastras were the Laws of Manu, which were written down at about the time of Jesus but probably reflect earlier understandings of the structure of society. These laws were believed to have been given by Manu, who according to myth was the primal ancestor of all humanity.

What is important about Manu’s laws is that they assign different dharmas to the strata of Indian society. In another words, dharma is specific to one’s caste. One of the most interesting meditations on the subject of the caste-specific dharma is the Bhagavad Gita, perhaps the most beloved of Hindu scriptures.

Further Reading: The Caste System

The Caste System

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The caste system is a social, economic, political and religious phenomenon. And it is extremely complex. Here we will simplify greatly to try to understand it.

The Hindu caste system is based on an assumption that lies at odds with the assumption of Western democratic ideals: that all people are created equal. From the classical Hindu perspective it is apparent that people are born with different intellectual and spiritual qualities and capabilities. These differences dispose different people to different sorts of occupations and responsibilities in society.

The innate differences with which people are born derive from how they acted in previous lives. This is the law of karma. How we act now determines who we will become. And who we are now has been determined by how we have been in the past.

A Hierarchical Structure Founded on Purity

Of course, caste is more than just a division of labor. It also entails a hierarchy. The hierarchy of caste is not based on wealth. It is founded on purity. Those at the top of the social ladder are regarded as more spiritually pure than those at the bottom. The entire system is thus a gradient of purity.

Some in India defend the principles of caste saying that it makes more sense to make the social distinctions based in merit and function rather than on money, as it is done in the West. Like the words Hinduism and India, the word caste is not an indigenous Indian word. Caste is actually a Portuguese expression that fits the Indian social system a little imprecisely.

The term caste refers to what Hindus call Varna and Jati. These two terms designate two different but related systems of organizing Indian society. Varna means color and the term jati means birth, or more specifically, birth group.

If Westerners are at all familiarized with the caste system, they usually think of what Hindus call Varna. The Varna system is essentially the traditional Hindu division of labor, comprised of the four categories we mentioned in the discussion of Aryan civilization:

Brahmins: the class of priests and intellectuals who comprise about 6% to 7% of the population.
The kshatriyas: the warriors and administrators.
The vaishyas: who are the merchants, farmers and artisans.
The shudras: the peasants or the common folk.

The first three castes are known as the twice born, because as children their members undergo a ritual initiation compared to a second birth. The shudras, however, have no such ritual initiation, so they are known as the once born.

The Untouchables

Outside of the Varna system altogether are those who have no caste. These are the persons known variously as outcastes, untouchables and harijans: the word used by Gandhi meaning “children of god”.

Today, members of this group prefer to call themselves dalits, meaning “the oppressed ones”. People in this class are the handlers of leather, the body burners and the toilet cleaners. In short, the persons who perform the dirty work in Indian society. Other Hindus regard this kind of work so highly polluting that they cannot remove the impurity with standard procedures of purification.

The untouchables both are and are not Hindus. Up until the advocacy of Gandhi, they were forbidden from entering Hindu temples. They lived outside the villages and towns and couldn’t use public facilities like the well. The Indian constitution outlawed untouchability when the nation gained its independence from Great Britain. They did so by making the untouchables a part of the shudra varna.

Despite this theoretical abolition of untouchability, its practice remains a very real and present part of daily Hindu life.

The Jatis or Birth Groups

In addition to Varna, the caste system is made of a large number of jatis or “birth groups”. Jatis may be thought of as subcastes, existing within the larger Varna groupings. As its name implies, one subcaste is determined by birth and one does not leave it except under very rare circumstances.

Unlike the Varnas, which are pan-hindu, jatis are local groupings. Because of this fact the actual number of jatis has not been determined with certainty. However, estimates suggest that there may be over 3000. There are hundreds of jatis in each Varna. Local ranking is not always the same. In other words, in one region of India a particular jati may be considered part of one varna, and in another region maybe it is regarded as part of a different varna.

Just as the varna system is hierarchical, so too is the jati system. Although there is little or no social mobility for individuals in the caste system, there is some mobility for subcaste as a whole. Members of some jatis might attempt to gain a greater standing for their entire subcaste by imitating the behavior of higher castes.

In the past, it has been sometimes possible for social aspirants to buy a higher caste rank. There have even been some lower caste kings who had their genealogies reconstructed to prove that they were of the warrior caste. This, however, are rare exceptions to the rule, for the vast majority has its destiny.

In addition to specify occupation, castes also determine many others facets of everyday life. These are based on the dynamics of purity and pollution.

Marriage

One’s caste and subcaste imply marital restrictions. Generally, people are expected to marry within their caste and even within their subcaste.

Men cannot marry another caste but in special occasions women can. In the matrimonials, the clasified ads that many Hindus use for the purpose of arranging marriages, caste is always featured. Even when couples have what now is called “love marriages”, that is, marriages based on romance rather than on family arrangements, they still overwhelmingly marry within their social groups.

Diet

Caste determines the kinds of food one may eat. The kinds of people for whom one may receive food and the kinds of people with whom one may eat. The high caste Brahmins maintain strict vegetarian diets, whereas eating meat may be accepted at lower caste levels, where ritual purity is of less concern.

Animal flesh is considered unclean and those who wish to maintain purity avoid it. In much of South India most restaurants are assumed to be vegetarian, unless they explicitly advertise themselves as non-vegetarian.

Sociability

Caste also determines the type of people with whom one can associate or whom one may touch. This obviously is the origin of the term “untouchability”. Touching someone less clean than oneself is thought to be polluting. This is why it is essential to marry within one’s caste.

Some high caste persons would consider even seeing an untouchable as ritually polluting. We must remember that in India seeing is tantamount to touching.

The Functions of Each Caste

Lower castes cannot perform the duties of upper castes, but if necessary, upper castes members can do lower caste work. It is not uncommon, for instance, to see a Brahmin at a business. Sometimes it is not possible for a Brahmin to find work as a priest.

There are limitations to this flexibility, however. As the laws of Manu state:

“It is better to discharge one’s own appointed duty incompletely than to perform completely that of another. For he who lives according to the law of another caste is instantly excluded from his own.”

Early Hindus believed, as do many modern ones, that if everyone performs his or her duty unquestionably a balance could be maintained in the world and humans could live in peace. The laws of Manu explain the basics of this attitude:

“In order to protect this universe, He, the most resplendid one, assigns separate duties and occupations for those who sprang from his mouth, arms, eyes and feet.”

Caste, then, exists for the good of the world, and to upset it in any way leads to social and eventually cosmological disruption.

You may ask how this caste structure is enforced. By family and intracast pressure. In other words, it is not usaully a matter of the upper castes enforcing rules on the lower castes, although that sometimes happens. More frequently, however, enforcement comes from within one’s own group.

Most castes have caste counsils, in which the interests of the caste are discussed and advanced.

Brahmins

Let’s examine what are the duties and responsabilities of the caste members. Our source will be the Laws of Manu. According to these laws, this is the Dharma for Brahmins:

“Brahmins shall live dully performing the following six acts, which are enumerated in their proper order: teaching, studying, sacrificing for himself, sacrificing for others, making gifts and receiving them.”

Among these six acts ordained for the Brahmin, three are his means of subsistence: sacrificing for others, teaching and accepting gifts from pure men. Many people grow cynically when they hear that one of the duties of the Brahmins is to receive gifts from other castes. What a difficult job that must be, they think.

Yet, accepting gifts creates the opportunity for others to generate merit by increasing their positive karma, which enables them to gain a more favorable rebirth. In this sense, the giving of gifts to Brahmins is reciprocated. Still, the laws of Manu clearly explain the value of the Brahmins:

“On account of his preeminence, on account of his superiority of origin, on account of his observance of particular restrictive rules and on account of his particular sanctification the Brahmin is the lord of our castes.

The attainments of his previous lives are what make the Brahmin worthy of such honor. For it is by the production of great merit in his earlier life times that the Brahmin has achieved this status in the present life.”

Kshatriyas

The Dharma of the kshatriyas according to the laws of Manu is this: “To dully protect this whole world.”

The laws of Manu go on to specify that the kshatriyas must protect the world in two ways. First, they must protect their people from foreign enemies:

“Their duty is to fight thy foes, be they equal in strength, or stronger or weaker. They must not shrink back from battle. Not to turn back in battle, to protect the people, to honor the Brahmins is the best mean for a king to secure happiness. Those kings who seeking to slay each other in battle fight and do not turn back go to heaven. Nonetheless, the kshatriya should, whenever possible, seek peaceful resolution to conflict”.

Second, the kshatriya is responsable for maintaining the order of the caste system itself, knowing that a breach of caste causes social chaos and ultimate destruction. According to the laws of Manu:

“The whole world is kept in order by punishment. Through fear of punishment the whole world yields enjoyments.”

Vaishyas

According to Manu, this is the dhrama for the Vaishyas:

“After the Vaishya has recieved the sacraments and has taken a wife, it should always be attentive to the business whereby he may subsist, that of attending cattle. A Vaishya should never conceive this wish: I will never keep cattle. A Vaishya must know the respective value of gems, of pearls, of metals, of cloth made of thread, of perfumes and of condiments. He must be acquainted with the manner of sowing seeds and of the good and bad quality of fields. He must know perfectly all measures and weights.”

Shudras

This is the dharma for the Shudras:

“To serve the Brahmins is the highest duty of a Shudra which leads to beatitude. A Shudra who is pure, who serves his betters, is gentle in his speech and free from pride and always seek refuge with the Brahmins, attains in his next life a higher cast.”

A Shudra, though emancipated by his master, is not released from servitude, since that is innate in him.

Since the laws of Manu do not recognize the “untouchables” as part of the caste system, it makes no mention of their particular dharma.

Conclusion

The caste system in India has made for a highly stable society. It hasn’t changed substancially for the last two thousand years. Certainly, there has been friction between and among the castes and subcastes. However, the system itself has remained stable.

This fact may be a bit surprising. How is it that a society based on hierarchy and privileges has not been subject to revolutions from the lower classes? To answer this question we must return to the religious foundations of Hindu life. The concepts of reincarnation and karma work to support the idea that one’s circumstances in life are the consequence of our own actions. Our place in life is not accidental. All persons are responsible for where they happen to be and where one happens to be is fair and just.

By the same token, these concepts function to encourage individuals not to resist the system but to fulfill the dharma of one’s caste, because in doing so, one’s position in the next life is sure to improve.

Further reading:

How Hinduism Was Started

2008-11-30T03:09:00.000-08:00

How Hinduism was started? To understand how this religious tradition began, we need to look at its roots, that is the Indus Valley Civilization and the Aryan Civilization. By 600 B.C. the religious system of the Aryan Vedic tradition began to undergo reassessment and criticism. For many, this old religion of rituals and sacrifices seemed no longer to address their deepest spiritual needs. New questions and concerns were emerging and the sacrificial system appeared unable to answer these completely. There seemed a be a widespread dissatisfaction with the elitism of Brahmins.

More than this, there seemed to be doubts about the value of rites and what they can produce. Very fascinating and influential texts called the Upanishads composed at about this time reflect this assessment of the good of Vedic rituals.

In this collection of works, the ways of the Rishis, the seers of old, are favorably contrasted with those who seek only the benefits of Vedic ritual. Quoting the Upanishads:

“Rising above the desire of sons, wealth and the world; they follow the life of the pilgrim. For the desire of sons and wealth is the desire of the world, and this desire is vanity.”

Two related streams of thought appeared to have prompted this reappraisal of the tradition. One we can detect from the texts of this period more interested with the nature of the human than what we see in the Veda, particularly this aspect called the self or soul.

Behind this curiosity about the soul there seems to be a growing anxiety about death. Numerous accounts relate tales about journeys to the Underworld and speculations about what might happen when we die.

Correlated with the concern about the nature of the human was a second stream of thought focused on a deeper understanding of the structures of reality. Increasingly, sages became more suspicious of the world of appearance and speculated about what might lie behind it.

The New Ideas and the Axial Age

Indian thought simultaneously broadened both its interior and exterior horizons, becoming at the same time more meditative and metaphysical. Curiously, this transformation in Indian religion happened at a time when similar developments were occurring in other important cultural centers throughout the world. At roughly the same moment in history we find such pivotal thinkers as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle in ancient Greece; Confucius and other philosophers in China; Zoroaster in Persia; the Hebrew prophets in Israel; and in India itself the Buddha and Mahavira, the founders of Buddhism and Jainism respectively.

The rise of these individuals marked a new an perhaps unprecedented interest in who and what the human was, and a deep concern for understanding appropriate human behavior. So impressive was this era and so influential for subsequent humanity that the German philosopher Karl Jaspers called it the Axial Age.

Jaspers thought the epoch spawning from 800 to 200 B.C. signals the actual emergence of the individual self in human history. Certainly, there seems to be a greater emphasis placed on the individual during this time. It is also during this time that the major world religions are established in their characteristic forms. Confucianism in China, Buddhism and Jainism in India, Judaism begins to take shape in Israel for the later development of Christianity and Islam.

Even more than just the creation of new religions, though, the very function of religion appears to have changed during this time. Before the Axial Age, religions’ main concern was with keeping the world going by ritually renewing the cosmos. After the Axial age, religion functions more as an agent of personal transformation.

Post-Axial Age religions allow individuals to do such things as secure a happy afterlife or learn how to treat other human beings. Often, the religious dynamic is one of personal change. For example, from being a sinner to being holy or from being ignorant to gaining enlightenment.

It is during the Axial age that classical Hinduism emerges from its Aryan and Indus Valley roots. Now we will talk about the two ideas that marked the beginning of classical Hinduism:

The Doctrine of Reincarnation: What is reincarnation? What meaning does it have in Hinduism? The belief in reincarnation or transmigration of the soul is a fundamental assumption of virtually all philosophical and religious perspectives that have originated in India.
The Law of Karma: The belief in the reincarnation of the soul is a fundamental assumption of Hinduism. The form that one returns to after death can be almost anything: another human, an animal, perhaps a demon, perhaps a god. What determines one’s status in the next life is simply the way one lives one’s life here and now. The word for this concept has become a familiar one in the West, Karma. Karma is simply action and its consequences.

Hinduism and Karma

2008-11-30T03:04:00.000-08:00

The word karma is a common one in our world. But what is karma? First, we need to understand something about Hinduism. The belief in the reincarnation of the soul is a fundamental assumption of Hinduism. The form that one returns to after death can be almost anything: another human, an animal, perhaps a demon, perhaps a god. What determines one’s status in the next life is simply the way one lives one’s life here and now. The word for this concept has become a familiar one in the West, Karma. Karma is simply action and its consequences.

In older Vedic times, karma referred to ritual action. In classical Hinduism in came to include moral action. This moral connotation implied essentially two kinds of karma: good karma and evil karma. By performing good actions one accrued positive karma. Wicked and immoral actions accrued negative karma.

A preponderance of good karma meant a favorable rebirth. A preponderance of bad karma meant an unfavorable rebirth. Although we may speak about many philosophical subtleties, karma is ultimately that simple.

For many, karma is hard to conceptualize. Jainism, which was established at just about the same time as classical Hinduism thinks of karma as a very fine imperceptible substance that literally clings to the soul. The classical Hindu notion is less materialistic than the Jain. In Hinduism, karma is more akin to a form of energy. Just as dropping a pebble into a pond causes ripples that reverberating on the surface of the water, so every action has reverberating consequences. These consequences return to the agent.

The essential offshoot of the concept of karma is that every person gets what he or she deserves. In this respect, karma is the principle of absolute justice. The reaping of karma may not occur immediately. It may take more than one life time, but it will occur. This occurs impersonally just like the law of gravity acting on physical bodies.

What Hindus mean by karma is reflected in the Western expression “what goes around comes around”. For better or worse, we cannot escape the consequences of our action.

What is Reincarnation

2008-11-30T03:01:00.000-08:00

What is reincarnation? What meaning does it have in Hinduism? The belief in reincarnation or transmigration of the soul is a fundamental assumption of virtually all philosophical and religious perspectives that have originated in India. Although they tend to understand it differently; Hindu, Buddhists and Jains share the view that humans are reborn after they die. In Hinduism, this idea involves the actual rebirth of the soul in another physical form.

We are not certain where the notion came from in Indian thought. Transmigration is not mentioned in the oldest parts of the Vedas, so an Aryan origin is doubtful. The concept may represent a reappearance of a belief from the subjugated Indus Valley civilization, but this too is uncertain.

The notion of transmigration probably began as an esoteric doctrine propagated by small groups of wandering sages. It is striking that the concept of the soul’s rebirth developed in India at just about the same time it was being discussed and accepted by certain philosophers in Greece, such as Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato. Unlike India, however, the idea of reincarnation never gained popular acceptance in Greece and always remained a philosophers’ theory.

In India, the concept of transmigration arose at a time of serious doubt about the traditional sacrifices and the rewards. Among those who accepted the Vedic idea of heaven, many began to question wether heaven itself was a permanent reward. Perhaps heaven was not everlasting bliss. Perhaps one went to heaven and then died again, only to be reborn once again in the earth.

Perhaps even the gods themselves were subject to death. Reincarnation was not first known as rebirth, as it is called today, but as redeath. This accents these fears about dying.

In a short period, the belief in transmigration was widely accepted. Today, this understanding of human destiny remains a fundamental assumption of Hinduism. On the more popular level the idea is practically self-evident. It is clear that the world undergoes a constant cycle of regeneration, so there is no reason to assume that the same is not true for our central selves.

Even on the more philosophical levels sages usually find no need to argue the case. Philosophers discuss the modes and forms of transmigration rather than question its existence.

The form that one returns to after death can be almost anything: another human, an animal, perhaps a demon, perhaps a god. What determines one’s status in the next life is simply the way one lives one’s life here and now. The word for this concept has become a familiar one in the West, Karma.

They cycle of transmigrations governed by the laws of karma is called Samsara. The word Samsara means literally “wandering”. That word intimate for us that Hindus do not regard Samsara as a happy or pleasant situation. It is indeed the essential problem of life. We are caught on a wheel of endless existences bound by our actions, wandering aimlessly from life time to life time.

The History of Hindu Rituals

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The Aryans, like most religious people throughout the world, considered ritual much more important than doctrine and belief. The Veda itself was a manual of ritual, not of creed statements or theology. We’ll examine the kinds of rituals the Aryans practiced, the purposes for which they were intended and the persons who performed them.

I will talk about three basic kinds of rituals. Of course, this is an idealized explanation. In practice, Aryan ritual was undoubtedly more complex. I’ll talk about rituals of the home, shamanic rituals and rituals for special occasions.

Home Rituals

We know very little about home rituals. The Veda itself was more concerned with other types of ceremonies. Home rituals were probably simple sacrifices at the domestic fires, where the father served as priest by offering food to the devas in the morning and evening. The purpose was to honor the gods and to acknowledge one’s dependence on them. Perhaps even to ensure that the gods will continue being generous.

Today, still the home is the focus of devotion in Hinduism. Virtually every Hindu devote has some Shrine space wether small or large dedicated to a god or goddess.

Shamanic Rituals

A ritual specialist called an Atharvan performs the shamanic rituals. Aryan families call upon this priest to provide help during times of crisis, such as sickness; times of transition, such as birth, naming, initiation; and during auspicious days, such as harvest time. The name Shaman is a term used cross-culturally to refer to those persons who have special access to the spiritual world and are able to use that connection for the benefit of others.

In some African traditions this Shaman might be called a with doctor. In some Native American traditions a medicine man or medicine woman. As these names suggest, one of the principal functions of the Shaman is healing the sick.

Like Shamans in other cultures, the Atharvan priest cured with rites involving incantations, herbs and fire. But the Atharvan could do more than just heal. He provided protection from demons and snakes. He promoted good luck in gambling. He could cause misfortune for one’s enemies.

The Atharvaveda is the text that contains the mantras that were used to effect these desired things. A passage from the Atharvaveda provides a rather amusing instance of a curse for destroying a man’s virility while holding a special herb that probably resembled a penis.

The kinds of rituals enacted by the Atharvan priests are still important in popular Hinduism today, even though the Atharvan as such is not a familiar figure. There are many persons who conduct similar sorts of rituals for healing, providing protection from devils and foretelling the future through astrology and other means.

Sacrifices for Special Occasions

The most important sacrifices for Aryan religious life may have been the fire sacrifices. These rituals were much more elaborate than other rituals and were performed with less frequency, yet much of the Veda was concerned with this type of ritual.

They were conducted for different occasions. Only members of the priestly cast were able to enact this kind of rituals. They required great skills and only those with a training of a Brahmin had the needed expertise. Indeed, as these rituals grew in importance for the Aryans, the Brahmins grew in power and prestige.

A typical fire sacrifice involves a team of Brahmins, each charges with different responsibilities. Setting up and performing the sacrifice might take several days or even weeks. Under Brahmin supervision workers created a sacred space outdoors by erecting a temporary canopy using very precise measurements. Under the canopy altars were created to contain the sacred fires. Three altars corresponded each to a component of the Trilaka (earth, midspace and heaven).

The ritual performance began with the purification of the sacrificer. The sacrificer, by the way, was not the Brahmin but the person who paid to have the ritual conducted on his behalf. The sacrificers presence was necessary even though they did not have a specific role in the ritual.

Once the ritual was under way the gods were invited to attend. An animal such as a goat was sacrificed and cooked. Then the sacred food was offered to the gods and eaten by the participants. The most important aspect of the sacrifice, however, were the hymns sung by the Brahmins. These were the verses of the Veda, and it was essential that they be chanted correctly. One Brahmin’s sole responsibility was to be sure that the sacred words were correctly uttered and correct any mistakes made by the others.

Mistakes rendered the ritual ineffective and perhaps even dangerous. Hence the Brahmins placed great importance on the exact memorization of the Veda.

These rituals were performed for a variety of reasons but ordinarily they had very worldly aims. Sacrifices sought to improve the relationship of the sacrificer to the gods in order to achieve a greater success in business, to bring more and better cattle, to produce manly sons and to promote health and longevity.

The attainment of a pleasant afterlife in heaven might also be included in this list but they are secondary to the other reason. As I mentioned before, the Aryans held many different and sometimes contradictory views on the fate of humans after death. Aryan religion does seem more oriented towards practical concerns of the here and now rather than the hereafter.

The Power of the Word

In the early Vedic period, the Aryans believed that this kind of rites effectively persuaded the gods to act on behalf of the sacrificer. Persuasion came on the form of flattering songs sung on a deivas’ honor and offering pleasant food such as meat and Soma. Over time, however, they came to think that by manipulating the objects of the sacrifice, specially by uttering the powerful words, they were controlled the cosmic powers associated with the elements of the ritual. Thus, the sacred words themselves came to be seen as powerful.

The creative power of the sacrifice even acquired a technical name, that is Brahman. The similarity of names with Brahmin is intentional here. So important is the spoken word that the later vedic tradition personified voice as a goddess. The personification of voice reflected the view that language itself has a divine origin. The words we hear and speak are only partial manifestations of an eternal meaningful and inexhaustible reality.

Vedic creation myths even suggest that the ancient Rishis brought the gods into existence by naming them. Later sources tell of how the entire universe is created from the primordial mantra “OM”.

Today, Hinduism retains much of this emphasis on spoken word. Throughout India scriptures are often recited in villages and towns over loud speakers, sometimes beginning at four o’clock in the morning. Even if no one hears or listen to the recitation it is considered meritorious because it generates communal blessings for the entire society.

The Vedic Understanding of Human Beings

2008-11-29T07:34:00.000-08:00

For the Aryan civilization, the essence of human life is the soul, which they associate with breath. The word they used to designate the soul was Atman. The Sanskrit Atman has cognates in the English word atmosphere and in the German word Atem, which means to breath.

The ancients frequently associate breath with the soul. That connection derives from the simple observation that one a person dies the breath leaves the body, thus they concluded that the breath must be what animates the body. From here we are just a short step from the deduction that the soul endures when the body perishes.

At death, the soul was believed to join the gods and the other death in a happy existence. However, there is not complete agreement in the Veda about the ultimate human destiny. Some hymns suggest that the soul descends into a place called the underworld ruled by the god of death. Some indicate that the soul simply dissolves along with the body.

Apparently, the Aryans were as mystified by the fate of the humans as they were by the creation of the world.

The Origin of Castes

When the Aryans arrived to the Indian subcontinent their society was already stratified according to occupation. Their culture comprise a division similar to that of Christian Europe.

There were the priests and the teachers who were called the Brahmin. The warriors and administrators were called the kshatriyas and the merchants, artisans and farmers were called the vaishyas. The later vedic period also mentions a fourth class of people called the shudras, who were the people of the land, what we might call peasants. Many scholars think the Shudras may have been descendents of the old Indus Valley civilization who were incorporated in Aryan life.

This occupational division marks what became the foundation of the subsequent cast system.

The evidence for the stratification of Aryan society comes from a remarkable vedic text called “The Sacrifice of the Purusha”. This song tells of the ritual dismemberment of the primordial called the Purusha. In this text, the gods bind the giant Purusha, slay him sacrificially and use his parts to create the very components of the world.

From his body, the gods created four classes of human beings:

“When they divided the Purusha. In how many parts did they apportion him? What do they call his mouth, his two arms, eyes and feet? His mouth became the Brahmin. The arms became the warriors. His eyes the people. From his feet the servants were born.”

The parts of the Purusha out of which the social classes were created are not accidental. They reflect a hierarchy from top to bottom. They also invoke images appropriate for the respective occupations of these classes.

The song of the Purusha sacrifice is important for because it roots the division of social classes into the very nature of things. To try to upset or disorder social stratification is to invite cosmic chaos.

The Hindu Gods

2008-11-28T16:45:00.000-08:00

Which are the most important Hindu gods? First, how do Hindus define the word god? There are about twenty Sanskrit words for the English word god. The most commonly used word is deiva. A deiva is a divine being or a supernatural power but not necessarily an omniscient and omnipotent being. Deivas are not moral exemplar nor law givers like Yahweh or Allah in the Western monotheistic traditions.

According to Hinduism’s cretion story, they were created after the world’s creation and they are subject to its laws. By tradition, the Veda is said to mention the existence of 33 different deivas. These deivas dwell in different parts of three levels of the world and most of them have specific divine functions associated with the fundamental concerns of the Aryan civilization.

Major gods, for example, address anxieties concerning floods and agriculture. War gods respond to threats from outside the community. Other gods help preserve internal communal stability by enforcing compliance with the order of Rita (the cosmic order).

Some devas have more than one function, such as Agni, who is the god of fire and the mediator between human and the gods. It is not necessary to talk about each one of the gods of the Hindu pantheon, as some are more important than anothers. To give you a flavor of the range of Vedic theology, let me acquaint you with some of the more interesting primary devas.

Indra

In terms of the sheer number of hymns addressed to him, Indra is the most important deva in the Rigveda. One quarter of the over one thousand songs are composed in his honor. His popularity probably reflects his importance to the Aryan community.

Indra is a god of war, similar in some respects to Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible. Indra, like Yahweh was the god who gave success in battle, and he was believed to lead the Aryans in war.

Indra

He he is also the god who controls the monsoon rains. One of the Vedic myths tells how the heroic Indra slew Vritra, the demonic dragon that controlled the primordial waters; and how he released the waters to create the world.

Agni

Next to Indra in popularity is the deva Agni, the divine fire. Nearly one fifth of the songs in Rigveda are addressed to Agni. The word Agni is quite easy to remember when one recognizes the English cognate, ignite, is also associated with fire.

Agni, the god of fire

Agni was unique among the devas in that he dwelled in all three levels of the world: heaven, the midspace and the earth. Because of this mobility, Agni served as the mediator between the gods and humans. Through the ritual fire he carries sacrifices to gods and through the fires of cremation he transports the dead.

Varuna

The deva Varuna was the guardian of Rita, the principle of cosmic, moral and ritual order. Varuna enforces Rita, but he did not create it. The gods are subject to Rita just as humans are. The Aryans imagined Varuna sited in a large palace in heaven from where he watched the world and punished those who violated Rita. He was thought of as all-seeing and is described as the thousand-eyed one.

Because of his role as custodian of Rita, sinners sought to appease Varuna through pleasing ritual sacrifices.

Varuna, the custodian of Rita

Soma

Like Agni and Varuna, the Deva Soma had an empirical manifestation. Soma appeared to the Aryans as a particular plant whose juices were used in ritual. Drinking Soma induces ecstatic experiences. Through Soma one was able to see the gods, to feel a sense of immortality, courage and even sexual virility.

Rudra

Rudra was known as the “Howler”. Rudra had no friends among the gods and he dwelled in wild and terrifying places. He despised human beings and often afflicted them with sickness and misfortune. Aryans often left their offerings to Rudra outside the village and they implored him to stay away.

Paradoxically, Rudra was also a hero. This kind of paradox we shall encounter frequently as we study the gods of classical of Hinduism, specially the god Shiva. In fact, scholars believe that the vedic deva provided a prototype for the later god known as Shiva.

Although there were many gods the Aryans worshipped, they often treated one god or goddess as the supreme deity. Max Muller, the 19th century scholar of the Veda coined the term henotheism to describe this practice. Henotheism is a sort of synthesis of polytheism and monotheism in which one god is worshipped without denying the existence of the other gods. This approach to divine worship continues throughout much of Hinduism today.

The Hindu Creation Story

2008-11-28T06:29:00.000-08:00

What is the Hindu creation story? We have to look at the tradition of the Aryans and specifically the Veda, Hinduism’s holy book. The Aryan civilization honored how this world came into being and the Veda offered several different explanations. It doesn’t seem to be a problem that the stories of the world’s creation are often at odds with one another. Even today, the Hindu tradition contains dozen of different accounts of creation.

One of the most intriguing of the cosmogonies is a short hymn that is intended to astound and confuse rather than to explain. It has been the subject of hundreds of commentaries throughout Hindu history. As I write here an English translation I will also give my own commentary. This is called the hymn of creation:

“There was neither non-existence nor existence. There was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. There was neither death neither immortality. There was no distinguishing sign of day or night. That One breathed by its own impulse. Other than that, there was nothing beyond.”

This Vedic cosmogony opens by taking us to the limits of our capacity to think. Our ordinary ways of thinking depend on dualities: yes and no, subject and object, is and isn’t. This song presses beyond this duality by invoking a time that is no time, a place that is no place. It is a time and place where there is neither nothing nor not-nothing.

The hymn introduces an entity only known as That One. The identity of That One is not clear, but we do know that it breaths by its own power:

“Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning. With no distinguishing sign, all this was water. The life force was covered with emptiness. That One arose with the power of heat.”

The story gets more complicated and obscure. It now suggests that there were primordial waters with no distinguishing marks, similar perhaps to that water and chaos of the Biblical account of creation. That One now appears to be identified with the life force. The heat is a creative energy that is associated with the god Agni.

“Desire upon That One in the beginning. That was the first seed of mind. Poets, seeking in their hearts with wisdom, found the bond of existence in non-existence. Their cord was extended across. Was there below? Was there above?”

With these verses the hymn seems to have become impenetrable. Perhaps it is suggesting that That One began to desire as a result of his creative heat. Desire and heat are often associated with one another. Desire is the seed of thought, the beginning of the process by which the world was brought into being.

When we think we see some clarity in the hymn it introduces poets. Percy Bysshe Shelley said that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, but even Shelley didn’t imagine such a grand role for poets in the world’s creation. These poets, however, are more that just word smiths. They are sages, saints and philosophers.

Where they came from and what role they played in the world’s creation is not clear. Some commentators have suggested that the hymn maintains that the poets bring That One into existence through their meditating powers. Others think that the poets merely discern the structure of existence through wisdom after the world’s creation.

Then, rather surprisingly, the hymn takes an unexpected turn. After making these pronouncements, it becomes profoundly humble:

“Who really knows? Who here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? The gods came afterwards. Who then knows whence it has a reason. Perhaps it formed itself or perhaps it did not. The One who looks down upon it in highest heaven, only he knows, or perhaps he does not know?”

There is something refreshingly honest about these concluding verses. Without reaching a point of cynicism or nihilism it reminds us that thoughts about the origin of the cosmos remain speculative. From the beginning we are enveloped in a mystery.

Hinduism’s Holy Book

2008-11-27T16:12:00.000-08:00

The Aryans gave Hinduism its priestly language, Sanskrit; and what could be called Hinduism’s holy book: The Veda. The Veda is a rather unusual collection of literature. It is not narrative like the Bible. It tells no grand story of gods and humans. The Vedas are more like a liturgy manual. It includes hundreds of hymns addressed to various deities, as well as myths, some spells and a bit of philosophical speculation.

It is clear that the Veda is concerned primarily with rituals and it was probably composed to be recited at sacrifices. The term Veda means “wisdom”. It derives from the Sanskrit root ved which means simply to see. You may recognize an English cognate in the word video. Seeing is an extremely important dimension for Hindu religious experience.

According to the beliefs of most Hindus today, the wisdom embodied in the Veda is timeless because it has no origin. It existed prior to this world and embodies an eternal law that transcends even the gods. The words of the Veda, according to traditional conviction, were revealed to ancient sages called Rishis in a distant past.

Some Hindus even maintain that the Veda contains all knowledge, even the principles of nuclear physics and the distance between heavenly bodies. A few even claim that the reason the West attained such rapid technological and scientific progress is because Westerners appropriated Vedic knowledge when its contents where revealed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Today, the Veda is regarded as the most authoritative and sacred Hindu scripture. So important is the Veda that Hinduism is sometimes called Vedic Dharma: the religion of the Veda. Acceptance of the authority of the Veda has been a criterion for determining which schools of Indian thought are orthodox and which are heterodox.

Despite this fact, the Veda has never been widely read in India. The vast majority of Hindus have never read a fragment of them. For the daily life of ordinary Hindus, writings such as the Mahabharata, the Puranas and the Bhagavad Gita are far more significant.

The Vedic World View

Presenting the Vedic world to you I fear I’ll be making it seem more systematic and coherent that actually was. The collection of Vedic writings is not systematic theology. It wasn’t written with modern categories of thought in mind. There are passages whose entire meaning is totally obscure.

We should remember also that because the Veda represents the perspective of the priestly cast in the Aryan society. We cannot be certain of how widespread these views were. Lower classes did not keep records or had anything comparable to the Veda.

The Veda is divided into four Samhitas or collections, each concerned with a particular aspect of ritual. The oldest and most important of these is called the Rigveda. The Rigveda contains over a thousand hymns to various gods and goddesses. The word rig means praise, so this collection is aptly named.

Some scholars have argued that the Rigveda may be over 30000 years old. Most of them, however, believe it to be of much more recent origin, between 2300 and 1200 B.C. The Rigveda contain Mantras or sacred words that are used during rituals.

The other Samhitas include the Yajurveda, which contains instructions for sacrifices; the Samaveda, which contains melodies to be sung during sacrifices; and the Atharvaveda, which offers spells and incantations for rituals. In order to understand what the Vedas say about the nature of the world, you might be interested in reading the following articles:

The Hindu Creation Story: The Aryan civilization honored how this world came into being and the Veda offered several different explanations. It doesn’t seem to be a problem that the stories of the world’s creation are often at odds with one another. Even today, the Hindu tradition contains dozen of different accounts of creation.

Return from Hinduism's Holy Book to Origin of Hinduism

The Aryan Civilization

2008-11-27T06:40:00.000-08:00

Who were these Aryans? Most historians believe that the Aryans related to people who migrated into Iran, Irak, Ireland and other parts of Europe. In many ways, the Aryans were different from what we know about the Indus Valley dwellers. First, they were no highly organized. The Aryans were nomads rather than settled down agriculturalists.

Unlike the dwellers of the Indus Valley, the Aryans used horses and chariots. It is clear that the Aryans brought with them to India different gods, different rituals and a different language. The Aryan language evolved into Sanskrit, the official language of the Hindu tradition.

The word Aryan is derived from the Sanskrit word Arya, which means “noble one”. The Aryans loved their language. Sanskrit means “well formed”, and the Aryans believed it to be the perfect linguistic embodiment of the nature of reality. Some Western scholars have even believed that Sanskrit was the original language of humanity.

Sanskrit is closely connected to many European languages. Linguists speak of the Indo-European language family. We can see the similarities in many words. For example, the Sanskrit word for god is “deiva”, akin to the English word divine or deity, or the Latin word deus.

The Aryans and the Vedas

Since the Aryans were migratory, they left in the way of archeological evidence. Almost everything we know about them is based in what is now a collection of writings called the Vedas. This is the oldest and most sacred of Hindu scriptures. Originally and for thousand of years the Vedas existed only in oral tradition, preserved by special memorization techniques by Aryan priests.

The Vedas were never intended to be written. The oral word as contrasted with the written word is considered extremely powerful and potentially dangerous. Only the priests were competent enough to recite the Vedas effectively without causing a great danger. Old Hindu law even stated that if a lower cast person were to hear the Vedas, his ears should be filled with melted lead.

Initially horrible punishments were also prescribed for the priests who manifested its contents to outsiders. The Vedas was finally put in writing by the priestly cast after the arrival of the Muslims in India in the early modern period. Still, priests were not persuaded to show the contents of the Vedas until the late 18th and 19th centuries.

Return from The Aryan Civilization to the Origin of Hinduism

The Indus Valley Seals

2008-11-27T04:17:00.000-08:00

The excavation of the Indus Valley civilization has revealed many intriguing artifacts. The most interesting of these relics are seals used to stamp designs in soft clay. Anthropologists believe that these seals probably have some religious significance. When anthropologists say that something has religious significance what they really are saying is that they don’t know what these objects meant.

These seals were probably used to mark property in trade, but the importance of the design themselves is a matter of speculation. It is interesting to note that similar seals have been found as far away as Mesopotamia, suggesting perhaps a commercial connection between these great civilizations.

The Power of Sexuality

Most scholars who examine these seals think that the images depicted on them were related in some way to fertility rituals. The great majority of seals portray animals, almost exclusively male animals with horns and massive flanks and legs. The emphasis in the horns and flanks does suggest an intense interest in sexuality and reproductive functions.

Some of the seals

This sort of concern with the power of sexuality is not at all uncommon and it is intimately connected with the experience of the sacred. Still, we are up to wonder why animals rather than humans are taken as representative of the males’ sexual powers.

I’d like to suggest that perhaps these depictions are associated with the human effort to appropriate animal powers. Throughout the world, early humans often sought to incorporate into themselves certain qualities that they admired in animals.

In the movie “Dances with Wolves”, the character played by Kevin Costner is directed to eat the warm heart of the first bison that he kills as a way of appropriating its courage, which is believed to reside in the heart.

The depiction of sexual energy in animals we find in the Indus Valley seals may suggest a similar effort to acquire powers that humans lacked or simply wanted in greater abundance.

Female Sexuality

Indus Valley’s culture fascination with sexuality is also evidenced with the discovery of numerous terracotta figurines depicting women with exaggerated hips and breasts. Similar representations have been unearthed in many parts of the world, leading scholars to theorize the existence of a mother goddess religion, long antedating the worship of male gods.

The details of that theory are debatable but is does seem evident, at least in the Indus Valley civilization, that the reproductive powers of women were revered and celebrated. Perhaps women themselves were regarded as sacred. It is clear that the worship of goddesses has a long and deeply rooted tradition in Hinduism, and may in fact derive from Indus Valley’s practices.

The Origin of Meditation?

There is a seal illustrating a man sitting down in what appears to be the lotus position, a fundamental pose in yoga and meditation. This seal rises the intriguing possibility that this early dwellers on the Indus were practitioners of meditation. If true, then India has had a contemplative spirit throughout its history.

The Pashupati Seal

The sited figure seems to have three faces looking in different directions. It is not clear what or who this image represents. Many scholars believe that this figure may be an early representation of the god who later came to be known as Shiva. Multiple faces are often used in Hindu iconography to suggest omniscience.

To compare the Indus Valley image with a modern Hindu image of Shiva helps substantiate the scholarly claim.

A modern statue of Shiva

To round up this portrait of the religious dimension of the Indus Valley let me sum up what we know. Indus Valley religion seems intensely concerned with procreation and purity. It may have involved the worship of male animals as a way of incorporating their sexual powers. Female powers of reproduction were also regarded as sacred.

Purification practices, meditation and the well organized cities suggest that the Indus dwellers were very interested in order and restrain.

The Demise

After the Indus Valley was discovered in the 19th century, scholars were faced with having to explain the demise of this great civilization and its relationship with the Aryans, the people with whom Hinduism has long been associated.

The dominant theory suggested that the Indus civilization came to an end around 1500 B.C. when bands of lighter skinned Aryans verged into the Indian subcontinent and conquered the darker skinned Indus dwellers. Today, this invasion theory is in serious doubt. Scholars are revising their understanding of the cultures of early India, although many still hold to the idea of Aryan conquest.

We know that the Indus civilization was already in decline by 1500 B.C., when the Aryans supposedly subdued the region by military conquest. Between 1900 and 1600 B.C. the Indus river may have changed its course. Maybe the entire region desiccated. This has been confirmed by recent satellite photography.

Furthermore, there is no evidence archeological or otherwise to suggest such a massive conquest. Aryans’ own extensive writings don’t mention a migration of people from outside of India. In fact, there is evidence that the Aryans and the Indus may have coexisted in the same are for some time before the ultimate demise of the Indus Valley culture.

Return from The Indus Valley Seals to The Origin of Hinduism

The Origin of Hinduism

2008-11-27T03:26:00.000-08:00

Hinduism is the world’s oldest living religious tradition. It is unlikely that there was a single founder of Hinduism, but if there were such an individual, he or she is unknown to us today. Although we don’t know the name of individuals, we do know several cultures that contributed to the development of Hinduism.

Of these contributing sources, two are specially important for our understanding of the history of the Hindu tradition. The first is the Indus Valley civilization. The second source is a group called the Aryans, a nomadic group of people who might have migrated to India from Central Asia.

It may be fair to say that Hinduism is not only the world’s oldest religion, it is also the most pluralistic. Its great diversity is what makes the concept of Hinduism problematic. Determining what all Hindus have in common is exceedingly difficult.

This pluralism has produced an attitude that denies the possibility of ever completely knowing the whole truth. It is the viewpoint that maintains that there are many valid viewpoint. Each perspective is partially correct. A famous passage from the oldest Hindu scripture, the Vedas, makes this point: “The truth is one but the sages call it by different names”.

Hinduism is a tradition that honors all seekers after the truth and recognizes that different persons require different ways of relating to divine reality. That’s one of the great strengths of Hinduism: its ability to absorb ideas and practices from different sources without giving up its fundamental orientation.

The Hindu tradition emerged from the confluence of several cultures, the most important of which were the Indus Valley civilization and the Aryans. The relationship between this cultures is not altogether certain but the evidence does suggest that they were quite different from one another.

Each culture seems to have contributed distinctive elements to the emergence of Hinduism. From the Indus Valley, Hinduism may have gained a concern with ritual purity and spiritual discipline. Perhaps also a proclivity towards the worship of the goddess. From the Aryans received its priestly language, Sanskrit; and its most sacred scripture, the Vedas. We shall see in other articles that the Aryans’ contribution was much more than this.

In this series of articles I will try to unravel the origin of what we now call Hinduism:

The Indus Valley Civilization: About 150 years ago, a discovery was made that has caused scholars to revise their understanding of the early history of India. The Indus Valley civilization, as it is now known is considered one of the great cultures of the ancient world. Although Hindus would not regard the Indus Valley civilization as part of their sacred history, there is evidence that elements from this culture contributed to the great amalgam of Hinduism.
The Indus Valley Seals: The excavation of the Indus Valley civilization has revealed many intriguing artifacts. The most interesting of these relics are seals used to stamp designs in soft clay. Anthropologists believe that these seals probably have deep religious significance.
The Aryan Civilization: Who were these Aryans? Most historians believe that the Aryans related to people who migrated into Iran, Irak, Ireland and other parts of Europe. In many ways, the Aryans were different from what we know about the Indus Valley dwellers. It is clear that the Aryans brought with them to India different gods, different rituals and a different language. The Aryan language evolved into Sanskrit, the official language of the Hindu tradition.
Hinduism’s Holy Book: The Aryans gave Hinduism its priestly language, Sanskrit; and what could be called Hinduism’s holy book: The Veda. The Veda is a rather unusual collection of literature. It is not narrative like the Bible. It tells no grand story of gods and humans. The Vedas are more like a liturgy manual.

The Indus Valley Civilization

2008-11-27T03:16:00.000-08:00

About 150 years ago, a discovery was made that has caused scholars to revise their understanding of the early history of India. In 1850’s, while excavating for a railroad system in Northern India, workers discovered the existence of an ancient and sophisticated civilization that had long been forgotten.

The Indus Valley civilization, as it is now known is considered one of the great cultures of the ancient world. What came to light since the first excavation suggests that the Indus Valley civilization was as great as ancient Egypt. Although Hindus would not regard the Indus Valley civilization as part of their sacred history, there is evidence that elements from this culture contributed to the great amalgam of Hinduism.

A Well Organized Urban Society

What is known about the Indus Valley culture comes exclusively from archaeological evidence, since its cryptic language has never been completely deciphered. In fact, we do not know what the inhabitants of this civilization called themselves.

The archeological evidence suggests that the Indus Valley culture flourished between 3000 and 1500 B.C. About 17 different cities have been unearthed so far and they display remarkably similar features, suggesting a social and political unity. Indus Valley civilization may have expanded over one million square kilometers.

The cities were well organized and carefully planned. The Indus Valley was relatively peaceful culture, as very few weapons have been discovered. The residences were specially impressive. Many were equipped with inner bathrooms and plumbing. In fact, great concern with cleanliness is evidenced throughout the civilization.

Not only homes features sophisticated toilet facilities, but municipalities did as well. The cities Mohenjo-daro and Harappa each had large central baths with public access.

The prominence of these baths in homes and cities suggests that the dwellers of the Indus Valley civilization were concerned with more than simple hygiene. They seem to be greatly interested in matters of ritual purity. Ritual purity is not a concept that is familiar to modern Westerners. It might be helpful to clarify this concept.

All societies maintain structures of order, what we might call simply a sense of what is right and appropriate. The structures are not always explicit or written out as laws. Taboos are often given to those areas of life were one may run the risk of violating order. For the structures to be maintained many cultures reinforce taboos with harsh punishments.

One of the most common ways for societies to maintain order is with the opposition of cleanliness and dirt. More technically purity and pollution. Essentially, all societies have things that they regard as clean and dirty. These things might be food, people or kinds of activities.

Purity and Pollution

Accounts of what is clean and dirty varies greatly from culture to culture and time to time. This has nothing to do with hygiene as such, but it has a great deal to do with social and religious order.

Frequently, cleanliness and dirtiness are functions of context rather than the intrinsic nature of things. For example, suppose that I’m at a restaurant enjoying a green salad. As long as I observe proper attitude and politely convey my food to my mouth with the fork all is well, but at the moment I drop a piece of lettuce on my tie I’m dirty. On the plate, on the fork and in my mouth the lettuce is nice and clean. On my tie, it is dirt. Nothing about the lettuce changes but its context has. A sense of order has been violated.

Some people would not drink water drawn from the bathroom tap because they regard it as somehow dirty. It is not really unhygienic because it is the same water that comes from the kitchen tap and it is the same water you use to brush your teeth. However, to some people drinking water from a bathroom tap seems out of place and inappropriate.

Understanding the dynamics of purity and pollution helps us to grasp what is probably the central purpose of the great baths in the Indus Valley civilization: to remove the ritual dirt incurred by everyday living. Today, many Hindu temples have tanks that function as ritual baths. Many bodies of water, such as the Ganges, serve this purpose.

In these baths, people came to restore the pristine order that may have been disrupted by inappropriate behavior or simply by coming into contact with a person that is seen as unclean.

What we see in the Indus Valley civilization is the earliest expression of a religious practice that runs throughout all of the Hindu history.

Return from The Indus Valley Civilization to The Origin of Hinduism

India and Religion

2008-11-26T20:23:00.000-08:00

Unlike other great religions like Christianity, Islam and Buddhism; Hinduism has not as yet taken root in a natural way outside the land of its origins. This geographical immobility is due in part to Hinduism’s decided lack of proselytizing impulses. In part is also due to the importance of India itself for the Hindu traditions.

India as a Western Construct

What do we mean when we use the term India? Winston Churchill once said that India wasn’t a nation but an abstraction. I’m not sure wether Churchill intended that comment as a criticism but it certainly calls attention to the fact that India is an idea. Perhaps a problematic one.

Historically, India was an idea in the Western mind long before it was an idea in the Indian mind. The name India was first used by outsiders to refer to the land surrounding the Indus river. Although the name India has gained wide currency among the English speaking population of the subcontinent, the older indigenous term for India, Bharat, is still very common.

As a Western concept, India has meant many things. It is interesting to recall that the Americas were discovered by Europeans in their search for India. Even today the indigenous people of the Americas are referred to by many as Indians.

The Exotic and Mystical India

In the Western construction, India has been seen as exotic, rich and different. It was the land the land of great resources and fabulous things not found in the West. For many it has also been a place of deep spirituality and mysticism.

India has drawn many Westerners in search of the meaning of life. In the 1960’s India was a magnet for hippies from the West, seeking mystical experience as well as substances.

In my first trip to India I had my head full with romantic notions. I was astounded with how different India was from the image that I carried in my mind.

What makes the concept of India problematic? It might suggest greater cohesiveness and unity than actually exists. India is a land of great diversity, socially, economically and geographically.

India is one of the few places on Earth were diversity is preserved and appreciated. It has been said that the only thing Indians have in common is their diversity. John Kenneth Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to India once called it a functioning anarchy.

With over one billion people, India is the second most populous country in the world next to China. Indians derive from a host of racial and ethnic stocks. Accordingly, there isn’t an standard of Indian appearance. Indian manifest many different colors of skin and different physical characteristics.

There are also many different languages spoken in India. There are over sixteen major languages and hundreds of dialects. Languages do not always derive from the same language groups. Consequently, simple communication between Indians from different regions is often difficult at best. Increasingly, English is used as the lingua franca among the educated.

The Religions of India

When it comes to religion itself, India is one of the most pluralistic places in the world. Besides Hindus that make up the great majority, Indians profess a wide variety of religious traditions and practices. Each of these non-Hindu traditions has a historical relationship with Hinduism. Sometimes that relationship involves tension and conflict. Sometimes it is one of competition. Sometimes it is a relationship of mutual enrichment.

Islam

Muslims make up about 10% of the Indian population. In many ways Islam is diametrically opposed to Hinduism. This difference has been the source of much conflict. Most Muslims live in Northern India.

Christianity

Many persons are unaware that Christianity has a long established tradition in India, specially in the South. Legend has it that the Christian faith was brought to India by doubting Thomas, one of Jesus twelve apostles. He was murdered and buried near Madras.

Other legends suggest that Jesus himself studied in India with Hindu and Buddhist sages before his public ministry in Palestine. After his crucifixion Jesus returned to India with his mother Mary and died there.

Presently Christians comprise about 2% of the total Indian population.

Buddhism

Although founded in India, Buddhism has only a small following there today. However, in the Medieval period of India Buddhism flourished and even threatened to eclipse Hinduism as the dominant religion of the country.

With the advent of Islam, Buddhism’s presence on the subcontinent was greatly diminished. Although Indian Buddhists today number around two or three million, there has been always a strong relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism, such as distinguishing the two is not always easy. Many Buddhist in Asia pray to Hindu gods. Many Hindus see the Buddha as a manifestation of god.

Jainism is not as widely known as Buddhism in the Western world but it has much in common with it and Hinduism. Buddhism and Jainism began about at the same time in Northern India and they share some features.

Although numerically small, around two million, the Jains have had a profound influence on the life of India in general, and on Hindus in particular. The Jain practice of absolute non-violence gave rise to the custom of vegetarianism in Hinduism. It also had a profound effect on Gandhi’s philosophy.

Conclusion

To round up this picture of religious diversity in India let me mention the presence of the Jews and the Parsis, who are the practitioners of the ancient Persian religion Zoroastranicism. There are a few hundred thousand Indians who belong to these communities.

My intention in outlined these varied religions is to call attention to the deeply pluralistic context in which Hinduism is rooted. India is not an easy concept to grasp. Even this sketch is over-simplified. I’ve said very little about the tremendous diversity within Hinduism itself.

To conclude, let’s return to the meaning of the word India. This word is a Western construction that tries to name a reality far more diverse and complex than we might assume. At times, it might even be difficult to say what these realities have in common beyond a simple concept that holds them together in our minds.

Return from India and Religion to Introduction to Hinduism

Introduction to Hinduism

2008-11-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

One of the first things people want to know is what Hindus, or for that matter, Buddhists or Jains believe. It is important to recognize that belief and doctrine are extremely important for practitioners of Western religious traditions. This is not always the case with the traditions originated in India.

Hindus not only believe many different and sometimes contradictory things, the importance that they assign to belief itself widely varies. When we assume that the central aspect of a religion is its doctrine or theology we are imposing our own ways of understanding our religious phenomena.

There are ways of seeing the world and that they are largely determined by gender, ethnicity, nationality, class and social location. There is no way to escape this fact. However, we can at least recognize its potential hazards.

As Westerners we interpret Hinduism through Western ways of understanding. These ways are often different from Hindu ways of knowing. Indian thought is based on different assumptions about the nature of life. It comprises a different kind of logic.

For example, Hindus think about time very differently than Westerners do. The Hindu approach is to neglect chronology. In contrast, I’d like to follow a historical scheme to see how different ideas and practices developed in time and context. This would not be a characteristic Hindu approach.

Taking a Western approach to Hinduism is limited but it is not for that reason wrong. The insider knows things that the outsider will never know. The outsider knows things that the insider doesn’t and perhaps cannot know. The outsider sees patterns within and among traditions in ways that those who practice the religion do not.

How can one adequately describe and discuss the lived reality of nearly a billion people? We may deal with ideas and concepts, but Hinduism is so much more than that. To understand Hinduism it should not only be thought about but also it should be seen and felt.

These are some articles that may help you start to understand this complex tradition:

Facts About Hinduism: Some facts about Hinduism and India.

What is Hinduism?: What does the word Hinduism mean? What is its origin? Is it right to call it that way?

Hinduism Religion: Is Hinduism really a religion? Hindus don't see themselves as religious or even as Hindus. Is it right to call them that way?
India and Religion: Unlike other great religions like Christianity, Islam and Buddhism; Hinduism has not as yet taken root in a natural way outside the land of its origins. This is in part due to the importance of India itself for the Hindu traditions. Let's take a look at the environment in which Hinduism emerged.

Facts About Hinduism

2008-11-26T18:01:00.000-08:00

Here are some fast facts about Hinduism:

Hinduism is the dominant religion of India, about 85% of the over one billion persons living in India are known to the world as Hindus.
Hinduism is often thought of not as a single religion, but as a family of religions.
About 95% of all Hindus in the world live in India. Most of the remaining five percent live in areas immediately adjacent to India. Approximately18 million Hindus live in the kingdom of Nepal, which is the only nation where Hinduism is the state religion.
Although Indians are perhaps the most religious people on earth, India is officially a secular nation and it prides itself of being the world’s largest democracy.
There are about 15 million Hindus living in the Muslim states of Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were part of India prior to its independence of Great Britain.
At the end of 20th century, the Hindu population in the United States and Europe were estimated at 2 million. The vast majority of these were Indian immigrants.

These facts make apparent the importance of the Indian subcontinent for Hinduism. Unlike other great religions like Christianity, Islam and Buddhism; Hinduism has not as yet taken root in a natural way outside the land of its origins. These geographical immobility is due in part to Hinduism’s decided lack of proselytizing impulses. In part is also due to the importance of India itself for the Hindu traditions.

Return from Facts About Hinduism to Introduction to Hinduism

Hinduism Religion: Is it Really?

2008-11-26T06:23:00.000-08:00

Is Hinduism a religion? First of all, what is religion? Many people find it surprising to learn that the word religion is a Western construct of relatively recent origin. Like the concept of Hinduism, scholars have questioned its appropriateness and value.

The word religion derives from the Latin religio, a term that Romans and later Christians initially used with infrequency and imprecision. Interestingly, Hebrew and Greek, the languages of the Bible, do not have words that accurately translate into the English word religion.

The meaning of the word has changed significantly. Early in European history the word was used to name piety or faith in God. A Christian, for example, might be said to have true or false religion. Sometimes the word was used to designate rituals ceremony, specially the practices whose believes where different from one’s own.

A stable meaning for the idea of religion didn’t appear until around the 17th century, when it came to mean “a system of believes or doctrines”. Even in the 21th century, the word religion lacks precision of usage. Scholars of religion now universally agree that there is not universal agreement of what constitutes religion.

Maybe we think of religion as belief in God or gods. Well, there are traditions ordinarily considered religions that do not prescribe belief in God or gods. There are traditions ordinarily considered religious that consider belief in God or any kind of belief at all as an obstruction to the higher human good.

Maybe we think of religion as something involving ceremony and ritual. Again, there are traditions considered religious where ceremony is seeing as something to be transcended. The point is that we should be cautious of how we make use of the concept of religion. We need clear awareness of its limitations.

Let me mention what I think some of those limitations are. First, if we regard religion merely as a department of life or human culture, we are apt to misinterpret key aspects of Hinduism. In the West, we frequently think of religion as something having to do with the explicitly religious institutions like churches or synagogues. It places religion on a level akin to theater, medicine, sports and other departments of life.

Hinduism doesn’t comprise a part of life for Hindus. It is not something practiced only in a particular place or at a particular time. Hinduism is far more pervasive and foundational than that. It certainly has rituals and other activities identifiably religious but it encompasses much more than this.

It structures and influences every aspect of Hindu life, including theater, music, medicine and occupation. This is maybe why Hindus don’t feel compelled to have a specific name to indicate Hinduism. As I said earlier, it might be better to think of Hinduism not as a single religion, but as a family of beliefs.

Return from Hinduism Religion to Introduction to Hinduism

What is Hinduism

2008-11-26T04:50:00.000-08:00

What is Hinduism? Hinduism is characterized as the dominant religion of India. You might think this is a simple and uncontroversial statement. About 85% of the over one billion persons living in India are known to the world as Hindus. This apparently simple factual statement is far more complex and problematic that it might seem on first glance.

A Word Coined by Outsiders

The difficulties arise when we carefully examine the meaning of the words "Hinduism" and "Hindu". Before we begin our exploration of Hinduism proper, it is wise to reflect on what exactly these terms mean.

We must observe that these are not words from indigenous languages of India. These concepts are linguistic constructions that emerged from the vocabulary of people outside of that land. Often these outsiders sought to conquer and subdue the land and its inhabitants. The fact that these concepts arise from national powers with colonial interest may make them downright suspicious.

What makes these concepts problematic is that each of them suggests a uniformity and consistency that is not applied to the reality they name. Consequently, these words may lead us to assume homogeneity and unity where there is not.

When we begin to study Hinduism and religion in India, we must accustom ourselves to diversity. Applying these words assuming that they mean the same thing to Indians may prevent us from seeing something essential.

What we call in the Western world Hinduism has not been called by this name for most of its history. It was only recently that Indians themselves began to use this word. The words Hindu and Hinduism are of Persian origin from around the 12th century of the current era. It was originally alien to India. The word Hindu originally meant Indian, it was not intended specifically to designate Indian religion.

Its meaning has changed profoundly over time as not all Indian are Hindu today. As strange as it may sound, most Hindus don’t think of themselves as practicing something called Hinduism. The phrase that most closely applies to what Westerners call Hinduism is Sanatana Dharma, which might be translated as “eternal religion”. Even this translation isn't completely satisfying because the world religion is not an equivalent to the word Dharma.

Really a Unified Religion?

Indigenous languages of India lack a word for what Westerners call religion. Rather that viewing themselves of participants of a religion called Hinduism, most Hindus see themselves as devotees of a particular god or goddess. They also see themselves as members of a particular community dedicated to the devotion of a specific deity.

Devotion to a specific god is symbolized by the forehead markings called Tilaks. They are one of the first things Westerners think of when they hear the name Hindu. For instance, persons who worship the god Shiva might indicate their allegiance with white horizontal stripes across the forehand. Devotees of Vishnu might make thin vertical markings to designate the object of their faith.

It might be better to think of Hinduism not as a single religion, but as a family of religions. Then, why use the word Hindu or Hinduism at all?

An Upsurge of “Hinduism”

In the last several years, some scholars have argued that there is absolutely not such thing as Hinduism. Because of the great complexity of religious practices in India many have wondered if there is anything as sufficient commonality for one to use the word Hinduism.

Scholars have suggested that the term Hinduism is a Western construction reflecting colonial interest of imperialist nations and for that reason should be discarded. I think that the idea of Hinduism is a useful one. It should be kept for no other reason than that many Hindus have now adopted the term and use it with increasing frequency.

This often happens in the history of religions. Christians, for instance, did not coin that term to describe themselves. Eventually, as others outside the Christian movement increasingly used that name, those in the movement started to use it also.

Today it would not be uncommon to enter a temple in India and see a sing proclaiming “For Hindus Only”. Not long ago, though, such a sign would have been unnecessary. In the last several decades even there has been an increase on the use of the word Hindutva, a word translated as “Hinduness”.

We may call this a rise in Hindu consciousness. It has been accompanied by an upsurge of participation in Hindu festivals, rituals and pilgrimages.