Transcript Hinduism - Holinewyork

Overview
Hindu tradition is the world’s oldest living
tradition dating back to more than 2000
BCE.
 As its name suggests, Hindu tradition
developed and flourishes mainly in India.
It’s a vast and profound tradition that has
no known founder or seminal event.
It is not based on the words of any
inspired man or woman but on the eternal
laws of nature.
INDIA
Hindu Population
It is practiced by more then 1 billion people.
 It is estimated that 1 in 6 persons on earth is a Hindu.
It is the 3rd largest faith/tradition, next only to Christianity and
Islam.
80% of all Indians are Hindu.
There are more than 60 million Hindus living outside India today
and more than 1 million in North America.
Concept of God According to Hindu
Tradition
•Hindus believe in One Supreme Being Brahman both in its
formless and manifest aspects
•God is meant not only to be worshipped but to be
experienced
•Images of deities are temporarily brought to life, so the divine
can be worshipped in them.
•There is no Devil in Hindu tradition.
•Ignorance of one’s spiritual nature is the cause of evil.
Hindu Worship
•That Hindus “worship idols” is the
single most common misconception of
Hindu tradition.
• Hindus worship deities or murtis which
are images (tools) that help to connect
to God
•They fully understand that the Divine
itself is much greater than the physical
image in the temple.
Temples and Pujas
Temples are the
community places
of worship
Worship is called
puja
Most Hindus have
an altar in their
homes in which they
perform a puja.
Gods
Brahma-The
Creator
Vishnu-The
Preserver
Shiva-The
Dissolver
Goddesses
SaraswatiGoddess of
Knowledge
LakshmiGoddess of
Prosperity
DurgaGoddess
of Power
Sanskrit- The Sacred Language of
Hindus
The Vedas: The Holy Scriptures (Shrutis)
•Vedas are ancient scriptures composed
over 6000 years ago.
•They are massive holy books for Hindus.
•
•They were organized by Vysa in 1500 BCE
into 4 main books.
•Hindus regard the Vedas as not having
been created or invented by anyone, but
instead as the repositories of eternal
wisdom.
The Four Vedas
•The best known and oldest is the Rig Veda which contains
1017 hymns, prayers, poems, riddles and legends.
•The Sama Veda has melodies that can be sung.
•The Yajur Veda had hymns that are used to certain
sacrifices.
•The last one, the Atharva Veda has hymns for attracting
love, subduing enemies, regulating weather and curing
sickness. It is the most practical of the 4 Vedas.
The Upanishads (Shrutis)
• The Upanishads are philosophical and spiritual
analyses and meditations on the Vedas
•The Upanishads are in the format of conversations and
debates between sages, teachers
•There are many Upanishads, eleven of which are
famous: Katha, Isha, Kena, Mundaka, Shvetasvatara,
Prashna, Mandukya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Brihadaranyaka
and Chandogya.
•Upanishadic truth is “you are that which you are
seeking”
The Epics & Puranas (Smrits)
The Ramayana is the story of
the perfect Hindu man and
woman.
The Mahabharata is the story of the
battle between light and darkness.
The Puranas are the layperson’s
Vedas.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
T.S Eliot
Walt Whitman
The Bhagavad-Gita
The Bhagavad-Gita
is the most popular
scripture
Gandhi on the Bhagavad-Gita
“When doubts haunt me, when
disappointments stare me in the face,
and I see not one ray of hope on the
horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-Gita and
find a verse to comfort me; and I
immediately begin to smile in the midst
of overwhelming sorrow. Those who
meditate on the Gita will derive fresh
joy and new meanings from it every
day.”
Henry David Thoreau on the
Bhagavad-Gita
“In the morning I bathe my
intellect in the stupendous
and cosmogonal
philosophy of the
Bhagavad-Gita, in
comparison with which our
modern world and its
literature seems puny and
trivial.”
Purusharthas: The Four
Human Pursuits
 Artha is material success, in all of its
forms.
Kama is pleasure.
Dharma means good conduct and correct
action.
Moksha means liberation. This is achieved
by gaining the ultimate knowledge that the
individual is not separate from Ishvara
(god).
Varnashrama: The Caste System
• The caste system (varnashrama) in India is and
has been in the recent past a tool of oppression and
abuse.
•However, the modern caste system does not follow
(though it is descended from) the system of
varnashrama originally laid out in the Vedas.
•This original vision was not inegalitarian, nor was it
prescriptive. Rather, it was and is a description of
roles that individuals play in society.
•According to the Vedas, these roles should ideally
be determined by talent and self-determination
rather than by birth and are all necessary and
deserving of respect.
The Four Castes
•Brahmins: the intellectual, the teacher or
the priest: people with a high level of
education and wisdom, who were fit to
guide and teach others.
•Kshatriyas: one involved in either
governance or military activities, either a
ruler or a warrior.
•Vaishyas were merchants or
entrepreneurs, anyone involved in trade or
running a business.
•Shudras: artisans, craftspeople, field
laborers, cooks, servants-anything that
involved manual labor.
Karma and Reincarnation
•Hindus believe in reincarnation and karma
•Only a portion of our total karma manifests in any
one lifetime
•Our present thoughts and actions effect the course
of our destiny
•Hindus use methods like meditation and pilgrimage
to clean up their bad karma
•Our karma leads us to heavenly or hellish afterdeaths
•Heaven and hell are temporary; sooner or later we
are reborn
Hindu Festivals
Diwali
Om, as a word and a symbol,
represents everything in the
entire universe.
Om is considered auspicious and
is chanted at the beginning of all
hymns, prayers and rituals.
Ahmisa: Non-Injury and its
relation to vegetarianism
•Vegetarianism is simply an extension of the Hindu
concept of ahimsa, or non-injury.
•Ahimsa is an important Hindu principle and its
application involves seeking to cause as little injury
to all beings as possible. This is the main reason
most Hindus do not eat beef and most other meat.
Common Hindu Practices
Tilaka (Bindi)
Yoga
Significance of Ganga
Water
Tulsi Plant
Hindus believe that trees & plants are scared.
Certain plants, like tulsi, have tremendous
beneficial qualities, including medicinal
properties, and are worshiped even today.
Summary
•Hindus believe that God is one. Men call Him by
many names (Rig-Veda).
•Ahimsa- Non injury is the most important value
•Moksha or liberation is the goal of life.
•Vedas are sacred scriptures