Transcript scorpion pot

An Introduction to the
Sanatana Dharma
Simple Background
 “Hinduism” is a 19th-century word
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Persian: hindu 
Sanskrit sindhu (“river”)
Religions from the Indus Valley
“Indian Religion(s)”
 750+ million “Hindus” in India
 30+ million “Hindus” abroad
 Third largest religion in the world
Definition of Hinduism
Indian Supreme Court 1966 (reaffirmed 1995)
 Acceptance and reverence for the Vedas
 A spirit of tolerance
 Belief in vast cosmic periods of creation and destruction
 Belief in reincarnation
 Recognition of multiple paths to salvation and truth,
 Polytheism
 Philosophical flexibility (no single dogma)
What do people want?
 Pleasure
What do people want?*
 Pleasure
 Success: wealth, fame, power
 competitive (& precarious)
 insatiable (potentially)
 centers on the self (lower-case “s”)
 achievements are ephemeral
What do people want?
 Pleasure
 Success: wealth, fame, power
Together, we can think of these two as the “path of desire.”
What do people want?
 Pleasure
 Success: wealth, fame, power
 Duty
What do people really want/desire?
What do people want?
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Pleasure
Success: wealth, fame, power
Duty
What do people really want/desire?
1. “being”
2. “knowing”
3. joy
What do people want?
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Pleasure
Success: wealth, fame, power
Duty
What do people really want/desire?
1. “being”infinite being
2. “knowing”infinite awareness
3. joyinfinite bliss
What do people want?
 Pleasure
 Success: wealth, fame, power
 Duty
 Liberation (moksha)
 “Liberation from the cycle of existence (samsara) often identified with a
state of knowledge in which the phenomenal world and its concerns are shut
out in favor of a mystical identification with the ultimate, changeless ground
of all things.”--Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
 “release from the finitude that restricts us from the limitless being,
consciousness, and bliss our hearts desire”--Huston Smith
Life’s Limitations
 pain (physical and psychological)
 ignorance
 restricted being
Four Paths
reflective
emotional
active
experimental
through knowledge
Jnana (yoga)
through love
bhakti (yoga)
through work
karma (yoga)
through experiment
raja (yoga)
[hatha]
yoga = “union”
Common Preliminary Commitments
Cultivate habits of:
 non-injury
 truthfulness
 non-stealing
 self-control
 cleanliness
 contentment
 self-discipline
 compelling desire
Jnana Yoga/Path
Path to oneness with God through knowledge--a
transforming intuitive discernment--turning the knower into
that which she/he knows.
•Reflecting on the nature of the Atman--The self which is
eternal and (in Advaita) identical with Brahman (sacred
Power/Divine Being)
•Shifting self-identification to the “abiding part” of her nature
•“I am Witness” approach to his own history/life
•“Brahman is all, and the Self (Atman) is Brahman”
(Mandukya Upanishad, 2)
Bhakti Yoga/path
Directs towards God the love that is at the base of
every human heart.
•Probably the most popular and frequently practiced form
•Tends to insist on God’s otherness: “Pray no more for utter oneness with God . . .”-Song of Tukaram
•Strives to adore God with every fabric of one’s being (as opposed to acknowledging
union)
•Tends towards incarnational representations of the deity--an ishta
•But:
Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my human limitations,
Thou art everywhere, but I worship you here;
Thou art without form, but I worship you in these forms;
Thou needs no praise, yet I offer you these prayers and salutations.
Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my human limitations.
karma yoga/path
By wise and proper involvement in the work of the world,
one can also move towards God/moksha.
•by identifying oneself with the transpersonal Absolute (a la jnana)
•every action performed on the external world reacts on the doer
•work performed in detachment from the empirical self
•by shifting affection to external “person” (a la bhakti)
•work for God’s sake instead of my own
•work done selflessly
•“He who does the task/Dictated by duty/Caring nothing/For the fruit
of the action/ He is a yogi. (Bhagava-Gita, VI:1)
•The Tale of the Yogi and the Scorpion
raja yoga/path
Disciplined bodily and mental activity designed to explore
the nature of the true self.
Layers of human being:
bodies
minds
subconscious
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Being Itself
raja yoga/path (cont.)
Eight Steps: (hatha yoga)
1. Five Abstentions: injury, lying, stealing,sensuality, greed
2. Five Observances: cleanliness, contentment, self-control,
studiousness, contemplation of the divine
3. asanas (postures, e.g., “the lotus position”)
4. breathing
5. contemplation (turning inward)
6. concentration (leave the mind alone)
7. merging of subject/object; out of time;
8. samadhi: sam=together with, adhi=the Lord
Stages of Life
 The student
 Householder (pleasure, success, duty)
 “Retirement”
 sannyasin (“the one who neither hates nor loves anything”)
Caste System
 Beginning with Aryan intrusion (2nd m. BCE)?
 Four (plus) castes:
Brahmins (seers)
Kshatriyas (administrators)
Vaishyas (artisans, farmers, craftsmen)
Shudras (unskilled laborers)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------“untouchables” (today: “dalit”)
God
 Brahman (etymology: br=breath, brih=to be great)
 sat: being
 chit: awareness
 ananda: bliss
 “neti . . .neti” -- a kind of “negative theology” (Nirguna Brahman of the
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philosophers)
Saguna Brahman: the noblest reality encountered in the world.
Sri Ramakrishna claimed both were equally correct
God can be thought of as Creator (Brahma), Preserver (Vishnu), and Destroyer
(Shiva)
But in many Hindu expressions God is transpersonal: beyond it all
Hindu Pantheon
Though affirming Brahman as “ultimate reality,” Hinduism is highly
polytheistic.
The Hindu Pantheon is structured around “divine couples” (malestructure/form::female-energy/matter) who serve different functions in
the universe; in a way, they point to the various forces in life/the
cosmos.
Many deities are depicted with a “vehicle”—an animal with whom they
are often portrayed.
The “Trimurti” is organized around Brahma (creation), Vishnu
(maintenance), Shiva (destruction).
Brahma (creation)
Consort/wife: Saraswati, goddess of knowledge and
speech.
Vehicle: hamsa or swan (seven swans).
Vishnu (maintainer of the universe)
Consort: Lakshmi (good fortune and prosperity)
Vehicle: “Garuda”—eagle/human hybrid
Vishnu appears in many avatars (traditionally ten, the
last, who has not yet appeared, is Kalki, who will come
when he is most needed).
The two most important avatars of Vishnu are Rama
and Krishna.
Shiva (the destroyer)
Consort(s): Kali (et al, Sati, Parvati, Lalita, Durga . . .)
Vehicle: Nandi, the Bull
Ganesha (son of Shiva and Parvati)
Devi (the goddess) is sometimes worshipped as the
supreme manifestation of Brahman. All other gods and
goddesses would then be considered emanations of her.
Devi (Devanagari: दे वी) is the Sanskrit word for
Goddess.
Devi is synonymous with Shakti, the female aspect of
the divine, as conceptualized by the Shakta tradition
of Hinduism. She is the female counterpart without
whom the male aspect, which represents
consciousness or discrimination, remains impotent
and void. Goddess worship is an integral part of
Hinduism.Devi is, quintessentially, the core form of
every Hindu Goddess. As the female manifestation of
the supreme lord, she is also called Prakriti or Maya, as
she balances out the male aspect of the divine
addressed Purusha. [1]ManifestationsDevi or the
divine feminine is an equal conterpart to the divine
masculine, and hence manifests herself as the Trinity
herself - the Creator (Durga or the Divine Mother),
Preserver (Lakshmi, Parvati & Sarswati) and Destroyer
(Mahishasura-Mardini, Kali & Smashanakali ).
People
 Individual souls (jivas) enter the world mysteriously
 They begin as the souls of the simplest forms of life and
reincarnate/transmigrate (samsara) into more complex bodies until they enter
human bodies
 Souls in human bodies are engaged in issues of freedom and responsibility
(karma)
 Is this fatalism?
 there is choice
 “natural” causes factor in
 ultimately the soul gets what it wants
 The Tale of the Magic Kalpataru Tree
The World
 A multiple world with innumerable galaxies (horizontally), innumerable tiers
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(vertically), and innumerable cycles (temporally)
Moral world in which karma is always operational
a “middle” place; will never replace paradise
maya (an element of illusion)
a place of human growth
lila (site of exuberant divine activity)
There are three major devotional traditions:
Vaishnava (Vishnu)
Generally vegetarian
Worship Vishnu, Rama, Krishna
Oriented towards duty and tradition
Shaiva (Shiva)
Worship focuses on union of opposites,
especially creation and destruction
Tend to emphasize ascetic practices.
Shakta (Devi)
Worship “the goddess” as ultimate reality
(Bengali)
Not as likely to be vegetarian
Hindus worship principally through seeing (Darshan) an image of
the divinity.
Shrines can be anywhere, in great temples, by the road, or in the
home.
Puja is the act of worship, offering them fruit, flowers, incense,
water, or cloth in order to symbolize an offering of the self to the
god/goddess.
In some cases deities are processed through the streets (at
festivals, etc.).
Sometimes the worshipper will take a pilgrimage to a sacred place,
the most well-known being Benares, on the Ganges River.
Jainism
 There are about 4 million Jains today, most of
them “lay people”
 Historians consider Jainism to have been
founded by Mahavira (599-527 BCE) as a
reaction to the conservative Brahminism of the
6th-century BCE
 In general, they do NOT accept the Hindu
Scriptures or rituals, but they do share a belief in
the transmigration of souls
 The most obvious characteristic of them is their
devotion to the principle of ahimsa, or noninjury
 monks wear a veil
 even lay people forbidden to drink after sunset
Jainism (cont.)
 Jains are followers of the Jinas, or “tirthankaras”
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(the ford-makers, who reveal the path to moksha)
They believe 24 tirthankaras appear in every half
cycle
Mahavira is the 24th tirthankara in this cycle
A contemporary of Buddha, Mahavira renounced
the world at the age of 30, and after 12 years as a
wandering ascetic achieved enlightenment
He then converted 12 disciples who structure his
teachings into the Jain Scriptures
He died in meditation and became a liberated soul
Jainism (cont.)
Jain monks commit to the Great Vows:
 non-injury (ahisma)
 truth-speaking (satya)
 sexual abstinence (brahmacharya)
 non-stealing (asteya)
 detachment from persons, places, and things (aparigraha)
 Lay people take the “lesser vows” which try to apply the great
vows to more “normal” modes of living: e.g., strict
vegetarianism, no work that involves the deliberate destruction
of life (e.g., hunting no, farming okay).
 In the fourth century CE a major split occurred:
 Digambaras: all possessions, including clothing are
hindrance to liberation
 Shvetambaras: detachment is in the mind (and not wearing
clothes can also cause injury; e.g., if you light a fire to stay
warm)
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The only objects a
Digambara monk is allowed
to carry are a water-pot and
a fly-whisk of peacock
feathers.
Sikhism
 Some see them as rather different from Hinduism
 Guru Nanak, ca. 1500, had encounter leaving him to seek a path to God that didn’t require
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strict identification with Islam or Hinduism.
In keeping with Hinduism, it affirms the ultimacy of a supreme and formless God beyond
human conceiving
In keeping with Islam, it rejects the notion of avatars (divine incarnations), caste distinctions,
images as aids to worship, and the sanctity of the Vedas
Follows Hinduism, but not Islam, in affirming reincarnation
Five k’s (in Punjabi):
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uncut hair (conserves vitality, draws upward)
comb (cleanliness and order)
steel bracelet (shackles one to God)
undershorts (one always dressed for action)
dagger (originally needed for self-defense)
 Seek salvation through union with God, by realizing, through love, the Person of God, who
dwells in the depths of their own being.
 World renunciation does not really figure in their faith.
 About 13 million Sikhs in the world
Though not really a proselytizing religion, Hinduism, especially in its most
philosophical and meditative forms, has made a number of converts in
the West.
Swami Vivekananda (appeared at the first World Parliament of Religions
in Chicago in 1893)—philosophical Hinduism.
Transcendental Meditation (1960’s—Maharishi Mahesh Yogi)—ascetic
Hinduism.
International Society for Krishna Consciousness— so called “Hare
Krishnas” (1960’s Swami Prabhupada)—bhakti Hinduism.
Hatha Yoga.