Download The Cult of Mary - John Provost, PhD

Hinduism
Chapter Objectives: After learning this material you will be able to:
1. Discuss the major features of Hinduism as a religion, including basic terms
and common concepts such as karma, rebirth, and liberation.
2. Present the central message of the Hindu classics, such as the
Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita.
3. Be able to recognize the chief Hindu gods and goddesses.
4. Discuss the importance of Hinduism in the contemporary world and the
modern understanding of aspects of social life such as the castes.
5. Understand the impact of Hindu ideology on attitudes toward and
practices with respect to women.
6. Discuss Hinduism’s impact on the American religious landscape.
7. Explain a monistic worldview.
8. Describe features of devotional Hinduism practiced by the majority of
Hindus.
9. Explain the practices and goals of the four religious paths.
Preface
My introduction to Hinduism came in a round about way. My father was active in
some of the social movements of the sixties and the seventies and as a result so
was I. One of those movements was the civil rights movement and if you know
your history you will know that Martin Luther King was deeply influenced by the
Hindu sage and political leader Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi used the teaching of
the Bhagavad-Gita (which we will study), among other teachings, to come up
with his idea that the most effective and spiritual way to bring about peaceful
political change was through the use of nonviolent resistance. One of the first
serious books I read as a teenager was a biography of Gandhi. Since then I have
taken courses in Hinduism and read many of their scriptures. It is a fascinating
and amazing religion. I hope this short introduction will foster your interest if you
are a novice and if you know something about Hinduism I hope it will deepen
your understanding. Either way I hope you all will take the time to read some of
the scriptures, most especially the Bhagavad-Gita, one of the world’s great
spiritual classics.
Introduction
Hinduism is a very unusual religion and this unusualness even starts with its
name. It would be much better to call it Vedanta, or Vedantaism, for example,
than Hinduism. Why? Because Hinduism is a Western name for the many
different indigenous traditions of the land of India which used to be called
Hindustan. It is also unusual because it has no single founder and it has
developed and changed over the years so that what we first look at with early
Hinduism is very different from later Hinduism. “It is important to recognize that
Hinduism is not so much a “religion” in the sense we think of it in the West as it is
a general term covering all those religions and spiritual paths that have a
common base in the Vedas - Hinduism’s ancient scriptures. In fact, the culture
and religion of India is neither monolithic nor divided into watertight
compartments. Like America, but more so, it is a mix of many colors. Individual
components can be distinguished, but, in a sense, the mixture always has been
slowly stirring, blending, and receiving new inputs throughout history” ” (Robert S.
Ellwood and Barbara A. McGraw, Many Peoples, Many Faiths: Women and Men
in the World Religions, Seventh Edition, [Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:
Prentice Hall, 2002], p. 57. Hereafter referred to in the lectures as MPMF.) For
example, as we will see, the Buddha was born in northern India and taught his
path to the Hindus.
But instead of India converting from Hinduism to Buddhism something different
happened. Hinduism simply accepted much of what the Buddha taught and
incorporated in into Hinduism. As a result, Buddhism is a very small minority
religion in India, its home, while it has become the dominant religion in other
countries like Tibet where people did convert.
Another example of this is that Christian missionaries have had very little
success in India not because the people of India rejected the message and truth
of Jesus, but because they incorporated Jesus into their own faith. This is
frustrating for some evangelical Christians who feel Hindus need to reject their
own faith and adopt Christianity as their sole faith system. But this is not
understandable to many Hindus who deeply believe that the infinite God can take
as many forms as he (or she as we will see) desires. In other words, while some
secular Western folks might have a difficult time believing that Jesus was truly
the Son of God, Hindus have no trouble believing this at all. They only have
trouble believing that Jesus is the only Son of God!
And this brings me to my next point. Is Hinduism polytheistic or monotheistic?
Well, traditionally, Hinduism is referred to as a polytheistic belief system, which
seems obvious because it has so many gods. But we have to be careful;
because once we go past the surface we start to realize that Hinduism has a very
profound sense of the One God who is simply manifesting in multiple ways. That
is, a Hindu may call God Rama or Krishna, but in the end they realize that these
are just different names for the one unnamable mystery that is the underlying
reality of everything, including the individual person.
Before we go into the details I would like to introduce the main idea of Hindu
spiritual practice. Hindus teach that we all suffer from ignorance about our true
identity. What we need is self-knowledge and the various paths we will study lead
to this knowledge. This is one way of understanding the goal of Hinduism. “The
goal of Hinduism may be given many labels - God-realization, identification with
the absolute, supreme bliss, cosmic consciousness - but it is perhaps best
spoken of by more negative terms such as release, liberation, or freedom. For it
is really beyond all concepts and labels. It is simply freedom. Not freedom in
any political or individualistic sense but inner freedom from everything that
circumscribes or conditions the sense of infinity one has within; that is, freedom
from all relation to the cause and effect of karma [this term will be explained
below] within or without. One is to rise above and master all this, to become as
lithe and free as sunlight and clouds in the sky. Then one knows the answer to
the secret of who one really is” (MPMF, p. 57.) Ignorance of what is true keeps
us in slavery to an endless round of births and deaths.
Each of these lives has great suffering in it, and for the few who don’t experience
intense suffering they will eventually reach utter boredom. Why? Because
nothing that the ordinary self craves or desires will bring the lasting satisfaction
that is truly sought for by one’s inner self, or true self.
This is really not so hard to imagine. Think about something you really wanted as
a child for a present. Perhaps it was a bike or a video game. When you first get
what you want you are so pleased and it is so great. But before too long this
wears off and eventually you start wanting something else. Hindus teach that the
same thing happens to us throughout our adult lives.
For example, we will be happy some day in the future after we graduate from
college, after we marry the right person, after we make a bunch of money, after
we retire, until eventually we are on our death bed realizing that we have been
waiting for the next thing all of our lives. Hinduism teaches that we can
understand this process first and then eventually be liberated from it if we take up
the practices it advocates and find the liberation that is the true desire
masquerading as all of these smaller desires. So now let’s take a closer look at
this amazing religion and the intense and wonderful people of India.
Understanding Hinduism
Hinduism is centered in India, but it is not limited to India. There are now Hindus
throughout the world and one of the places you can go for your final is to a Hindu
temple. I hope some of you will take this opportunity to do so. And it is also
important to remember that not all people in India are Hindu. “The religion of
approximately 80 percent of the people of India is Hinduism” (MPMF, p. 54.)
There are also many Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, and most other religions are
represented. Travelers to India talk about what an amazing place it is, how
intense everything is and how Hindu temples are unlike other places of worship.
For example, if you walk into a Hindu temple one of the first things you will see
are sexual symbols representing the masculine and feminine dimensions of God.
“The first thing seen [in the temple] was a large lingam, the phallic pillar, which is
the expression of Shiva, set in an oval base called the yoni (a name for the
female organ), which is the expression of Shakti. Shiva is the absolute cosmic
Being, sheer life force, and Shakti is the absolute power of the phenomenal
universe, creative and destructive. Like sexuality, the Shiva-Shakti dynamic is
able to give the most stupendous joy and excruciating pain, to make and to rip
apart. In the presence of the lingam and yoni, one has the feeling that the Indian
worldview is deeply biological, tending always in the end to see the cosmos as a
great living organism” (MPMF, p. 54.) And truly the cosmos is alive like an
organism because the universe is the divine manifesting itself as the cosmos.
Everything is alive because everything is God. If this is true, how come it is not
obvious to most of us?
This is a good and important question. It is not obvious because we do not see
things as they truly are. For example, we have a fundamental sense of dualism. It
is almost like it is hard wired into our brains. What do I mean by dualism?
Dualism is the tendency to see everything in opposites and outside of our own
selves. For example, I am in here looking out my eyes at the world out there. Do
you see? “In here” and “out there” may be the first dualism. And then there are all
the others such as day and night, men and women, good and bad, cold and hot,
dry and wet, etc.
So how does Hinduism deal with this apparent reality of dualism? “To Hinduism,
the meaningful dualism is not of man and nature, or of mind and body, but of the
infinite or unconditioned and the finite or conditioned. Mind, the unconscious,
human society, and nature are all part of a biological continuum, all on one side
of the dualism, because they are all alike conditioned; only the breakthrough
which sees them all of at once and so makes the many one moves to the other
side” (MPMF, p. 55.) This breakthrough is the liberation referred to as the goal in
Hinduism.
Hindus believe that after this breakthrough you will see the world as it really is. A
metaphor for this is to imagine that a wave of water rises above the surface of
the sea and while it does so it falsely imagines that it is separate form the sea.
But once it breaks on the beach it once again becomes aware that it is a part of
the sea. But the truth, according to Hinduism is that the wave was never truly
separate from the sea. And in fact all of the water in all of the oceans is made up
of the same stuff, which we call H20.
Another metaphor I find helpful to try to understand or at least get a hold on this
profound teaching is to consider the “wetness” of water. Whether the water is in
the ocean or in a lake or river or rain it is all equally wet. You could have a glass
of water, a bath of water, or a swimming pool full of water. In any case the water
is not “wetter” in your glass than in the pool. For Hindus, the “wetness” of water is
a way of understanding how God, “the wet,” is present in all of material reality,
“the water,” even though we might not ordinarily be aware of this.
There are two ways to approach seeing the world as it really is. One way is from
the state of liberation, called moksha. And in fact the only reason we are aware
that there could be another way of viewing the world is because liberated people
have told us about this way. The way we see it as ordinary people, not yet
liberated, is through the eyes of dharma.
Dharma in Hinduism means the social order. It will mean something else in
Buddhism so you will want to keep the differences clear when we get to that
lecture. But dharma is a complicated word. “The word dharma is one of those
terms so broad as to require more an intuition than a precise definition. But
basically it can be understood as the social order of human civilization when it is
righteous, that is, in accord with the cosmic order, called rita, and it is the rites of
the priests that sustain both. But dharma also implies the righteousness and
duty of the people, themselves, in the sense that it means moral behavior that
upholds the social order.
Dharma includes ritual usages that uphold the great cosmic-social order by
demarcating one’s place in society or caste and sustaining the work of creation
by “fueling” the Divine forces that move it” (MPMF, p. 55.) In other words, we as
humans have an important role to play in helping the universe manifest as it
should, and one of those roles is to be liberated so that we can see it as it truly is.
Aims and Stages of Life
We will be taking a closer look below at different ways of understanding dharma
and looking at how different people are called to live out their practice of dharma.
But for now it is important to understand that living a life of dharma in Hinduism
means living a life in harmony with the way things are in their true sense. And
thus our lives become a form of art. “Actually, seeing the world as dharma means
regarding life as ritual. It means that one suppresses one’s individualistic
predilections in order to harmonize with the swing of the total pattern, so that the
world becomes like a great dance. There are rituals for rising, for brushing one’s
teeth, for bathing, for eating, for love, for study, for worship. One’s personal
dharma, svadharma, his or her particular steps in the great dance, are
determined by individual birth and karma” (MPMF, p. 55.) One of the first things
we have to do if we are to fulfill our dharma is to know what it is! That seems
obvious on the one hand, but a closer look reveals that it is more complicated
than that.
It is simple in that there are some things all people have to do such as follow the
basic moral laws that all the religions teach. But it is more complicated because
in Hinduism different people, at different points in their lives, have different roles
they are supposed to play. In other words, how we live out our basic moral
values will be different depending on things like whether we are men or women,
young or old. And this, in turn, is determined by our karma.
So now it is time to take a closer look at this word “karma.” “Humans and even
the gods of nature can live in accordance with or rebel against dharma, but they
cannot escape the consequences that dharma imposes through karma. Karma,
related to our word “car,” means basically action or activity, as in Karma-yoga,
which we shall see means the way of union with God through right action”
(MPMF, p. 56.)
“But action always implies cause and effect, for nothing in this world acts or
moves without an impelling cause. Therefore, karma also refers to that chain of
cause of effect set in motion by one’s deeds in the world. Sooner or later,
through inexorable laws of justice built into dharma, they rebound to affect one’s
own future as retribution or reward. As one sows, so one reaps. One could just
as well attempt to defy nature by jumping off a cliff and trying to fly, but you would
still be met by the consequences, [whether you “agree” with them or not].
Retribution or reward will include (but is not limited to) the state in which one is
reborn - as a monarch or slave, a god or a dog” (MPMF, p. 56.) And how we are
reborn determines what our dharma is. If we are reborn as a woman we will have
a different dharma than if we are reborn as a man. If a Hindu truly believes this
then two things become obvious. First, he or she wants to create good karma so
that he or she has a better rebirth. Why? Partly because a better rebirth might
mean less suffering, but mostly a better rebirth will mean a lifetime when one is
more likely to make spiritual progress.
And toward what is the Hindu progressing? Toward moksha, that is liberation.
And what are we being liberated from? Well, as said above, you are partly being
liberated from seeing things falsely, but ultimately you are being liberated from
the rounds of birth and death. In other words, a Hindu on a serious spiritual path
wants to break free from the need to reborn over and over again. “This is
moksha, “leaping out,” finding liberation. It is the final quest, after all other
quests have run out. The quest for moksha is undertaken under the guidance of
a guru, a spiritual guide who initiates the seeker into the path he is qualified to
impart and direct him along. ” (MPMF, p. 56.) Notice that this liberation is the final
quest.
If it is so important than why are so relatively few people seeking liberation?
Because there are so many other quests that attract our attention. “According to
the Laws of Manu (c. 100 c.e.), there are four basic goals that motivate humanity,
also known as the “Four Ends of Human Life”: pleasure (kama), gain (artha),
righteousness (dharma), and liberation (moksha). Each has its own place and,
indeed, its own “rituals,” such as those for kama in the well-known Kama-sutra.
But all except moksha finally exhaust themselves in craving for something
beyond that level” (MPMF, p. 56.) It is interesting that Hinduism does not
condemn other paths and other quests. If pleasure is your thing then you are free
to pursue it until you get bored and desire something else. However, there are
limitations to what you can do for pleasure if you don’t want to create bad karma.
For example, you can’t hurt other people in your quest for pleasure. But there is
nothing wrong with pleasure in and of itself.
It is only that pleasure is “empty” in that it will not bring the satisfaction you are
looking for. But until you truly believe and know that for yourself it will be difficult
to follow a spiritual path because your heart will be pulling you into the ways of
pleasure. But once you see that pleasure will not bring you what you truly want
then it is easier to let go of this desire. But Hinduism teaches that people who
give up the desire to focus their lives on the pursuit of pleasure don’t
automatically run off and become monks. First there are some other things we
must go through until, ultimately, we see that they are empty as well.
For example, when a person gives up pleasure as their main focus then he or
she will typically become interested in “gain.” This means that they will become
focused on what today we might call success. This would be the time of pursuing
a career and wanting to be good at what you do. It will be the time of making
money and gaining wealth. Notice that these can bring pleasures, but more often
than not one must put off immediate pleasures to focus on future goals. Once
again this is not seen as a negative thing, just empty of any lasting meaning or
significance. But if you are interested in fame and wealth and what those things
represent than you can pursue them as long as you don’t create bad karma in
doing so, just as with pleasure.
For many of us this pursuit doesn’t simply last for many years of our lives, it lasts
for many lives! But Hindus are fine with our taking our time because we are
ultimately on cosmic time and we have infinity before us. Nevertheless, we will
eventually get bored with even this and wonder if there is not something more to
life than simply accumulating things. So what is next?
When neither pleasure nor gain satisfies us then we are ready for righteousness.
And what is this path of righteousness? This is when you become interested in
making the world a better place. You are not satisfied with just having a good life
for yourself; you want other people to have a good life as well. When people start
to feel this they join organizations (or start them) that tackle some issue they care
about whether it be feeding the hungry, stopping child abuse, or trying to end
war. Many people devote the better parts of their life to just such a task or tasks
and it may be one of the original impulses of people who go into politics. While it
is true that some people just want power, other people truly want to bring about a
better world and see public service as one way to do that.
I think we can see an interesting possible case of just this sort of thing with a
modern famous American. I can’t say for sure because I don’t know the man, but
it seems Bill Gates could be a good metaphor if nothing else. Here is a man who
sought pleasure by doing what he loved. In the process he entered the second
stage and became the richest man in the world. For many of us enjoying all of
that money would be enough to keep us happy for any number of lifetimes! We
would just spend our time flying (in our private jet of course!) from one resort to
another.
But Bill Gates demonstrates the Hindu truth that eventually pleasure and success
will lose their attraction as our sole motivating force and we will want to do
something else with our lives. By dedicating the majority of the rest of his life to
running the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and trying to give away all of that
money to worthy projects that will help end suffering, he shows that he needs
something more in his life than just good times. This is an important stage and
much good is brought about in and for our world as a result of people getting
involved in causes that move them. But Hinduism teaches that even this will
eventually be unsatisfying.
At this point the person is finally ready to take a serious interest in the path of
liberation. He or she finds that there is a certain sadness in living even the best
life possible and they want to find out how to be released from “the wheel of
death and rebirth.” I won’t write more about liberation just yet as we will be
looking at this in detail below. But you might be interested to know that in India
these different paths available to us would ideally “be in tandem with the four
ashramas, also known as the “Four Stages of Life”: student, householder, hermit
or forest dweller, and renunciant” (MPMF, p. 57.) In other words these different
paths are somewhat coordinated with one’s age.
Student life is a time when pleasure might be most important until one marries
and has a family; then building a career and accumulating some wealth might
take precedence. It is usually also in the householder stage when you get
involved in civic and political and social justice causes. This is partly due to the
simple fact that having children often makes you aware of the kind of world they
will inherit and you want to make it the best place possible. But once you have
raised your children you could become a forest dweller, which meant you led a
retired life and you left it to younger people to fulfill the social duties of being a
member of society while you focused on the goal of liberation. Finally, after some
years of this you would let go of all your attachments to wealth and family and
become a renunciant, that is a wandering monk.
In reality today, not so many people follow this path of the four stages of life.
India has become more like the Western world and more secular and so some of
these traditions are changing. And in this regard it is good to remember that
when we break things down into nice categories like the four stages of life we
must be careful to not take them too seriously because there are all sorts of
exceptions. For example many people do not get interested in volunteering their
time and money until later in life when they actually have more time. And some
young people (could this be a result of past lives?) are primarily concerned not
with the first three paths, but with liberation. These are the folks who give their
lives to God at an early age and make spiritual progress their most important
goal. But as we will see, an interesting side note to making spiritual progress is
that people become interested in service and will often take on many of the tasks
of the third path. The difference is that they are doing it from a different
perspective, the perspective of liberation rather than the perspective that is
seeking happiness and personal gratification from serving others.
But even though the tradition of four stages is not as stable as it used to be
among Hindus, “the tradition is still alive and answers to something universal;
one feels many Westerners would be happier by accepting that in the last half of
life pleasure and gain should be put aside in favor of another quest, which can be
repressed but deep inside becomes more and more insistent” (MPMF, p. 57.) In
fact psychologists state that a lot of the unhappiness that people experience
when they retire in the Western world is because they are so identified with their
jobs that when they no longer have their jobs they feel empty and useless. It may
also be a result of the fact that what use to interest them, fun and success, no
longer offer the same satisfactions and so they don’t know what to do with
themselves. It seems to me that this would be a great opportunity to look at the
wisdom of Hinduism and see that the second half of life is a great time to turn
one’s focus to other goals.
Hindus believe that the most important goal is discovering the true nature of
yourself and the world around you. In other words to know the meaning of life is
the goal. And what is the meaning of life, and what is one’s purpose? “The
prevailing Hindu answer is that, in the great quiet of meditation, in hearing the
sonorous words of scripture, in the joy of devotion, the realization comes through
that there is only One - Brahman, Universal Being - God beyond all personalities
- and that “Thou art that” (MPMF, p. 57.) We will take a closer look at this
profound teaching that we are somehow a part of this one divine reality, but first I
want to review some of the history of Hinduism and this will provide us with the
necessary perspective to understand its wisdom.
Major Influences on and Developments in Hinduism through Time
The Religion of the Ancient Aryans
We do not know nearly enough about the earliest civilizations in India. In the
times of prehistory the indigenous people of India practiced the tribal religions
that were the religion of people all over the world from what we can tell. But as
communities moved away from hunting and gathering and took up herding and
agriculture civilization formed as we have come to know it in different places in
the world including India. “The Indus Valley, in what is now Pakistan, was the
scene of a remarkable civilization around 2500 to 1500 b.c.e” (MPMF, p. 58.)
There are only ruins for archeologists to study but these can reveal quite a lot
and what they do show is that they were remarkably advanced. One example is
their plumbing was so advanced that it was not seen again until Roman times
and then the modern world in terms of its sophistication. They had writing but this
writing is still unknown and until scholars can break the code our true knowledge
of this civilization is limited.
It is the next society that we know more about. “Around 1500 b.c.e., a new
people arose in India, and around this time the cities of the Indus Valley declined
into ruins” (MPMF, p. 58.) Were the original inhabitants overtaken or did they
merge with the newer folks? We simply do not know. For a long time scholars
have taught that the Aryans invaded these indigenous people and took over this
area of India. The Aryans are a mysterious people from the north who also
invaded Europe and thus these people are called the Indo-Europeans.
However, some scholars are now questioning this saying that the Aryans did not
invade India but were the original people of the Indus Valley. If that is so then all
we can tell for sure is that the civilization takes a definite turn around 1500 b.c.e.
For example, there is not much evidence in the original Indus Valley civilization of
religion, no temples were found. But after 1500 b.c.e. a religion begins that forms
the root of Hinduism. Perhaps in the future we will have more evidence and
discoveries that will reveal to us what occurred at the dawn of written history.
The earliest religious texts that we have are the Vedas. “The Aryans in India are
chiefly known as the people of the Vedas, the fundamental official scriptures of
Hinduism. “The oldest and most important of the Vedic scriptures is the Rig
Veda, hymns to the gods sung while sacrifices were being presented” (MPMF, p.
58.) All the rest of Hinduism builds on that foundation.
These earliest writings are not very philosophical. They mostly consist of hymns
sung to the gods and rituals that needed to be performed. From this alone we
would find it very difficult to know what the religion means and how it was
understood. But we can figure out a few things. For one thing, the rites were a
very specialized and specific series of movements and words performed only by
priests, the Brahmins, and only at specific times and places. Everything had to be
exact, so much so that if a mistake were made often the whole rite would have to
be repeated.
What does this tell scholars who study these kinds of rituals? It tells them that
“the Vedic rites were a sort of science; the old Brahmins saw themselves less as
enthusiastic lovers of their gods than as technicians making precise adjustments
in the cosmic order to correct an imbalance or produce some desired result. For
the [Vedic] sacrifice was nothing less than “making the world” and calling into life
the gods who rule over it. The purpose then was to meditate on what the cosmos
is like and to make adjustments in it in such a way as to keep it on a course or
direct its power in desired directions: prosperity, the inauguration of a king’s
reign, a son, long life, immortality in heaven” (MPMF, p. 63.) By bringing one’s
ritual actions and words into harmony with the greater harmony of the cosmos, a
priest was able to bring about an alignment with the true nature of things. In
some ways I think this process is like going to a chiropractor and getting an
adjustment on ones back. The idea is that the body is fine in itself but for various
reasons it can fall out of harmony and needs adjusting.
But we must always remember that there is a certain amount of speculation
when it comes to early Hinduism because we simply do not know enough. What
we do know is that people in India began to question the validity of these “outer”
rituals and rites, especially if they did not correspond to an inner disposition that
could make sense of them. How do we know this? Our understanding of
Hinduism really comes from the commentaries on the Vedas, the most famous of
which are called the Upanishads. It is here that we come across all sorts of
profound and amazing teachings about ourselves, God, and the nature of the
universe.
One of the key changes from the Vedas to the Upanishads is that it is made clear
that the outer ritual actions must be in harmony with inner spiritual work. “And
this interiorization of the sacrifice, in time, paved the way for philosophy and
yoga. Through the asceticism of fasting and concentration, one built up tapas
[interior heat], and this power could be used by the adept to bless or curse or to
gain cosmic vision. For the person was now the cosmos; one replaced with
oneself the cosmic sacrifice; all without was also within, the greater in the smaller
and the smaller in the greater. This is the secret of the Upanishads, the last and
most philosophical commentary of the Vedas.” (MPMF, p. 63.) The Upanishads
teach that we are one with the cosmos, and if this is true then this knowledge will
change everything about how we view the world and our place in it. And since
most of Hinduism rests on the insights of the Upanishads it is important we take
a closer look at them.
The Upanishads
We know that for hundreds of years the Upanishads were kept secret. They were
an oral teaching passed down from spiritual master to disciple when the master
saw that the disciple was ready for this transmission. They are hidden not for the
sake of being secretive, but because they are not understandable until a person
is mature enough to take them in. It is almost like trying to teach someone
calculus who has not first studied math, then geometry, etc. In other words we go
through stages of learning and we must get through each stage before we are
ready for the next. It was also felt that if a person was given this knowledge
before they were ready then they might distort and misunderstand it, and in doing
so cause harm to themselves or others.
And what was so special about this knowledge? Well, basically it taught people
that things were not the way they seemed. We live in a world where our
perceptions are off and as a result we are naturally confused about the real
source of meaning and happiness. The Upanishads teach us the true nature of
things such as: “This arcane knowledge was that, as different things made of clay
or gold go by different names, yet are still clay or gold, so all things are One
Existence under many names. At the beginning, this One Existence thought to
himself, “Let me grow forth.” “Thus out of [itself] it projected the universe; and
having projected out of itself the universe, [it] entered into every being. All that is
has [itself] in it alone. Of all things [it] is the subtle essence” (MPMF, p. 64.) This
means that creation is not outside of God. God is not off in some heaven
somewhere.
Rather existence, nature, and our very lives exist in God as God. If we do not
recognize this then we are like a hand saying it is not part of the body, or a wave
saying it is not a part of the ocean. In other words, if we have a sense of being
separate from God and other people then, according to the Upanishads, we are
suffering from an illusion. After this Upanishad describes the nature of ultimate
reality it then says “That Art Thou.” The soul of every human is God in that
person.
Just as when you drink a glass of grape juice you can no longer tell the individual
grapes apart from one another, but all you taste is their “grapeness,” so ultimate
reality is the core of all things. “This essence is Brahman. The great inner
knowledge to which the wise ones of the Upanishads came is “Atman is
Brahman.” Atman is the innermost self, the “soul”; Brahman is the universal One
Existent. “He is pure, he is the light of lights.” All persons and all things are
really Brahman, taking many shapes like fire taking the shape of every object it
consumes or air taking the shape of every vessel it enters” (MPMF, p. 64.) If we
don’t know this, truly know it in our depths, than we are not awake to the true
nature of our own amazing birthright. The goal of liberation then becomes the
goal of letting go of our false sense of being individuals separate and alone, and
letting our selves fall into our true nature and live our lives out of that place of
supreme consciousness.
This knowledge will change everything about how we think and live our lives and
one of the most profound changes will be in how we perceive death. Instead of
fearing death we will see that our death is simply taking off our body the way we
take off our clothes at night. Just as we know we are not our clothes, so we will
then know that we are not our body. The Katha Upanishad teaches: “that the Self
within is the imperishable, changeless Brahman, the One beyond and, at the
same time, in all these forms and changes. The mantra, or sound, that expresses
Brahman himself, and whose recitation can give rise to his consciousness, is
“OM.” The Upanishad continues:
“The Self, whose symbol is OM, is the omniscient Lord. He is not born. He does
not die. He is neither cause nor effect. This Ancient One is unborn,
imperishable, eternal; though the body be destroyed, he is not killed.
If the slayer think that he slays, if the slain think that he is slain, neither of them
knows the truth. The Self slays not, nor is he slain.
Smaller than the smallest, greater than the greatest, this Self forever dwells
within the hearts of all. When a man is free from desire, his mind and senses
purified, he beholds the glory of the Self and is without sorrow.
Though seated, he travels far; though at rest, he moves all things. Who but the
purest of the pure can realize this Effulgent Being, who is joy and who is beyond
joy.
Formless is he, though inhabiting form. In the midst of the fleeting he abides
forever. All-pervading and supreme is the Self. The wise man, knowing him in
his true nature, transcends all grief.
The Self is not known through study of the scriptures, nor through subtlety of the
intellect, nor through much learning; but by him who longs for him is he known.
Verily unto him does the Self reveal his true being.
By learning, a man cannot know him, if he desist not from evil, if he control not
his senses, if he quiet not his mind, and practice not meditation” (MPMF, p. 66.)
This is an amazing teaching and it is startling to realize that this is not some
recent poet, but the ancient knowledge of Hinduism. But if you take it seriously
you will most likely find yourself asking why we do not perceive the world this
way. Why do we see things as separate? We see things, but not God.
We cannot see God because it is God that is doing the seeing. “The ordinary
consciousness grasps only the things and not Brahman, for the simple reason
that Brahman is consciousness. In the same way, the eye cannot see itself or a
pair of pliers grab itself. Brahman plays hide-and-seek with itself in the world,
dwelling in the myriad things while elusive to human thought and dream. Why?
None of us groping about in the world of the many can fully know, just as those
inside a house can only know incompletely the whole plan and shape of the
structure. They would have to step through the door and look at it from outside
as well” (MPMF, p. 67.) This is really deep but it is also really simple. Just think
about the fact that you see everything with your eyes. And yet you can never see
your eyes! Isn’t that amazing? We can look in a mirror, I suppose, but even that
is not really seeing our eyes, but rather seeing reflections of our eyes.
But if ordinary consciousness cannot see God, is there a consciousness that can
come to know the truth taught in the Upanishads? Yes! “The sages of India tell
us there are doors that the wise and intrepid can find. As the end of the above
passage tell us, it is through meditation, that is, quieting the senses and the
mind, that the door to the infinite dimension can be unlatched. For it is the play
of the senses and the mind that turn one away from one’s true nature - Brahman
- to the phantasmagoria of many things to which feeling and thought attach
themselves like leeches” (MPMF, p. 67.) If the bad news is that our ordinary
reality is a world of misperception and thus a world of deceit, then the good news
is that we don’t have to just accept this condition and all of its unhappiness. We
can learn ways of practice to help us let go of ordinary consciousness and find
this supreme consciousness ourselves. We will look at these ways a little later. In
the meantime it may help to see our lives as a sort of drama.
Only it is a drama that we take for real most of the time. But with practice we can
see that the things that usually get us upset are simply like acts in a play that we
don’t like. But they have no inherent reality. “It is as though a play had been
going on for a very long time - not weeks and weeks but countless years. It has
been going on for so long that the actors have forgotten they are merely playing
parts and have come to identify themselves with the parts. They think that when
one actor murders another, the victim is really dead, and the red gore on the floor
is not ketchup but real blood. They think that when two members of the cast fall
in love or break up with tears and angry words, these are absolute and final
realities of life, not just events woven into the web of a greater drama with higher
purposes beyond their ken. So the show becomes so mad, with the actors’
involvement and anxiety rising out of control, that the prompter behind the stage
must send out messengers to remind them that it is only a play, to remind them
who they really are” (MPMF, p. 67.) These messengers are of course the great
saints and teachers of the Hindu tradition including the anonymous sages who
passed down (orally for so many years), the teachings now written down in the
Upanishads.
In this drama we call our life, there is one crucial difference that Hinduism makes
clear. Even the idea that there are many actors who have forgotten they are
actors is an illusion. “But the difference is that in the Upanishadic vision there are
not many actors but one actor - the One Mind - who is playing all the parts and is
also the prompter” (MPMF, p. 67.) In other words, there is only God. If that is
true, then why does God do all of this? Why does he create the world and go
through all of the pain and disappointment of this life? Well, there is no definitive
answer to this question as far as I know. It is one of the ultimate philosophical
questions. But there are many metaphors told about this. One of the simplest
statements I have heard is that “it is no fun having dinner by yourself every
night.” This metaphor means that God got bored being God, being all alone as
God, and so decided to forget he was God for a while and pretend he was other
things and other beings.
The result is our cosmos, our planet, and even our very selves. Why does it
seem so real then, this world of our ordinary experience? Well, have you ever
tried to play chess or another game against yourself? It is really difficult because
you know the moves you are going to make. In order to really play the game well
you would have to forget that you are playing yourself. So one of the Hindu ideas
is that this world is God playing a game where he has forgotten that it is himself
that he is playing with and therefore God becomes conscious as we become
conscious of our true self. Suddenly we remember that we are not separate, it is
not real, it is just a drama, a game. It can seem terrifying real at times, but that
doesn’t make it real. Have you ever had a horrible nightmare? It is so nice to
wake up and find out it is not real. Well, in Hinduism, a great life is a good dream
and a horrible life is a nightmare, but both lives are a dream. The dreams are not
real in themselves.
And what do we need to deeply realize this? We need wisdom, a special kind of
wisdom. “Prajna means wisdom, not in the sense of factual knowledge about all
sorts of things, which obviously would not apply, but that sharp, intuitive insight
that simply knows, without the confusion of words or ideas from the world of the
many. And what is known in this way, all that is known in this way, is Brahman”
(MPMF, p. 68.) This knowledge is like when you realize the “wetness” of all
water. It is all equally wet. A person who truly realizes this not just intellectually
but in their very being is free to be who they really are. “In the vision of the
Upanishads, such a person alone is a complete human being” (MPMF, p. 68.)
And as we will see this is the goal of all the Hindu spiritual practices.
The Laws of Manu
The Laws of Manu were a systemization of Hindu beliefs and culture about the
year 100 C.E. It incorporated into itself some things we have already studied
above like the stages of life and the different goals by which we can choose to
live. One of the things it legitimized was the caste system (varnas) that divides
people up into four groups in a hierarchical fashion. At the top is the priestly
caste, the Brahmins, followed by the noble class of rulers, called the kshatriyas.
The vaishyas is the caste of the merchants and trades people and the shudras is
the caste of peasants and servants. Finally, the lowest caste, making up about
20 percent of the people, is the harijans or untouchables. These people often
exist at the poverty level and are allowed to do only the dirtiest forms of work
such as cleaning bathrooms, sweeping the streets, and working with things that
would make the average Hindu ritually unclean such as working with corpses.
Originally the caste system might have had something to do with a natural
selection of people finding their place in life, but it eventually became a very rigid
system with all of the problems of racism. “The caste system, with all its
attendant evils, is a product of Aryan dominance. The top three varnas are the
original three Aryan social groups, the shudras are descendants of indigenous
peasant peoples conquered and subjugated by the Aryans. The large population
outside the four varnas altogether, popularly called harijans or untouchables often living miserable lives even today - seem in large part descended from tribal
groups brought into the Hindu system” (MPMF, p. 72.)
The Laws of Manu were adopted so that Hindus could make some sense of how
to pursue two seemingly opposed causes; being good members of society and
going off on your own to pursue liberation. Our responsibility to others is the way
of dharma and our responsibility to seek liberation is the way of moksha. The
Laws of Manu allow one to do both by saying that there are different things
required at different points in your life. If you want liberation then you must do
your best at whatever state of life you find yourself in, until you reach a later
stage of life when you can pursue liberation full time. This will necessarily imply
that there are different ways of seeking God and liberation depending on one’s
state and stage of life.
The Yoga Sutras
When it comes to liberation, Buddhism taught (as will see) a profound method of
“waking up.” Yoga was, in many ways, the Hindu response. “The teaching on
Yoga was synthesized in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (c. 300 C.E.)” (MPMF, p.
74.) Yoga was a way of working with the whole of human nature, body,
emotions, and mind in a holistic and integrated manner. There are many types of
yoga. I want to focus on four main types; which one works best has more to do
with your own temperament than the yoga method itself. There is Bhakti yoga,
Jnana yoga, Karma yoga, and Raja yoga.
Underlying all the yogas, however, is the basic exercises that have become
famous in the Western world, known as Hatha yoga. The idea is that the body is
a crucial part of our human experience and we need its cooperation in order to
receive liberation. By exercising and stretching the body in specific ways we
increase our ability to do spiritual practices. “Thus, hatha yoga, the physical yoga
of postures and breathing exercises, plays a major role in the spiritual quest.
Rightly understood, breath and body are indispensable tools. Brought under
control of spirit as precision instruments, they can facilitate states of
consciousness that evoke the goals of spirit” (MPMF, p. 74.)
In the Western world, yoga is often taught as simply a form of exercise. But
physical exercises are only the beginning and the foundation for much more
intense forms of spiritual practice. In the Hindu system yoga is the basis for a
deep and amazing spirituality. But before I talk about the four yogas, lets first
look at the yogi path described in the Yoga Sutras because it applies to all of the
yoga paths.
If you want to follow a yoga path then there are different aspects to this path. The
first two are following the positive and negative moral restrictions. That is, you
must be on a basically good and morally decent path before you attempt yoga.
Most of these morals are common to all the world’s religions. You simply must
make an effort to be good and ethical. Then come two steps where you learn
breathing exercises and bodily postures that will help one channel the energies
of the body in a way that promotes the next steps toward liberation. This consists
of what we called above hath yoga.
The fifth step is to learn to disengage from your outer senses so that you can pay
full attention to the “inner, subtle ways of awareness. Just as a blind person
develops especially sharp touch and hearing, so yoga tells us that when all the
gross senses are withdrawn, other undreamed-of capabilities latent in the human
being begin to stir” (MPMF, p. 74.) Sometimes a person can become so
fascinated with these movements into what we might call psychic powers that
they can be tempted to get caught up in them and use them in a wrong or even
harmful fashion. The idea seems to be that if you develop yourself you will come
into sources of power that are only latent in most humans. But you must never
forget that your goal is not more power, but rather liberation. And if your goal is
liberation then you don’t want to get trapped on the way. It is also good to note
that these sources of power are not considered supernatural, but simply the
higher unfolding of human potential.
Just as sex and money are the downfall of many people who get trapped by the
pleasures of the world, so spiritual powers can lead to what some sages have
called a “spiritual materialism.” “But these powers called siddhis, doubtless
tempting to many, are to be given up for an even greater goal - true liberation of
the true self. This is the work of the last three steps, which are interior:
dharmana, concentration; dhyana, meditation; and samadhi, the absolutely
equalized consciousness of perfect freedom” (MPMF, p. 74.) The goal of
liberation means that we should not get stuck before we reach samadhi, which is
true realization and liberation. Now let’s look briefly at the four main yogas.
Bhakti yoga is the path of love and devotion. It is often considered the most direct
route into the divine for nothing opens our beings like the experience of love.
Devotion is the antidote to the selfishness of the ego, the false self. It allows us to
get outside of ourselves and focus on the other. In bhakti yoga the yogi may
focus his or her attention on a specific manifestation of God like Krishna, or it
may be focused on one’s Guru. But the results are the same. Our hearts expand
and break open.
Jnana yoga is the path of the mind for those who are intellectually inclined. It is
the path of prayer and study. One studies the scriptures and tries to learn all he
or she can. But in the end, one realizes that it is not an accumulation of facts that
is important but the depth of insight attained. In other words, one is not simply
interested in knowledge, but in wisdom. And one of the things that wisdom
teaches is that our knowledge is limited. And so in an ironic fashion the path of
study becomes the path of seeing the limitations of rationality and logic and
recognizing that the finite can never understand the infinite.
Karma yoga is the path of action and service. It is the path of practicing
goodness. Most things we do for some ulterior reason, even if it is a good
reason. But with karma yoga you serve only for the purpose of serving. It is “God
in me serving God in others.” Another key component is that you serve while
practicing nonattachment. That is, you do the best you can do with full love and
compassion, but then you leave the results to God. You don’t look for rewards or
for thanks. Serving is its own reward.
Raja yoga is the path of meditation. All yoga leads to a type of meditation, but
this is the yoga that really puts the focus on working with meditation with the
same urgency as Buddhism. One seeks liberation by seeing clearly into the true
nature of things and this is done better by introspection than by gazing without.
There is a new form of yoga being taught by the twentieth century sage Sri
Aurobindo called Integral Yoga. Integral Yoga is the path of combining all four
yogas the way an athlete might use cross training to improve his or her health.
The athlete might specialize in football or soccer, but he or she lifts weights, runs,
and stretches as well as practicing the skills of their game to maintain overall
health and fitness. Sri Aurobindo taught that if a person combines the yogas in
an intelligent manner he could increase the speed and efficiency of all of them.
This also requires a certain amount to flexibility in that you have to be sensitive to
what is going on in you so that you can fine tune things all the time. Perhaps
today you need more raja yoga while tomorrow you will need to do more service.
The idea is to incorporate all of the wisdom available and then pout it to good
use.
Hinduism found in both the Laws of Manu and in the Yoga Sutras gets its perfect
and succinct summation in the Bhagavad Gita.
The Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita is a great summary of the Hindu vision of reality. But it also
contains a timeless and universal message that has caused it to be loved by
people everywhere. The English title might be translated as “Song of the Blessed
One” or “Song of the Adorable One.” The adorable one is Lord Krishna, who is
God in human form. That is, Krishna is an avatar. An avatar is God directly
“descended” into human form. He or she appears on earth periodically--in
different forms, under different names, in different parts of the world--to restore
truth in the world and to shower grace on the lovers of God. The Gita is the song
of Krishna to humanity. In many ways the Gita is to Hindus what the Gospels are
to Christians.
In the Hindu tradition, Krishna is worshipped as an avatar of Vishnu, that aspect
of the one indivisible Brahman who preserves and protects the creation. Many
Hindus regard Krishna as a universal savior figure comparable to (or even
identical with) such world teachers as Jesus and the Buddha. In the Gita, Krishna
is a companion and teacher, as well as the god who commands devotion.
Krishna is the incarnation of cosmic power that periodically descends to earth to
accomplish the restoration of order in times of chaos.
The teaching of the Gita emerges from a battlefield conversation between Lord
Krishna and the warrior prince Arjuna. The war is between two royal families and
is said to have taken place about five thousand years ago. The long story of how
this conflict came about is told in the Mahabharata, India’s vast national epic
(twelve times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, it is the longest
poem ever written). The Bhagavad Gita is the sixth chapter.
In the story, Arjuna is getting ready for battle when he sees the destruction about
to be unleashed and falls into despair. He throws down his weapons and gives
up just before the most important and decisive battle. The Gita is mainly
Krishna’s response to this evasion of Arjuna’s duty (for he is of the warrior caste).
This is not necessarily an advocacy of violence and warfare. What it mainly
seems to be teaching is that we cannot find liberation by avoiding the duties of
our caste.
In Arjuna’s case he must fight, but he can do his duty (karma yoga) while resting
in the fact that the soldiers on both sides are only acting out the play of God. In
other words, no one is killed and no one kills (in the ultimate sense). All is God
and in the end all Arjuna needs to worry about is doing the right thing and leave
the results to God.
“Some say this Atman [the soul]
Is slain, and others
Call It the slayer:
They know nothing
How can It slay…
Or who shall slay It?
Know this Atman…
Unborn, undying,
Never ceasing,
Never beginning
Deathless, birthless,
Unchanging forever,
How can It die
The death of the body?” (Quoted in MPMF, p. 75.)
Needless to say this is a problem for many spiritual people who struggle with
what to make of it. And here we come upon the problem of interpreting the
scriptures of the world. Some people take it literally and see that war is justified.
Others, such as Gandhi who loved both the Gita and nonviolence, interpret the
Gita as a religious allegory for the battle we must each do in our soul to conquer
our inner enemies such as fear and selfishness.
It might also be thought that then you cannot achieve liberation as a member of
the warrior caste. Surely you must be a member of the priestly caste and keep
your hands clean of the blood of war. But Krishna teaches that it is not what we
do but how we do it and in what spirit we do it that matters. Karma yoga teaches
us that the different castes and different stages of life all have different purposes
and we must fulfill our purpose to the best of our ability. “It is all a matter of how
one lives in the world. The object is to become one with the Absolute, so that
nothing in one’s thoughts or deeds causes separation. But if Brahman is truly All,
the world of the activist is just as much God as that of the recluse. Brahman is
expressed through dharma as much as moksha if it is truly All - in the caste laws
and all of life’s stages together. One can realize God in acting as much as in
meditation, if one’s actions are as selfless as meditation and as passionless”
(MPMF, p. 75.)
It really comes down to the strong faith of Hindus who trust that God is working in
the events of their lives to bring about his will. Hindus do not believe they should
be dictating to God about how to run the world, but rather cooperating with the
divine process believed to be always at work in all people and situations.
We have already seen that in karma yoga the goal is to do what you need to do
without being attached to the results. Where could this be more difficult than in a
battle where one might have to give up his or her life? And yet the more difficult a
path is the more we can see how spiritually fit you must be to put it into practice.
“The point is to be in the world impersonally, objectively - doing not out of
personal desire for the fruits of one’s actions but fearlessly and dispassionately,
as it were by proxy for someone else, motivated solely by the duty and
righteousness of the act. Then, with one’s feelings not getting in the way, one’s
actions are a part of the great dance of the cosmos, of the life of the whole social
and natural organism, and are as quiet and far-reaching as meditation” (MPMF,
p. 76.)
“You have the right to work, but for the work’s sake only. You have no right to
the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in
working. Never give way to laziness either.
Perform every action with your heart fixed on the Supreme Lord. Renounce
attachment to the fruits. Be even tempered in success and failure; for it is this
evenness of temper which is meant by yoga.
Work done with anxiety about results is far inferior to work done without such
anxiety, in the calm of self-surrender. Seek refuse in the knowledge of Brahman.
They who work selfishly for results are miserable” (MPMF, p. 76.)
Even if we cannot accept these teachings as spiritual truth, they are good
teachings about stress reduction! After all, most of our stress comes from trying
to control other people, situations, and things. And yet we can’t control all of
these things, so if we can realize this then we can let go and experience a lot
more peace in our lives. If we can take this teaching as spiritual truth then we are
up against the problem of trusting in the divine. Can we really believe that the
divine has everything under control? Can we “let go and let God” as the popular
saying goes? Well, we must try if we are interested in the path of karma yoga.
The Gita has so much more in it as well. It talks about the other yogas and
teaches that we must love God with everything we have. It teaches that God is
personal and is involved with us intimately and intensely. The Gita is a short book
and I encourage you all to read it.
Advaita Vedanta
The best introduction to Hindu thought for many people is Hindu philosophy
rather than Hindu religion. In many ways they are one, but the Hindu religion can
be so exotic, and even extreme, for some people that it is difficult to penetrate
and find the essence. So it is important we understand the tradition and thought
known as Advaita Vedanta. “The tradition of Hindu philosophy that has generally
been most prestigious in India and is best known outside that country is Vedanta.
The word literally means “the end (i.e., culmination) of the Vedas”; the school
essentially centers itself on the teaching of the Upanishads, the last and most
philosophic of the Vedas, concerning Brahman as one with Atman and as the
Sole Existent. Other texts, such as the earlier Vedas and the Bhagavad-Gita, are
interpreted in this light” (MPMF, p. 78.)
In many ways Vedanta would be a better name for the religions of India, as it
would tie it more directly to its scriptures rather than the Indus River. Vedanta
has become very popular in the West, perhaps because it offers a profound
philosophy that can also speak articulately about the mystical and spiritual
aspirations of humanity. Of the different schools of Vedanta, there is one that has
had the most profound influence on religious dialogue. It is called Advaita
Vedanta, which means “nondualism.” I hope its founder, Shankara, will be as
well known as Plato one day because he is one of the wise voices we need to
hear.
Even if we disagree, our thought will be deeper and finer after the encounter with
this sage. Shankara “argued forcefully and uncompromisingly for radical oneness
in a universe of apparent manyness. Commenting on the Upanishads, Shankara
brought home in metaphysical language its intuition that there is only one reality,
Brahman. Only Brahman exists; all else - every idea, form, and experience - is
“superimposed” on Brahman owing to our avidya, ignorance of the true nature of
reality. What we see ordinarily is maya, often translated “illusion,” but illusion
that has to be understood in the right sense, for maya is an appearance of
Brahman and so is not unreal. The world is really there; it is not on a level with
the pink elephants of the proverbial drunk. But it is maya when the world is not
seen for what it is. Shankara liked to use the simile of a man who saw something
lying on the ground and jumped, thinking it was a snake; he looked again and
saw it was only a piece of rope. In the same way, we really see something when
we see the world, but we misapprehend what it is we see; we think it is really
many separate things, when actually it is but one “thing” Brahman” (MPMF, pp.
78-79.) People often misunderstand Hinduism to be teaching that the world is not
real, that everything is an illusion. But this is not true, so you need to be careful
and precise here. The world is real, but our perception of it is faulty, limited, and
conditioned.
Shankara also had an influence on everyday life in Hinduism because he was
active in reviving Hindu monasticism and devotional practices for the laity and his
philosophy laid the foundations for a renewed intellectual life that could compete
successfully with Buddhist philosophy as a way of thought that made a great deal
of sense to people. Another powerful method of transformation that was taught
by the Hindus that became a force in Buddhism as well is Tantrism.
Tantrism
“Tantrism is a “complex and mysterious set of spiritual attitudes and practices”
(MPMF, p. 79.) Its basic premise is that if nothing is separate from God then
nothing is unholy. Therefore all things can lead one to God because God is in
everything. The usual religious attitude is to draw distinctions, sometimes sharp
ones, between what is holy and what is secular, even evil. And there are good
reasons for this. The “dark” side of life can, and does, lead many people astray
and off the path to liberation.
For example, just think about drugs and how common they are today, both street
and legal ones. Used properly they can help heal us and make us feel good, but
used improperly they become the source of great misery not only for those
abusing them but also for many of their friends and family. While Tantrism has
some practices that may shock people, it always good to keep in mind that
traditionally these practices were only undertaken under qualified guidance and
in special conditions. They were the last step, not the first, on one’s spiritual
journey. For a long time they were kept secret because of the fear that this
teaching would be misunderstood and misused.
What is it exactly? “Tantrism [is] a road to enlightenment through powerful
initiations, “shock therapy” techniques, the negation of conventional morals and
manners, magical-seeming acts and chants, and the use of sexual imagery and
ritual. Tantrism seeks through radical means to induce powerful consciousnesstransforming experiences” (MPMF, p. 79.) One of its attractions is that it was
supposed to put you on the “fast track” toward enlightenment. Supposedly you
make the progress in one lifetime that might take you many other lifetimes if you
simply followed traditional paths. But like the nark who goes undercover, it is all
too easy to be destroyed by what you are doing as it is to make progress. So it is
recognized as a risky path.
The goal is to become one with God through initiation by a spiritual master and
practice of special meditations and mantras that allow you to merge your energy
with the energy of the divine in a specific form. “In this process, the Tantrist
seeks to experience the totality, the unity beyond all opposites” (MPMF, p. 80.)
As part of the process one may indulge in things that are outside of conventional
morality, such as sexual encounters outside of marriage, eating meat (a big
obstacle for Hindu vegetarians), and drinking alcohol.
In different ways you try to go past the normal dualism that says “this is good and
this is bad.” In the sexual rituals you are trying to combine, in Chinese terms, the
yin and the yang, and sexual intercourse becomes a way of working with these
two energies until one can see and experience that they are different
manifestations of the one energy that is God. “But the rite cannot do this
sacramentally, nor can moral reversal be spiritually efficacious, nor the sexual
energies transmuted to spiritual realization, until the novice is well advanced in a
tantric sadhana, or path. Unless one has truly negated self and identified with
the god, sex is merely lust and not participation in Divine mysteries” (MPMF, p.
80.)
The teachings on kundalini energy and the chakras stems from this tantric form
of Hinduism. Kundalini energy is believed to reside in the body at the base of the
spine. Through special exercises guided by a master a person is able to work
with this energy and help it to rise through the body through the seven chakras.
In doing so one gradually awakens to true realization.
Many forms of Eastern medicine are based on learning to work with the subtle
energies in the body that the West is only beginning to understand and study
seriously. But subtle energy work is a large component of the holistic or
alternative medicine and health practices becoming popular today. Tantra is
almost always reserved for the few who can find a teacher and are considered
worthy. One is never to undertake tantric practices on one’s own, but always
under the guidance of a spiritual master. The common person in India practices a
form of religion known as devotional Hinduism.
Devotional Hinduism
I am not going to write a great deal on devotional Hinduism because the gist of it
is covered in the above section of bhakti yoga. “In Hinduism, devotionalism is the
spiritual path of bhakti - the way to liberation or moksha through losing one’s
egocentricity in love for the chosen god. Love is, for most people, the human
drive in which one most readily forgets (if only now and then) self-centeredness”
(MPMF, p. 81.) It is the path of the heart and because of this it is considered the
most direct path and the path that is most blessed by God who cannot turn away
from our attempts to give ourselves completely to the divine.
“Through the love of gods, whom one can visualize and adore, but who are
themselves not separate from the absolute, one shares their nonseparateness,
for one becomes what one loves” (MPMF, p. 81.) There seems to be a growing
awareness in modern psychology that confirms the basic premise here: that
which we focus on we tend to bring into our lives. And it plays very nicely into the
basic Hindu teachings on karma. For example, if we want more peace in our lives
then we must think more peaceful thoughts and do more peaceful things.
People are free to devote themselves to whatever gods they choose. Hinduism is
very liberal on this point. It is not the god you choose who is important (because
all gods are simply manifestations of the one Brahman), but the devotion and
amount of heart you put into it. “The devotional gods are best thought of as
belonging to two families - the Vishnu family and the Shiva family. The difference
can be thought of in this way; Vishnu and his religious system are somewhat like
the Western concept of God. In that the masculine figures are heroic and
dominant and the feminine figures rather demure; Vishnu as God represents not
so much the cosmic totality as the forces on behalf of order or righteousness. He
descends from highest heaven in incarnate form whenever righteousness
declines, working to restore good in the world. Krishna of the Bhagavad-Gita is
one such descent of Vishnu” (MPMF, p. 82.) We have seen that Krishna is a
major source of focus in Hinduism.
For those who tend to see God in the divine feminine more readily than the divine
masculine, there is another family of gods. “In the Shiva system, God is, above
all, simply the Absolute, and so the union of all opposites - creation and
destruction, male and female. Shiva and Shakti (the feminine consort) thus have
equal prominence, and she is far from unassertive. But although they may
appear in visions, they are not usually claimed to be born incarnate among
humans. Shiva is like the Brahman of the Upanishads personified” (MPMF, p.
82.) Many Hindus have a devotion to God as the Divine Mother. This seems to
be an aspect that is felt as missing by many people in the Western world, where
God is more often portrayed as a father.
Some people would argue that it does not really matter. God is beyond gender
roles and these arguments are simply about semantics. But other people argue
that it does matter because the way we see God has an influence on how we
treat people. If more people saw God in a feminine mode then we might see less
inequality and injustice between the sexes. It is an interesting topic and
something we will hear about more and more as women start to be heard from
around the world. Perhaps a feminine face of God would give us access to
different perspectives and therefore different energies.
One of the greatest sources of devotion in Hinduism is Krishna. “Krishna appears
in three basic modes: the marvelous infant, the Divine Lover, and the great hero
of the Bhagavad Gita. Legs flexed and eyes half-closed, Krishna, as divine lover,
would sound his flute deep in the woods, the gopis (milkmaids) burning with
intermingled human and divine love, would leave their legitimate husbands and
dash into the forest of delights to revel with the young god. For the devotees of
Krishna agreed with the troubadours of the Age of Chivalry in the West that
extramarital love is a closer simile for the love of the worshipper for God than the
nuptial tie, since the former is a passion freely given for the beloved’s sake with
no heed for the cost in shame and suffering, while the latter was (in old India and
medieval Europe) probably a legal bond arranged in childhood by the families
without regard for the individual’s feelings” (MPMF, p. 83.)
Once again we see that in bhakti yoga what is most important is the free giving
and surrendering of oneself with no reservations. We would be misreading these
stories if we take them as excuses for breaking faith with those we love. These
stories are to guide us to a higher consciousness, not a more self-centered
consciousness. “This is the very heart of Krishna bhakti devotion - this loss of self
in the Divine through the rapture of passionate love, until oneself, others, and the
whole world become Krishna” (MPMF, p. 84.) Devotional Hinduism still plays a
large role in modern Hinduism, and it is to that subject that I now want to turn.
Modern Hinduism
When most people think of the Hindu religion they might very well think of the
great and beautiful temples and perhaps of rituals led by priests. But we must not
forget that the great majority of people who practice Hinduism do so quietly at
home rather than in official and public worship. Most homes will have small
shrines where statues are kept of the favorite manifestations of the Divinity.
Worship begins art sunrise with a hymn to the sun that probably goes all the way
back to the nature religions of the indigenous people. And then worship, prayer,
and often meditation will follow at the shrine in one’s home. And of course
religion infiltrates all aspects of the stages of life such as weddings and funerals.
Modern India has had to face many changes and challenges from having
encountered the values and temptations of the modern Western world. But it has
survived all previous challenges and so there is no reason that it won’t continue
to find new ways to express itself in the modern world. The Bengali saint and
holy man, Ramakrishna (1836-1886), was one of those responsible for the
formation of modern Hinduism after its encounter with modernity. One of the
things he brought was a more open and loving attitude to what could be learned
from others, rather than the more traditional attitude of “circling the wagons”
when one feels under threat by too many changes happening too quickly.
Ramakrishna was “aware of modern religious pluralism, and after experiencing
from within several religious traditions, including Islam and Christianity, to his
own satisfaction, he taught that all religions are of the same essence and are
paths to God-realization. Disciples of his, particularly Swami Vivekananda (18631902), brought his message to the West. In his writings and in the work of the
Ramakrishna Order, Vivekananda did much to make Vedantic Hinduism and the
mysticism of Ramakrishna an intellectually vigorous and compassionate faith
relevant to the modern world both in India and the West” (MPMF, p. 95.) Another
important person that you probably know more about than any other Hindu
leader is Mohandas Gandhi.
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Indian Independence, and Its Aftermath
“Undoubtedly the most significant of all modern Hindus is Mohandas K. Gandhi
(1869-1948), who led the movement for Indian independence through “truth
force” (MPMF, p. 95.) Gandhi is an interesting person in that while completely
Indian in his view of the world he was at the same time trained in the West
(England) as an attorney. So he was able to move within two worlds and this
would come in very handy as he tried to combine spirituality and politics. He is
most famous for using nonviolent means to win India’s independence from Great
Britain. But he was involved in many aspects of justice work. For example, he
wanted to have the caste system outlawed, and this happened with the founding
of modern India.
One story shows how he was able to use traditional Hindu teachings to help form
a more modern and compassionate Hinduism. One outcome of the teachings on
karma and the caste system was that many people who suffered intensely from
poverty and disease did not receive help because it was felt that this suffering
was their karma. In other words, to interfere and try to help them would prevent
that suffering person from “burning up” their karma. Therefore the best thing you
could do was to ignore them.
Well, Gandhi came along and taught that this was a great perversion of Hindu
philosophy as it was used to not only ignore suffering but even, at times, to
perpetuate suffering. Gandhi did not throw out the traditional teaching, but he
changed the emphasis and in doing so brought compassion back into the mix.
He said that if someone was suffering it might very well be because of his or her
karma, but nevertheless it was our karma to help him or her. In other words, we
are required to take care of one another and bring justice to this world.
Gandhi was successful in many ways, but he may also have seen his movement
fail in other ways. Gandhi had been a big adherent of the idea that truth existed
in all of the religions and that people should not let religious differences divide
them. In this sense he was much like Ramakrishna. So he was heartbroken
when India was partitioned into two different countries upon winning
independence.
This division was primarily along religious lines with predominantly Muslim
Pakistan becoming separate from primarily Hindu India. There was much
suffering and killing in this partition and Gandhi did all he could to stop the
violence. As a result of his efforts to work with the Muslims, a Hindu
fundamentalist who felt that Gandhi had gone too far assassinated him in 1948.
But as Gandhi died he forgave his killer and passed away repeating his mantra
showing that after a lifetime of spiritual practice that he was able to die with the
same serenity that he had led a powerful political movement.
For all of Gandhi’s holiness, he was still a man of his times and this resulted in
his having a patriarchal worldview. Many people felt that as much as he loved his
wife and family he did not treat them with the same concern that he treated
others, even strangers. His wife for example, was made to obey his wishes and
had to put up with many of his extreme practices such as his wish to practice
celibacy. So this will be an appropriate time to look at the issue of women in
Hinduism.
Women in Hinduism
Modern India has embraced many of the tenets of the West including equal rights
for all. But as we have seen in the United States, it is one thing to have the ideals
and another thing to put them into practice. So, for example, while the caste
system has been made illegal it still plays a large part in the lives of many
Hindus. “What has been granted by law is easily taken back by custom and
tradition with a firm hold on the minds of the people” (MPMF, p. 105.) The same
can be said for the role of women.
For a variety of reasons women have been subordinated to men and put down as
a temptation. It was even taught that a woman could not achieve liberation as a
woman. Instead she must gain enough good karma (by serving her husband) to
be born again as a man. Only then could she achieve liberation. Some of this
devotion to husband was so extreme that not only was the wife to treat her
husband as a god while he lived, but she was also to throw herself upon his
funeral pyre when he was being cremated. This practice is now outlawed, but it
still happens on occasion.
You would think because of the large role the feminine plays in both Hindu
mythology and Hindu philosophy that this would have offset some of the worse
aspects of patriarchy, but it has not. What it has done, however, is given modern
Indian women the textual support to back up their desire for changes. And new
studies are coming out demonstrating that women may have been more active in
Hinduism than previously thought.
For example, most of the religious texts talk about the brahminical ideal. But the
Brahmins were at the top of the caste system and therefore did not adequately
represent all Hindus. The lower down in the caste system you were, the more
equality there seemed to be between men and women. In addition, the more we
have women scholars investigating and interviewing Hindu women the more we
are gaining insights into what Hinduism may look like in the future. But one thing
Hindu women having going for them is that Hindu philosophy is very clear that
both female and male energies are needed and that these energies are a
problem when they are not balanced.
Many changes are evident in India, but especially in the cities. In the countryside
it is taking longer for reform movements to take hold. But there has been positive
change that needs to be noted. “Women of all political and religious stripes are
forging ahead in India. Exceptional Indian women have opened the doors to
education and have taken prominent positions in the professions, business, and
government. Indira Gandhi (1917-1984), prime minister two separate of
independent India, served as a reminder of the many opportunities now open to
women in India. Similarly, religious women are also finding doors opened to them
that were previously closed. Many monasteries in India now welcome women
ascetics into their folds, and many women have become spiritual teachers in their
own right” (MPMF, p. 107.)
“Further, many respected Hindu masters have worked for gender parity and have
hand-picked women successors for their movements, such as Gurumayi
Chidvilasananda, successor to Swami Muktananda, and Mathru Sri Sarada,
successor to Swami Lakshmana. Moreover, the worship of the Divine Mother is a
growing phenomenon and is seen by many Hindus as reflected in women saints
such as Sarada Devi, wife of Ramakrishna, who took over the order after his
death, and Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982), who is considered to have been an
incarnation of the goddess Kali. This has led some to believe that women will be
an even greater political and religious force in the years to come. The outcome of
these contemporary political and religious struggles in today’s India is uncertain.
One thing is certain, however; Hindu women can be heard loud and clear at the
forefront of the debate” (MPMF, p. 107.) We live in exciting times because it
seems that everything is changing, including the role and expectations of women.
Some people welcome these changes and some fight them. I wonder if the huge
growth and growing influence of fundamentalist movements all over the world in
all the different religions is not just such a response to the sense of threat that all
change brings with it. It will be fascinating to see what happens. I like to be
positive and see us moving forward, but if we are to move forward any time soon
it seems as it might have to happen after a great confrontation between these
forces that welcome change and those forces that feel betrayed by the changes;
for they will do all they can to prevent what they see as the breakdown of
traditional society.
The integral approach will be to see where both sides are right. Perhaps there
are changes we should not make. There are qualities and standards we may
wish to preserve. On the other hand, not all change is bad, as history confirms.
Many times people have felt threatened by changes only to find that the changes
not only were not as horrible as expected, but actually brought about a lot of
good. Look at major changes such as the ending of slavery. A way of life for
thousands of years came to an end and yet life has gone on and the vast
majority of people are ashamed that it took so long to get rid of slavery.
Hinduism in America
A small amount of Hindu literature was available during the nineteenth century
and it influenced some important American thinkers, especially those in the
Transcendentalist Movement, such as Emerson and Thoreau, but it was not
really a well-known religion or philosophy before 1893. “The World Parliament of
Religions at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 marked the introduction of
Hinduism to America” (MPMF, p. 111.) This was almost solely due to the
charisma and teaching of Swami Vivekananda, the disciple of Ramakrishna, who
I wrote about above.
Vivekananda’s presentation of Vedanta and then his work in establishing the
Vedanta Societies helped make Hinduism attractive and interesting to
Westerners and led the way to other Hindu movements making their appearance
in America. Two of the most famous are the Self-Realization Fellowship and the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (the “Hare Krishnas”). Many
people were introduced to Hinduism by the interest the Beatles showed in
Transcendental Meditation.
“Hindu ideas have almost imperceptibly become woven into American culture at
places where there is concordance. For example, Vedanta’s tolerant universal
view of religion has found a kindred spirit in certain forms of liberal Christianity
and Judaism, no doubt enriching each. And so-called “New Age” religious
movements and the Theosophical Society have also benefited from the wisdom
of India. Even certain words, such as mantra, yoga, and chakra have been
incorporated into the American lexicon as quasi-religious practices permeating
American society” (MPMF, p. 112.) Many people support beliefs and practices
such as vegetarianism with Hindu ideas about life and health. And while Hindu
clothing has not made a large impact on American fashion, Indian food has come
into its own.
Indian immigration has been closed and opened at different times so there is not
a large amount of Hindus from India in the United States. But there are some
here and they build beautiful temples as they try to adapt to life in America. It is
difficult for traditional Hindus to know how to remain faithful to their tradition while
at the same time embracing what they can of America with its very different value
system, especially regarding freedom of expression and sexuality. But they are
managing to do what all religious people have to do in a free society, and that is
to find a balance between living the way you want and allowing others to live the
way they want. Hindu temples do welcome interested visitors and I hope some
you will take the opportunity of visiting a temple for your final project.
The Negative Side of Hinduism
Hinduism has had, and continues to have, its own struggles with what it means to
be faithful to its teachings and yet open to what can be learned. Whenever
Hinduism has had power it has fallen to the same vices that all religions seem to
fall victim to. In modern times we have seen the growth of Hindu fundamentalism.
Wherever fundamentalism rears its head you tend to see intolerance for those
with different beliefs. This has led to much discrimination and death, especially
for Muslims and sometimes for other minority groups. There have been murders
and bombings, destruction of property and a general lack of respect. These are
problems that must be faced.
Another problem faced by India is its slowness in fighting the evils of the caste
system. Having the injustices of the caste system is like Christianity having
slavery and the crusades hanging around its neck. The problem is that people
are not perfect and fall short of their ideals. But it is difficult to justify and once
you get past it you can breathe a sigh of relief.
Who would want to be a modern Christian and have to defend slavery? And yet it
took nearly nineteen hundred years for Christians to see the light in this area;
and racism is still a problem in Christian countries. I say this just to point out that
we may get impatient for religious people to change, but change does occur even
though it is at times painfully slow. Hinduism is changing and trying to correct the
evils of the caste system. At least it is now illegal. We can only hope that
people’s hearts will soon follow.
We also need to hope, now that both Pakistan and India have nuclear weapons,
that they can find a way to make peace. There are extremists in both religions
(Islam and Hinduism) that are always a problem. After all, how do you deal
reasonably with a fanatic? But religious leaders need to study their texts and help
people find peaceful interpretations of their scriptures so that they do not use
them to justify violence and hatred.
Another problem is how Hindus have been able to ignore a great deal of suffering
in their communities because of their belief system that it was the karma of some
to suffer. Thankfully this too has now been shown to be a faulty understanding of
what Hindus are to do about suffering. Gandhi played a major role in this change
as I mentioned above.
Modern India is having all sorts of problems with overpopulation and ecological
devastation. There are many reasons for this that are purely economic and
political. But whenever you have a religion with such a large influence I think it is
fair to ask that religion to step up and try to do something about these tragedies
and play a positive role. For one thing, the birth rate drops drastically in whatever
parts of the world women have gained rights over their reproductive capacities.
This leads to my last point about the negative side of Hinduism.
The role of women is being revisioned. This is good and important because for all
too long women have been the virtual slaves of men and have had their own
dreams and abilities and possibilities demolished by men who have used the
religion of Hinduism to justify these systems of oppression. Once again, a religion
with that large of an influence needs to be taken to task so that it can once more
rise to the heights of its own possibility and glory. Thankfully the foundation is
there in Hindu philosophy and the groundwork is being laid by women (and men)
who care about the justice of feminist issues.
Summary
India is a remarkable place and it has a long history that has given rise to many
religions such as Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism. But it will be primarily known
as the land of Hinduism. As we have seen, Hinduism is a religion of much
diversity. It seems to answer the call to polytheism with its belief in Brahma,
Shiva, and Vishnu, and yet it also responds to the call of monotheism with its
adherence to Brahman, the one source of all reality and the great mystery
beyond words and thoughts.
In general, it is a tolerant religion. For example, it does not expect all Hindus to
follow the same path or lifestyle. It recognizes that different people, at different
times in their lives, need different practices and need to be concerned with
different things. Hinduism tries to find a balance between doing what we need to
do in this world, while at the same time taking liberation from this world very
seriously. Hinduism “embraces a vast diversity of gods, practices, and spiritual
paths. It includes the worship of God through images and concepts and by taking
those images and concepts away” (MPMF, p. 113.) This ability to give people
many options to find their way to God helps explain Hinduism’s longevity and
adaptability.
We have studied the Vedas and the Upanishads, as well as looked at some of
the main systems of yoga and Tantrism too. We have to remember, however,
that much of ordinary Hinduism is devotional in character and based in the home
rather than in the temples and around the priests. Hindu philosophy is known as
Vedanta, and its most influential form is known as Advaita Vedanta. This teaches
that there is only one ultimate reality, Brahman, and we are united with that
source as our own very being. Vedanta has influenced American thought and life.
We have seen that modern Hinduism has had the difficult and challenging task of
relating its ancient teachings and practices to modern life. It is managing to do so
in the same way it has adapted in the past to invasions and new ideas and that is
by trying to hold on to what is essential and letting go of what is not. We have
seen two major influences on modern Hinduism, Ramakrishna and Gandhi. Now
we can hope that Hinduism will continue to hold to what is sacred while
correcting its track record on things like the caste system and in the way women
are treated.
Those of you who are seeking a new faith may very well find what you are
looking for in Hinduism in one of its many guises. Certainly there are plenty of
organizations to check out and I mentioned a few of them. But even for those of
you who are satisfied with your own religion or who are not religious can also
take away some valuable gems. Just an interest in yoga, for example, could
change your life for the better if you were to get involved. If you are interested in
meditation you can find many techniques and programs for learning to quiet the
mind and body in order to allow a different quality of consciousness to emerge.
And if spirituality is not your thing, modern Indian politics and history offers all
sorts of learning opportunities as India tries to modernize and meet the needs of
its vast population.
Summary Based on Joachim Wach’s Three Forms of Religious Expression:
MPMF, p. 73
Fundamental features of Hinduism
THEORETICAL
Basic Worldview
The universe is profoundly one. Even though it
goes through surface changes and cycles, its
ultimate nature as expression of the divine
does not change.
God or Ultimate Reality
Brahman, the one Mind or Life, is the one
reality. It expresses itself in all that is like a
flame taking many shapes.
Origin of the World/
Destiny of the World
The world goes through endless
cycles of creation and destruction but has no
real beginning or end.
Origin of Humans
Like the world, the individual has no known
beginning. It goes through countless lifetimes,
the nature of which is determined by karma.
Destiny of Humans
The series of lifetimes continues and may
include episodes in heavens and hells. Finally,
one transcends karma through God-realization.
Revelation or Mediation
Between the Ultimate
and The Human.
The Vedic scriptures; the brahmin
priesthood; the gods and Godrealized Saints as expressions of the One;
following one’s guru as spiritual guide.
PRACTICAL
What Is Expected of
Humans: Worship,
Practices, Behavior
SOCIOLOGICAL
To follow dharma through rituals,
behavior, and righteous deeds. If one
seeks moksha, or liberation, one would
practice yoga, meditation, or devotion
under the guidance of a guru.
Major Social Institutions.
The caste system; temples as places of the
worship of gods; holy men; the family; the
brahmin priesthood.
I always feel a little bad after a relatively short review of a major tradition. It is so
difficult to do Hinduism justice in forty pages or so. But hopefully these survey
courses make up for their lack of depth by helping people overcome lack of
knowledge and possible stereotypes, while opening the door to further reading
and studies. Whether for this course or not, I hope you will take the opportunity to
visit a Hindu service and perhaps try some meditation and/or yoga. If you do I am
sure you will find it an enriching experience!
Nest week we will stay in India, at least at first, as we study Buddhism!
Bibliography:
Robert S. Ellwood and Barbara A. McGraw, Many Peoples, Many Faiths: Women
and Men in the World Religions, Seventh Edition, [Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002]
Mary Pat Fisher, Living Religions: A Brief Introduction, [Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002]
Lewis M. Hopfe and Mark R. Woodward, Religions of the World, Eighth Edition,
[Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001]
Michael Molloy, Experiencing the World’s Religions, Third Edition, [New York,
New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005]
Huston Smith, The Illustrated World’s Religion: A Guide to our Wisdom
Traditions, [New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994]