Hinduism promotes a religious harmony, at least theologically and philosophically. There is much social “intolerance” in the Hindu Society!
Hindu sages declare that there is no “one religion” that teaches an exclusive road to human liberation, or the path of salvation. For Hindu sages there are as many spiritual paths as humans! All paths are valid and all great religions are true.
Hence all Hindu doctrines should be viewed from this Hindu ideal of universal harmony and religious accommodation.
What follows is some thoughts, some speculations on some of the major themes that concerns the Hindu devotee! We will take up some of these discussions, again, also when we explore the “Hindu Philosophical Systems” next week.
A. God
1. Hindus believe in one Supreme Being. Earlier we saw that many gods – Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Ganesha, Kartikeyah, Saraswathy, etc – of Hinduism are the various manifestations, the multitude of human imaginations of this one God. Please also see earlier lecture on Hindu Deities!
2. And this one God is considered as the satchit-ananda – existing absolutely (sat), with absolute knowledge (chit) and absolute bliss (ānanda).
3. God is both immanent and transcendent. God is “invisible, indivisible, and ineffable” – absolute, attribute less reality, hence, as we saw earlier, is known as Nirguna Brhahman – one reality that is transcendent. But that one Reality is also known as the one who creates and re-creates the visible and the invisible world – the cosmos!
4. And the one Reality that creates is also the antaryāmi, the inward dweller, and authentic “inner soul of the entire universe”. At this point that one reality manifests with “attributes” and the Hindu devotees speak of that one God, the Brahman as Saguna Brahman – still one reality but immanent in the world.
5. Most Hindus consider God as the creator of both the manifest world and the un-manifest reality. There is no duality of God and the world, but only unity. However, God is much bigger than the world. This is affirmed in the Rig Veda 10:90: “A thousand heads hath Puruṣa, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. On every side pervading earth he fills a space ten fingers wide. This Puruṣa is all that yet hath been and all that is to be; The Lord of Immortality, which waxes greater still by food. So mighty is his greatness; yea, greater than this is Puruṣa. All creatures are one-fourth of him, three-fourths eternal life in heaven. With three-fourths Puruṣa went up: one-fourth of him again was here. Thence he strode out to every side over what eats not and what eats.”
6. God can be worshipped and prayed in the form the devotee chooses. God can be worshipped either in the temples, or in the homes. God in this sense is Ishta Deva, god in the favourite form of the devotee! Devotee can pick any one of the 330 million gods for his or her devotion!
B. Ahimsa
1. Ahimsa means non-violence or non-injury or non-killing. Non-violence has to be observed at three levels – in thought, word, and deed!
2. The Hindu teaching is that all forms of life are different manifestations of God, the Brahman. Hence the Hindu dharma expects from the devotee sensitivity to the sufferings of any of the creatures.
3. Ahimsa, hence, suggests love and compassion to all humans and non-humans, the other forms of life, encouraging the Hindu devotee to protect the environment.
C. World
1. Samkhya system looks at the “world” as a product of evolution. For those in this system the world arises out of an evolution of the primordial matter known as prakrit with the help of a primordial consciousness called purusa!
2. Other systems look at the world as created by God – Brahma! But they do not speak of creation as an act of creation “at a definite period” unlike the Judaeo-Christian belief! Creation and destruction go in a cyclic order!
3. Sense of mystery around creation is also suggested in the Hindu Scriptures as we see in the following quote from Rig Veda 10:129: “Then was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it. What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water? Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day's and night's divider. That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever. Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit. Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit. Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent. Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it? There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation? The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being? He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it, Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.”
4. Why was the world created? There are two answers! Perhaps, you can add a third! First, then, is the common answer that speaks of God’s lilā, the play of God. Creation they would say emerges from the spontaneous overflow of God’s exuberance, ānanda. Second, there is God’s ichhā, the desire. This one is promoted by the Hindu philosophical system known Nyāya Vaisesika. And the third comes from Sankara’s Advaita Vedanta that looks at the world as māyā, illusion.
D. Religious Discipline
Hindu faith recommends that the devotee get guidance of a guru, a spiritually awakened master to attain perfection in life. Gu, in Sanskrit means, darkness; ru means dispel. Darkness is primarily due to ignorance. Hence the guru is one who dispels my darkness, my ignorance that will lead to my maturity and moksha, liberation!
E. Other Themes
There are many other themes that concern the Hindu mind including the following: ashrama dharma, the individual’s spiritual journey; varna dharma, the social responsibilities, the law of Karma; and Moksha. The three ways, the yoga – gnana marga (path of wisdom), bhakti marga (path of devotion) and karma marga (path of action) - is another important theme that the Hindus spend a lot of time discussing. What is human is also another major concern that is discussed under the theme “atman”!
Questions to Explore:
1. Discuss how a Hindu views God and the World.
2. Explain to your friend in a letter – use a letter format – “yoga” is much more than stretching of your muscles and physical postures that leads to a new outlook in life! (Please read Fisher, 80-85).
Hindu sages declare that there is no “one religion” that teaches an exclusive road to human liberation, or the path of salvation. For Hindu sages there are as many spiritual paths as humans! All paths are valid and all great religions are true.
Hence all Hindu doctrines should be viewed from this Hindu ideal of universal harmony and religious accommodation.
What follows is some thoughts, some speculations on some of the major themes that concerns the Hindu devotee! We will take up some of these discussions, again, also when we explore the “Hindu Philosophical Systems” next week.
A. God
1. Hindus believe in one Supreme Being. Earlier we saw that many gods – Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Ganesha, Kartikeyah, Saraswathy, etc – of Hinduism are the various manifestations, the multitude of human imaginations of this one God. Please also see earlier lecture on Hindu Deities!
2. And this one God is considered as the satchit-ananda – existing absolutely (sat), with absolute knowledge (chit) and absolute bliss (ānanda).
3. God is both immanent and transcendent. God is “invisible, indivisible, and ineffable” – absolute, attribute less reality, hence, as we saw earlier, is known as Nirguna Brhahman – one reality that is transcendent. But that one Reality is also known as the one who creates and re-creates the visible and the invisible world – the cosmos!
4. And the one Reality that creates is also the antaryāmi, the inward dweller, and authentic “inner soul of the entire universe”. At this point that one reality manifests with “attributes” and the Hindu devotees speak of that one God, the Brahman as Saguna Brahman – still one reality but immanent in the world.
5. Most Hindus consider God as the creator of both the manifest world and the un-manifest reality. There is no duality of God and the world, but only unity. However, God is much bigger than the world. This is affirmed in the Rig Veda 10:90: “A thousand heads hath Puruṣa, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. On every side pervading earth he fills a space ten fingers wide. This Puruṣa is all that yet hath been and all that is to be; The Lord of Immortality, which waxes greater still by food. So mighty is his greatness; yea, greater than this is Puruṣa. All creatures are one-fourth of him, three-fourths eternal life in heaven. With three-fourths Puruṣa went up: one-fourth of him again was here. Thence he strode out to every side over what eats not and what eats.”
6. God can be worshipped and prayed in the form the devotee chooses. God can be worshipped either in the temples, or in the homes. God in this sense is Ishta Deva, god in the favourite form of the devotee! Devotee can pick any one of the 330 million gods for his or her devotion!
B. Ahimsa
1. Ahimsa means non-violence or non-injury or non-killing. Non-violence has to be observed at three levels – in thought, word, and deed!
2. The Hindu teaching is that all forms of life are different manifestations of God, the Brahman. Hence the Hindu dharma expects from the devotee sensitivity to the sufferings of any of the creatures.
3. Ahimsa, hence, suggests love and compassion to all humans and non-humans, the other forms of life, encouraging the Hindu devotee to protect the environment.
C. World
1. Samkhya system looks at the “world” as a product of evolution. For those in this system the world arises out of an evolution of the primordial matter known as prakrit with the help of a primordial consciousness called purusa!
2. Other systems look at the world as created by God – Brahma! But they do not speak of creation as an act of creation “at a definite period” unlike the Judaeo-Christian belief! Creation and destruction go in a cyclic order!
3. Sense of mystery around creation is also suggested in the Hindu Scriptures as we see in the following quote from Rig Veda 10:129: “Then was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it. What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water? Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day's and night's divider. That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever. Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit. Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit. Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent. Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it? There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation? The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being? He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it, Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.”
4. Why was the world created? There are two answers! Perhaps, you can add a third! First, then, is the common answer that speaks of God’s lilā, the play of God. Creation they would say emerges from the spontaneous overflow of God’s exuberance, ānanda. Second, there is God’s ichhā, the desire. This one is promoted by the Hindu philosophical system known Nyāya Vaisesika. And the third comes from Sankara’s Advaita Vedanta that looks at the world as māyā, illusion.
D. Religious Discipline
Hindu faith recommends that the devotee get guidance of a guru, a spiritually awakened master to attain perfection in life. Gu, in Sanskrit means, darkness; ru means dispel. Darkness is primarily due to ignorance. Hence the guru is one who dispels my darkness, my ignorance that will lead to my maturity and moksha, liberation!
E. Other Themes
There are many other themes that concern the Hindu mind including the following: ashrama dharma, the individual’s spiritual journey; varna dharma, the social responsibilities, the law of Karma; and Moksha. The three ways, the yoga – gnana marga (path of wisdom), bhakti marga (path of devotion) and karma marga (path of action) - is another important theme that the Hindus spend a lot of time discussing. What is human is also another major concern that is discussed under the theme “atman”!
Questions to Explore:
1. Discuss how a Hindu views God and the World.
2. Explain to your friend in a letter – use a letter format – “yoga” is much more than stretching of your muscles and physical postures that leads to a new outlook in life! (Please read Fisher, 80-85).
