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A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO HINDUISM
Hinduism
is one of the oldest and one of the most popular religions
in the world. There are almost 800 million Hindus
in India alone and several millions more reside in
countries all over the world. In spite of the large
number of followers, Hinduism is not well understood
by the non-Hindu population of the world. One reason
for this is that the existing literature on Hinduism
presents a complicated and sometimes apparently inconsistent
picture of the religion.
The
word Hindu is relatively modern and is derived from
the word Sindhu which means red. The Arabs called
the Sindhu river the Indus river since they could
not pronounce the S-sound. Thus, the people west of
the Sindhu river came to be known as the Hindus and
the country got its name India. The original name
for the country was Bharata Varsha - the land of Bharata,
the king who ruled the country in ancient times. The
true name of the religion is Sanatana Dharma. Sanatana
means ancient and eternal. Dharma means moral duty.
The word Sanatana Dharma connotes a Universal Way
of Life for all living entities.
Hinduism
is unique because it is not founded by a messiah or
a guru. Hindus believe that the Creator created both
the Universe and the Knowledge about it simultaneously.
The seers, called Rishis, obtained this Knowledge
of Divine Law directly from God. Another characteristic
of Hinduism is that it is not formally organized under
any human’s authority. The religious authority has
to be earned by one’s own piety and spiritual dedication.
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The
Scriptures
Perhaps
no other religion has as much ancient original literature
as Hinduism does. To start with, the most fundamental
and ancient scripture is the Veda. Veda means
knowledge. God himself taught this knowledge to Brahma,
the creator, who imparted it to the Rishis. Vedic
knowledge is divine knowledge.and is very vast and
comprehensive. The Vedas discuss God, religion, science,
mathematics, logic, grammar and many other subjects.
The great sage Vyasa organized this knowledge in to
four Vedas - Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharvana
Veda. This knowledge was learned by disciples from
a Guru through oral tradition. Hence the Vedas are
also called Shruti. The word Shruti is derived from
the root shrun which means to hear.
The
Hindus believe that the Vedas contain ALL the knowledge
of the God’s Creation. The last chapters of the Vedas
are called Vedanta (end of the Vedas) and are collected
in the Upanishads. Here is the discussion of the nature
of Brahman, the God, extracted from the vast literature
of the Vedas. There are one hundred and eight significant
Upanishads.
The
next tier of the scriptures are called the Puranas.
Purana literally means the ancient. Some believe that
the Puranas are even more ancient than the Vedas but
this is doubtful. There are eighteen Puranas in all
each describing the life story of God in a particular
incarnation at a particular time and space. The Puranas
are works of great literary beauty and present the
intricate philosophies of Veda in a format that is
easy to understand and remember. These are extremely
popular literature of India. There is not a single
Hindu who does not know at least a few stories from
one of these eighteen Puranas. The Bhagavata Purana
is the most popular of the eighteen and is a monumental
work containing twelve books, called Skandas. This
Purana narrates all the ten significant incarnations
of God although the main emphasis is on the story
of Krishna and His miracles.
Next
come the Itihasas - histories. The Ramayana and the
Maha Bharata are the two principal epics of India.
The Ramayana is the biography of the Lord in His incarnation
as Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, an ancient dynasty
in Northern India. The Maha Bharata contains eighteen
chapters and more than 200,000 lines of poetry (100,000
couplets). It is about seven times the size of Iliad
and Odyssey combined. Although this is mostly a historical
narration, it is interspersed with discussions of
God, dharma, ethics, duty, good, evil and almost everything
under the Sun. Therefore it is sometimes called the
Fifth Veda. It is in this work that the greatest of
Hindu religious texts, The Bhagavad Gita, is embedded.
The Bhagavad Gita is narrated by the Lord Krishna
Himself to His friend and disciple Arjuna on the battlefield
of Kurukshetra.
The
Bhagavad Gita contains eighteen chapters and discusses
the nature of God, Creation, destiny of man, man’s
relation to God and means of realizing God in one’s
life time. This work presents in a distilled form
the very essence of a universal religion.
In
addition, there are also dozens of works written over
the centuries by scholars, saints and gurus which
explain and expound the meaning of the Vedas and Upanishads.
This vast literature is called the Bhashya literature.
Of course mention should also be made of the huge
literature that was written by saints and other God
realized persons who passed on to us the experiences
of their personal spiritual quest.
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The
Fundamental Beliefs
The
fundamental beliefs shared by all Hindus are the existence
of one God, the Law of Karma and the Cycle of Reincarnation.
The most misunderstood concept of Hinduism is its
belief in one God. It has been erroneously labeled
as pantheistic because of the numerous gods and goddesses
one finds in it. But one has to go deeper in to the
philosophy of Hinduism to understand the underlying
principle of unity. Hindus believe that even though
God is One, He manifests differently at different
times to different people according to their need
and faith. Further, they believe that He bestows His
Grace on humans in whatever form they worship Him.
The
Law of Karma can be simply explained by referring
to the fact that whatever one sows, that one reaps.
Karma is misunderstood as encouraging fatalism. On
the contrary, it puts the full burden of one’s salvation
on one’s own shoulders. Good living bestows good karma
and bad living brings bad karma. One takes birth according
to one’s karma to reap its fruits and work it out.
Thus the human birth presents a rare chance to nullify
one's past karma while making it possible to move
closer to God. Human birth is not easily obtained
and it is unwise to waste it in ignorance of God.
The
concept of rebirth is related to the Law of Karma.
All Hindus believe that the soul is indestructible,
eternal and deathless. It is only the body that decays
and drops off. The soul simply takes on a new body
according to its karma. The ultimate goal of all created
beings is to reach God and escape this endless cycle
of birth and death. This reaching of God is called
Moksha (Freedom).
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Theosophy
Hinduism
contains the most comprehensive theosophy one can
hope for. Basically, there are five elements to the
philosophy: God, the individual souls called the jivas,
the prakriti or the material nature, karma and Time.
God is the Cause and Destiny of the Universe. He is
Unborn, Eternal and without a beginning or end. The
individual souls (jivas) are eternal and are of the
same nature as that of God but not the same. The analogy
given is that of sparks (jivas) and the fire (the
God). The material nature is made of three qualities:
the goodness, the passion and the ignorance. Every
living being contains a combination of these three
qualities even though one quality may predominate
over the others. The material nature, prakriti, is
under God’s authority. Karma is the result of activity
of the jivas. Time is also considered eternal. Of
the five concepts, only karma is non-eternal. Although,
we may be suffering or enjoying the fruits of very
ancient karma, it can be neutralized by God’s grace
and the perfection of our lives.
Are
the jivas the same or different from God? Basically
there are two different views on this subject. The
monists stress that there is nothing else but God.
They believe that the jivatma (the human soul) and
Paramatma (the God Soul) are one and the same. The
dualists believe that the jivas, although of the same
quality as that of God, are nevertheless separate
entities. Then of course there are attempts at a compromise.
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Cosmology
and Creation
The
Hindus believe that there is no end or beginning to
God and His Creation. God creates and destroys this
Universe in a cyclical pattern. The creation and destruction
repeats in a cycle of four yugas (eras). These
are: 1. Krita Yuga (1,728,000 years), 2.Treta Yuga
(1,296,000 years),.3. (Dwapara Yuga (864,000 years)
and 4. Kali Yuga (432,000 years)
Our
universe is now in Kali Yuga. It has been approximately
5,042 years since the beginning of Kali Yuga (according
to Swami Dayananda). At the end of each of these four-yuga
periods, there is a transition period which is characterized
by rains and flooding.
If
we count the combined total of the four yugas as one
unit (one four-yuga period), then 71 of such units
comprise the rule of one Manu (ruler of the men).
Since the creation, it has been six different Manus
who ruled our part of the Universe. The current time
period is the 28th four-yuga cycle of the seventh
Manu. He will rule for 43 more four-yuga periods.
Then there will be seven more such Manus who will
rule in the future before the entire Universe will
come to an end and recreated again.
A
thousand four-yuga periods comprise one day of the
creator Brahma and another thousand four-yuga periods
make one night for him. The Universe lasts for the
duration of one creator’s-day (= 4.320 Billion years).
The Universe stays unmanifested for the duration of
his night. When he wakes up, the Universe is set in
motion again.
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The
Aim of Life
According
to Hinduism, the goal of life in this world is to
realize God and reach Him to escape the cycle of birth
and death forever. To this end, the human life is
divided in to four stages. The first stage, that of
celibacy and learning, lasts until about 25 years
of age. The second stage is that of a married house
holder. The house holder is held in great esteem because
he is the one who makes the other stages of life possible
by earning money and supporting the society. The house
holder and his family are considered to be very essential
for the well being of the society. The third stage
is that of retirement commencing after one’s children
are grown up. The last stage is of complete renunciation
of the world in which one seeks God full-time in a
forest and living on whatever one obtains from day
to day.
The
Means of Attaining God
The
Hindu religion is very flexible and understands that
humans differ vastly in their psychological makeup.
Consequently, no one doctrine is likely to appeal
to all. According to Hinduism, there are three types
of temperaments in humans and there are three different
approaches to suit these different emotional makeup
of humans. The Hindus believe that God can be reached
either by Jnana Yoga, the path of knowledge, contemplation
and meditation or by Karma Yoga, the path of work
and duty or by Bhakti Yoga, the path of worship, prayer
and service to God. No one path is superior to the
others. It is simply finding what comes naturally
to oneself. Most often one finds that a combination
will work best. That it is possible to reach God by
any one of these paths is amply proved by the life
stories of Saints who lived in the country from very
ancient times to the present day and practiced and
preached one or the other of these paths as the way
to God.
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Resources for Further Information
Books:
1.
The Bagavad Gita As It Is by Srila Prabhupada ISKCON
2.
Srimad Bhagavatam by Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON
3.
The Principal Upanishads by Sarvepalli Radha Krishnan
4.
The Upanishads by Swami Nikhilananda
5.
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Rama Krishna
Math, Calcutta
Written
by: Raghupati Boorla
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