Transcript Hinduism Part I

Hinduism
World Religions
Chapter 3
There is only one God
But endless are his aspects and endless are
his names.
Call him by any name and worship him in
any aspect that pleases you,
You are sure to see him.
- Shri Ramakrishna,1836-1886, esteemed holy man
cf: The Spiritual Heritage of India
Hinduism claims about 800 million practitioners.
It is unique among the major world religions:
it cannot be traced to any
specific individual or
historical event.
Because of this,
it is seen as
having some
eternal essence,
a religion that
has existed
forever.
It is the oldest of
the living religious
traditions,
dating back at least
3,500 years.
Hinduism
is a challenging term.
Yet, it has gained acceptance by those
living in India and practicing Hinduism.
The name comes
from the Indus
River.
Hinduism is not easily classified;
It is not a religion in the
Western sense like
Christianity or Islam.
It is a diverse collection of beliefs,
traditions, practices, and texts.
But, this diversity itself reflects the worldview of Hinduism.
Diversity is also a hallmark of India,
where Hinduism is rooted.
India has over 1,000
languages, 20 of
which have over one
million speakers
each.
The country of India
has 18 official
languages.
The official language of the
federal government
is…anyone? Anyone?
Uttarakhand
(Sanskrit= official
language)
Throughout its development,
Hinduism has revealed an
inclusive approach: It
has tended to stress
convergence rather
than suppression when
encountering other
faiths.
Brief history:
1) Indus Valley
Civilization
-One of the major early
cultures of the world,
settled along the
Indus Valley region
in modern day
Pakistan
2500 BCE – 1500 BCE
It exceeded, at least geographically, the two
other great civilizations – Egypt and
Mesopotamia.
2) Aryan Settlement
A group from the northwest – the Aryans – settled in India around
1500 BCE.
It was most likely a gradual migration rather than a violent
invasion.
The Aryans merged with the existing Indus Valley
culture and contributed the following to it:
- the Hindu pantheon*
- language – Sanskrit
The Vedic Period
“Veda” comes from a
Sanskrit word
meaning knowledge.
The Vedas were
brought by the Aryans
as oral tradition.
The Vedas are the most
ancient of the Hindu
sacred scripture.
The Rig Veda is the oldest; it is a
collection of 1,028 hymns.
“God is one,
but men call him
by many names.”
The wisdom collected
in the Vedas
stretches from
writings in the Rig
Veda (1200 BCE) to
the beginning of the
1st and 2nd century
CE.
The Upanishads
-A philosophical commentary appended to the Vedas
between 800 and 300 BCE
The name Upanishads
means “sitting at the feet
of the master;”
the texts are filled with the
spiritual advice of the
advanced mystics.
The Upanishads set out the
principle of reincarnation
and the path out of the
cycle of birth and death.
The Bhagavad-Gita
• Hinduism’s most popular
sacred text
• part of the Hindu epic poem
the Mahabharata
In it, the god Krishna imparts to
the warrior Arjuna spiritual
wisdom in the eve of a
crucial battle.
Arjuna learns about dharma –
what it means to do one’s
duty.
The Bhagavad-Gita is closely
related to Bhakti Marga
(path of devotion), the most
emotional of the three paths
to liberation.
The Hindu Worldview (p.45-46)
• It is vital to understand that the Hindu
worldview is very different from the
Western worldview.
.The Goal of Life is
• liberation
• from the constraints of the human
condition: Moksha
•
“The holy city of Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges, is difficult to reduce
to words. Hindus revere it as the special home of the god Shiva, and insist
that those who die within its precincts automatically secure moksha
(liberation) from the cycle of rebirth.”
Reincarnation
• Hindus believe in reincarnation: that
one is re-created into a new life after
death.
Hindus anticipate many lifetimes,
so Hindus do not
experience
Moksha (liberation)
in one lifetime.
Moksha
• is the experience of being reunited with the
divine source.
• It is unlimited joy, being, and knowledge.
• Monism:
• All reality is one thing:
• All plants and animals, all material things, all
gods and goddesses, and humans – are all
share the same essence.