Religion assignment

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Hinduism 6

Jnana, Karma and Bhakti:

The Disciplined (Yoga) Pathways (margas) to God

Pathways to God?

  • Hinduism is concerned not exclusively with pathways to God, but to the attainment of proper goals, amongst which (in the theistic traditions) will be achieving a proper relationship with God, however God is understood.

Vaisnavism

  • Vishnu, God in Vaisnavism, upholds dharma, the divine order. The pathways or “margas” to Vishnu reflect the “orthodox” elements of the varna-ashrama-dharma.

Proper goals of life

  • We have seen that the goals of life in Hinduism are understood in terms of: dharma (both sanatana dharma, and the personal sva-dharma – see next slide)
  • Artha – wealth and well-being
  • Kama - pleasure
  • Moksha – release from samsara

Sva-dharma

  • Within the over-arching universal principle of sanatana dharma, each individual has a duty to live according to their own personal dharma – something formulated ideally (and unrealistically?) in the Laws of Manu (Manu Smriti) as varna- ashrama - dharma

Self-Realisation

  • The obligation to live authentically, within the varna system, and in proper relationship to others requires the devotee to develop a proper understanding and approach to the Divine, however this is conceived.
  • (picture by Ragnhild Monsen)

Varna – dharma
Bhagavad Gita 18: 41-48

  • Brahmanas (Brahmins), ksatriyas, vaisyas and sudras are distinguished by their qualities of work… in accordance with the modes of nature.
  • Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness--these are the qualities by which the brahmanas work.
  • Heroism, power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle, generosity, and leadership are the qualities of work for the ksatriyas.
  • Farming, cow protection and business are the qualities of work for the vaisyas, and for the sudras there is labour and service to others.
  • By following his qualities of work, every man can become perfect. Now please hear from Me how this can be done.
  • By worship of the Lord, who is the source of all beings and who is all-pervading, man can, in the performance of his own duty, attain perfection.
  • It is better to engage in one's own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly, than to accept another's occupation and perform it perfectly. Prescribed duties, according to one's nature, are never affected by sinful reactions.
  • Every endeavour is covered by some sort of fault, just as fire is covered by smoke. Therefore one should not give up the work which is born of his nature, O son of Kunti, even if such work is full of fault.

Purity and Merit

  • Running throughout Hindu traditions is a preoccupation with the dual concerns of maintaining ritual purity and accruing merit, through performing good deeds and avoiding inauspicious elements.

Shaivism: the devotional cult of Shiva

  • Representing a different strand of traditions, note the different emphases in Shaivism.

Shiva means “grace”

  • Almost invariably characterised as “the destroyer”, Shiva is not understood in this way by his devotees.
  • Shiva means “grace” in all senses of the word.
  • Here he drinks poison to save the world.

3 paths / margas/ yogas

  • Jnana – the way of knowledge
  • (the jnana mudra is pictured, right)
  • Karma – the way of action
  • Bhakti – the way of loving devotion to God

  • (see Bhagavad Gita for exposition of these ways)

From Bhagavad Gita, Ch 12

  • Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt.
  • My dear Arjuna, O winner of wealth, if you cannot fix your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow the regulated principles of bhakti-yoga. In this way you will develop a desire to attain to Me.
  • If you cannot practice the regulations of bhakti-yoga, then just try to work for Me, because by working for Me you will come to the perfect stage.
  • If, however, you are unable to work in this consciousness, then try to act giving up all results of your work and try to be self-situated.
  • If you cannot take to this practice, then engage yourself in the cultivation of knowledge. Better than knowledge, however, is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for by such renunciation one can attain peace of mind.

Jnana Yoga

  • The keys to understanding the Vedas, and the way of knowledge is illustrated by the Vedanta philosophy (amongst others).

Are good works and sacrifices enough?
Or even necessary..?

  • Mundaka Upanishad:.1.2 v 8–10
  • 8. Fools dwelling in darkness, wise in their own conceit, and puffed up with vain knowledge, go round and round staggering to and fro, like blind men led by the blind 
  • 9. Children, when they have long lived in ignorance, consider themselves happy. Because those who depend on their good works are, owing to their passions, improvident, they fall and become miserable when their life (in the world which they had gained by their good works) is finished.
  • 10. Considering sacrifice and good works as the best, these fools know no higher good, and having enjoyed (their reward) on the height of heaven, gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one.

Karma Yoga

  • The way of action originally meant the proper conduct of the sacrifice.
  • Formal sacrifices became so heavily ritualised and expensive that ritual substitutes are offered.

Ritual Substitution

Bhakti Yoga

  • Another reaction against the growing exclusivity and expense of Brahminical Hinduism was the bhakti movement – replacing Sanskrit with the vernacular, and ritual with devotion.

Bhakti basics

  • It would be wrong to suppose the bhakti was an innovation – like so many religious reformations, it is an attempt to return to the essence of the religion. Some Vedic hymns might be seen as Indra-bhakti, or Varuna-bhakti.

Dharma ethics in Mahabharata

  • suppression of wrath
  • truthfulness in speech
  • justice
  • forgiveness
  • children from one's own wife
  • purity of conduct
  • avoidance of quarrel
  • simplicity
  • maintenance of dependents

Devotion, longing and service

  • "Your heart is the real temple. It is there that you must install God. Good thoughts are the flowers to be offered to him. Good actions are worship. Good words are hymns. Love is divine offering."
  •  — Amma

Mahadevi - The Great Goddess:
Some call her Shakti, the divine energy.

Worship as relationship

  • There is a great sense of the Divine being too overwhelming for worship – when Arjuna is granted a vision of Krishna’s true cosmic greatness, he begs for his mortal vision to return: “I am happy, but my mind is agitated with fear…Show me your benign human form…” (BG 11)

Bhagavad Gita 18, 53-55

  • Being purified by his intelligence and controlling the mind with determination, giving up the objects of sense gratification, being freed from attachment and hatred, one who lives in a secluded place, who eats little and who controls the body and the tongue, and is always in trance and is detached, who is without false ego, false strength, false pride, lust, anger, and who does not accept material things, such a person is certainly elevated to the position of self-realization.
  • One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman. He never laments nor desires to have anything; he is equally disposed to every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me.
  • One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.

Yoga means discipline

  • The three yogas are not mutually exclusive.
  • Knowledge, action and devotion can all be expressed in a life lived well.

  • Sri Tat Wale Baba age 85, four days before his mahasamadhi.

Truth is One

  • “The Truth is one, though the wise call it by many names…”
  • (Rig Veda,1:164:46)

What is the true self?

  • “Take refuge in wisdom. Those who seek the fruits of action are to be pitied…”
  • (Bhagavad Gita 2:49)

The self explained: the chariot

  • 'Know this: The self (atman) is the owner of the chariot; the chariot is the body; soul (buddhi) is the body's charioteer; mind the reigns; senses, they say, are the chariot's steeds; their object the tract before them.'
  • Katha upanishad Ch 3

The astanga ("eight limbed") yoga system

  • Familiar to many in the West through exercise classes, is another example Hinduism's efforts to reconcile the mind, body, spirit and action though discipline. See Patanlali's Yogasutra for an accessible exposition of this system.

Relationships to God

  • Far from being a fixed system of rigid beliefs, the pathways to god found in Hinduism reflect an acknowledgement of diversity and vitality, characteristic of the mystery of embodied existence.

Next time… Reforms and Reformers