Hinduism

•Aum, is the most sacred symbol in Hinduism, is like calling god's name towards you. This name is generally said three times, before chanting any prayers.

How did Hinduism begin?

•No particular founder

•Indus River Valley Civilization >5000 years ago

•Aryans enter 4000 - 3500 years ago

•Vedic Tradition 3500 – 2500 years ago:

•rituals and many gods (polytheism)‏

•sacred texts (Vedas)‏

•social stratification (caste system)‏

•Upanishads (metaphysical philosophy) 2800 – 2400 years ago

•Vedic Tradition develops into Hinduism

•Introduction to Hinduism

•The world’s oldest existing religion; (5500–2600BCE) .

•The third largest world religion w/ ~ 905 million faithfuls in India and Nepal.

•Originated in the Indian subcontinent.

•Official language of India is Sanskrit, and so the sacred texts of Hinduism are written in Sanskrit.

Hinduism is a conglomerate of diverse beliefs and traditions, so it has no single founder or regulating hierarchy.

Vast body of sacred scriptures developed over millennia.

Vedas and Upanishads are the foremost in authority, importance and antiquity. Puranas and Bhagavad Gita are central texts as well.

All scriptures are divided into two categories – revealed (shruti – of divine origin) and remembered (smriti – of human origin)

Four prominent themes of Hinduism

•Dharma – religious or righteous living

•Karma – Sanskrit for ‘action, work or deed’. “It is considered the moral law of cause and effect.” (Smith, 30)

•Samsara – the cycle of action, reaction, birth, death, and rebirth

•Moksha – liberation from samsara, also known attaining nirvana or samadhi

•It is difficult to summarize any ‘universal’ belief or practice of Hinduism, but these are prominent themes.

Nature of the divine

•Hinduism is a diverse system of thought with beliefs spanning monotheism, polytheism, panentheism, pantheism, monism and atheism.

•It is sometimes referred to as henotheistic (devotion to a single "God" while accepting the existence of other gods).

•All are somewhat of an oversimplification of the complexities and variations of belief.

Michaels, A (2004), Hinduism: Past and Present (5th ed.), Princeton University Press

Major divinity figures

Brahman - the supreme spirit in Hinduism.

•is the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being, and everything beyond in this universe.

The nature of Brahman is described as transpersonal, personal and impersonal by different philosophical schools. Michaels, A (2004), Hinduism: Past and Present (5th ed.), Princeton University Press

Atman - the spirit or soul — the true "self" of every person is eternal – a divine spark.

•It is ultimately indistinct from Brahman. The goal of life is to realize that one's atman (soul) is identical with Brahman, the supreme soul. Monier-Williams, Monier (1974), Brahmanism and Hinduism: Or, Religious Thought and Life in India, as Based on the Veda and Other Sacred Books of the Hindus, p20-37

It is the eternal core of the personality that survives after death and that transmigrates to a new life or is released from the bonds of existence.

•Atman underlies all the activities of a person, as Brahman (the absolute) underlies the workings of the universe.

•To know this truth brings bliss; the Atman is part of the universal Brahman, with which it can commune and fuse.

Reference: "atman." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 23 Oct. 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9010116>.

Major divinity figures (devas)

Trimurti – in Sanskrit means ‘three forms’.

•It is a concept in Hinduism "in which the cosmic functions of creation, preservation, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva”. These three deities have been called "the Hindu triad" or the "Great Trinity". Flood, The Purāṇas, p. 139, (2003)

Brahma – the Creator, is the deva (god) that serves the cosmic function of creation. (BIRTH)

•It is not to be confused with the Supreme Cosmic Spirit in Hindu Vedanta philosophy known as Brahman

Vishnu – serving the cosmic function of renewal and preservation. (LIFE)

•the master of and beyond the past, present and future, one who supports, sustains and governs the Universe.

Shiva – the Destroyer or transformer of evil. Serves the cosmic function of dissolution or destruction that precedes re-creation. (DEATH)

What Do People Want?

•Hinduism, the oldest religion, says people want four things. Two lie within the Path of Desire.

•First, people seek pleasure.

This is very natural since we are born full of senses, which guide us from dangerous pain (fire, sharp sticks, etc. = death) and guide us toward pleasurable things (sunsets, beautiful flowers, consummating a marriage = new life).

Hinduism does not scorn this, but it does not hold pleasure as the highest good.

“Like everything else, hedonism requires good sense. Not every impulse can be followed with impunity”. Small pleasures must be sacrificed for “long-range gains” (Smith, 14).

“Only the stupid will lie, steal or cheat for immediate profit or succumb to addictions” (Smith, 14). Hinduism says seek it intelligently.

Pleasure eventual loses its zeal:

•“…b/c it’s too trivial to satisfy one’s total nature. Pleasure is essentially private and the self is too small an object for perpetual enthusiasm” (Smith, 14).

•Eventually one seeks worldly success with its three prongs (music video):

•Wealth

•Fame

•Power

•“Its satisfaction lasts longer b/c it’s a social achievement and as such involves the lives of others” (Smith, 15).

•Good for the development of individual, household responsibilities, and society – dignity and self-respect/community)

•Like pleasure, worldly success also focuses on the self and ultimately is unsatisfying.

Worldly success is limited in four ways:

•1.“Wealth, fame and power are exclusive, hence competitive and precarious” (Smith, 15).

•2. “The drive for success is insatiable…when one makes these things one’s chief ambition …one’s lusts cannot be satisfied”.

•“Poverty consists, not in the decrease of one’s possessions, but in the increase of one’s greed, wrote Plato” and “In Hinduism ‘ To try to extinguish the drive for riches with money is like trying to quench a fire by pouring butter over it’” (Smith, 16).

•3. Centers on the self and we seek something greater than ourselves to fulfill our deep desire for life. Country house, sports cars and posh vacations aren’t enough.

•4. The gains of wealth, fame, power are ephemeral – they do not transcend our death.

The way of pleasure and worldly success are not to be scorned. Hindus say, “Do not turn from desire until desire turns from you”. It is a nature stage of development to adult maturity.

Path of Renunciation has greater attraction for those who have outgrown the path of desire.

•“If people could be satisfied by following their impulses, the thought of renunciation would never arise” (Smith, 17).

•Hinduism makes distinction between chronological age vs. psychological age, and therefore it takes several lifetimes to make this journey.

• Renunciation for what? – for the community

•Community has an importance that no single life can command…”Let us then, transfer our allegiance to it, giving its claims priority over our own” (Smith, 19).

•Will-to-get is transformed into will-to-give

•Will-to-win is transformed into will-to-serve

•Duty will also leave the human spirit unfilled: respect and gratitude from peers, self-respect from doing one’s part

•This goal is unfulfilling because community, and the history it rests within, are ultimately tragic because they refuse to be perfected, to be transformed into our greatest hopes and desires.

•desire something more…

“Is this all?” pleasure, worldly success and the community

•No, life holds other possibilities.

•“We really want being, no one wants to die.

•We really want to know; we have an insatiable curiosity.

We really want joy, to be happy and for others to be happy too” (Smith, 20).

And we want these three things infinitely. Since science has been able to double the life of human beings people aren’t twice as ready to die, not even a little bit more ready.

•Infinite being, infinite knowledge, infinite bliss is what we really want = liberation or moksha

•How do we attain moksha?