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Discussion (Hinduism)
1. What is Hinduism? How should it be explained to someone who knows nothing
about it?
2. What is yoga? Select one of its six forms as the path you would choose, if you
were a Hindu. What reasons can you give for why you selected this particular
method?
3. Illustrate Hinduism's respect for religious tolerance. Do you think this a useful
religious approach? Discuss why or why not. What examples of religious
intolerance are presented in the chapter? What accounts for this intolerance?
Discussion 1-Long (Hinduism)
1. The Hindu concepts of dharma and karma are based on
Rigvedic statements that imply an integral connection between cosmic order, divine
benevolence, moral virtue, bodily health, and material prosperity. Explore this
particularly in terms of the positive and other psychosomatic influences of religion
upon human life and everyday well being.
2. The Hindu caste system has been a curse on Hindu society--or else the best
safeguard of the security and well being of the Indian people. Which statement is
correct?
3. People at different levels of social and cultural development and different
temperaments and mental ages need different forms of religious definition and
expression which are provided either by religious pluralism (the proximity of
disparate religions) or else by a syncretically complex religion like Hinduism. True
or false? Why?
4. Hinduism's survival from the impacts of Muslim and British imperial rulership
and postwar Westernizing technological and cultural influences has not depended
on Hinduism's traditional syncretistic adaptability but on the discovery of dynamic
rapid adjust capacities. What evidence is there to support this?
5. The promotion of Hinduism by Mahatma Gandhi and other religious leaders of
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was motivated more by political and
nationalistic causes than by religious concerns. True or false? Why?
6. The universalistic Vedanta Hinduism that intellectuals, scholars, and writers have
propagated abroad is not the same as the traditional Hinduism of India. What are the
implications of this shift for the meaning of Hinduism today and its future in India
beyond the twentieth century?
Terms
Indo-Aryans; The Four Vedas; Brahmana; Upanishads; Manu; Bhagavad Gita;
Brahman-Attman; That Art Thou; Kama; Artha; Dharma; Moksha; Ashramas
(The Four Stages); Purusha; Samsara; Trimurty; Maya; Bhakti; Dharma;
Karma; Varna (The Four Castes); Yoga; Devas; Varuna; Indra; Agni; Jnana yoga;
Karma yoga; Bhakti yoga; Raja yoga; Brahma; Brahmin; Brahmanism; Visnu; Siva;
Maya; 4 Stages of Life; Mystical monism; Sacrificial