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Hinduism
The first to develop an Interior Life
• Silence becomes a religious ingredient, a
medium for religious growth.
• Hinduism is the world’s oldest wisdom
tradition
• No human founder
• This religion leads the devotee to
personally experience the Truth within,
and finally reach the peak of
consciousness where man and God are
one.
HINDUS 2000 BC - Present
Truth is ONE, and yet there is great
diversity within Hinduism
There are many Hindu texts, not one, like
most religions.
What is the path to moral, spiritual
progress?
Sanatana – the eternal way
Bhakti – personal spiritual devotion
We participate as humans in a universal
whole
The Vedas – filled with shruti (revelation)
The Brahman (the eternal) literally gave
the Vedas as they are (similar to the
Qur’an).
Sacred scriptures
The Upanishads primary concern is with
right relationship with Brahman (ultimate
reality).
Huge focus on looking inwardly to find one’s
true self. Find the Brahman inside yourself.
Less focus on rituals or scriptures.
The Ramayana (Vishnu incarnated as
Prince Rama) focuses on dharma (duty in
relationships).
Scriptures (cont)
Rama, experiencing a rivalry with his new
stepmom, is wrongly exiled by his dad.
Despite the injustice of this, Rama still
abides by moral duty.
This is all about doing as one ought: loyalty
even in the face of injustice.
The Gita: is the story between Arjuna and
Lord Krishna (another avatar of Vishnu)
who has to do battle against his family.
Scriptures (continued)
The Gita focuses on inwardly attitudes,
and de-emphasizes worldly outcomes.
“One who works for the fruits of their labor
makes him/herself into a slave.”
Laws of Manu are seen as antithetical to
the Gita. They arose to counter the rise in
popularity of Buddhism, similar to the
Catholic Counter Reformation.
Laws of Manu reinforce the caste system.
More on Laws of Manu
 Caste system – a rigid designation of what one’s
permanent place is in society. Mobility occurs
only through karma and after one is
reincarnated.
 Buddhism rejected Indian gender norms by
furthering gender equality. The Laws of Manu
reasserted those gender norms in India.
 Social organization is very important. This
reflects a traditional patriarchal and hierarchical
culture.
Historical Developments
 The Vedic religion stems from the Aryan
migration to the subcontinent (1700 BCE).
 [Compare the Indian swastika with the Third
Reich’s swastika.]
 The central ceremony in the ancient Vedic ritual
life is the fire sacrifice.
 Personal devotion to one god or manifestations
of Brahman is dominate in Vedic practice.
 These gods are really manifestations of one
God, Brahman.
Stations of Life
 4 basic castes, but over 3,000 subcastes
 There are inequalities (it’s based on an
hierarchal system); pressure against inter-caste
“love” marriages, and even against interdining.
 1. Brahmins who are the religious and
intellectual leaders
 2. the administrators (kshatriya)
 3. the producers (vaishya)
 4. the unskilled laborers (shudra caste)
 The untouchables (dahlit)
Classical Hinduism
Samkhya is the oldest philosophy school
in India.
Founded by Kapila and asserts two
principles:
1. purusha is beyond cause (unchanging)
2. prakriti is the ordinary material world
Forgetting the difference causes suffering
for us. Developing purusha is the goal of
spirituality.
Non attachment
 Non-attachment: draw a line between your
impermanent self and your permanent one. The
goal is to dis-identify with your impermanent self.
 The goal is to be like the center of the spinning
wheel: active yet stable and in control: “stillness
in absolute motion.”
 If you identify with your ego, bad karma will
follow. [What’s best for me without considering
others’ interests and needs]
The 4 successive stages of life:
1. A student (brahmachari)
• 2. A married householder
• 3. A 'forest- dweller'
• 4. A renouncer (sannyasin)
The 4 Goals in Life
Path of Desire
1. Kama - pleasure
2. Artha – worldly success
Path of Renunciation
3. Dharma – ethical duty
4. Moksha – liberation
What people want
PATH OF DESIRE
1. Kama – pleasure, seek it intelligently, it is
good, natural and part of being human
2. Artha – worldly success, seek to attain
wealth and stability and take care of
one’s family & responsibilities.
Limitations to Desire
 Pleasure & Success are fleeting, they do not last,
one wants more and more, ultimately not
satisfying.
 Drive for success can be insatiable, neverending, you can never get enough of what you
really think you want. How can one extinguish
greed with money?
 Finite nature of self, as opposed to the Self.
What People Really Want
PATH OF RENUNCIATION
3. Dharma – Ethical duty, community
4.Moksha – liberation/release of the
individual self from samsara
Atman – principle of individuation (akin to an
individual soul)
Brahman – the principle and source of
reality; that which is different from the
ordinary world
Only Brahman exists and the visible world is
a product of maya (human ignorance)
Bhakti restores right understanding and right
relationship with God.
Atman Brahman
“ The Self which is free from sin, free from
old age, from death and from grief, from
hunger and thirst, which desires nothing
but what it ought to desire, and imagines
nothing but what it ought to imagine, that it
is which we must search out, that it is
which we must try to understand. He who
has searched out that Self and
understands it, obtains all worlds and all
desires.” Khândogya-Upanishad 8.7.1
Liberation
• Liberation for a Hindu is called Moksha.
• It is liberation from Samsara (cycle of
life and death)
• When an enlightened human being is
freed from samsara and comes into a
state of completeness, he then
becomes one with God.
Karma
 Reincarnation can be understood as
“transmigration.” just as we travel from the body
of a baby to being a teenager to being an old
man, we, too, travel from one body to another
after death.
 Along the path, God is one’s constant companion.
 What we must destroy is illusion and attachments
to this world. This is why many Hindu paintings
depict destruction (usually a god holding a
sword).
Four Paths to Moksha
1.
2.
3.
4.
The way of action (karma)
The way of knowledge (jnana)
The way of devotion (bhakti)
The royal road (raja)
These paths/yogas lead to Moksha!
Prayer and rituals
 Puja - worship done privately & publicly
 Samskaras – rites of passage which resemble the
Christian notion of a sacrament
 In one’s home, there often are mini altars or
devotional spaces that can include small statues,
portraits, and even food offerings to one’s chosen
deity (for instance, Ganesh – elephant headed
deity)
 Use of incense and bells (awaken the senses)
 Similar to Islam, Hindus emphasize orthopraxy
(practices are more important than doctrine)
 OM represents the primordial sound of creation.
Chanting OM allows one to commune with the
vibration of the universe.
Renaissance Periods (2)
1. 3rd century BCE when Buddhism spread
rapidly. Hindus felt threatened with the
mass exodus, and needed to clarify and
re-market how Hinduism differed from
Buddhism. Among other things, it
reasserted the belief in the caste system,
and the traditional notions of gender roles.
The Laws of Manu emerged during this
time.
Part II
As the British colonized the subcontinent,
there emerged a nationalistic, religious
movement to resist the British both on a
political level as well as a religious one.
Spike in Christian missionary efforts
National effort to preserve ethnic and
religious heritage of India.
Concepts of the Sacred
Huge range within Hindu theology, and
even apparent contradictions
Case for polytheism: There are many
gods, such as Shiva, Vishnu, Devi, etc.
Case for monotheism: All the gods are
mere manifestations of Brahman – a
genderless entity that creates and
destroys all.
Hindu Ethics
Anchored in moral duty
Duty connects to dharma
One should act according to their designated
place in society
Karma is the cosmic force generated by
one’s actions
Accumulated karma determines one’s
reincarnated location
Gurus
Highly important given the theological
diversity and complexity of Hinduism
A Guru makes all the difference in one’s
understanding and practice.
Gurus guide which god to venerate and
how one understands what a god is.
Yoga
“Yoga is an all-embracing way of life, a
science of self-culture and mental discipline
that ensures the purgation of the ignoble in
man and brings forth what is most noble in
him.”
Karma yoga: the way of action.
All is done mindfully and in service to the
absolute.
Act in the world but be free of attachments to
outcomes.
Goal is to discipline the egoistic self.
Yoga of action
Become God by acting like God
Requires a focused mind
Teaches selfless acts
No expectation of benefit
Yoga
1. Keep personal life in reasonable order
or no hope of deeper self-knowledge.
Abstain from lying, injury, stealing,
sensuality, and greed
2. Observe cleanliness, contentment, selfcontrol, studiousness, and contemplation
of the divine.
 3. take care of the body in order that it does not
disturb the mind. The mind is way more
important.
 4. Get into a lotus position: ankles on thighs,
hands folded on top of each other, erect spine,
and unfocused stare on the ground.
 Turn your attention to your breath.
 5. unplug your sense perceptors so that you can
focus on your breath. You want to turn
concentration into a controlled skill.
6: the mind is its fiercest antagonist.
The mind is like a drunken, crazed monkey
who has just been stung by a wasp.
7. increase level of concentration and one
will discover the extreme power of the
mind.
Focus on an object and the ego will
disappear.
8. Samadhi = then the object will dissolve
and the raja yogi has achieved ultimate
consciousness, or total being.
Bhakti Yoga: devotion/divine love
Most popular among Hindus
Everything is truly seen as God
Chanting and prayer are a large part
Personal devotion to one’s chosen deity.
Jnana Yoga
Yoga of knowledge/wisdom
Rational inquiry
Direct experience of Moksha
Integrates the other Yoga paths
Most difficult path
Discovery of one’s true self brings peace
and freedom
Raja Yoga: physical/mental control
Method = clear the mind through intense
concentration
Final result = Absolute Mind Control
All energies become spiritual energies
Achieved by meditation
Asanas
We are God, therefore our bodies are
sacred and we should keep them well.
Exercise should be beneficial to the
mind and body while enjoyable to the
person. It should be a spiritual
experience.
Pranayana (proper breathing)
 We should breathe as deep as possible. Breathing
should be slow, deep and in rhythm.
 Savasana (proper relaxation)
 Inner peace and complete physical rejuvenation
can be achieved through Savasana.
 Proper Diet:
 Yoga promotes a vegetarian diet for the complete
health of a person mentally, physically and
spiritually.
Dhyana (meditation)
“We become what we think.” We
should think happy thoughts to lead to
a happy and healthful lifestyle.
Employs the philosophy of Vedanta.