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Theology 11 - HINDUISM
I. DEITY
A.
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B. Progression of Deity
1.
*
2.
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3. One Common Source
* Hindus were worshiping a multitude of nature, family & tribal gods
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4.
C.
1. Brahma
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* Most Hindus devotees of either Vishnu or Shiva
2. Vishnu
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Incarnated in 9 chief forms
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3. Shiva
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* Dances to rhythm of world continually forming, dissolving & reforming
* Salvation -
II. THEOLOGY
A. Purpose
1. to define Brahman as far as possible, although too mysterious to be described
2.
B. Castes
1.

2.
3.
4. Continues until you reach Union with Brahman
C. How to reach Brahman?
1.
2. _______________. Most aspects of Orthodox Hindu’s daily life marked by some
religious ritual)
D. Maya
1.
2.
3.
4. Since physical world is temporal,

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E. Salvation
1.
2.
3. One flows back into Brahman…
III. HISTORY OF INDIA
A. Aryans 
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Thought to have invaded India between 2000 & 1500 B.C. but that is disputed
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Measured well-being in terms of size of herds and offerings
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B. Alexander the Great (326 B.C.)
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.
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1st contact between great cultural heritages of Greece & India
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C. Maurya Empire (322-185 B.C.)
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Named after founder, Chandragupta Maurya
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Key leader was Ashoka (died 232 B.C.)
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o Part of Mahabarata
D. Gupta Dynasty in northern India (320-500 A.D.)
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Known as the “Golden Age” or “Classical Age”
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Significant developments in art, science, medicine
E. Islam in India
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o (Huns, Muslims, Europeans)
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Moghul Dynasty in North India (1526 – 1700’s A.D.)
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Many rulers intolerant toward Hinduism
o
F. The British Invasion (1700’s)
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British East India Company establishes multiple trading centers
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Established political power in 1757 after decline of Moghuls
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Many Indians educated in British schools; assimilation to western culture
G. Mohandas Gandhi (“Mahatma”: great-souled one)
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1919 Amristar Massacre –
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Gandhi becomes leader of Indian National Congress
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Also challenged caste system and mediated between Muslims & Hindus
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.
H. India vs. Pakistan
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Violent partition of what used to be India (estimated hundreds of thousands died)
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Hindu
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Kashmir
o .
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o .
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Pakistan has strongly supported the Taliban in Afghanistan
o .
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Oh yeah…
Mahabarata – Hindu epic poem
Bhagavad-Gita – “Song of the gods” – important book of Hindu philosophy
Vedas & Upanishads – Aryan hymns and chants
Dharma – A person’s duties to fulfill in life depending on your caste
Reincarnation – No soul dies. If person/animal dies, it’s reborn as a new
person/animal
Maya – The physical, material world
Moksha – The release from the cycle of rebirth involved in reincarnation
Guru – Religious teacher
Caste – levels of Hindu society – can’t move from one to another in one lifetime
Karma – People are rewarded or punished for the things they do
Brahman – The eternal spirit. All other gods are aspects of Brahman
Nirvana – Concept of heaven or bliss, spiritual fulfillment
Yoga – yoking the mind to “God.”
Ganges – River in which a Hindu washes to cleanse his sins
Rama – the ideal man. An incarnation of Vishnu
Sita – Rama’s wife
Krishna – an incarnation of Vishnu. (more popular than Rama)
Atman – the “soul” found in all things. Atman tries to return to Paramatman
Paramatman – The world soul and connection of all things
Kali (Shakti) – The Divine Mother.
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HINDUISM
Selected Excerpts from So What’s The Difference
Even lower on the social totem pole were the Untouchables who, until the 20th century, were considered
so low they were outside the caste system and, most of the time, were treated as subhuman. In the past,
Untouchables always had the dirtiest and filthiest jobs, drank polluted water, wore clothing of disgrace
and watched their children die of malnutrition. They were denied property and dignity.
When India became a nation in 1947, the government officially outlawed discrimination against
Untouchables. The greatest force for changing these laws and customs, which kept Untouchables in
virtual slavery, as been the influence of Christian missionaries, who have played a major role in
challenging the social-economic-religious power blocs in India. Still, the social reality in many Indian
villages is that change comes slowly and grudgingly.
The path of knowledge most often includes the practice of yoga (yoking or union). Yoga is the attempt to
control one’s consciousness through bodily posture, breath control and concentration, to the extend that
one comes to understand experientially that one’s true self, one’s undying soul (atman), is identical with
Brahma. This leads to the famous Hindu saying, “Aham asmi Brahma” (“I am Brahma”).
Swami Prabhavananda – a Hindu “would find it easy to accept Christ as a divine incarnation and to
worship Him unreservedly, exactly as he worships Krishna or another savior of his choice. But he cannot
accept Christ as the ONLY son of God.”
Gandhi – “It is more than I could believe that Jesus was the only incarnate son of God. And that only he
who believed in him would have everlasting life.” Gandhi also said that he could not believe that there
was any “mysterious or miraculous virtue” in Christ’s death on the cross.
Gandhi, like other Hindus, could not accept the Christian answer to the problem of sin, yet he felt a deep
hunger for real salvation from sin. He wrote, “For it is an unbroken torture to me that I am still so far
from Him, who, as I fully know, governs every breath of my life and whose offspring I am.”
Hinduism is more a philosophy than a theology. The Hindus try to make a tremendous case for the
bigness of their impersonal god – Brahma – the “that” behind and beyond reality. But where does the
Hindu seek Brahma? Within himself. For the Hindu, each person is “god” (or at least part of “god”).
The Hindu’s god is too small. The biblical record states that God has given us eternal life, and this life is
in His Son. If we have the Son, we have eternal life (not a series of mythological, absolutely unproven
reincarnations). As an Indian folksong puts it, “How many births are passed, I cannot tell. How many yet
to come, no man can say. But this alone I know, and know full well, that pain and grief embitter all the
way.”
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