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• Generally regarded as world’s oldest religion
• 3rd largest religion approx. 15% of World pop.
– Majority live in India (950,000,000)
– Also, Nepal, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Tamil
population of Sri Lanka
• Hindu comes from a Persian geographical term
Hindus
– (Indus valley river basin) Pakistan
• What makes Hinduism Unique?
• No Individual Founder
– Not founded by one particular individual
– Sacred history is about the ‘foundations’ of
the religion not the founder
– Evolved over thousands of years
– Absorbed and assimilated many cultural
ideas, rituals, practices and beliefs over 1000’s
of years
• Polytheistic?
• Reincarnation
• Caste System
Indus Valley Civilization
• aka Harappan Civilization
• Modern day Pakistan
• Located 1,00 km along the Indus river
• 3000 – 2500 BCE
• one of the world's earliest urban civilizations
– Comparable to:
• ancient Egyptians - Nile
• Sumer - Tigris and Euphrates
• Agriculturalists (Planters)
Indus Valley Civilization - Harappan Civilization
Early Town Planners
• Drainage and sewers
Evidence of Religious worship
• Reverence for water – bathrooms in homes and public
bathing areas in city centers
– Purifying elements of water
• Houses for worship
• Stone sculptures and amulets
•
– early representations of Hindu Gods
 Mother goddess Parvati
Fire altars & animal sacrifices
– Emphasis on mother earth
Great Bath – Mohenjo-Daro
Aryans ‘Noble ones’
• Sanskrit - ārya meaning
‘Noble'
• 2000 – 500 BC
Arrived from central Asia
and eastern Europe
Migrated to area around
Ganges
• Pastoralists
– Domesticated animals
Aryans ‘Noble ones’
• Tribal headed by chiefs
– Society divided into 3 classes (warriors, priests and herders)
– Early caste system
• Spoke early form of Sanskrit
• Created poems, ritual and philosophical texts
– Vedas (early sacred writings)
– Rig Veda
• Earliest record of sacred knowledge
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Focus on gods of sacrifice and praise
Agni - God of fire
Varuna – God of the sky
Indra – God of the atmosphere
– Link between Gods and Humans
– Atman – human soul breath of human life
Categorizing Hinduism
Categorizing the Hindu belief system can be confusing:
• POLYTHEISTIC = Worship of multiple deities
• MONOTHEISTIC = One supreme God:
• principle of Brahman - all reality is a unity
• PANTHEISTIC – All reality is connected and share a common essence
• Water analogy
• TRINITARIAN = Brahman is visualized as a trinity
– one God with three persons:
• Brahma (the Creator)
• Vishnu (the Preserver
• Shiva (the Destroyer)
– Similar to Christianity
Part 2
Hindu Concept of God
The ultimate aim of all Hindu thought is to attain the
universal soul or divine wisdom called:
BRAHMAN
Understood through outward contemplation of the universe
known in two ways:
Hindu Concept of God
• Nirguna - Without qualities
– everything, everywhere, infinite and eternal
– Impersonal
– The ultimate soul of the universe
– discoverable through contemplation beyond
the mind
• Saguna - With qualities
– Creative power of the universe
– personal
– Foundation of the phenomenal world (Reality)
– Can be worshipped as a deity or deities
Hindu Concept of God
ATMAN – Eternal self
• The ultimate reality within us
• The Human soul, eternal and immortal
• Understood through inward contemplation
of the self (yoga, prayer)
• Goal of Hindu’s is to reunite the atman
with the Brahman
All reality is one
BRAHMAN is ATMAN
• ie water analogy
Brahman
Preserver
Destroyer
Creator
Brahma
(Saraswati)
Shiva
(Parvati)
Vishnu
(Lakshmi)
Part 3
Key Concepts
MOKSHA – "to let loose, let go"
• Refers to liberation or release
– Type of Salvation
– It is the liberation from Samsara
the uniting of ATMAN (human soul) with
BRAHMAN (ultimate soul)
– is ultimate goal of a Hindu
Key Concepts
• SAMSARA - "continuous flow"
• - endless cycle of reincarnation
– Wheel of rebirth
– Soul is recycled until Moksha is achieved
– Idea is to move higher towards salvation
Key Concepts
“bad things happen to good people because they deserve it”
• KARMA - concept of "action" or "deed"
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totality of one’s action in life
Basic belief of cause and effect (all actions have a consequence)
Determines form you will take when you are reborn
Good actions = good karma and higher station in next life
Key Concepts
• DHARMA - that which upholds, supports or maintains natural
law
• code of moral and righteous duty
– Personal responsibilities of the individual
– One’s actions are essential to the welfare of individual,
family and society
– focus on helping others not personal cravings
– 2 types
Sanatana– universal values applied to all people regardless
of religion, race, age, sex etc
Varnashrama - specific duties of people with respect to
religion, race, age, sex and class (Caste)
Sources Of Guidance
Sources Of Guidance
• Divine revelation – sacred scriptures
• Sacred Tradition – passed on culturally
• Leaders - practices / examples and role
modeling of wise people in society
• Conscience – individual thoughts / beliefs
Dharma

Karma

Samsara

Moksha
Reincarnation
• derives from Latin, incarnare "to make
flesh"
• literally meaning, "entering the flesh again“
• religious or philosophical concept that
the soul or spirit, after biological death,
begins a new life in a new body
• may be human, animal or spiritual
depending on the moral quality of the
previous life's actions
• Often, this is a new human
• if the individual has accumulated a bad
balance of Karma, they may return as an
animal
Ahimsa • Doctrine or philosophy of non-violence
towards all living creatures
• Jains
• Hindus
Part 4
‘Accordingly, those who are of pleasant conduct – the
prospect is, indeed, that they will enter a pleasant
womb. Either the womb of a brahmin, or the womb
of a kshatriya, or the womb of a Vaishya. But
those who are of stinking conduct here – the
prospect is, indeed, that they will enter a stinking
womb, either the womb of a dog, or the womb of a
swine, or the womb of an outcaste.’
Chandogya Upanishad 5.10.7)
Caste System
Foundation
• Merger and implementation of 2 social structures
1. Varna = ‘Class’
• Caste = ‘Colour’
• Indigenous inhabitants Indus Valley of people
were darker in colour
– Aryans lighter skinned - Central Asia and Europe
- Aryans thought it important to prevent
intermingling
Caste System
2. Jati = ‘Birth’
– Each Hindu belonged to one of the over 2000
Jatis (communities)
– The Jatis were grouped into 4 Varna (social
classes)
– Characterized by exclusivity in
• Marriage - normally took place within the same Jat
• Eating
• Occupation - A person's Jat determined the range of
jobs or professions from which they could choose.
Caste System
Foundation
• Based on Hereditary
– People once were able to move from one Varna
to another
– 500 BCE (approx) - system became rigid
• a person was born into the Varna and caste of their
parents, and died in the same group
– Karma determines your caste identity
KARMA  CASTE  DHARMA
Priests, scholars and academics
Rulers and military
Farmers, landlords, & merchants
Peasants, servants, in non polluting jobs
Outcastes, Harijan Children of God
The Caste System today
– Caste system was abolished by law in 1949
• Work of Gandhi
– Still has power in rural settings and upper castes
• Called them Harijan “God’s children”
• Government initiative / programs to promote economic &
social rights
• Illegal under the Indian constitution
Kumari Mayawati
 Indian politician - former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
 Headed the Bahujan Samaj Party, which represents
the Bahujans or Dalits
 Sworn in as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the fourth
time in 2007
 Defeated in the state elections in 2012

Part 5
• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
• born - October 2, 1869 – Porbandar, Gujarat
• Often called
– Gandhiji - ‘ji’ = sir (title of respect)
– Mahatma – ‘Great Soul’
– Bapu ‘father’
• One of the most influential figures in the 20th century
– Well respected Hindu spiritual and political leader
– Fought discrimination against Indians and Blacks in South
Africa
– Lead and negotiated independence of India in 1947
• Led to Partition of India and Pakistan
– Opposed social injustice of Hindu society (ie. untouchables)
• Led to caste system being outlawed
• Developed a method of political action called Satyagraha
• based on:
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Satya - truth
Dharma - duty
Moksha - spiritual liberation
Ahimsa - non-violence
Religious principles
• prepared to die but not kill for these principles
• Promoted - nonviolence / noncooperation / civil disobedience
– To ultimately achieve change
– Used fasting as a means to do this
• Tolerant of all religions
– Used Bhagavad-Gita, New Testament and Koran to fight discrimination
• Assassinated in 1948
– Hindu fanatic, Nathuram Godse
• who opposed his program of tolerance for all creeds
and religion
• was against Gandhi's personal teachings of
extreme nonviolence
• Saw Gandhi's repeated tactic of "fasting unto death" on
many issues as sabotage against the interests of Hindus
• Felt Gandhi was giving into Muslim interests in ways
that seemed unfair and anti-national
• blamed Gandhi for the Partition of India
Gandhi -1982
• Directed by Sir Richard Attenborough
• knighted in 1976
• Stars Sir Ben Kingsley
• born Krishna Pandit Bhanji
• Won 8 Academy Awards including:
• Best Picture
• Best Director
• Best Actor in a leading role
• Cinematography
• 300,000 extras hired for the funeral scene
• Kingsley was thought to be Gandhi’s ghost by locals
Characters - political
• Kinnoch
– An Indian, a Muslim, and a wealthy businessman
– supported Gandhi’s efforts to gain equality for Indians living in South Africa
• Pandit Nehru
– friend of Gandhi’s
– an important leader of the independence movement in India
– first prime minister of India after independence
• Vallabhbhai Patel
– Early supporter of Gandhi
– Became deputy Prime minister under Nehru
• Mohamed Al Jinnah
– leader of the Muslims in India, joined Gandhi in supporting “home rule,” or
independence from Great Britain
– first president of Pakistan
• Jan Christian Smuts
– Minister for Indian Affairs in South Africa
– later became President
Characters - family and friends
• Charlie Andrews
– Englishman and Christian minister
– supported Gandhi in South Africa and later in India
• Walker
– American reporter for the New York Times
• Kasturba Gandhi
– wife and life-long companion;
– they were married at the age of 13
• Mirabhen
– came to India to join Gandhi’s movement
– became like a daughter to Gandhi
• Margaret Bourke-White
– famous American photographer
– documented Gandhi’s later life in photographs.
Hindu Festivals
Holi
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uICndkgbYIA
Diwali
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrrW3rO51ak
“Place this salt in the water. In the morning come unto me.”
Then he did so.
Then he said to him: “That salt you placed in the water last evening —
please bring it hither.”
Then he grasped for it, but did not find it, as it was completely dissolved.
“Please take a sip of it from this end,” said he. “How is it?”
“Salt.”
“Take a sip from the middle,” said he. “How is it?”
“Salt.”
“Take a sip from that end,” said he. “How is it?”
“Salt.”
“Set it aside. Then come unto me.”
He did so, saying, “It is always the same.”
Then he said to him: “Verily, indeed my dear, you do not perceive Being
here. Verily, indeed, it is here.
That which is the finest essence — this whole world has that as its self.
That is Reality. That is Atman.
That art thou, Svetaketu.”
source: A Source Book in Indian Philosophy edited by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore