I constructed this paper through
many hours of reading,
writing, re-writing, keying, editing, and proofreading.
I do not profess to be a so-called
“expert”
on Hinduism; therefore, the paper that you are about to read should not
be
taken as one written by a Hindu practitioner. Hinduism
as a religion is vast. It
would take a lifetime to read and study all
of its aspects, let alone practice.
I
humbly confess that my effort is limited to what I have gleaned through
reading. Please
read what follows with
that in mind.
In
Christ, Ronald Coleman
Hinduism has developed from
pre 3000 BC to the
present day. It is not a static religion, but has continued to change
by
absorbing other religious beliefs. During this process there has been
no
attempt to standardize beliefs, so today Hindus can quite happily hold
a
multiplicity of opposing views.
Though Hinduism may seem far
removed from everyday American
experience, it's becoming more important that Christians understand
this
mysterious religion from India. The reason is that Hinduism claims
millions of followers
worldwide. It is also important because its influence is being felt in
the
United States.
Most
people have had at least some exposure to what is called the New Age
movement. We have
realized that Hinduism is the fountainhead
of a good deal of New Age thinking. Most of us are also aware than an
increasing number of Asian Indians are residing in the U.S. There are
over 200
Hindu temples or Hindu centers in the U.S. Many believe (I am not one
of them)
that due to its diverse nature, Hinduism has the potential to serve for
uniting
much of the non-Christian religious world.
i] They live with a deep respect for life
(ahimsa) because of
their belief in the unity of all life. Therefore they tend to be
vegetarian.
Even their treatment of nature expresses this principle. The tending of
a
vegetable patch is carried out with care and deep respect for the
life-force
within each plant. Those Hindus who do eat meat raise the animals
without
cruelty and take their lives painlessly. Even the preparation and
eating of
food expresses this principle. For this reason Hindus refrain from
talking
during a meal.
ii] As matter is something to be cast off - an impediment to
the soul -
a Hindu puts a low value on material possessions and sensual desires
(gluttony,
drunkenness, sex, etc.) To dwell on these things, rather than divest
them, can
only bring rebirth (karma) rather than salvation (moksha) and the
attainment of
Nirvana. Therefore eating and drinking is carried out in moderation,
with
certain days set aside as fast days, while sex is held in esteem only
for
procreation. For this reason marriages of "love" are frowned upon and
therefore mostly arranged.
iii] To break from the cycle of rebirths and
attain union with
God (Nirvana) is a Hindus aim in life. Unless they follow the path set
before
them (marga), they have no hope. Therefore the performance of their
religious
and social duty is uttermost in their mind.
Religious duty is extremely involved and varies between
caste and sub
caste. A good Hindu's home will have a separate room for a temple with
a shrine
containing pictures and statues of the personalized form of Brahman
that the
family worships. On rising in the morning each member of the family
performs
ritual washing, offers prayers inside and outside of the household
temple, and
eats breakfast separately. Lunch is usually vegetarian. In the evening,
there
is ritual washing again, evening prayers and offerings in the temple
(pudja)
chanting of mantras (verses from the Veda), the singing of hymns
(Bhajans) and
a reading from scripture in Sanskrit and then translated. After prayers
there
is the sharing of fire, and then the evening meal. A Hindu is not bound
to
visit a public temple or holy place and only does so on special
occasions and
pilgrimages. Their religion tends to be personal.
Social duty must also be faithfully
performed. Inward
righteousness is stressed, i.e. the motive. The intent of any action
determines
its worth, i.e. its spiritual value. All action must seek to purify
self.
Performance of dharma (correct duty) will achieve this. It will also
inspire
others to follow your path and so find Nirvana themselves. For this
reason a
Hindu lives their faith rather than preaching it. They will answer
questions,
but will not evangelize.
The
appeal of Hinduism is not difficult to comprehend. For one thing,
Hinduism is comfortable
with evolutionary thinking. As modern science emphasizes our physical
evolution, so Hinduism emphasizes our spiritual evolution. As much of
modern
psychology emphasizes the basic goodness and unlimited potential of
human
nature, so Hinduism emphasizes man's essential divinity. As modern
philosophy
emphasizes the relativity of all truth claims, so Hinduism tolerates
contradictory religious beliefs. As a religion that also emphasizes the
predominance
of the spiritual over material reality, Hinduism appeals to
disillusioned
people with material pursuits.
Although
there are some beliefs common to virtually all Hindus, there is no
"Hindu
orthodoxy"—no dogma that all Hindus must believe. Hinduism is
a
concatenation of developing beliefs and practices.
Hinduism
has its roots in the interrelationship of two basic religious systems:
that of
the ancient civilization residing in the Indus River Valley from the
third
millennium B.C., and the religious beliefs brought to India by the
Aryan people
who began infiltrating the Indus Valley sometime after 2000 B.C.
The
religion of the Aryans is described in the writings of "holy men"
contained in the Vedas (meaning "knowledge" or "wisdom").
The Vedas are four collections of writings composed between about 1500
and 500
B.C. that form the basis for Hindu beliefs, and that reveal a gradual
development of religious ideas. The later sections of the Vedas are
known as
the Upanishads. These Vedic writings are considered sruti, the
infallible, inspired word of God. Later
Hindu writings, including the Bhagavad Gita, are of lesser authority,
but
widely popular.
Overview
of Hinduism
The Hindu Cosmos
Classical Hinduism takes its
form from the uniting of
two different (and indeed opposing) worldviews. This unification is the
result
of a long religious and intellectual confrontation (roughly 500 to 300
bce)
between the Vedic Religion and the worldviews of Jainism and Buddhism.
From the
Vedic Religion, it took the life-affirming perspective and from Jainism
and
Buddhism, along with the late Upanishads it developed a life-negating
view.
Both views were fit into the understanding of the cosmos that Hinduism
developed out of the Vedas. To explain how this works, we must start
with two
intertwined descriptions of the cosmos, from which we will then move to
the
life-is-good and life-is-bad approaches to the human problem.
The
Hindu Cosmos #1
A)
The Vedic Gods
The sacrifices and rituals of
the Vedas involve a
number of gods and goddesses. There is Indra, the warrior god who can
be seen
as the leader of the gods. With his band of Maruts, he defeated the
demons of
darkness each morning so that the sun could rise. The Vedic literature
contains
a number of stories about his exploits and successes. There is also the
sky god
Dyaus and a few goddesses, such as Aditi and Ushas.
Although the Vedas comprise the
most sacred
literature of Hinduism, the divine pantheon in them is essentially
ignored in
later Classical Hinduism. Only one god important in this period
continues his
significance later. This is Agni, who is the god of fire and the sacred
fire
itself. He continues to be worshipped in the daily rituals of each
Hindu home.
Every morning, an offering of clarified butter (ghee) and some grain
cakes is
shared communion-style between Agni (i.e., the fire) and the members of
the
household.
B)
The Gods of Classical
Hinduism
Hinduism has always had a
remarkable ability to
absorb new influences and ideas within its fluid structure. This is
true of the
gods as well. One sage observed that there were 330 million divine
beings in
Hinduism. But if one looks for the most important gods, the usual
answer is
that there are three main gods, those of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. But
this
answer is unsatisfactory, for Brahma--the emanation of Brahman into the
realm
of maya--receives little regular worship. Indeed, if we determine the
importance of gods by the number of their temples, Brahma has almost
none. Instead,
a group of female gods appear much more important. Therefore, the
following
discussion will focus on Vishnu, Shiva, and the goddesses. Much of the
information about these gods comes from the two epics Mahabharata and
the
Ramayana, as well as from the Puranas.
Vishnu is a mighty male god, who
plays several roles
for his followers. He is at once the creator of the cosmos, its
sustainer, and
its destroyer. His most common female consort is Lakshmi. The followers
of
Vishnu are called Vaishnavites. On earth he has appeared in the form of
ten
different avatars, i.e., forms or manifestations. Some of the avatars
in which
he appeared were animal, such as a fish or a boar. But the most common
avatars
are Krishna and Rama, forms in which he continues to be worshipped.
There are three main stages in
Krishna's worldly
life. First, Krishna is born in a prison where his royal parents are
being held
by a rival king. His father works out a scheme to enable the baby
Krishna to
escape to a nearby village and replace him with another child. Krishna
grows up
as a mischievous boy within this village of cowherds, playing tricks on
his
family and friends.
Second, as a youth, Krishna woos
all the gopis
(female cowherds) in the village with his good looks, charms, and
attentions.
Although Radha is his favorite, he dallies with the other gopis as
well.
Occasionally he even divides himself (makes copies, remember
Multiplicity?) so
that he can pay attention to several of the girls at once. These
stories, while
making good tales on the surface level, are also interpreted on a
spiritual
level...
Third, as an adult, Krishna
regains his kingdom in
northern India by killing King Kamsa, an act seen as the restoration of
dharma.
In the story of the Mahabharata, he then helps Arjuna (by serving as
his
chariot driver, and his brothers (the Pandava brothers) in a war to
regain
their rightful kingdom. The night before a major battle, Krishna and
Arjuna
have a long discussion regarding the nature of dharma and the cosmos,
which is
preserved within the Mahabharata as the Bhagavad Gita. At the end of
the
discussion, Krishna reveals himself to Arjuna as Vishnu. The exploits
of
Krishna are told and rehearsed in the Vishnu temples and in the annual
festival
of the Ras Lila.
More
Concerning Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad
Gita (the Gita) was composed sometime
between the 7th and the 6th
centuries BC and later incorporated into the great Hindu epic Mahabharata.
It stated a new path towards liberation, a new kind of asceticism at
hand for
any human, independent of social status. It requires neither withdrawal
from
social life as the Upanishads do, nor performing severe austerities as
the Hatha
and Raja Yoga. This explains its great success both in the East and the
West.
The new Yoga presented in the Gita is concerned
with one's attitude of
mind when performing normal social duties, and could be defined as a
combination of Karma, Bhakti and Buddhi Yoga. Karma Yoga in the Gita
means the performance of one's duties in a spirit of renunciation, of
not being
bound to its fruits, Bhakti Yoga is one's effort to bring all actions
as
sacrifices to Krishna, while Buddhi Yoga is a particular kind of wisdom
one has
to develop in understanding life. Let us analyze the way this new kind
of Yoga
works.
The Gita
is an episode of the great epic Mahabharata, which
narrates the dialogue
of Arjuna, one of the five sons of the Pandava family, and the Hindu
god
Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu. A major battle is about to begin in which
Arjuna
sees himself playing a contradictory role, that of fighting against his
relatives, the Kaurava family. Caught between his warrior duty and the
ethical
meaning of fighting against his cousins, between his social duty and
the threat
of karma, he chooses to not fight and to be killed rather than have his
conscience loaded with the killing of his relatives. At this moment
Krishna
reveals himself to the distressed warrior and helps him understand the
situation from a transcendental point of view. He performs a spiritual
exegesis
of Arjuna's situation, stating: "Not by abstaining from work can one
achieve freedom from karma, nor by renunciation alone can one attain
perfection". "Abstaining
from
work" is practically impossible according to Krishna, as "everyone is
forced to act according to the tendencies (gunas) he
has acquired from
the modes of material nature (prakriti)". As a
warrior, Arjuna must
always follow his caste duties, in other words, his dharma.
On this
basis the Gita founds a new element in Hindu
philosophy: Spiritual
perfection is not attained by asceticism or abandoning action, but by
giving a
new meaning to action - that of detachment from its fruits, an attitude
that
does not feed karma and reincarnation. Krishna formulates the famous
principle:
Be focused on action
and not on the fruits of action. Do not become confused in attachment
to the
fruit of your actions and do not become confused in the desire for
inaction.
Therefore,
one should not withdraw from the world of social involvement but live
in it
detached from the fruits of actions, as "action is better than
inaction" and "renunciation of all action is impossible". As a
result, Krishna's command to Arjuna is: "Always act with detachment to
the
fruits of actions. The one who is acting without attachment attains
God".
This is Karma Yoga, the path of attaining liberation through
accomplishing
one's normal duties with a totally detached attitude toward personal
benefit.
In his given context, Arjuna has to fight no matter who is going to die
on the
battlefield.
There
is also a new meaning for sacrifice and Bhakti Yoga. Written at the
time when
the authority of the Vedas has heavily decreased, the Gita
states a
hierarchy in the value of different kinds of sacrifice, with the lowest
being
the Vedic sacrifice, brought to a god in order to get personal favors,
the next
being the inner sacrifice of Raja Yoga (that of breathing; of the mind
and
senses; and that of empirical knowledge) and the best being that of
detached
action. Acting like this, one brings his actions as sacrifices to
Krishna and
therefore they do not generate karmic seeds anymore:
Consider all your
acts as acts of devotion to me, whether eating, offering, giving away,
performing austerities. Perform them as an offering to me. In this way
you will
be free from karma, you will be liberated and you will come to me.
According
to this new understanding of Bhakti Yoga, there is no need for any kind
of
material sacrifices, rituals or other kind of performances. Act only in a worshipping
attitude toward
Krishna, as if all acts are dedicated to him. This particular mindset
in
judging particular situations in life is called Buddhi Yoga. Following
it, one
should attain liberation.
Krishna,
Karma and Grace
A first
inconsistency of the Gita concerns the relation
between the law of karma
and the grace granted by Krishna in helping his followers attain
liberation. On
the one hand, it seems that Krishna is sovereign over the law of karma,
using
it as an instrument for punishment or reward. He says: "Those who are
envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, I perpetually
cast into
transmigration, into various demoniac species of life". And also:
"Those who worship me and surrender all their activities unto me, being
devoted to me without hesitation, engaged in devotional service and
meditating
unto me, I deliver them quickly from the ocean of birth and death".
On the
other hand, karma seems to be a self-functioning rule that produces
effects by
its own power. One has to struggle alone against its drive and attain
better
incarnations from one existence to the next: "When the Yogi engages
himself in making further progress, being washed of all karma, he
achieves
liberation after many, many births". Meanwhile, Krishna holds a
detached
position toward all humans: "I see all creatures equally disposed and I
am
not partial to anyone".
These
two positions are not reconcilable. In
trying to explain the relation between karma and the grace of Krishna,
the
Hindu analysts of the Gita had to choose between
holding to the supremacy
of Krishna and the ultimate power of karma in ruling the world. There are theistic and
pantheistic
interpretations (and even translations) of the Gita,
indebted to one or
the other alternative. The first see Krishna as a super-personal god
using
karma as an instrument for awakening humans from ignorance, and the
second see
him as a mere form of Brahman's manifestation, with no real power in
controlling karma. As the two positions contradict each other and the Gita
leaves enough room for both, we wonder which could actually be the
relation
between karma and grace.
In
order to attain liberation, Arjuna is advised to strive hard to realize
a
detached attitude of mind, called Buddhi Yoga:
To those who are
constantly devoted to serve me, I give them the Buddhi Yoga by which
they can
come to me. I show my mercy to them by destroying their ignorance with
the lamp
of knowledge.
Here it
looks like Krishna burns karma by his grace only if one strives hard to
deserve
it. Therefore, the major role in salvation belongs to the individual
who
performs Buddhi Yoga. The grace granted by Krishna is far away from the
meaning
it got later in the prapatti
devotional trend. Therefore, Krishna must be understood as a kind of
meditation
object rather than as a personal god who gets himself involved in one's
reincarnation journey. The only grace one benefits from Krishna is
receiving
his advice. The rest depends on the disciple.
Dharma
and Karma
In
anyone's life the conditioning couple of dharma and
karma is at work.
The "duty" that forces Arjuna to fight is his dharma,
i.e. his
caste-duty as warrior. In turn, Arjuna's dharma is
generated by his
karma. Therefore, the real impetus of Arjuna's actions is his karma,
which
pushes him into action independently of his present intentions. Krishna
states:
"When you become confused in your false ego you say to yourself, 'I
will
not fight' you are misled. By your nature you must fight". This
"nature" is prakriti or, more specifically, the way
the three gunas
influence one's mind under the influence of past karma. Therefore,
Arjuna is
not free to fulfill his dharma, but is compelled by
his karma to act
according to it. The action that "is better than inaction" is not a
free decision of man; it does not follow the understanding of one's
social
duty, but is the way of accepting a pre-ordained scenario. Such an
action is
devoid of any sense of freedom, being a mere resignation to fate. The
only
freedom left to Arjuna is to give a certain meaning to his
predetermined
actions, that of sacrifices to Krishna: "Consider all your acts as acts
of
devotion to me, whether eating, offering, and giving away, performing
austerities. Perform them as an offering to me. In this way you will be
free
from karma, you will be liberated and you will come to me".
Another
inconsistency of the Gita is regarding the
character of Krishna.
According to classic Vaishnavism, Krishna is only an incarnation of the
Hindu
god Vishnu (which according to Vedanta is only a form of Brahman's
manifestation). In the Gita Krishna becomes the
Supreme Lord of the
Universe, eternal, and the source of all existence: "I am the source of
all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from me".
Contrary
to Vedanta, Krishna becomes the source of Brahman and contrary to
Vaishnavism
he is the instrument of attaining fusion with Brahman. Although the
intention
of the Gita is to present Krishna as
super-personal, he is a
heterogeneous mixture of theistic, dualistic and pantheistic kinds of
Ultimate
Reality. He is not only the creator but also the substance of the
universe. The
cycle of permanent transformation between the manifested state and the
unmanifested one is characteristic for Krishna too, as it was with
Brahman:
At the end of an
era (kalpa) all creatures disintegrate into my nature and at the
beginning of
another era I manifest them again. Such it is my nature (prakriti) to
follow
again and again the pattern of the Infinite manifestations and
disintegrations.
Krishna
has to "follow the pattern of the Infinite manifestations and
disintegrations", which implies that the process is a necessity that
surpasses him as personal god. He is just a detached and helpless
spectator to
it. Therefore it is hard to accept his dominion over creation along
with the
periodic manifestation of nature. Rather, we should conclude that the
creation
of the world is not an option for him, but a periodic duty at the end
of each
cosmic cycle, as was the case with the manifestations of Brahman. S.
Dasgupta
comments on the contradictory personal character of Krishna:
The Gita combines
together different conceptions of God without feeling the necessity of
reconciling the oppositions or contradictions involved in them. It does
not
seem to be aware of the philosophical difficulty of combining the
concept of
God as unmanifested, differenceless entity with the notion of Him as
the
super-person Who incarnates Himself on earth in the human form and
behaves in
the human manner. It is not aware of the difficulty that, if all good
and evil
should have emanated from God, and if there be ultimately no moral
responsibility, and if everything in the world should have the same
place in
God, there is no reason why God should trouble to incarnate Himself as
man,
when there is a disturbance of the Vedic dharma. If God is impartial to
all,
and if He is absolutely unperturbed, why should He favor the man who
clings to
Him, and why, for his sake, overrule the world-order of events and in
his favor
suspend the law of karma? (S. Dasgupta, Indian Philosophy, Motile
Banarsidass,
1991, vol.2, p. 533).
The demand
to act in the world without attachment to the fruits of action seems
itself
contradictory. Could it actually be possible to act like this? How
could one
really perform his social duties without being attached to them?
Otherwise what
motivation remains for acting in the world? That of a robot, devoid of
any
personal input to his acts? The philosophy of the Gita
itself aims at
fulfilling a personal fruit - liberation from reincarnation, which is
useful
for nobody else than oneself. Should this fruit be treated with
detachment too?
Could one act detached regarding his eternal destiny? If the philosophy
of
detached acting cannot be valid for the major aspect of existence, how
can we
know it works in other respects?
On the
other hand, how much could one know about his dharma,
especially in a
Western society, where the caste system doesn't exist? At to what
extent can one
be sure he is fulfilling his dharma and not a
personal attachment to a
certain egoistic motivation? Where is the limit between my dharma
and my
neighbor's? Therefore, under the cover of religion, anyone can
masquerade,
pretending he follows his dharma, but having no
altruistic motivations
at all in what he does.
When
Arjuna found himself in the process of choosing between his duty as
warrior and
the killing of his relatives (a severe violation of Vedic morality),
Krishna
explained to him that he must give another meaning to traditional
morality.
Traditional ethical values should not be a hindrance to acting detached
to the
fruits of action. He argued: "The wise men who reached true knowledge
see
with as equally a brahman (priest), a cow, an elephant, a dog and a
dog-eater".
As only
the soul (atman) is immortal, Krishna argues that it
is actually
impossible to kill anyone: "Those who think that they can kill or those
that think they can be killed are confused in the manifestations of
ignorance.
The infinite, immortal soul can neither kill or be killed". Therefore
Arjuna is free to kill his relatives, considering them only temporary
abiding
forms for the eternal self, mere mortal frames. S. Dasgupta states in
his
commentary:
The theory of the
Gita that, if actions are performed with an unattached mind, then their
defects
cannot touch the performer, distinctly implies that the goodness or
badness of
an action does not depend upon external effects of the action, but upon
the
inner motive of action. If there is no motive of pleasure or self-gain,
then
the action performed cannot bind the performer; for it is only the bond
of
desires and self-love that really makes an action one's own and makes
one reap
its good or bad fruits. Morality from this point of view becomes wholly
subjective, and the special feature of the Gita is that it tends to
make all
actions non-moral by cutting away the bonds that connect an action with
its
performer (Ibid, p. 507).
The
contrast with traditional morality is obvious. Its representative is
another
important character in the battle of Kurukshetra, Yudishthira, Arjuna's
brother. He tried to expiate his sin of killing his relatives in battle
through
repentance, gifts, asceticism and pilgrimages. For him a bad conscience
could
not be cleansed by a right attitude of mind, but by compensatory acts.
Rather
than a consistent philosophy, S. Dasgupta considers the Gita
only a
manual of conduct:
The Gita was
probably written at a time when philosophical views had not definitely
crystallized into hard-and-fast systems of thought, and when the
distinguishing
philosophical niceties, scholarly disputations, the dictates of
argument, had
not come into fashion. The Gita, therefore, is not to be looked upon as
a
properly schemed system of philosophy, but as a manual of right conduct
and
right perspective of things in the light of a mystical approach to God
in
self-resignation, devotion, friendship and humility. (p.534)
The Gita
falls short of coherence and viability. A god that rules the world by
the
"help" of karma cannot be the super-personal embodiment of
perfection. One's (mostly unknown) dharma fed by
past lives' deeds
cannot provide any real meaning for freedom. Acting without attachment
to its
results cannot be a valid solution for fulfilling one's social duty.
And a
morality that considers people temporary frames of the eternal self
cannot
grant social harmony. Therefore, it as difficult to accept the message
of the Gita
as a proper teaching of conduct, especially in the Western world.
The other major avatar of Vishnu
is Rama, the central
figure of the Ramayana. In keeping with the actions in the story, Rama
(i.e.,
Vishnu) bears the attributes of trust, faithfulness, and strength.
Along with
Sita, his faithful wife, Vishnu as Rama continues to be worshipped in
temples
and in the annual festival of the Ram Lila.
Shiva, by contrast, has no
avatars, but he has a
family of wives and children. Shiva was originally seen as the
destroyer, but
has since added the attributes of creator (destroy to make things
anew), and
sustainer. In fact, the figure of the dancing Shiva who sustains the
world is a
common Hindu image. Shiva's worshippers are known as Shaivites. The
tales of
exploits are mentioned in the Ramayana, but appear much more fully in
the
Puranas. Shiva's primary depiction is as a meditating sadhu, but due to
the
attentions of Parvati, one of his wives, he also has a familial side.
The main symbol of shiva is a
lingam, a phallic
shaped object. This symbol is placed as the central image in a Shaivite
temple
and often made from valuable material, such as silver. It is usually
two to
three feet tall, and constitutes a focus of worship for his followers.
Shiva's "wives" are the symbols
of feminine
powers, called sakti. They are often worshipped within Shaivism, but
can be
worshipped on their own in a form of Hinduism called Saktiism. Although
there
are numerous female figures associated with Shiva, four stand out:
Parvati,
Umma, Durga, and Kali.
Parvati is the goddess of love
and romance. She is
young, beautiful and full of life. She represents union with Shiva, a
representation that has distinct sexual overtones. Indeed, they are
often
depicted in the act of intercourse, the combination of their male and
female
(sakti) energies sustaining the universe. Parvati is also the mother of
Ganesha.
Although Shiva initially tried to kill Ganesha, he ultimately adopted
him and
the three of them are a favorite family scene.
Umma is the wife who represents
motherhood. She is
seen as kind, caring, nurturing, and displaying other features of
motherhood.
Durga represents the attribute
of justice. She rides
a tiger and carries the weapons of battle. In this character, she is
unafraid
to kill to reestablish justice.
Kali is wild, terrible, and
unpredictable, and is
usually associated with death. She is usually depicted naked, wearing a
necklace of human heads and a skirt of human arms. Blood drips from her
sword.
Death is thus connected with her activities. She is sometimes depicted
dancing
upon the prone form of Shiva, symbolizing the strength of wild and
unpredictable power. The city of Calcutta is named after her.
Shiva also has two sons. The
first, Ganesha, has the
head of an elephant and is the god of overcoming obstacles, which links
him to
good luck and prosperity. The
second,
Skanda, becomes the divine warrior and thus the god of war.
The Hindu Cosmos #2:
What's really there?
Although Christianity holds that
God is immanent,
that is usually not meant in physical terms. God is near all humans,
but he is
not in physical objects; God created, but he is not his creation. For
example,
he is not a boat nor is he in a boat.
Hinduism provides a radically
different idea, one
which goes against the evidences of human senses. The idea is simple:
Brahman
(the "creator" god) IS his creation. The cosmos is not so much a
creation, but more an emanation from him. His essence lies in all
created
objects, including human beings. This means that the multiplicity of
the
cosmos--with all its gods, goddesses, humans, animals, and other beings
and
objects--is actually a unity; it is one divine being. The multiplicity
that
hides the cosmos' unity is called maya; that is the reality humans
perceive
with their senses everyday. The overcoming of maya to perceive true
reality
(Brahman) thus constitutes an important task in Hinduism.
This simple notion has a
stunning ramification: the
soul of each individual human being--called atman—is Brahman.
The soul of each
person is thus Brahman, the entirety of creation. This is a difficult
concept
to comprehend, for how can the "small" soul of each person be identical
with the "large" god of the cosmos? But it is the comprehension of
this idea that becomes a central goal in human life and in the
resolution of
the human problem.
The Human Problem and its
Solution: The
Life-Affirming View
For that part of Hinduism rooted
in the Vedas which
views life as good, the human problem is how to enjoy life, how to
enjoy one's
lives. Since the samsara system continually causes people to be reborn
after
their deaths, every life should be lived to maximize one's enjoyment
both in
the present life and in future lives.
In terms of one's present life,
enjoyment comes from
working towards the first three goals of life: dharma (virtue), artha
(success), and kama (pleasure). Success and pleasure clearly can bring
about
enjoyment in-and-of-themselves, but so can the practice of virtue. The real reward for
following virtue,
fulfilling the duties of one's varna and jati, one's stage in life,
comes in
future lives. The more a person leads their life according to dharma,
the
greater a store of good karma they develop. Good karma leads to a
higher
position in rebirth, while bad karma can lead to a lower position,
possibly
even one below the human race (like a slug). The more virtuous a person
is in
the present life, the higher the will be reborn in the next. And of
course, the
higher one is born, the more enjoyable life will be.
The Human Problem and its
Solution: The Life-Negating View
That part of Hinduism which
views life as bad defines
the human problem in a different way. Since life is not a good
experience, many
lives are definitely not pleasant. The problem therefore is how to stop
living.
A person could end his life, but that would only cause a rebirth. The
problem
is obviously how to get out of the system of samsara, how to die
without being
reborn.
The solution is to gain moksha,
release. The simple
characterization of this goal is for a person to realize the true
nature of the
cosmos. That is, a person must come to the understanding, with every
fiber of
being, that atman and Brahman are one and the same. The key is to
realize this
with "every fiber of being"; head knowledge does not count.
The more complex depiction of
this goal is actually a
fuller version of the previous one. First, recall that each person is
reborn on
the basis of their karma: good karma enables a higher birth, while bad
karma
results in a lower birth. But what if there is no karma at all? In this
situation,
there would be nothing attached to the individual that could determine
where
they would be reborn. This, in turn, would prevent rebirth and thus
take the
person out of the system.
How does one avoid having karma?
How does one come to
realize that Atman is Brahman? This comes about through the practice of
one of
several different forms of yoga which will be explained later.
According
to the Vedic cosmogony of the golden egg (Hiranyagarbha),
both gods and
men have their origin in an impersonal primordial entity (Rig
Veda
10,129). The Brahmana texts add the appearance of a Creator (Prajapati)
from
the golden egg, who created the world and humans out of his own body,
by the
power of his ardor. The Purushasukta hymn states
that the product of the
golden egg is the giant Purusha, and through his sacrifice by the gods
the
physical world was built, the four caste system, the animals and the
duality of
sexes.
Although
the Vedic hymns do not clearly state what role the most worshipped gods
played
in the creation of man, man is responsible to them for how he lives his
life.
The prayers people address to Varuna, Indra, Agni or other gods denote
a sinful
human nature. Man constantly asks for forgiveness for the sins he does,
which
are either errors in performing the right religious ritual, or faults
against
one’s neighbor:
If we have sinned
against the man who loves us,
Have wronged a brother, a dear friend, or a comrade,
The neighbor of long standing or a stranger,
Remove from us this stain, O King Varuna.
(Rig Veda 5,85,7)
To the
fire god Agni, who burns away sins through the fire ritual, people ask
for
forgiveness, but also for material welfare:
Shining brightly,
Agni, drive away
our sin, and shine wealth on us.
Shining bright, drive away our sin.
For good fields,
for good homes, for wealth,
we made our offerings to you.
Shining bright, drive away our sin.
(Rig Veda 1,97,1-2)
According
to the hymns of the Rig Veda, man is a personal
being dependent on the
gods, and his destiny is eternal life in a celestial world. Here is how
the
worshippers of Indra express their longing for personal immortality:
Make me immortal in
the realm
where the son of Vivasvat
(Yama) reigns,
Where lies heaven’s secret shrine, where
are those waters that are ever
young.
For Indra, flow you on, Indu!
Make me immortal in
that realm
where movement is accordant to
wish,
In the third region, the third heaven of heavens,
where the worlds are
resplendent.
For Indra, flow you on, Indu!
(Rig Veda 9,113,8-9)
Yama,
the god of death is sovereign over the souls of the dead and also the
one who
receives the offerings of the family for the benefit of the departed.
Divine
justice was assured by the gods Yama, Soma and Indra, not by an
impersonal law
such as karma. One of their functions was to cast the wicked into an
eternal
dark prison from which they can never escape (Rig Veda
7,104,3; 17). It
is important to keep in mind that the Vedas do not consider man as a
part of an
impersonal Absolute, with whom he should fuse after death.
According
to Vedic anthropology, the components of human nature are the physical
body, asu
and manas. Asu is the vital
principle (different from personal
attributes), and manas is the sum of psycho-mental
faculties (mind,
feeling and will). The belief in the preservation of the three
components after
death is proved by the fact that the family addressed the departed
relative in
the burial ritual as a unitary person:
May nothing of thy
manas, nothing of the asu, nothing of the limbs, nothing of thy vital
fluid,
nothing of thy body here by any means be lost (Atharva Veda 18,2,24).
The
departed relatives constituted a holy hierarchy. The last one deceased
was
commemorated individually for a year after his departure and then
included in
the mortuary offerings of the monthly shraddha
ritual (Rig Veda
10,15,1-11). This ritual was necessary because the dead could influence
toward
good or bad the life of the living (Rig Veda
10,15,6). Beginning only
with the Brahmana writings (after the 9th century BC), which are the
first to
mention a primitive idea of karma and reincarnation, did the tendency
appear to
abandon the idea of preservation of personhood after death. However,
this was
not the spirit of early Hinduism.
At a
macrocosmic level, the Upanishads state that there is an ultimate unity
of the
world in Brahman, the impersonal pattern equivalent to the One of the Rig
Veda (10,129). In their search for a fundamental entity of
human nature,
something that should be the unifying principle of all psycho-mental
faculties,
but above their temporal fluctuations, the Hindu rishis defined the
concept of atman.
In the Chandogya Upanishad (5,1,1) it is stated
that breath (prana)
is the “oldest and the best” principle that assures
the functioning of all
other psycho-mental capacities. That is why from the notion of breath
derived
the notion atman, which came to designate the self,
man’s spiritual
being. Therefore atman is not the seat of
personhood, or man’s soul, as
it is sometimes mistakenly translated.
It is a spiritual entity distinct to personhood and to the
physical
body.
Unlike
all other manifestations of Brahman, atman is of
the same ontological
quality with Brahman; it does not fluctuate, it is expressionless,
irreducible,
eternal and pure:
The self is not
this, not this. He is incomprehensible for he is never comprehended. He
is
indestructible for he cannot be destroyed. He is unattached for he does
not
attach himself. He is unfettered, he does not suffer, he is not injured
(Brihadaranyaka Up. 4,2,4).
Given
his condition as a product of Brahman’s manifestation, man's
purpose in life is
to join the returning process of all manifestations to the initial
state of
non-manifestation. This is possible only through disassociating the
self (atman)
from the corporeal and psycho-mental experience and realizing the
identity
between his self and Brahman. However, there is an important aspect to
emphasize: Man’s return to Brahman is a concept that could
raise confusion. In
fact, Brahman is already present in man, both at a transcendent and an
immanent
level, that is, both as the absolute atman and the
relative
manifestations. Discerning between the two conditions is possible by
gaining a
deep mystical knowledge of atman: “The
self is to be meditated upon, for
in it all these become one. This self is the foot-trace of all this,
for by it
one knows all this, just as one can find again by footprints”
(Brihadaranyaka
Up. 1,4,7). “Meditating on the self”
means getting the knowledge of essential
identity with Brahman, and this knowledge is equivalent with attaining
effectively the atman-Brahman identity, as the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad states:
This is the great
unborn self who is undecaying, undying, immortal, fearless, Brahman.
Verily,
Brahman is fearless. He who knows this becomes the fearless Brahman
(4,4,25).
However,
there is the obstacle of illusion (maya) against
getting this intuitive
knowledge. Maya deceives man about the true nature of existence,
channeling his
wishes toward the phenomenal world that is ever changing. At the same
time, maya
strengthens the confusion of atman with the
psycho-mental activity and
the physical body. As a result of illusion, man grants true spiritual
value to
what is unstable and changing instead of knowing his eternal immutable
self.
This ignorance (avidya) is the cause of atman’s
captivity in the
world of material experience:
Just as those who
do not know the field walk again and again over the hidden treasure of
gold and
do not find it, even so all creatures here go day after day into the
Brahma-world and yet do not find it, for they are carried away by
untruth
(Chandogya Up. 8,3,2).
As a
result of ignorance, in the spiritual world a process develops similar
to the
law of action and reaction that works in the physical world. This is
karma, the
law of action and retribution according to one’s deeds. Its
origin is found in
the exegesis of the benefits of sacrifice. It was thought that the same
way
sacrifices bring good results to the one who performs them, all his
other acts
need a reward too. This prevents a person from entering the celestial
world
after death or limits the person’s stay there, forcing one to
come back in this
life and reap the fruits of his deeds. As a result of karma, any action
performed by man has an effect on its performer. The practical way one
reaps
the fruits of his deeds is reincarnation (samsara).
It teaches that we
live further lives as humans or, according to how badly we acted and
how gross
our ignorance was in detaching from the material world, as animals or
plants.
The
first clear mention of samsara is in the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad
(3,2,13), where it is mentioned that “one becomes good by
good action, bad by
bad action”. It is also stated that the reincarnation cycle
is started by
desire: “As is man’s desire so is his will; as is
his will, so is the deed he
does, whatever he does, that he attains” (4,4,5). The
“desire” is that of
experiencing the physical world, and consequently illusion, and
“that he
attains” is the fruit reaped in a further life, as a result
of karma’s
retribution. Karma is the direct link between desire and reincarnation,
which
builds a total inter-conditioning mechanism between the previous, the
present
and the next lives. As a result of karma’s retribution, any
thought, word or
deed of this life will find its reward in the next life, at the same
level. In
the Katha Upanishad (2,2,7) it is stated:
“Some souls enter into a womb
for embodiment; others enter stationary objects according to their
deeds and
according to their thoughts.”
An
important aspect to emphasize here is the fact that reincarnation
should not be
understood only as solution for punishing bad deeds. Reincarnation
functions
independently of how good or bad actions are. It follows only the
necessity
imposed by karma, an impersonal and amoral law. Between atman
and moral
values there is no possible connection: “He (atman)
does not become greater
by good works or smaller by evil works (. . .) What he has done or what
he has
not done does not burn him” (Brihadaranyaka Up.
4,4,22). Good deeds only
provide a short reward in heaven, but then the soul has to return to
earth and
continue its struggle. In the Mundaka Upanishad
(1,2,10) is stated:
These deluded men,
regarding sacrifices and works of merits as most important, do not know
any
other good. Having enjoyed in the high place of heaven won by good
deeds, they
enter again this world or a still lower one.
The
Upanishads mark a transition from the point where man's condition is
determined
by divine personal agents (such as the Vedic gods), to the situation of
being
totally controlled by the impersonal law of karma. In this situation
man is alone
facing his destiny, having the duty to escape by his own efforts from
the
vicious cycle avidya-karma-samsara,
an objective that is
foundational to all Hindu religious systems.
These
two darshanas are dualistic, accepting the real
status of primordial
substance (prakriti) beside purusha
(the equivalent of atman).
None is the manifestation of the other. Purusha and
prakriti have
different natures and do not aim to reconstruct a unique essence, as
was the
case in pantheism.
Purusha, the self, is the spiritual
entity that defines
human existence from a transcendental point of view. It is the eternal
substrata of the individual being, devoid of any attributes and
relations,
without beginning or end, indifferent, autonomous, immutable and
perfect, above
senses, intellect, time and space. All these categories belong to prakriti.
Purusha can have relations only with itself. It can
know only itself and
contemplate itself. On the other hand, prakriti,
the primordial
substance, is capable of manifestation and produces all the physical
and mental
aspects of the world.
Not
only is the physical world a product of prakriti’s
manifestation,
through the loss of balance of the three gunas, but
also the world of
psycho-mental phenomena. Sattva produces virtue,
wisdom and goodness; rajas
produces passion, contradiction, agitation and wickedness; and tamas
is
responsible for generating ignorance, confusion, indifference and
depression.
The psychological human states are combinations of effects produced by
the
three gunas. For instance, when the sattva
dominates, the soul is
calm and tranquil; when rajas dominates there is
passion and
nervousness; and with tamas in control man is
inert, lazy, and ignorant.
Although
there is not much known about how the initial balance between the three
gunas
was affected and how purusha got involved with the
manifestations of prakriti,
this situation is the source of all problems, the cause of purusha’s
captivity in the illusion of psycho-mental activity. The confusion of
the two
opposite realities, the eternal purusha and the sum
of psycho-mental
activities, is maya, illusion. Persistence in this
state is a result of
ignorance (Yoga Sutra 2,24) and starts the process
of karma and
reincarnation. Purusha will reincarnate as many
times as needed,
according to the deeds performed by the individual in ignorance toward
his true
identity. All actions demand a fulfillment, or consummation, in the
present or
further lives. Samsara works the same way as in pantheism, until true
knowledge
about the nature of purusha is attained.
As both
Hindu Tantrism and Hatha Yoga describe in a similar way man’s
condition in the
world, they will be viewed together.
The
world and mankind appeared through the dissociation of the primordial
unity of
Shiva and Shakti. In the Shiva Samhita (1,92), a
text that is common to
both religious schools, is stated:
Out of the
combination of spirit, which is Shiva, with matter, which is Shakti,
and
through the interaction of one with the other, all creatures were born.
The
self (atman) is considered to be Shakti, who lives
in the human body as
a spiritual energy called kundalini. Following the pattern of
pantheism, the
goal to be pursued is the return of self (Shakti, corresponding to atman)
in the Ultimate Reality represented by Shiva (the equivalent of
Brahman).
Illusion (maya), ignorance (avidya),
karma and reincarnation are
described in a similar way. Personhood and empirical knowledge are two
main
categories that produce false attachments and have to be surpassed.
The Condition in Theistic
Hinduism
The
main Hindu theistic schools are those which worship Vishnu (including
his
avatars such as Rama and Krishna), Shiva and Shakti (also in her forms
as Durga
or Kali). Out of the many forms of theistic Hinduism that exist in the
present,
we will view briefly only some aspects of Vaishnavism as it was stated
by the
great theistic Hindu thinkers Ramanuja and Madhva. The works of
Ramanuja and
Madhva represent an extraordinary contribution to Hindu spirituality,
by the
special way they understood the relation between man and divinity and
the
significance of salvation. According to them, man has a totally
different
nature from Vishnu, the personal god who is accepted as Ultimate
Reality, and
there is no impersonal atman-Brahman fusion that
has to be attained.
According
to Ramanuja, God’s relation to the world is similar to that
existing between
soul and body. As the body cannot exist separately from the soul, the
existence
of the universe and of individual beings depends totally on God. He
conducts
the souls; they cannot exist without him, but have also energies and
activities
of their own. The individuality of each soul (jiva)
is not an illusion
that has to be discarded through knowledge, but a metaphysical fact.
Although
they depend entirely on God, individual souls are real, unique,
eternal, and
possess intelligence and conscience. The main causes of their present
state are
ignorance (defined as the illusory idea of independence from God) and
the
desire for seeking material goods. The souls enter into connection with
material bodies according to the karma they acquired in previous forms
of
existence. Karma is an instrument used by God to punish evil but also
to remind
humans of their true status and what they should actually seek in life.
But the
question of how souls first came under the power of karma is
unanswered,
because the cosmic process has no beginning.
For
Madhva too, matter and mankind depend totally on God. The ontological
differences between God, humans and matter are fundamental and eternal.
However,
the fact that God, souls and karma are eternal, beginningless, poses
difficulties in understanding the relationship between them. On the one
hand,
if God didn't create souls, he cannot have any role in sustaining them,
and
they have no reason to be responsible to him. If one's soul is
beginningless,
it means it isn't created by God, which further means it isn't
responsible to
him. A soul can only be responsible to the one God who created it, I
should
think.
On the
other hand, how can God and karma be reconciled? It is stated that
there are
three phases in the existence of a soul: 1) the dormant state; 2) the
transmigration process; 3) the liberated state. God is the one who
introduces
the soul into the stream of transmigration so that it might discover
its
spiritual nature. It is stated that in the incarnated state, the
physical and
subtle bodies produce the illusion of independence toward God and also
attachment to the physical world, perpetuating in this way the chain of
samsara.
As a result of their accumulated karma, God chooses to have each soul
undergo
the fruits of his past labors. But on what authority? Why should God be
the
controlling force, giving each soul what it deserves? Karma is a law
that can
work by itself, as it does in Samkhya, so it doesn't require a god. The
soul (purusha)
in Samkhya is eternal and doesn't depend upon any god for its
existence,
transmigration and liberation. Karma operates without the need or
intervention
of any god. Why should the situation be different in Dvaita, as long as
the
souls are not created? Simply adding the fact that karma is under the
sovereignty of God is an artificial and useless theory, I would think.
When the Aryans moved into northwest India, they
imposed a caste system to
organize the new society created by their arrival. They initially put
together
a hierarchy of four varnas
(castes), which
later was expanded to include a fifth category. The caste system
initially
served to maintain rigid social boundaries between the invaders and the
previous inhabitants. Over the generations, the origins were forgotten
and the
system became the stratification of a single society.
The four original
varnas were actually put together as three plus
one. The top three varnas were the invaders, while the one on the
bottom
consisted of the Dravidian inhabitants. The four varnas are
called:
|
Varna |
Occupation |
Key status |
|
Brahmin |
Priests and religious officials |
Twice-born, Aryan Varnas |
|
Kshatriya |
Rulers and warriors |
|
|
Vaishya |
Farmers, merchants, traders, and
craftsmen |
|
|
|
|
Not Twice-born, Non-Aryan |
|
Shudra |
Servants of upper castes and peasants |
People are born
into the caste of their parents. There is no
mobility across caste lines during one's lifetime. Each varna is
divided into a
number of sub-castes, each of which is called a jati. Just as the varnas provide a social
hierarchy in society at large, the different jatis provide a social
hierarchy
within a varna.
This system of
varnas and jatis serves two important functions.
First, it assigns occupations. The varna and jati to which one belongs
is
usually identified with an occupation. Within the Vaishyas, for
instance, there
are jatis of bakers, sheep herders, metal workers, and so on.
Second, the system
separates the members of the different the
varnas and jatis by a complex system of purity and impurity. The higher
a varna
or jati in the system, the higher a level of purity they must maintain.
The
lower, the more likely they are to transmit impurity. These purity
restrictions
appear most frequently in four areas: marriage, drink, food, and touch.
Marriage is possible only between members of jatis closely related in
the
hierarchy. A mere touch--if a shudra should accidentally brush against
a Brahmin--can
require the Brahmin to undergo extensive rites of purification.
The top three
varnas have a status that excludes the fourth; this
is the status of being "Twice-born." This means that the religion
described in the Vedas
applies to them only. The designation
"twice-born" refers to the rite of initiation that the members of
this caste go through upon reaching maturity. This rite brings them
into the religion;
they are reborn as a Hindu and not just as a caste member. The shudras,
therefore, are excluded from worship in the Vedic religion, and are not
even
permitted to hear the Vedas read out-loud. They have their own priests
and
religious rites.
When the Aryans
moved across India from their foothold in the
northwest, they conquered yet more people. To place the newly conquered
groups
into their society, the Aryans created a new caste. However poorly off
the
shudras were at the bottom of the caste system, the members of the new
category
were even worse off, for the new caste was placed below the shudras. In
fact,
the Untouchables, as the new caste was called, were put outside the
caste
system altogether; they were outcastes. The purity regulations were
such that
not even the shudras would relate to them, and they were assigned the
worst
occupations, such as latrine cleaners, leather tanners, and so on. Thus
the
final picture of the caste system looks like this:
|
Category |
Occupation |
Key status |
|
Brahmin |
Priests and religious officials |
Twice-born, |
|
Kshatriya |
Rulers and warriors |
|
|
Vaishya |
Farmers, merchants, traders, and
craftsmen |
|
|
|
|
Not Twice-born, |
|
Shudra |
Servants of upper castes and peasants |
|
|
|
|
Outside the |
|
Untouchables |
The dirtiest jobs: latrine cleaners,
etc. |
The caste system
has been remarkably stable in India for over two
millennia; it is only since the modern, independent state of India was
formed
that the system has come under any scrutiny at all. (It is presently
outlawed,
but many of the practices and attitudes remain ingrained in Hindu
society.) The
reason for this stability is twofold. First, Hindu rules for social
behavior
expect one to fulfill the requirements of their caste. Second, in the
system of
samsara and reincarnation that governs the cosmos; rebellion
against caste
expectations will result in a lower rebirth in the next life.
Time and Worship
In
Hinduism, time follows the life of Brahma. The age of the world is
reckoned in
terms of one day in the life of Brahma, which is equivalent to
4,320,000,000
years. This period of time is divided four yugas, which are reckoned in
multiples of 432,000,000 years. Together these four yugas are called
the Great
Cycle. The world is now in the fourth and most degenerate stage, the
Kali Yuga,
which started in 3102 bce.
The
annual calendar is lunar. It is regularly adjusted to retain a rough
equivalence with the solar year by adding an extra month. The numbering
of the
years goes according to two different systems called Vikram Samvant and
Saka.
The Vikram Samvant is more widely used.
It
is important to note that popular Hinduism holds that certain times are
better
for important events (marriage, business ventures, religious rites,
etc.) than
others. These times are different for different people and are
calculated
through a complex system based on the Vedas, the movements of the stars
and
planets, and the moon. In fact, each change in the moon's phase brings
in a new
moment. This is often carefully worked out.
Daily
worship in Hinduism usually takes place in three different places: in
the home,
in a temple, and/or at a street-side or road-side shrine.
The
home of a religiously observant Hindu is the location of two types of
worship.
First, there is the practice of rites that are probably older than the
Vedas
themselves. At dawn, the householder and his wife rise, purify
themselves with
a bath--usually in a temple pool or a river if one is available--and
then make
an offering to the fire-god Agni in their household fire. The man may
then turn
towards the rising sun and say a mantra to the sun-god Savatar, asking
for
blessing and understanding. A similar sequence of activities will take
place in
the evening.
Second,
most Hindu households have a small shrine to the gods important to that
house.
It may have a small statue of Krishna or a picture of Shiva or Durga.
If the
householder has a guru, a photo of the guru will appear, to remind the
worshipper
of the guru's teachings. This shrine will be the focus of household
puja, i.e.,
worship. Offerings of food or drink may be laid before the statues,
mantras and
prayers may be said, and so on.
A
nearby temple to a god or goddess is usually the focus of regular puja
(i.e.,
worship). While a local temple may do for everyday worship, a grander
cathedral-like, temple may be visited on special occasions.
Offerings
of meals, money, flower, whatever, may be brought by the devotee. Once
the god
has taken his part of the sacrifice, the devotee may share in some of
the
now-blessed food (called prasad). The worshipper may also say mantras,
or
listen to the priests chant, sing, or read from the sacred texts.
Within
the temple, the god (such as Vishnu as Rama, or Ganesha) or goddess
(perhaps
Kali) will be treated as royalty--living royalty to be exact. The
statue will
be bathed and dressed, sometimes with sumptuous clothes for "holding
court" other times with pajamas for sleeping. Meals and other gifts
will
be regularly given. During the god's or goddess' festival, the statue
will be
paraded through the streets. While some of this may seem ridiculous to
Western
sensibilities, these actions help the worshippers view the divine being
as
immediately present. A mere statue does not need any special care, a
statue
revealing the divine presence does.
Small
shrines to Hindu gods and goddesses, both major and minor, stand on
road sides
in the country and on the streets in cities. They may be permanently
fixed and
unattended, or on a cart and moved around by an attendant. During the
day, as
people pass by, they may stop, offer a short prayer or mantra, and
perhaps
leave a small offering in gratitude for some blessing.
Hindu
festivals are based on the lunar calendar. In modern India, there are
sixteen
officially recognized holidays (when businesses close), although there
are many
more holidays. Most festivals are annual, but some happen on a longer
cycle.
The festival of Kumbha Mela, when millions of
Hindus gather at the
confluence of the Ganges and Jumna rivers takes place once every twelve
years.
Of
the annual festivals, the two-day rites of Holi
mark the end of winter
and the beginning of spring. This celebration is linked to Krishna
whose
exploits with the gopis are re-enacted. It is a time of gaiety, joy,
and hope
for nature's rebirth.
In
late summer, Krishna's birthday is celebrated at the Janmashtami.
Shortly
afterwards, Ganesha is honored with the festival of Ganesh
Charurti.
Sometimes
festivals that happen on the same day will be given different
interpretations
depending on whether the worshippers follow Shiva, Vishnu or the Sakti.
In late
September or early October, Shaivites and Saktites will celebrate the Durga
Puja, while Vaishnavites will take part in the Dussehra,
which
celebrates Vishnu and his exploits as Rama in the Ramayana (and don't
forget
Hanuman!). Similarly, the Divali, which is the
festival of lights, is
celebrated either as the return of Rama from exile or as the puja of
Lakshmi,
the goddess of wealth and fortune.
Hinduism
recognizes four main stages of life. Like the goals of life, these can
be
divided into three plus one, with the three deriving from the "life is
good" strand of Hinduism, and the one deriving from the "life is
bad" strand. The first three are the student, the householder, and the
retired person, while the fourth is the ascetic (also known as a
sannyasin or a
sadhu).
The
three stages of life that come from the life-affirming, Vedic side of
Hinduism
were initially designed with the caste system in mind. In particular,
they were
set up to apply to members of the three Twice-Born varnas: the Brahmin,
the
Kshatriya and the Vaishya. Other castes and jatis have adopted them in
different ways, transforming them to meet their needs.
The
first stage is that of the student, during which a boy traditionally is
expected to go to live and study with a teacher (a guru) for several
years.
Today only a few Brahmin families follow this tradition to its full
extent. A
boy enters into student-hood at adolescence (ages 8-12), and spends
most of his
maturing years studying. For Brahmins, this would mean studying and
memorizing
large portions of the Vedas and accompanying texts, along with training
in the
various rituals. Members of all castes learn how set up and maintain
their own
household worship, centered on the holy fire of Agni.
For
the Twice-Born castes, the ritual (samskara) of becoming a student
contains
great significance, for it is the means by which a person becomes
reborn. This
ceremony--often called the thread ceremony because of the red thread
which the
initiate wears over his left shoulder--symbolizes the entrance of the
boy into
Hinduism. Originally, it was at this point that the initiate was first
permitted to hear the words of the sacred Vedas and learned his first
mantra.
Once initiated, the boy became, like other Twice-Born males,
responsible for
maintaining the balance of the cosmos.
After
student-hood, the next stage of life is that of householder, usually
entered
into through an elaborate, many-day marriage ceremony. It is during
this stage
that a man has children (with his wife), forms a family, establishes
himself in
a career or job, and strives to be an active member of his community.
He will establish
his own household, with its own worship. With his wife, the householder
is now
responsible for ensuring that the rituals of domestic life are carried
out at
their proper times and in the proper manner. This stage is important
because it
carries the responsibilities of looking after and supporting peoples at
all
other stages, both male and female.
The
third stage of life is that of retirement. When a man reaches old age
and his
son has a family and is ready to take over the leadership of the
household, he
and his wife will retire. On the one hand, their household
responsibilities--both religious and secular--diminish significantly.
On the
other hand, they become free to contemplate the meaning of their coming
death
and rebirth. They may choose to withdraw into a secluded area--perhaps
become a
"hermit"-- or they may involve themselves in more active worship
(bakti) of Hinduism's pantheon of gods and goddesses.
Each
of these three stages is preceded by a samskara, a ritual that brings a
person
from the previous stage of life into the new one. While these are the
most
important stages of life, brought on by the most elaborate samskaras,
there are
many other samskaras performed during one's life. Traditionally, a
person may
undergo anywhere from 10 to 18, even up to 40, samskaras during his
lifetime.
The majority of these will be performed before a baby is even six
months old,
with many of them done before birth. These are believed to help a
person leave
their previous life behind and to enter successfully into their new
one. Each
samskara advances a person further along the path of life, initiating
them into
a new aspect or stage.
It
is apparent that the three main stages of life are designed for males
and do
not include women. Traditional Hinduism, like many religions, places
women in a
dependent role. In the traditional view, women always need the
protection of a
responsible male, whether father, husband or adult son. This does not
mean that
women have no religious life. On the contrary, women are actively
involved in
worship, both in support of their family and on their own. On the one
hand, a
married woman is responsible for carrying out many of the domestic
rites along
with her husband. Many rituals cannot be performed with her involvement
or in
some instances leadership. On the other hand, women are often active
practioners of forms of bakhti yoga, that is, the worship of the gods
and
goddesses. In the modern period, this subordination has begun to change
and
women have gained more active roles in public life. Indira Ghandi, for
instance, was a Prime Minister of India for many years (women have yet
to gain
a corresponding position in the United States).
The
fourth stage of life breaks the progression of the other three; it is
that of
the ascetic, who in Hinduism are called the sadhu or the sannyasin.
This is a
rejection of life and all that it means in exchange for a search to
attain
moksha, that is, release from the cycle of samsara. A person may enter
into
this stage of life at any time.
The
rejection of life, especially as defined by the life-affirming strand
of
Hinduism, is complete. It requires rejection of the household duties
and
responsibilities of all stages of life. It also requires the rejection
of the
religious beliefs. Indeed, the ceremony making one a sannyasin includes
the
burning of copies of the Vedas, a symbolic rejection even of one's role
in
maintaining the cosmos, and of one's red thread, the symbol of their
status as
Twice-Born. It is such a powerful rejection that a person even loses
their
caste affiliation; even a shudra can become a sannyasin and lose their
low-caste identity.
The
sannyasins become wandering hermits, living life without any shelter or
possessions. They eat when they can acquire food, but never enter into
any work
to acquire it; it must be given or found. They become holy men, seeking
spiritual enlightenment and power, striving to achieve the true wisdom
of the
cosmos. Some may become kind and give blessings to those around them,
while others
may become wrathful and powerful and wield magic against those who
cross them.
Classic Hinduism
promotes four different goals. Like other aspects
of Hinduism, the goals are split between those emphasized by the "life
is
good" perspective and those emphasized by the "life is bad"
perspective. The three life-affirming goals are Dharma (virtue), Artha (success) and Kama
(pleasure), while the life-negating goal is that of moksha (release).
The three "life is
good" goals can be pursued all at
once or at different times in one's life. Some goals seem more suited
to
different stages
of life than others.
Dharma (Dharma
Shastra) is the practice of virtue, the living of
an ethical and ritually correct life. The definition of what is
virtuous,
however, varies, depending on a person's caste and jati membership. The
primary
virtue is to fulfill the duties assigned to one's caste. Thus a Brahmin should offer
sacrifices and do them to the best of his ability, while a Vaishya silversmith should create his plates
and bowls as strong
and beautiful as possible. If either person tried to do the other's
job, that
would be seen as violating their caste duty. The dharma a person is
expected to
fulfill also varies depending on their stage of life. A student, for instance,
becomes virtuous through a different set of actions than a householder.
Dharma
is elaborate. Its principal aim is to preserve the world order (Rta),
by
maintaining its overall structure, basic values and innate harmony.
According
to Hinduism, one of the main functions of the Divinities is to protect
the
creation by maintaining the Dharma in all the worlds. The rules of
Dharma are
not universal. They are bound to time and space and are subject to
perennial
change. They are also not applicable to all human beings or the entire
creation. At the highest level of human or divine existence, when man
transcends his animal nature and the qualities of the three gunas,
there are
actually no laws to govern him, because in the transcendental planes
there are
no bounds, only awareness, understanding and an overwhelming sense of
love and
understanding. In truth, he governs himself, much like God, out of a
sense of
self responsibility and lack of desires.
The
Dharama Shastras were meant for people who were driven by the illusory
world,
who would engage in desire oriented actions and needed to be regulated
for the
purpose of maintaining or preserving the moral, social and political
order.
They were composed to emphasize the importance of leading a virtuous
and divine
oriented life on earth and remain on the side of God for a better
tomorrow and
harmonious today. Unlike the Vedas which are believed to be divine in
origin,
the Dharma Shastras represented the collective wisdom of intellectuals,
scholars, politicians and law makers who created them. Some of them had
their
own reasons to support a belief system that ensured the continuation of
their
family names and privileges and at the same time kept the lower castes
and the
women at the bottom of the oppressive, feudal and religious ladder.
In
the name of God and religion, in a society that believed in the laws of
karma
and the possibility of a better life through reincarnation, the Dharma
Shastras
attempted to achieve this complicated task on an ongoing basis. They
laid down
elaborate rules to deny a vast majority of the people the right to live
a
decent life and made provisions at the same time for the continuation
of a
system which, from present day values, was extremely racial and
arrogantly
inhumane. Interestingly, although a vast majority of the people was not
aware
of these law books, because they were not allowed to read and study,
they
somehow remained subservient to these laws and accepted them as their
lot. In this
regard they were like the medieval farmers of Russia or Europe, who
willingly
subjected themselves to the feudal structure and the laws of the Church
that
perpetrated it.
Some
of the laws prescribed in the Dharama Sutras are bound to offend the
sensibilities and sentiments of Americans and many Christians, who have
been
brought upon the values of equality, individual liberty and social
justice.
Many verses in these scriptures stand in contrast to these fundamental
values
that define many democratic societies today and characterize the free
world.
Readers should consider these scriptures from an academic or historical
point
of view to understand the times they represent. To consider them as the
authoritative text books of present day moral or social values of
Hinduism would
wrong. They belong to a particular time frame and represent certain
social and
moral values most of which are irrelevant today.
Artha is the
working for and achieving of success, in terms of
both wealth and power. This means it is religiously good to be a
successful
businessman. It also means that it is religiously good to serve on the
city
council, to be active in civic organizations, or even to become a
politician.
This kind of success is most easily achieved at the householder stage
of life.
Kama is pleasure,
usually understood as aesthetic pleasure. This
includes: the producing and enjoyment of art, music, dance, drama,
literature,
poetry, and sex. (The "Kama Sutra," which may be one of the best
known Hindu texts in the West, is about the aesthetic pleasure of men
and
women; it discusses beauty, music, dance and sexual activity.) It is
religiously
praiseworthy to take part, to support, or to appreciate any form of
pleasure.
This should be done, of course, within the realm of dharma (i.e., in a
virtuous
manner).
The
"life is bad" goal is moksha. It is the striving for release from
life (since, after all, it is bad). To achieve this, a person must turn
their
back on life and strive to live without the things that make up life.
At first,
it requires the turning away from the first three goals, of rejecting
family,
comforts, pleasure, education, and so on. It also requires one to
become an
ascetic, a hermit, and to spend one's time in contemplation. This
contemplation
should be directed towards overcoming the maya that clouds human
perception of
reality and towards realizing the true nature of the cosmos and one's
place in
it (that Atman and Brahman are one).
In
Hinduism, there are four main ways to reach towards the divine reality,
whether
the ultimate goal is a better life, union with the divine, or a release
from
life. The ways are called yoga, a word similar to the English term
"yoke." Each yoga puts on its followers a set of actions that help
lead the practitioner towards their goal. The yogas are: Jnana yoga,
Bhakti
yoga, Karma yoga, and Raja yoga. The first three are discussed in the
Bhagavad
Gita, while the fourth derives initially from the Yoga Sutra. These are
all
spiritual approaches to understanding the divine world; what we in the
west
generally term yoga--forms of physical exercise and control of the
body--is
properly known as Hatha yoga. It has no spiritual impact.
Janana
means knowledge and this yoga is the path to understanding ultimate
reality
through knowledge. Of course, the reality the yogi (a practitioner of
yoga) is
trying to comprehend is the identity of Atman (one's own soul) with
Brahman
(the creator and essence of the cosmos). And comprehension of this
identity
must happen not just at the intellectual level, but with every fiber of
a
person's being.