Synopsis About Hinduism

Chapter 3 HINDUISM

Chapter Overview

According to the time line at the beginning of this book, Hinduism is the oldest global religion. Considerable debate persists, however, about the earliest origins of Hinduism. The term “Hinduism” itself is also controversial, for it is a name given by outsiders. Hinduism encompasses a wide array of beliefs and practices, as well as a substantial technical vocabulary, and as a result some students may find it overwhelming. Rather than attempting to trace the history of each strand of tradition, this chapter adopts a thematic approach to aspects of Hinduism:

1. Philosophical and metaphysical elements

2. Devotional and ritual aspects

3. Features of Hinduism as a way of life

4. Global and political aspects of contemporary Hindu practice

Students should be alerted in advance that in coming to understand this religion they need to become familiar with an array of terms. Though numerous, these terms are extremely important for grasping major concepts and practices in this diverse faith. It may help to point out that majority of terms are in Sanskrit, an Indo-European language distantly related to English (for example, the name of the god of fire, Agni, is cognate with the English word “ignite”). Students could be encouraged to make vocabulary flash cards to enhance their comprehension.

Defining Hinduism is a complex endeavor. Some scholars claim there is no central tradition which can be identified as Hinduism. Moreover, the term Hinduism itself did not become common until the nineteenth century. It was a British census-taking category, which covered all people not belonging to a known named religion such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or Jainism.

In addition to practices which range from sensuality to extreme asceticism, there is a range of practices which varies according to region, caste and economic status, gender, and education. The philosophic Brahmanic tradition often referred to as Hinduism is but one aspect of a larger tradition (though it is the form most typically presented in the West).

Philosophical and metaphysical origins

The Brahmanic tradition may be traced back the Vedic age. The history and precise dating of this period is controversial. Initially, scholars believed the “Aryans” from the north invaded the Indus Valley, but recent scholarship has questioned that. The Aryans developed the Vedic tradition, an important base for the later development of Hinduism. This theory, along with the identification of the inhabitants of the Indus Valley or Harappan civilization, is now contested. Some scholars argued that the Indus Valley people were the ancestors of the speakers of the Dravidian languages of south India, and that the Aryan invasion forced them to move southward. Some Hindu nationalists, however, assert that the Aryans were native to India. Much of the controversy rests upon interpretation of archeological data, and is complicated by the fact that the script used by the Indus Valley people has not yet been deciphered. Current research suggests that changes in Indus Valley sites were brought about by small-scale migrations over time rather than a violent Aryan invasion. (Students may wonder whether there is any connection between the term Aryan, as used here and its usage in Nazi ideology. Aryan is originally a Sanskrit word. Students who investigate visual representation of Hindu deities may also notice swastikas; swastika too is a Sanskrit word meaning “well-being.” These terms as used in Hinduism have nothing to do with Nazism.) The relationship of the Vedas to the Indus Valley is also in question in modern scholarship.

While it is difficult to reach definite answers about this controversy, we can study the Vedas to learn more about the early foundations of Hinduism. It is important to note that the Vedas are the foundation of upper-caste Brahmanic Hinduism, but not necessarily all forms of Hinduism.

The Vedas are a collection of sacred hymns; the names of the different portions of the collection may be difficult for students. The Rig Veda is the first and oldest of four collections of which the Vedas are compromised. It praises and asks blessings from the devas or deities. The other three collections contain hymns and sacred sounds for offerings to the devas. Other ancient shruti texts include the Brahmanas , the Aranyakas, and Upanishads . The Upanishads represent mystical insights and focus on inward self-exploration as means of knowing Brahman, the all-pervading reality. At the introductory level, understanding the nature of the Vedic samhitas and the Upanishads is most important.

The Vedas were initially preserved orally, and their ritual use depends upon proper oral recitation. According to Hindu tradition, the Vedas were not composed by humans, but rather were heard by ancient sages or rishis, and then compiled by Vyasa.

Students may be confused by different forms of the word “brahman.” First, there are the Brahmanas, a portion of the Vedas (although the terms have been transliterated without diacriticals, the first “a” in this word is long, as in “father”). Then, there is Brahman, the all-pervading reality (the first “a” in this form of the word is short, like the “u” in “butter”). There is also Brahmin/Brahman (as in “Brahmanic Hinduism”), the priestly caste.

The rishis who appear in the Upanishads taught that Brahman, the all-pervading reality, could be known from within as the subtle self or soul, atman . The Upanishads relate key doctrines of Hinduism, such as the concept of a cycle of death and rebirth known as samsara , in which the atman is continually reborn according to the results of one’s actions, or karma . The rishis sought to escape this cycle of death and rebirth and attain moksha , liberation from samsara.

Major philosophical systems

The various philosophical systems of Hinduism share roots in the Vedas as well as direct personal experience of truth through meditation, a concern for ethics as necessary to orderly social life (related to karma), and the belief that suffering is due to ignorance of the eternal self. Important philosophical systems include the dualistic views of Samkhya (which holds that there is an eternally wise, pure changeless self known as Purusha, and Prakriti, the cause of the material universe), the monistic position of Advaita Vedanta (which holds that atman and Brahman are one and that the power of maya makes the material world seem real), and a variety of forms of yoga. Raja yoga, the path of mental concentration, incorporates practices known as sadhanas, and was described in the Yoga Sutras (sutras are terse sayings or aphorisms). Jnana yoga is the path of rational inquiry. Karma yoga is the path of right action.

Yoga encompasses many forms of spiritual discipline, all of which seek self-knowledge. Yogic practice may include regulation of breathing to increase prana (“breath”; life energy), various physical postures (asanas), the use of sacred formulas or mantras, and/or concentration on a visual form which may include a yantra (cosmically symbolic linear image) or the OM symbol. Some forms of yoga focus on controlling the flow of energy through the chakras (pronounced “chuckrah”) or subtle energy centers along the spine. Practitioners of yoga seek samadhi, union with the Absolute. Various forms of yoga are geared towards different personality types, from the active to the rational to the emotional. Most common is bhakti yoga, the path of devotion to a personal deity.

Throughout the history of Hinduism, many bhaktas or devotees have composed verses expressing their love and longing for the divine.

Religious foundations and theistic paths

In ancient times, rituals involving fire sacrifice and recitation of the Vedas were apparently dominant. The bhakti or devotional approach, however, gradually came to dominate around 600 CE. It was open to both women and shudras (manual laborers and artisans), who had been excluded from direct participation in Vedic ritual. There are three major groupings of people: Vaishnavites, who worship Vishnu (and deities associated with him), Shaivites, who worship Shiva (and deities associated with him), and Shaktas, who worship a goddess.[While many people have a chosen deity, they may also worship other deities for various reasons. Many Hindus speak of an ultimate, genderless form of the deity who encompasses all the functions—creation, preservation, and destruction—of the specific deities. It is important to point out to students that the three major groupings do not constitute hard boundaries; people may worship a variety of gods and goddesses for various purposes at different points in their lives.

Shaktas

The Shakta tradition may or may not include the Vedic path. The power of the goddess is known as shakti. This feminine power may manifest in many forms, from village goddesses associated with a particular locale to the great goddesses of upper class mythology. Important goddesses include Durga and Kali. The goddess may be fierce or gentle. Her worship may be linked to nature, especially trees and rivers. Texts called Tantras provide instructions for worshipping the feminine divine. Shakti is a key concept for the gods as well, for each has a female consort known as his shakti.

Shaivites

The god Shiva may be represented in a variety of forms, as the lord of yoga, as husband of the goddess Parvati, and to some Shaivites as the attributeless supreme deity. Shiva and his shakti may be portrayed together as an androgynous figure, and may also be represented by a lingam within a yoni. Shiva’s son Ganesh (created by Parvati) may be familiar to some students—he has an elephant head and his favor is sought at the beginning of any new venture.

Vaishnavites

The god Vishnu has been worshipped since Vedic times; he is understood to have appeared in a series of earthly incarnations, some in animal form. Two of his most well-known incarnations are the gods Rama and Krishna (though Krishna may be revered without reference to Vishnu). Krishna devotion is especially popular; the devotee may imagine himself in a close personal relationship to him, as friend, brother, mother, or beloved. Also important is Vishnu’s consort Lakshmi, associated with prosperity.

The epics and Puranas

Arising after 500 CE, the epics and Puranas illustrate the trend towards personal love for a deity. The two major epics are the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The epics illustrate aspects of the theory of yugas or ages, according to which the cosmos passes through a series of four ages, with dharma or moral order gradually declining in each era. Vishnu therefore incarnates himself (as an avatar) to ameliorate the situation. The world is understood currently to be in the fourth and most degenerate age, the Kali Yuga.

The Ramayana, compiled sometime between 400 BCE and 200 CE, depicts the duties (i.e. dharma) involved in various kinds of relationships through its telling of the story of the prince Rama, his wife Shita, and a wider cast of characters. The story exists both in a Sanskrit version and multiple vernacular oral and written traditions.

The vast Mahabharata, composed perhaps sometime between 4000 BCE and 400 CE, includes one of the best-known texts of Hinduism, the Bhagavad-Gita, which relates a dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna at the beginning of a battle between two sides of a family.

The Puranas (traditionally 18 in number), which were probably compiled between 500 and 1500 CE, detail the vast mythology of the Hindu pantheon. Especially popular is the Bhagavata Purana, which tells the tale of Krishna as a mischievous child and his playful activities with the gopis or cowherd girls.

The Hindu way of life

Hinduism has no single founder, devotional tradition, or philosophy which defines it.

Rituals

Ritual is central to Hinduism. Public ritual is known as puja. Important aspects of puja include darsan (pronounced “darshan”; visual contact with the divine; seeing and being seen by the divine) and prasad (food sanctified by being offered to a deity and/or guru and then eaten by devotees). Vedic rituals involve a havan, or sacred fire place. In addition to public puja, home puja is practiced with a home shrine or a prayer room for worship. Women often are responsible for daily home puja, though in orthodox homes they do not perform puja (or enter the kitchen) while menstruating.

Bodies are cremated after death, and the remains are typically submerged in a holy river.

Castes, duties, and life goals

The caste system goes back to the Vedic age. The Vedas described four [male] occupational groups: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. The Untouchables lay outside the system. Over time, caste membership became hereditary. The Code of Manu outlines rules for social life. Mahatma Gandhi fought against the social injustices of the caste system, particularly discrimination against untouchables, whom he christened harijans or “children of God.”

Hinduism holds four major goals that define a good life: dharma, or carrying out one’s responsibilities to uphold social and cosmic order; artha, or success in worldly activities, including the pursuit of wealth; kama, or love and sensual pleasure, as well as aesthetic expression; and moksha, liberation from samsara.

Life stages

In the past, spiritual training was usually available only to upper-caste males, but not women and Shudras. Traditionally, Brahmin males passed through four stages: student, householder, meditation/study, renunciation (becoming a sannyasin). Most males don’t actually follow this path. Sannyasins often renounce the world at a relatively young age, and some join a monastic order and live in a retreat community known as an ashram.

The guru

A guru is a spiritual teacher, and may serve as a sort of spiritual parent.

Women’s Duties

Compared to other religions, women are highly venerated as spiritual ideals in Hinduism. Women contribute to earthly life with dharma, marital wealth, and sensual pleasure and are seen as a critical part of spiritual life such as ceremonial sacrifice.

Marriage is ideally husband and wife as spiritual partners. Women traditionally participate in spiritual practices only with their husbands, not as individuals. While in early Vedic times women enjoyed relative freedom to participate equally in spiritual rituals, social changes in the nineteenth century reduced many women to servants to their families. In many cases, and even today, women were considered economic burdens unless they could provide a wealthy dowry. Nevertheless, many women in India today are well-educated and able to attain positions of power.

Fasts, prayers, and auspicious designs

Many Hindus observe days of fasting and prayer determined by a complex lunar or solar calendar. Astrology is very important to many Hindus (e.g. in determining time for a marriage). Many women daily decorate the entrance to their homes with auspicious designs.

Reverence of trees and rivers

Rivers and particular species of trees are revered throughout India; many rivers are particularly associated with incidents in mythology. Environmental pollution is a serious issue in contemporary India; ritual practices themselves such as the immersion of the ashes of the dead in rivers, and the immersion of images of deities after festivals, may contribute to the problem.

Pilgrimages

There are pilgrimage sites throughout India, some associated with particular gods or goddesses, others associated with a revered saint or teacher.

Festivals

There is some sort of religious festival somewhere in India virtually every day. Many festivals commemorate key events in the lives of particular gods and goddesses.

Hinduism in the modern world

The development of Hinduism has been influenced by contact with Buddhism, Jainism, and later Islam and Christianity. The British and Christian missionaries criticized some Hindu practices.

Modern movements

Various spiritual leaders revitalized Hinduism in the nineteenth century. Mahatma Gandhi encouraged grassroots nationalism in the first half of the twentieth century. Swami Vivekananda, a follower of the spiritual teacher Ramakrishna, laid the foundations for the Ramakrishna Movement and the Vedanta Society (which has branches in the West). He taught detachment from material things for spiritual understanding. Reform movements such as the Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj highlighted particular aspects of Hinduism and rejected others.

In recent years, traditional Hinduism is currently being challenged by social reform movements on issues of gender, caste, and poverty. Feminist groups are also challenging traditional ideas about marriage and women’s roles.

Global Hinduism

Immigration and conversion have spread Hinduism far beyond the borders of the Indian subcontinent. Movements such as Transcendental Meditation and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (“Hare Krishnas”) have brought attention to Hinduism in the West.

Hindu identity

Some groups link Hinduism with Indian nationalism. The Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, seeks to restore India to the idealized past when Ram (i.e. Rama of the Ramayana, discussed earlier) ruled. Based on the ideology of Hindutva, or “Hinduness,” RSS ideology views Muslims and Christians as alien to India.

In contrast, India’s constitution enshrines secularism. Some groups, however, (who are sometimes termed “Hindu fundamentalists”) argue that secularism is a cover for corruption and pandering to minorities.

This controversy is illustrated through the ongoing controversy over the town of Ayodhya in northern India, the birthplace of Rama in Hindu mythology. A Muslim mosque believed by some to be on the precise birthplace of Rama was destroyed in 1992. Extremist Hindu groups have also opposed Christianity in India. There are also periodic conflicts between Hindu and Muslim groups in India.

Many Hindus argue that Hinduism is tolerant of all paths to the divine, a view reiterated by the Indian Supreme Court. According to the court to be Hindu means:

1. Acceptance and reverence for the Vedas as the foundation of Hindu philosophy;

2. A spirit of tolerance, and willingness to understand and appreciate others’ points of view, recognizing that truth has many sides;

3. Acceptance of the belief that vast cosmic periods of creation, maintenance, and dissolution continuously recur;

4. Acceptance of belief in reincarnation;

5. Recognition that paths to salvation and truth are many;

6. Recognition that there may be numerous gods and goddesses to worship, without necessarily believing in worship through idols;

7. Unlike other religions, absence of belief in a specific set of philosophic concepts.

N.B.: Instructors who assign the Time Special Edition: World Religions article, “In the Heart of Hate” concerning the 2002 Gujarat riots should note that subsequent investigations have complicated the picture presented in this article, including allegations of state government involvement as well as doubt regarding how the fire on the train began.

Key Terms

Aryans	lingam	Shaktas
Asanas	mantras	Shakti
Ashram	Moksha	Shaktipat
Atman	Prana	Shudras
Avatars	Prasad	Shruti
Brahman	Puja	Soma
Brahmanas	Puranas	Sutra
Brahmins	Reincarnation	Tantras
Caste	Rig Veda	Untouchables
Chakra	Rishi	Upanishads
Darsan	Sacred thread	Ushas
Devas	Sadhanas	Vaishyas
Dharma	Samadhi	Vaishnavites
Epics	Samkhya	Vedanta
Guru	Samsara	Vedas
Havan	Sanatana Dharma	Yantras
Kali Yuga	sannyasin	Yoga
Kshatriyas	Sanskrit	Yoni
Kundalini	Shaivites	Yugas

Class Assignments/Activities

1. Ask students what they know about yoga; some are likely to have taken some sort of yoga class focusing on postures and stretching. Ask them to consider how yoga as practiced in the West may differ from the yoga described here.

2. Ask students to do an Internet search using terms such as “Indus Valley Civilization” and evaluate at least two websites. Ask what they are able to learn about the different views concerning the earliest history of Hinduism.

3. Ask students to search the Internet for images of Hindu gods and goddesses, and try to learn as much as possible what the different details of the images represent. Alternatively, if a local museum has an exhibit of Indian art that includes Hindu pieces, ask them to visit.

4. Ask students to investigate environmental movements based on Hindu ideals (possibilities include the Chipko Andolan, Save the Ganges movement).

Recommended Films and Other Materials

The website www.harappa.com is a useful source of images from Indus Valley/Harappan civilization excavations.

“Hinduism: Elephant God,” Films for the Humanities & Sciences, distributor, 1996. 15 minutes. A film illustrating celebration of a Ganesh festival in Bombay.

“Puja: Expressions of Hindu Devotion,” Smithsonian Institution, 1996. 20 minutes. Illustrates puja in temples and homes in India and the United States; includes interviews with Hindu Americans. The related website http://www.asia.si.edu/pujaonline/puja/lesson_contents.html may also be useful.