How to Tell Hinduism to Children

8/13/2019 How to Tell Hinduism to Children

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I will present the basic facts basing on the primary scriptures, that is, the 0edas, the3rahma $utras and the 3haga"ad (ita, lea"ing aside secondary te ts relating tomythology. 3ooks on mythology are not the primary authority in Hinduism. They weresupposed to be understood in an allegorical or metaphorical sense basing on thephilosophical concepts of the primary te ts.

The book is meant for young parents too, as their help would be needed by kids tounderstand the perspecti"e. It may be difficult for the kids to follow the book straightaway.

I ha"e not used the transliteration key but merely typed the $anskrit words in 4nglish.5y re uest is to parents to get the right pronunciation.

Who are Hindus?

It is estimated that nearly one6se"enth of the world s population are Hindus, who arefollowers of the most ancient religion ali"e today. It is the fourth largest religion in the

world after Christianity, Islam and 3uddhism. 3oth 3uddhism and Hinduism originatedin India, but 3uddhism spread to China and other $outh Asian countries, whileHinduism remained mostly confined to India.

Hindus, according to the 7ersians, were those who li"ed around and beyond the ri"er$indhu, the ri"er which di"ides India and 7akistan now. 7ersians could not pronounce

the word -$indhu and called it Hindu, and the people around it as Hindus.The real word for Hinduism is ‘sanatana dharma’ . This was the word used to denotethe religion and culture before the 3ritish populari+ed the word -Hindu . - Sanatana ithat which holds good at all times and dharma is that which holds the society together.It means the code of conduct which holds good at all times for social integration.%eligion and religious rituals were part and parcel of this dharma.

If you look at the map of the present day India, Himalayas are in the north6east

bordering China. 7akistan is on the north6west. At the time of origin of what we callHinduism, the name of the country was -3harat , co"ering areas right up to the presentday Afghanistan on the north6west and up to 5yanmar in the east. The sister of the)ing of )andahar /(andhara1 was the grand old lady (andhari, the mother of thehundred )aura"as whom we see in the great Indian epic 5ahabharata. A large

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contingent of Chinese soldiers fought on the side of the )aura"as in the epic battledescribed in the same epic. All this land was the land of sanatana dharma.

Religion – A Set of Beliefs

!hen we look at a religion, we see two things9 The first is the usefulness of religion inbringing about social harmony and compliance to moral code. This is what is calledthe utilitarian "iew. The second is about the content of teaching. !e ha"e to see as to

what is the degree of truth in "arious things told by religion, and how far is it compatible with the present day thinking and also with the scientific world "iew. If what religion tellsis like a school boy s tale, the school boys of today are unwilling to suspend theirreason.

%efuting the utilitarian "iew of religion, critics can argue that religion is also the causefor great massacres and genocides on earth. 4gregious e amples are found if we lookinto the history of genocide. There are also claims of superiority of one religion o"er theother, basing on the content of the te ts. Hence there is the need to know what ourreligion says.

It is fairly undisputed that no one has seen either hea"en or hell as described in thereligious books. !e ha"e to admit that any religion, as we see now, is structured rounda set of beliefs : beliefs regarding creation of the uni"erse by (od, about hea"en

which is the (od s abode and where good people go after death, about hell where thebad folks go and suffer for their bad deeds. $uch beliefs e isted all o"er the world and

different religions "isuali+ed their own (od forms, their own "ersions of hea"en andhell, and their own norms about good or bad in society.

A ma#ority of people belie"ed in religion and e"en now they do. This ga"e a lot ofimportance to the religious structure and the people in charge of that structure.0otaries of religion ha"e always held that religion instills good "alues, social disciplineand order. %eligion ser"ed the purpose of binding the society as a culturallyhomogenous unit.

Throughout history, there was also a small stream of people who uestioned the beliefsystem. &o one has seen (od or hea"en or hell but the books so solidly talk aboutthese things. Hence, the non6belie"ers are atheists as they were called, had their ownpostulations about creation, and about the human being s role in the uni"erse.

$ome of these belie"ers and also non6belie"ers de"eloped serious systems of logic while trying to analy+e the nature of ;ni"erse. These people were called philosophers,

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the lo"ers of truth. =uite often, the philosophical thought presented by these thinkershad nothing to do with religious beliefs. The two were totally running parallel thoughsometimes coming to clash. >or e ample, we now know that the earth orbits round the$un, but when (alileo told it in the si teenth century, he was persecuted, because it

was against the religious belief.

Religion and Philosophy are Intertwined in Hinduism.

Hinduism is not prophet6oriented but en uiry6oriented. It talks at two le"els : one, atthe le"el of common man who wants a religion, and then at the le"el of the seeker ofultimate truth. /Two other religions, 3uddhism and ainism were propounded by twoindi"iduals but they were primarily en uiry6oriented1.

Hinduism was not propounded by a single prophet. It e"ol"ed o"er a period of a fewcenturies. $ages who renounced the world and speculated o"er the mysteries of theuni"erse ha"e gi"en to us certain obser"ations or -re"elations in the form of 0edas.These books talk about both religion and philosophy.

The initial portions of the 0edas talk of rituals, worships and meditations whichconstitute a religion and the later portions, called 0edanta, constitute the philosophy.%eligion is at the primary le"el and philosophy at the ne t le"el. -How can you combinethe two? one might wonder. The uni ueness of the Indian scriptures is that bothphilosophy and religion are described by the same te ts by the same seers who had acomprehensi"e "iew of society and addressed different persons of different maturity

le"els.%eligion and belief system are accepted as a lower le"el of truth or empirical reality/vyavaharika satyam 1 for the purpose of social guidance and harmony. @ogicalcontemplation on the nature of reality is accepted as the higher le"el of truth orabsolute reality / paramarthika satyam 1. The latter was told to deser"ing personstrained in rigorous self6discipline, while the former was for e"eryone.

he Sa!red e"ts of Hindus

!e do not ha"e a single te t attributed to a single prophet. Instead, we ha"e se"eral works which were re"ealed by sages o"er a period of time.

As I mentioned in the introduction, Hindus accept three te ts as their sacred te ts : the0edas, the 3rahma $utras and the 3haga"ad (ita.



The Vedas 9 The most ancient and primary te ts for the Hindus are the 0edas. Thetime of their composition is rather disputed. Traditionalists e"en today maintain thatthe 0edas are directly recei"ed from the $upreme 3eing, called 3rahman. @argeportions of these te ts are in lyrical form e tolling se"eral deities. The language usedis 0edic $anskrit which is fairly distinct from the classical $anskrit.

The issue of the anti uity of 0edas was ne"er in uestion till the 4uropean came toIndia. $e"eral 4uropean scholars started studying 0edas in addition to the wholemass of $anskrit literature. Their writings had profound impact on the 4uropeanthought process. A recent book, -American 0eda by the American writer 7hillip(oldberg makes an interesting reading. It traces the impact of Indian philosophy on the!est starting from $chopenhauer /the (erman philosopher of se"enteenth century1 tillmodern day. /The book is a compulsory reading for e"ery Indian scholar1.

The 4uropean scholars like 5a 5uller were bewildered by the sheer "olume and

depth of Indian philosophical thought. It is not what they encountered in other colonialcountries. Their first problem was to fi the time of composition of the books. Theycould not accept the Indian "iew that the 0edas were composed thousands of yearsago, as the 3iblical scholars and religious heads like 3ishop ;ssher had establishedthat (od created the ;ni"erse in BB 3.C. and nothing on earth could be dated priorto that. They accepted the 3iblical chronology and so they had to map e"erything onthe 3iblical time scale. Anyway, there is some agreement now amongst scholars thatthey were composed during the period between 8BBB and 2 BB 3.C.

The initial portions of these 0edas contain lyrical eulogies for different deities. Along with these are described certain rituals called - yajna in order to propitiate these deities.In addition, there are forms of meditation on "arious deities. All these are at one le"el

which is traditionally called the karma kanda , i.e. the portion of 0eda which deals with(ods and rituals and what we now call religion.

It is the end portions of 0edas which were the cause of serious interest amongphilosophers all o"er the world. These end portions are called ;panishads, and theirteaching is called -0edanta : anta meaning -the end or the final word of the 0edas.

These portions of 0edas are pure speculations in what is now called philosophy. Thesub#ect matter is not social philosophy or political philosophy as we see in the west, butthe speculation is on the nature of the $upreme 3eing, the nature of creation, theposition of humans on earth. The final startling conclusion of the 0edas is that theindi"idual and the $upreme 3eing are essentially one and the same.



In addition to 0edas, there are two more te ts which are considered to be the sacredte ts for Hindus. These are /21 the 3rahma $utras and /81 The 3haga"ad (ita.

Brahma Sutras 9 These are a collection of aphorisms on the nature of 3rahman. 0edas, we know, were composed o"er a period of a few centuries in different parts of thecountry. Though the central philosophy is the same, the language and e pression

differ in them. It was necessary to e plain certain apparent contradictions anddemonstrate a unity of thought in the 0edas. The 3rahma $utras do this #ob. Thisbook is for rather ad"anced students.

Bhagavad Gita 9 7erhaps the te t which is held most important for Hindus is the3haga"ad (ita. It is in fact a small portion /DBB "erses1 of the mighty epic5ahabharata /2BB,BBB "erses1. The epic deals with the great battle between twogroups of brothers called -)aura"as and 7anda"as . It is encyclopedic in nature. Ithas se"eral long passages about statecraft, about morality, about religion and about

philosophy. 3haga"ad (ita is one philosophical passage. It is a compulsory readingfor e"ery Hindu, if one desires to ha"e an idea of the central doctrine of the 0edas.$omeone has metaphorically compared all the ;panishads /the end portions of 0edas1to cows, @ord )rishna, the narrator to the milkman and Ar#una, the listener, to the calf.!hile the calf is the immediate beneficiary of the nectar called (ita, we are all theincidental beneficiaries.

Secondary te ts ! "tihasa and #urana .

In the 0edic scheme of transmission of knowledge, 0edas were considered the primaryte ts. The epics like %amayana, 5ahabharata were called as Itihasa /closer tohistorical narrations1 and the mythological tales were called purana s. These wereconsidered secondary te ts. %ama of %amayana and 7anda"as of 5ahabharata couldha"e been historical characters whose history was glorified in the epics called itihasaThe puranas , howe"er, are the accounts of "arious deities who were being worshippedin different parts of the country, as we saw abo"e. !hen the sages brought them allunder the ;panishadic umbrella, they did a good #ob of fitting the mythologicalsymbolism into the philosophy of the ;panishads.

A line from the first canto of the great epic 5ahabharata outlines this scheme9

-"tihasa purana$hyam vedam samupa$rimhayet’ .

It says that the doctrine of the 0edas has to be populari+ed by the itihasas andpuranas. If 0eda were to be compared to a law te t, the Itihasas and 7uranas are to be

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something which can either be called a male or a female or that it is in a human form.This being, whate"er it is, cannot e"en be the something which is creating andmaintaining the uni"erse, drawing up some rules and regulations for all the terrestrialbeings to mo"e in their orbits, and rules for humans to follow. If that entity were toha"e all these duties, then it would be somewhat like a cosmic super6cop. (od cannotbe someone who is fond of a chosen tribe and who is punishing the other tribe like a

group leader.

This is the le"el called nirakara /formless1 and nirguna /attribute6less1. It is only the;panishads which talk of this le"el.

(od is 4 istence, Consciousness and Infinitude /satyam, #nanam anantam 3rahma1. Itis not a 3eing as we concei"e.

0edanta says that the ultimate reality is neither a man nor a woman nor is it in ahuman form& "t is of the nature of e istence' consciousness and infinitude& /This is astatement from an ;panishad called -Taittiriya ;panishad re"ealed by some unknownsage whose anti uity is unknown1. The principle of e istence is all o"er the cosmos.4"erywhere we see things and say -this e ists -this e ists and so on endlessly. Thereis a principle of e istence which is underlying all things we see.

@ikewise, the whole cosmos is permeated by consciousness, in other words,intelligence. There is an intelligent design e"erywhere. Consciousness is manifestingalong with e istence in all things we see whether they are sentient or insentient. The

human mind is said to be a smart -reflector of this consciousness in comparison withall other things. In fact, the human being himself is called a reflector of thisconsciousness.

The ne t attribute for the ultimate reality is infinitude. 4 istence and consciousness areall per"ading. !hat all we can concei"e and beyond that too is that ultimate entity.

0edanta calls this entity 3rahman. The word literally means -infinitely e panding . ThisBrahman is referred to in neuter gender . !e refer to it as -It . !hat all uni"erse we

see should ob"iously be the creation of this entity, one naturally presumes.How did %ni&erse 'ome A(out?

It is natural for us to assume the presence of a creator when we see any ob#ect. Thecreated ob#ect is called the effect and the creator is the cause. !hen we take thee ample of an earthen #ar, we see that clay is the raw material /called the material

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cause1 and the potter is its maker /called the intelligent cause1. The uestion now is,as to what is the cause of the uni"erse we see, who is its maker and wherefrom thematerial has come?

'ifferent religions gi"e different "ersions of creation of ;ni"erse by (od. A passagefrom Taittiriya ;panishad /8621 of )rishna Ya#ur"eda makes a striking departure from

these "ersions. It runs like this9GThe all per"ading space emerged from the eternal Atman. >rom space, emerged air.>rom air, emerged fire, and from fire, emerged water. 4arth as we see, has emergedfrom these waters. The plant kingdom originated thereafter, which became the food forthe li"ing beings and thus, all the li"ing beings emerged.

The li"ing beings, including the humans came from the plant kingdom, which is called-annam because they eat and get eaten. The sage, on disco"ering that he is nothinggreater than -fodder , cries out -I am food, I am food, I am the eater, I am the eater .

The idea of -all illumining (kasa i.e. space, which was the origin of all, is somethingsurprising at a time when all other cultures accepted only four elements i.e. earth,

water, fire and air.

The abo"e description by the ;panishad is almost close to the scientist s "iew of theorigin of earth. It is the hot airs which condensed to become fluid and thereafter tosolidify in order to become all the stars and planets. 0edanta is not saying that there isa creator who is sitting high abo"e in skies and creating the cosmos from out of somematerial.

Ha"ing said all this, 0edanta says that all the abo"e is only an appearance on3rahman. How is it argued?

!e saw that if we accept any material outside what we ha"e called 3rahman, then,3rahman would be a limited entity, howe"er powerful it may be. Therefore the materialshould $e from the Brahman itself .

If we agree that the material is from the 3rahman, then, we would be assuming that3rahman is an entity with limbs or parts in it. It is facile to say that 3rahman took out apart from itself and fashioned the cosmos. 3rahman ha"ing limbs or parts would alsomake it a "ery limited entity. It would hit the definition -infinitude which we notedabo"e.



If we think that 3rahman changed itself into the cosmos #ust as milk changes into curd,then 3rahman no longer e ists ha"ing transformed itself into the uni"erse. This cannotbe the situation. 3rahman would become a changing and impermanent entity. This

would again hit our conception of 3rahman.

The only option which remains is to say that it is the Brahman which is ‘appearing’ as

the universe' while itself not undergoing any change . It is the unchanging materialcause and also the intelligent cause of the uni"erse.

!e ha"e landed in a situation where we say that the cosmos is -appearing , allappearances are not real. This is a uestion which has perple ed the minds of thesages who re"ealed the ;panishads. $cience, till recently, maintained thatconsciousness has come out of matter. 0edanta on the other hand, says that matter isappearing from consciousness. $cience appears still undecided about the issue. The0edantins too are undecided, and hence, they said that the e istence or otherwise of

the uni"erse cannot be asserted. It is neither real nor unreal /neither sat nor asat 1.

The 3rahman has no doer6ship, we saw. It cannot be ha"ing the duty of being thecreator. How is it that space, the other elements and uni"erse emerged from that?The scriptures introduce a sort of interface called - maya . This is described as a sort ofen"eloping and manifesting power in 3rahman. It en"elopes the real nature of3rahman and makes it appear or manifest as the uni"erse. In other words, you and Iare the same consciousness, appearing as indi"idual entities. All the animals, plantsand all inanimate things we see are all manifestations of the same consciousness.

Vedanta says that this creation is a temporary appearance in maya . It appears anddisappears. It is not a one6time acti"ity of (od. In fact, what we call as the creator, isonly a function in maya , occurring in repeated cycles of creation.

)an and 'reator from the A(solute Point of *iew

!e ha"e a phenomenon called creation and if 3rahman were not to ha"e anything todo with creation, the uestion is as to what is the human being /and other beings1 and

who is the creator?0edanta "isuali+es consciousness at three le"els i.e. the indi"idual le"el, the cosmicle"el and the transcendental le"el beyond the cosmos. All li"ing beings ha"e somedegree of -mind in which some intelligence is manifest. 0edanta calls a li"ing being as-consciousness reflected in the mind . The core of a being s personality isconsciousness. The body and "ital force are but insentient things, which as though rent

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out some space for that consciousness. 3odies may differ, but consciousness does notdiffer. In order to understand this, we may take the following e ample.

!e see space all around us and we know that it is there beyond the cosmos we see.$uppose you take a pot and try to confine space in the pot and call it pot6space. Itdoes not make any difference to the larger space. !hen the pot is broken, the same

pot6space is indistinguishable from the rest of the space. Indi"idual is at the le"el ofpot6space and Ishwara is at the le"el of cosmic space, while the $upreme 3rahman isat the le"el of infinite. Consciousness at the indi"idual le"el is #i"a. Consciousness atthe cosmic le"el is what is called -Ishwara , the manager of the uni"erse and the 7ureconsciousness is beyond both.

The #i"a consciousness and the Ishwara consciousness are said to be delimited, whilethe 3rahman is infinite.

Ishwara is called the creator, and he is as much a limited being as the #i"a, though heper"ades the uni"erse.

Consciousness cannot be taken as a substance which can be di"ided into parts but thee pressions such as -pot6space are only for the sake of illustration. Another e amplegi"en is that of the same sun getting reflected in different water bodies and appearingas different. $hankaracharya uses these comparisons in different places to illustratethe point the consciousness is one and the same in all beings whereas the delimitingfactors /the mind in which it gets reflected1 can be different.

Ishwara, the empirical god at the cosmic le"el is a manifestation in the $upremeConsciousness called 3rahman, due to the power called maya as we noted earlier.

0edanta has to take into consideration the re uirements of human society. At alltimes, human beings thought of a (od form and submitted himself to His or Her will.This was a con"enient and happy arrangement. It is a sort of utilitarian "iew of religion.The ancient seers did not want to dismiss this and hence, accepted different (od formsbut then treated them as a lower le"el of truth / vyavaharika satyam 1 i.e. which is true at

a transactional le"el. The higher le"el of truth, or the real truth, at the absolute le"el, isthat 3rahman has nothing to do with creation as we understand.

The (od or Ishwara who is accepted at an empirical le"el, can be a man or a woman,as we see in the number of (ods and (oddesses.

(od is -intelligent and 3rahman is intelligence, i.e. consciousness.

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The functions of creation, sustenance and dissolution are functions which we attributeto (od but not to 3rahman. These functions are gi"en "arious names,

!hate"er you call it, it is the cosmic being with different functions and different names.It is the cosmic being Ishwara who has "arious functions like creation, sustenance anddissolution of the uni"erse. 4ach function is "isuali+ed as a (od. $o the creator is

called 3rahma /different from the $upreme 3rahman which we saw abo"e1, a four6headed deity who keeps on creating the uni"erse. He re uires intelligence for creationand that power of intelligence is "isuali+ed as his consort named $araswati.

The function of sustaining the uni"erse is "isuali+ed as 0ishnu, a male deity and apowerful one. All resources are re uired for sustenance of the uni"erse and theseresources are "isuali+ed as a female deity named @akshmi, who is said to be theconsort of 0ishnu. $imilarly, the function of dissolution of uni"erse is "isuali+ed as%udra, or $hi"a and his power of dissolution is "isuali+ed as a female deity named

$hakthi, who is the consort of $hi"a.

The $anskrit word for power is shakti , which is in feminine gender. Hence thesepowers are "isuali+ed as wi"es of the (ods. It is not as though these (ods ha"e many

wi"es and li"e a polygamous life. @ord 0enkateswara has the power to sustain theuni"erse as a whole and also sought after on earth to restore dharma. Hence he isshown as ha"ing two powers or two wi"es.

!hen you go to a temple and perform pu#a, you find the 3rahmins chanting the mantra

from the &arayanopanishad : sa $rahma sa shivah sa harissendra so&aksharah paramah swarat’ . !hat we call 3rahma /the creator1 is the same as $hi"a, it is thesame as Hari, /the sustainer1, Indra, and the non6perishing 3rahman. All these are thesame as one s own self because the consciousness is the same in one and all. $e"eralother mantras are in the same "ein. /&ote the difference between 3rahman and3rahma. The former is the infinite and the latter is the finite. The former is in neutergender and the latter is in masculine gender1.

There are se"eral minor deities, like the fire god, the rain god, the lord Yama /who is

the one who awards the fruit of karma to a person1 and so on. These are all certainuni"ersal or cosmic functions "isuali+ed as gods.

!hen the creation itself is a temporary appearance in 3rahman, it follows that all thesedeities are temporary appearances. Hence they are like tenure posts, "alid as long asa particular cycle of creation appears in 3rahman.

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There is no uniform description of the trinity in the 0edantic te ts because the functionof 0edanta is to show that 3rahman is all per"asi"e and what we think as a humanbeing is nothing but 3rahman itself. Vedanta does not attach much importance to thedescription of deities& This was left to the imagination of later day writers of 7uranas/mythological te ts1.

How then+ do we worship so many $ods?Can we think of a religious leader who established si religions? The idea appearscra+y. 3ut what $hankaracharya did in India was #ust the same. He earned the title-the establisher of si religions : shanmata%sthapakacharya . !e can see how ithappened.

$hankaracharya was a saint who was born in )erala in the early eighth century. He wrote commentaries on all the primary te ts of Hindus and toured all o"er the country.

The Indian sub6continent had different practices in different parts. 'ifferent (ods were worshipped according to local practices. The most prominent (ods were, $hi"a,0ishnu, $hakthi /in se"eral names such as, 'urga, )ali, Ambika1, $urya /the $un (od1,0inayaka /also called (anesh1, 5urugan, #ust to mention a few. !hen$hankaracharya toured all o"er the country, ha"ing discourses with the learnedscholars of the day, he noticed se"eral sects and cults with no central doctrine and nouniformity in worship. There were also certain detestable practices like animalsacrifices, drunken orgies in gra"e yards, etc., in the name of worship.

$hankaracharya deprecated such practices and "alidated si prominent systems which were compatible with the 0edic "ision of the $upreme 3eing.

How did he reconcile all? He chose si systems and called all of them as themanifestations of the one and the only $upreme reality. He composed hymns praisingall the abo"e deities and brought them under the umbrella of the ;panishadic thought.!hat he did was to harmoni+e the e isting religions and tell people that all the deitiesshould be worshipped with e ual regard. 4"en today we find that e cept for thehardcore followers of 0ishnu or $hi"a, all of us go to all temples and show e ual

regard.

Thus Hinduism as we see now is a cluster of religions under the um$rella of)panishadic thought&

*ne "erse which e"ery Hindu has to know is this.

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*o yo yam yam tanum $haktah sraddhaya%architumichchati&

Tasya tasya%achalam sraddham tameva vidadhamyaham .

It occurs in the se"enth chapter /D9821 of the (ita. The $upreme reality is the same forone and all whether one is in Alaska or in Timbaktu. *ne can worship the $upreme inany form or without any form. All prayers are answered by one and the same deity.!e notice certain important points from a study of (ita. The points deri"ed from ourte ts are like this9

• Hinduism is a cluster of religions under the umbrella of the ;panishads.$hai"ism, 0aishna"ism, $hakti worship and so on are all the religions "alidatedby the upanishads.

• At the le"el of religion it describes (od as someone who rewards good andpunishes e"il, for the common man whereas 0edanta describes it at a differentle"el for the seeker of truth.

• Hinduism does not say that one has to worship only one form of deity. There is afree will for the indi"idual to choose his own deity and also worship all deities at atime.

• (ita says that people "isuali+e deities according to their own nature and theirown desires. %ighteous people "isuali+e deities with righteous ualities whereasunrighteous "isuali+e and worship deities for earthly results and for harmingothers.

• 'ifferent (od forms are tools for meditation and concentration of mind.5editation on such (od forms is prescribed for purification of the mind of theseeker.

• $imilarly, the idol is only a tool which facilitates concentration of mind. It is ideabehind the idol which is being contemplated upon, and not the idol as such. It is

wrong to assume that we are idol worshippers.

• It is wrong to assume that one particular (od gi"es wealth, another gi"es wisdom, another gi"es "alor etc. It is only our ignorance which makes us thinkso. It is merely a con"ention that we worship (anesha when start of any pro#ect,

worship (oddess $araswati when we appear for an e amination and so on. If we really see the (anesha 0ratam or $araswati 0ratam or any other specific

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pu#a relating to a deity, we find that the same deity is worshipped at two le"els,one as the $upreme 3eing and the other as a functional (od awarding aparticular boon. It depends on the maturity of the worshipper to reali+e thephilosophical "iew.

There appears to be a historical reason too, which we ha"e to note, regarding the

multiplicity of gods. The type of peaceful and harmonious integration that happened inIndia is in sharp contrast with what happened in rest of the world. History shows that when the new religions originated in the !est, they wiped out all e isting religions withdifferent degrees of "iolence by calling them pagan or barbaric. The religious leaderstook the help of the kings or emperors and physically eliminated religions like 5ithraism/a religion of the %oman 4mpire1. The same happened in the Arabian 7eninsula.

A Hindu child is occasionally ragged by others when he says that (anesha with anelephant s head is a god or when Hanuman, a monkey king is a god. A Hindu parent

has to take some additional pain to e plain things logically to a child so that the child will not fall in self6esteem, thinking that it is from an inferior culture. The child willreali+e that the Hindu te ts are most compatible with science and cosmology. 7arentsshould also be careful not to make their kids argumentati"e and aggressi"e aboutreligion.

There is no organi+ational structure for Hinduism, unlike the western religions. Thishierarchical structure could wield enormous influence on the political system. This didnot happen in India as the approach of the sages was to engage in discussions andharmoni+e traditions.

The priestly structure of western religions has consolidated o"er the ages. There areglobal structures now. An order can be gi"en by the religious high command and it willbe obeyed down the line up to a remote parish in Alaska or a remote "illage in India.Hinduism has no such structure and hence ne"er had the bargaining power with thepolitical structure.

$ods and ,emons

The battle between gods and demons is a battle in your own mind.

0edanta gi"es this startling interpretation for the idea of (ods and demons.$hankaracharya, the great "edantin, wrote commentaries on all the ;panishads, on(ita and on the 3rahma $utras. In his commentary on Chandogya ;panishad, hesays that the fight between (ods and demons should not be seen as though two

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warring groups are present in the sky, fighting against one another. (ods are nothingbut our own beha"ioral patterns purified by the study and implementation of thedharma, that is, scriptural instructions. 'emons are our beha"ioral patterns dri"en bysensory desires. These two are engaged in constant battle in the human mind. Thebattle between (ods and demons is a battle in human mind. /Chandogya 268621. It isan adhyatmika6sangrama, an inner battle in e"ery human being, which has been going

on perennially. $hankaracharya repeats this idea in other works too.

!hat about hea"en and hell?

The hea"enly worlds are not some three dimensional places hanging out in space butthey are our own states of mind. A miserable state of mind is one of the hellish worldsand a pure and happy mind is one of the hea"enly worlds. As $hankaracharya says-lokyate iti lokah’ i.e. that which is e perienced due to result of one s own action is aloka or a world. 0illainous actions lead to miserable states of mind and bene"olent

actions lead to pleasant states of mind. He says that loka%s can also be the rebirths ina happier or miserable condition depending on actions in this life. @okyante bhu#yanteiti #anmaani : happy or unhappy li"es, which are e perienced are themsel"es lokas :says $hankaracharya.

!hat about mythological stories?

!e noted that In the 0edic scheme of transmission of knowledge, 0edas wereconsidered the primary te ts. The epics like %amayana, 5ahabharata were considered

as Itihasa /closer to historical narrations1 and the mythological tales were known aspuranas.

The 0edas and ;panishads postulate philosophical concepts which are retold in theform of allegorical tales by the puranas. >or instance, 0edanta says pureconsciousness is the substratum on which maya i.e. its creati"e energy is based.7urana presents consciousness as $hi"a in a lying position and presents 5ayaJenergyas a (oddess sitting o"er $hi"a. The philosophical concepts chit and shakti areallegorically shown as male and female (oddesses. The (oddess is shown ha"ing a

sugar cane as bow in her hand and fi"e flowery arrows. The sugar cane bowrepresents mind, which is the centre for all desires and fi"e flowery arrows representthe fi"e senses which go after all beautiful things we see / manorupekshu kodanda K..1This is a hymn on @alita, the (oddess /representing 5aya1 as we see in a purana .

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!e find some puranas e tolling 0ishnu as the $upreme being, some others e tolling$hi"a as the $upreme 3eing and some others e tolling $hakti, (anesha etc., as$upreme beings. This should not be taken as a serious contradiction because these

puranas apparently were composed by supporters of the respecti"e sects. /Traditionhas it that it was sage 0yasa who composed eighteen puranas , but se"eral scholarsdispute this. The name 0yasa was more a title than reference to a single person.1

These could ha"e originated in different parts of the country where that particulartradition or sect was pre"alent. Howe"er, we see that all these broadly follow thephilosophical framework, while wea"ing "arious characters and stories in theirnarrati"e.

It is wrong to take puranas as the primary te ts, as it is not the "edic scheme of things.#uranas ha"e to be studied in the light of philosophical perspecti"e of the ;panishadsbut not from any anthropological or racist perspecti"e as some of the modern writers,ignorant of the philosophical tradition, ha"e done.

,o We Worship Idols?

The idea of god becomes the idol of god.

!e saw abo"e how the puranas gi"e symbolic description for the philosophicalconcepts.

A "erse from %ama6Tapaniya ;panishad runs as follows9

+hinmayasya%advitiyasya nishkalasya%asharirinah&)pasakanam karyartham $rahmano rupakalpana&

GThe 3rahman /the $upreme %eality1 is of the nature of chit, that is, intelligence, and itis non6dual. It has no parts in It and no body. The "isuali+ation of some shape for It isonly to facilitate the meditators .

Another well known "erse from a smriti is like this9

(gnirdevo dwijaathinaam muninam hridi daivatam#ratima sthula%$uddhinam sarvatra viditatmanam&

GIt is the Agni /the fire (od1 which is worshipped by dwijas L the saints think of god intheir own hearts. The laymen need an idol or a symbol for de"oting their attention.The wise persons see di"inity e"erywhere .

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0edas /;panishads1 talk of meditation of different types. *ne can meditate on god asthough he is seated in one s heart. *ne can meditate on the supreme being as locatedin the sun or moon or any other ob#ect.

The ancient Indians /and also the ancient 4gyptians, 4uropeans in general1 "isuali+eddi"inity in some symbol or a geometrical diagram or in some ob#ect on which they could

meditate. The ;panishads are silent about idol worship, which shows that this practiceis of later origin. 3uddhists sculpted the largest idols in the world /the 3amian 3uddhasculptures in Afghanistan are e amples1 though 3uddha himself did not ad"ocate theidea of (od nor idol worship. The 3uddhist practice could ha"e influenced the Hindusor the practice co6e isted in them both.

As we saw abo"e, people in different parts of the Indian subcontinent worshippeddifferent deities and had "isuali+ed certain belief systems around the idea of that deity.>or instance, 0ishnu resided in 0aikunta with his consort @akshmi, $hi"a resided in

)ailasa with his consort 7ar"athi and likewise all others. The Indian sages appeared toha"e done an ingenious thing by establishing relationship among these deities. $hakti,otherwise known as 7ar"athi, was treated as wife of $hi"a by the followers of $hi"a. Adifferent power or $hakti, known as @akshmi, was treated as wife of 0ishnu byfollowers of 0ishnu. (anesha was made the son of $hi"a and 7ar"athi. It was a "eryharmonious integration of deities under the umbrella of ;panishads, without harmingthe basic philosophical doctrine of the ;panishads.

!orship of some type of symbol is seen in all religions. The Christians worship Cross,5uslims hold the =uran with great re"erence, they also hold physical structures of5os ues or Churches as in"iolable and sacrosanct.

,oes Hinduism Ad&o!ate -atalism?

>atalism is the belief that e"erything is predetermined by the unknown hand of (od.GThe mo"ing finger writes and ha"ing writ mo"es on, nor all your piety nor wit shall lureit back to cancel half a line says >it+(erald. This is not what Hinduism says.

The $upreme reality according to Hindus is the 3rahman, which is nothing bute istence and consciousness which is all per"ading. This has no acti"ity like creationor go"ernance of the uni"erse. Creation is merely a manifestation in thatconsciousness. This manifestation is due to an ine plicable power called 5ayaappearing in consciousness. All (ods and (od forms are en"isaged in this frameworkof 5aya. These (ods ha"e no form or rather all forms belong to one (od which can

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be called a consciousness delimited by cosmos. The absolute consciousness/3rahman1 transcends this delimited consciousness.

This cosmic being is held responsible for the so6called creation and go"ernance of thisuni"erse. This is re uired for transactional purposes or for practical purposes to gi"e aframework for morality. Hence this idea of (od being responsible for rewarding the

good, punishing the bad has been accepted by 0edanta at what it calls vyavaharikasatta /true at empirical le"el1, which is an ontologically lower degree of reality.

5aya which appears in consciousness has three constituents in it. These are calledgunas . !hen these gunas are in a state of e uilibrium, there is no appearance ofcreation. !hen there is some disturbance to this e uilibrium, there is the appearanceof creation. All sentient and insentient things are products of these three gunas indifferent proportions. /The whole of Chapter 2 of (ita describes the acti"ity of thesethree gunas 1

The innate tendencies in human beings and in animals are also the -gunas . There arethree gunas in human nature, one / Satva guna 1 characteri+ed by pious and righteousand contented nature, the second ,-ajo guna 1 characteri+ed by domineering,aggressi"e, ac uisiti"e nature and the third / Tamo guna 1 dominated by lethargy,indulgence in sensual pleasures and lack of initiati"e. All human acti"ities : good, badand ugly : are the effects of these three gunas . !hat we call e"il is due to thecombination of -ajas and Tamas . !hat we call good is due to the predominance ofsatva .

At an empirical le"el, 0edanta says that good acti"ities by humans will result in goodrebirths and bad acti"ities will result in bad rebirths. Howe"er in these rebirths, aperson has the free will to do acti"ities and regain his status or impro"e his status.Thus the karma theory is a combination of determinism and free will.

The Hindu "iew will also a"oid the criticism of (od being partial to some people bycreating some as rich, some as poor, some as healthy and some as ugly or unhealthy.There is a whole chapter in the 3rahma $utras e plaining how the empirical (od

cannot be one who can be partial. That is why in Hinduism, we do not see (od ha"ingany chosen tribe.

Another point to be noted is that it is the human being who en#oys the fruit of his gooddeeds and who e piates for his bad deeds. &o one else will take away his good or baddeeds. /3haga"at (ita 62 1.

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All this is at transactional le"el so long as a person remains ignorant of the knowledgeof self. *nes he reali+es his real nature as the same as 3rahman, all his good and baddeeds "anish and he is free from rebirth.

Hinduism does not say that the human being is born with sin. *n the other hand itsays that his real nature is that of 3rahman, but due to ignorance, he is identifying

himself with the body mind comple and doing certain deeds which are consideredgood or bad at the empirical le"el and en#oying the fruit of such actions.

Human body is called a karma $hoomi , that is, a place where a person can performgood deeds, purify his mind and make himself eligible for the knowledge of the $elf.) arma $hoomi does not refer to a geographical place but to the human body itself.

It is due to this belief in karma doctrine that a person is moti"ated to do good deeds inorder to get a better life. He will not be #ealous of others who are better, but he willstri"e to do good deeds and become better.

Who Am I?

!e ha"e now come to the most important uestion which relates to us. !e all knowthat we e ist, we e perience the world with our senses, we conceptuali+e and we feelhappy or unhappy. !e know that we ha"e a physical body, supported by some energysystem based on intake of food, we ha"e fi"e senses percei"ing fi"e different thingsand transmit to mind where these impressions are processed and collated and the -I inus is happy about it.

An episode from Taittiriya ;panishad talks of a young man called 3hrigu whoapproaches his father Aruni and asks him to tell the nature of the $upreme reality,

which is also said to be his own nature. His father tells him : -you ha"e the followingdata, you ha"e a body, you ha"e the life force called prana , you ha"e the fi"e sensesand a mind. You contemplate on these and find out which e actly is your real self.Tapasa Brahma vijijnasaswa : know the truth by contemplation.

This is the procedure adopted in the ;panishads. 4"eryone has to contemplate and

disco"er the reality for himself.

3hrigu contemplates on what his father said. His first reaction is to think that the bodyis the real self. He then reali+es that the body is of no use if there were to be no lifeforce. 4"en this is of no use if there is no mind in order to direct "arious acti"ities ofthe sense organ. He then identifies with this mind6self but later reali+es that in deep

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sleep e"en when the functions of the mind were absent he was "ery muche periencing the blissful sleep he had, which means that his real self is not e"en themind. He thus discards one layer after the other. 0edanta tells about fi"e such layers: the body layer, the life force layer, the mind layer, the ego layer and the layer of blissin deep sleep.

3hrigu then reali+es that his real self is the principle of e istence, consciousness andbliss which is also the nature of 3rahman, the $upreme reality.

0edanta does not talk in terms of an indi"idual soul which has been created by (odand which once created ne"er dies. *n the other hand, 0edanta says that what iscalled the indi"idual - jiva is nothing but consciousness which is reflected in theantahkarana' that is, what we can call the mind. The mind, according to 0edanta, isonly a reflecting medium. An indi"idual considers himself a jiva , a limited entity, solong as he identifies himself with the body mind comple . *nce he o"ercomes this

identification, he reali+es that he is the same as the $upreme $elf. The difference isonly due to the perception.

0edanta says that jiva is not only a human being but all li"ing beings. All li"ing beingsare by definition, the same as 3rahman. (ita says :

shunichaiva swapaake ca panditaah sama%darshinah .

A wise person sees 3rahman e"erywhere, be it in a learned person, a cow, anelephant, a dog or a dog6eater. It is also a reason why Hinduism does not say thatanimals are created as a food for man. /It is also the reason why animal sacrifice wasonly permitted during yagnas but the general rule was ahimsa' that is, a"oiding killingof any animal1.

0edanta says that the jiva is ne"er created, ne"er born and it ne"er dies. .a jaayatemriyate va : says (ita. There is no birth or death for consciousness. /iva in the formof a li"ing being is only an appearance in consciousness. The gross body is a productof the fi"e elements 6 earth, air, fire, water and space. 0edanta talks of a subtle body,

which is nothing but the mind comple /the mind, ego and the fi"e senses1 and the lifeforce. It is this subtle body which transmigrates into a new body when the old bodyfalls off.

5an gets rid of this subtle body too when he reali+es that he is nothing other than thesupreme consciousness. It is somewhat like the wa"e reali+ing that it is the ocean

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itself or the pot6space reali+ing that it is the infinite space. The gross body and subtlebody are only the limiting factors for the consciousness.

An anecdote is told about $hankaracharya that when he went to 0aranasi , achandala , a person of the lowest caste, came across his way. $hankara seems toha"e initially asked him to gi"e way and mo"e aside, as it was the practice in those

days. The chandala seems to ha"e sought a clarification as to whether the body hasto mo"e away or the consciousness. $hankara reali+ed his mistake and then bowedbefore the chandala and said G chandalostu sa tu dwijosthu’ which means that the bodymind comple is irrele"ant when one reali+es that he is none other than the supremeconsciousness.

Hinduism also says that a jiva is not born with sin. 3ut he has the baggage of his pastkarma, both good and bad. If there is more good karma to his credit, he will en#oygood things in this life and if he has bad pre"ious record, he would suffer in this life.

This is not fatalism. It is only a result of fruit of action and a human being has a free will to rectify himself by self purification as told in the scriptures and get on to a higherle"el.

A human being is not e pected to end up at the human le"el only but he is e horted todo sadhana' that is, to undergo spiritual discipline along with contemplation and thusattain the status of 3rahman. Vedanta makes an emphatic statement that the knowerof Brahman $ecomes Brahman . This knowledge of 3rahman is not an intellectual

appreciation of 3rahman but undergoing an internal transformation and shedding of histotal identity belonging to caste, class, se and so on and lose his identity in theidentity of 3rahman.

This can happen in this life itself and not after life. 4"ery human being has thepotential to reali+e the $upreme 3eing and become that being. This is called jivanmukthi' that is, liberation from the limited self while being ali"e. This is what )rishnatells about the philosopher kings like anaka and others who had reali+ed 3rahman butat the same time conducted their worldly duties for the welfare of humanity.

Are We Asked to Work Without #"pe!ting Its -ruit?

This is a common accusation against the Hindu system. There is a statement in (ita which confounds its superficial reader. It says G karmanyeva adhikaraste ma phaleshukadachana’ . )rishna asks Ar#una to perform the duty en#oined on him without

88



e pecting the fruit of that action. G'o not become the cause for the fruit of that actionand likewise, do not gi"e up your en#oined duty , he says.

This has to be understood in the o"erall conte t of the meaning of )arma in thosedays. This "erse is not referring to secular duties like attending office, performing dutyof a technical employee in a multinational, and not e pecting his pay che ue. It is

talking of the religiously en#oined duties on different categories of people in 'waparayuga i.e. the age in which )rishna and Ar#una li"ed.

There were three types of acti"ities for indi"iduals in those days. The first was acompulsory duty called nitya%karma which in"ol"ed in self6purifying duties,contemplation of the (ayathri mantra, gi"ing food to guests, feeding the poor, feedinganimals etc. /called pancha maha%yagna : the fi"e6fold yajna 1. The second type ofduty was connected with any incident like birth, death, marriage and so on. There

were certain socially beneficial practices like gi"ing food to the people, making different

types of donations / danam 1 during such rituals. The third type of action was note actly a duty, but it was moti"ated by the indi"idual s desire to ac uire more prosperityby performing acti"ities like yajna .

!e should know two words here : punyam and papam& #unyam is a sort of spiritualmerit accruing to a person because of some good deeds performed. #apam is ademerit accruing to a person because of some bad deeds / adharma 1. These punyamand papam may gi"e result either in this life or in the ne t li"es.

The nitya%karma /obligatory rites1 and the obligatory rites on special occasions do notresult in punyam or papam .

The third type of acti"ity, moti"ated by indi"idual desire, produces good or bad result.A person accumulates such type of mi ed baggage o"er a period of time. This getse hausted only by e periencing the fruit of the action. If it is not possible in the currentlife to e haust this, he has to take up another birth to e haust it.

%ebirth implies further acti"ities, good or bad, and further accrual of the fruit of such

actions. >urther rebirths are needed to e haust such accumulated baggage of goodand bad. A person is said to transmigrate from body to body as we noted abo"e. Thistransmigration is called samsara.

!e shall see what nishkama karma is.

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"f karma causes re$irth' an intelligent way to avoid re$irth is to do karma $ut not claimthe result . $ay that you are doing it as your duty to society, as an offering to the @ord,and as your contribution to the collecti"e good. Then you will not be touched by theresult of that karma, says (ita. $uch attitude to work is called nishkama karma , adesire6free action.

There is a principle of inter6dependence in the whole cosmos and e"eryone has to playhis role. This person engaged in nishkama karma does his portion of duty as theindi"idual s contribution to the cosmic order. Acti"ities done by such people do notaccrue fruit of action to the doer.

The supreme goal of a human being according to Hinduism is to get rid of the cycle oftransmigration. The only way to get rid of this is to gain knowledge of the self.

This knowledge of the self, as we noted abo"e, is the reali+ation that he or she is of thesame nature as that of $upreme 3rahman. It is to reali+e that a person is meree istence and consciousness manifesting in a limiting factor called the human mind.The human being identifies himself with the body mind comple and calls himself jiva

whereas his real self is e istence6consciousness itself.

A person who so reali+es the $elf has to ideally take up sanyasa' which means that hehas to renounce the world and become a monk and li"e by begging. This, howe"er,

was permitted only for the 3rahmin. *thers are not e pected to become mendicantsand do begging. A king, for instance, can be a reali+ed person but he has to discharge

his royal duties. The fruit of his actions does not affect him. Chapter four of (ita talksabout such philosopher6kings. )rishna calls them -ajarshis : they are kings and rishisat the same time. )rishna s final instruction to Ar#una is to become a -ajarshi andperform his duty as a kshatriya .

$imilarly, a reali+ed person of any other varna has to do his duty. 5ahabharata gi"esthe e ample of 'harma"yadha, a butcher / sudra 1 who is a jnani but he continues tosell meat. In that episode, a haughty young 3rahmin was directed to approach thisbutcher and learn dharma.

The acti"ities done by such jnanis do not bear fruit. Their acti"ities become infertileaccording to )rishna in (ita.

.ishkama karma is a strategy and the first step for those who are in the path of self6reali+ation. It is a step in the long process of self6purification.

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.ishkama karma alone will not lead to knowledge of the $elf automatically. It merelygi"es purity of mind. !ith this as the starting point one has to pursue scriptural studiesand go through the three le"els called sravana /grasping the meaning of ;panishidicstatements like -that you are , at an intellectual le"el1, mananam /logically analy+ing thesub#ect and internali+ing it1 and nidhidhyasanam /to be firm in that state of awareness1.It is this three le"el spiritual e ercise which finally results in reali+ation of self.

!e noted abo"e that there is no acti"ity or doer6ship in 3rahman, and if a human beingis the same as 3rahman, there would be no doer6ship in him too. This is possible9

/a1 !hen the person is a jnani and performs actions, or

/b1 !hen the person has "oluntarily forsaken the fruit of his action.

A person may perform a yajna or some other ritual but it will be for the social good butnot for his indi"idual punyam or theological merit.

This second type of person is called a karma yogi and this is what (ita is all about.!hen (ita asks a person not to e pect the fruit of his action, it does not talk aboutsecular acti"ities like going to an office and drawing his salary for the work done. Ittalks about the duties ordained on a person by religion /like ya#na or such rituals1 andthe duties in"ol"ing interaction with society in which he is likely to do a morallymeritorious or a morally wrong deed. $uch duties attract punyam or papam. !hat (itameans is that such religiously ordained duty has to be done without e pecting anyresult. $imilarly, one has to a"oid the immoral deeds.

How is a modern man connected to this desire%free action0

This idea had a particular meaning for Ar#una. Howe"er, it does not mean that it cannotbe applied to present day secular work. In secular work too, one can be a betterperformer if one works not merely for the pay che ue, but for the good of theorgani+ation, which is ultimately for the good of society. It becomes more applicable

where the action has a public interface and where one is capable of doing moreser"ice.

*ne who merely does this nishkama%karma is surely a"oiding the fruit of actions donein this life, but the karmas of pre"ious li"es may be pending. If he wants to get rid ofthem, he has to attain knowledge of the self, through the process told abo"e.

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To sum up, you may like to lea"e the fruit of action if you want to come on to the pathof knowledge, that is, if you are a seeker. 3ut if you want to en#oy, you may do so andbe condemned to continue a transmigrating e istence.

he -our Human $oals

>our human goals are told in Hinduism. They are9 dharma /ethics1, artha /materialprosperity1, kama /fulfillment of desires1 and moksha /liberation by reali+ation of $elf1.The first three relate to worldly ad"ancement, and are called pravritti dharma . Thehighest goal is the last one which is the path of knowledge, which is called nivrittidharma .

The concept of -dharma is central to Hinduism. This word cannot be easily translatedinto 4nglish because it is a highly comprehensi"e word including three fields : religion,philosophy and ethics.

All human beings stri"e to attain happiness. Happiness can be by ac uiring things or itcan be by renouncing things after we know about their futility. !e normally definehappiness in terms of e ternal ob#ects we ac uire. A human being is constantly insearch of more and more ac uisitions in order to keep himself happy. In order to dothis, one can tread on the toes of other persons, which can lead to friction. In order toa"oid this, societies e"ol"e some norms to enable the indi"idual to achie"e his goals

without impinging on others. The ancient Hindu te ts identified the human goals /which would later reappear as 5aslow s hierarchy of needs1 as abo"e.

The first three goals ha"e to be properly followed by the human being as they in"ol"eself6discipline and purification of mind. Thereafter, a person becomes eligible for thehighest goal. That is, he would be ha"ing ade uate spiritual maturity to pursue the pathof knowledge. *ne cannot directly appreciate the path of knowledge without thepreparatory discipline. The last goal is moksha, or liberation.

-eligions talk of heaven' $ut Vedanta talks of moksha& 1hat is the difference0

Heaven defined in religion is temporary' $ut moksha is eternal&

Hea"en is an ideali+ed location where all your desires are satisfied. You ha"e nicefood, drinks and all sensual pleasures you can imagine. In short, it is an e tension ofsensual pleasures. 3ut according to 0edanta, this is due to a religious life in this world,and a reward for the religious life. @ike all rewards, it has a time limit. *ne who goes tohea"en has to return to earth after the e haustion of the punyam , which we saw abo"e.

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5oksha, on the other hand, is the state of reali+ation that the indi"idual is not differentfrom 3rahman. At this stage there are no desires, as the indi"idual has no sense ofinade uacy in him. He is the all6per"ading consciousness in which all hea"ensmanifest as petty achie"ements. This stage is due to knowledge of $elf and so it iseternal.

The four human goals are so designed that the human being is allowed to pursue hisneeds in accordance with dharma, while being on the path of moksha. That is thereason why, dharma is mentioned first.

'harma is the first and most important step. The central theme of 5ahabharata isdharma. Its hero is 'harma6ra#a. 'harma has been the most dominant concept in theIndian society. It is defined as that which sustains or holds the society fromdisintegrating. There is a famous adage : - 2harmo rakshati rakshitah which means :that dharma, if protected, will protect the uni"erse.

In olden days, a student would go to a teacher s place /called guru%kulam 1 where he was initially trained in the 0edas. It means that he would know the two le"els, religionand self6knowledge, at which 0edas teach. He would know religion in the karma kandaportion and he would know 0edanta at an intellectual le"el from the jnana kanda' thatis, the ;panishads. The final teaching was about dharma before he passed out fromthe school. This passing out was called - samavartanam . The teacher would thenteach him the loka dharma i.e. the ethics of society.

An important lesson in the ;panishad is that you ha"e to obey the law of the land where"er you go. -!hene"er in doubt, follow what the righteous, self6less andenlightened men do in a society , says the Taittiriya ;panishad /26221 to the student atthe time of graduation.

'harma is mentioned first because it is the filter or a screening mechanism through which one has to achie"e the other two goals, artha and kama . 3ama or desire is notto be condemned so long as it is in conformity with dharma.

The four human goals are designed to make an integrated personality.How is #&il #"plained?

!e do not ha"e the concept of de"il in Hinduism.

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If we accept de"il as distinguished from (od, (od would be a delimited entityhowsoe"er powerful he may be. (od will be in hea"en and the de"il will be reigning inhell and there will be constant tussle between (od and de"il.

In the abo"e paragraph on (ods and demons we noticed how the "edantins interpretthe clash between them as a tussle between good and bad tendencies within the

human mind. #uranas tell of "arious demons "an uished by different (ods but thishas to be understood in the 0edanta framework.

!e noted that there are three gunas in maya , the power of re"elation that is in the3rahman. This power is otherwise called - prakriti . !hat we call bad or e"il is a productof these gunas only and it gets resol"ed by the cosmic design of an avatara which isthe means to restore the balance among the gunas and restore dharma in theuni"erse.

(ita says that whene"er there is ascendance of disorder and suppression of the good,the cosmic being manifests in some form to restore order and protect the good /(ita 6D M F1. The commentators ha"e e plained that the cosmic being takes birth with thepower of maya and this birth is not like the birth of all other humans, though theacti"ities of this avatara will closely resemble the acti"ities of humans. @ord %ama and@ord )rishna are e amples of this. It has also to be noted that the demons "an uishedby them merge in the same cosmic being. It shows that e"il is something which getssubsumed in the cosmic being.

(ood and bad cannot be different from the $upreme %eality, they are manifestations inthe same consciousness.

Are We a 'aste Ridden So!iety?

Hindu society suffered a great deal and continues to be under great attack mainly onthis issue. !e ha"e to see what the primary scriptures talk about this.

The 3rihadaranyaka ;panishad /of $hukla Ya#ur"eda1 gi"es this account. GIn thebeginning there was only one varna , that is, 3rahmana. It was not able to fulfill the

needs of society and so it created )shatriya, the warrior wing /3r.; 26 6221. G4"enthis was not ade uate and so it created the trading wing called 0ysya. !hen this too

was not complete, it created the wing of the working class which was called $udra andalso 7ushan, which means one who feeds and nourishes the society. /3r.; 26 628 M2<1.

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These were not castes in the present sense of the word but they were called varnaThe %ig 0eda "isuali+es the whole cosmos as a li"ing being /0irat1 and says like this9G3rahmana became the mouth /spokesperson for the society1, )shatriya, the warriorbecame the shoulders, the 0ysya became the thighs /the support structure1 and $udraformed the feet /for different ser"ices1 /%ig 0eda 2B6 1. This is the normal di"ision of

work in any present day society. It is the so6called intelligent minority who become the

spokespersons and policy makers. These positions are attained by the indi"idualaptitude and caliber.

This was the arrangement as we find in the 0edic te ts. The di"ision of people intodifferent "arnas was based on their basic aptitudes and tendencies called gunas. !esaw this word -guna abo"e. The three gunas, $at"a, %a#as and Tamas which are thebuilding blocks of prakrithi /maya1, are also the building blocks of e"ery sentient andinsentient thing on earth.

The gunas mi in different proportions to e"ol"e as the world of di"ersity we see. Thereis predominance of one guna or the other in all things in nature /which is the basis ofthe Ayur"eda : the Indian system of medicine1. In the case of human beings, those

who ha"e predominance of $at"a are those who will be truthful, righteous, humble,compassionate, generous and contented. These are the persons who are theintellectual mentors of a society. Those who ha"e predominance of %a#as ha"e twodistinct tendencies i.e. /a1 aggressi"e, "alorous, bold, "iolent and dominating tendencyand /b1 ac uisiti"e, creating wealth, trading nature. These were called kshatriya and

"ysya respecti"ely. @ack of initiati"e, sloth and dullness are the characteristics ofTamas. These were called $udras.

In the beginning, categori+ation of people into different "arnas was decided basing onthe innate tendencies of a person due to interplay of gunas in him.

The problem arose when the descendants of these persons claimed to be in thosecategories whether they had merit or not. $ociety cannot agree for a bureaucrat s sonclaiming to be a bureaucrat and an army general s son claiming to be a general.

The most contentious statement of (ita says9

+haturvarnyam mayaa srishtam guna%karma%vi$hagashah .. / 62D1.

)rishna says clearly that the categori+ation into "arna and allocation of duties isaccording to gunas. There is again a mention by )rishna in the eighteenth chapter/2F6 21 where he says that the duties of persons are decided by their built6in aptitudes

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and ualities. The commentators, particularly, &ilakantha is "ery emphatic about thegunas. He says that if a 3rahmin does not possess the ualities as defined for him, heshould be deemed a non63rahmin and put in the appropriate category. If a $udra hasthe merit and ualities e pected of a 3rahmin, he should be categori+ed as 3rahmin.

5ahabharata, the great epic, has se"eral passages /particularly in $hanti 7ar"a1

supporting the abo"e points. It appears that e"en by that time there was dilution in thecharacter of 3rahmins and they became pleasure seekers and power mongers. $uchpeople became kshatriyas. 3y their unbecoming and uncleanly conduct, they alsobecame sudras /$hanti 7ar"a, Ch 2FF, 2262F1. The commentator &ilakantha, on theauthority of the 0edas, concludes emphatically that conduct and ualities define "arna.

*ut of the four "arnas, the first three, that is, the 3rahmin, kshatriya and "ysya werecollecti"ely called -dwi#a , meaning -twice6born , because they underwent the initiationritual and studied 0edas. (ita defines "ysya as follows9

3rishi goraksha vanijyam vysya%karma swa$havajam444&

It means that all those who are in"ol"ed in agriculture, cattle rearing and any type oftrade, were called "ysyas. This includes most of the present day castes. !e also seethat till recent years, most of these persons wore the sacred thread and performed thebasic rituals like sandhya "andan. $ocial change in modern India has been so fast thatthese castes are gradually forgetting their traditional learning and are distancingthemsel"es from the mainstream.

0arna is not the same as caste. Varna is mentioned in )panishads $ut not the castes0arna is because of the manifestation of characteristics of $at"a, %a#as and Tamas,

whereas, caste is because of the trade with which a person or a group of persons arein"ol"ed. India, till recently, was mostly a rural society and a "illage was aneconomically self6contained unit where the wea"er produced the cloth, the ironsmithproduced implements, goldsmith ga"e ornaments and so on. 4 pertise in these tradesconsolidated in the form of castes and facilitated inter6marriages.

0arious occupations and trades are mentioned in $ri %udram, but all those tradescome under the definition of "ysya. 3y the time of 5ahabharata castes seem to ha"ecome into e istence, because of consolidation of "arna into caste and because of inter6marriages among different "arnas. The 5anusmriti and other $mritis gi"e some detailsof these castes.

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The most contro"ersial sub#ect is untouchability of the so6called chandalas. This couldha"e arisen on similar lines as sla"ery in the western society and as caste system inChina and apan. Certain menial and unclean #obs were assigned to these personsand physical segregation was practiced.

There was social ine uality and spiritual ine uality simultaneously.

Hindu society rectified the mistake of social and political ine uality by prohibitinguntouchability and making it a seriously punishable offence. This was done as soon asthe Hindu polity came to power after thousand years of social turmoil due to foreignin"asions and rule. 7olitical and social e uality was thus ensured.

The core ideal in Hinduism is collecti"e good and hence it pro"ides for changes in thee ternal aspects of dharma. The Taittiriya ;panishad /26221 refers to the standardbeha"ior of wise, impartial, self6less persons ha"ing commitment to truth. This shouldbe followed by all others whene"er in doubt. @argest good for the largest number is theidea implied. $hankaracharya himself, in his commentary on 3rahma $utra mentionsthat whate"er is deemed right at a particular time, conte t and place may not be right inanother time, conte t and place. !hat is truth and what is right are to bedistinguished. Truth is always same whereas what is right changes according toconte t. ;ntouchability which was held right at some time is definitely not right at alltimes.

$piritual e uality is as important as social ine uality. This could not be sol"ed as the

Hindu religion does not ha"e any organi+ational structure like other religions. There isno decision making body in order to address this issue. It is, howe"er, possible forHindu organi+ations to e"ol"e a credible body of religious heads and put an end to thisstigma on our noble and egalitarian dharma.

$piritual e uality should not deter the orthodo , as it does not mean that they wouldgi"e up study of scriptures, or study of other glorious te ts in se"eral shastras anddisinherit themsel"es from tradition. It only implies that the knowledge would be

willingly shared by all and better synergy is built up in society. As we saw abo"e in the

comment of &ilakantha, all those who study the scriptures would be considered asdisplaying higher varna characteristics.

Critics of Hinduism took great ad"antage of this fault6line and denigrated Hinduism. Agreat deal of guilt is heaped on the so6called upper castes of Hindu society, forgettinghuman conduct throughout the world.

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History would show that the burden of guilt has to be shared by the whole of humanityfor atrocities throughout the ages.

(andhi#i was thrown out by a white 3ritisher, while he was tra"elling by train in the firstclass in $outh Africa. &on6whites were prohibited from tra"elling in the first class.

*"er centuries, the Africans were physically abducted, chained, turned into sla"es andauctioned in open markets throughout 4urope and America till 2 th century. Abraham@incoln had to lay down his life for this cause. The blacks did not ha"e e"en "otingrights till 2 EBs in enlightened western countries whereas the moment India gotfreedom, "oting rights were gi"en to all.

The ancient (reek and %oman societies had sla"ery as an established institution. Infact the spread of Christianity in the initial days was among the sla"es in the %oman4mpire.

History shows how the $panish in uisition initiated one of the most hideous crimesperpetrated in the name of religion. The most pious religious leaders in"ented the mosthorrible torture mechanisms and killed hundreds and thousands of people from middleages down to 2F th century.

5illions of ews were killed in the so6called enlightened twentieth century in 4urope byhighly religious persons.

In contrast, we find that there was no sla"ery whatsoe"er in India and there was no

torture of the untouchables from any account of history. The so6called upper castesmerely went home, bathed and muttered a few mantras if they touched a chandala, butthere was ne"er any persecution.

The reformation of Hindu society will be possible by e"ol"ing a religious authority byeducated Hindus and reiterate the spirit of the ;panishads in order to bring aboutharmony in society.

What is a .nani?

This is a uestion which Ar#una poses to )rishna in the (ita when he asks aboutsthitha prajna . !e saw that the highest ideal for a human being is to attain knowledgeof the self. *ne who attains this knowledge is called a #nani. 0edanta also says a

#nani is e ual to 3rahman itself /3rahma"it1.

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A person who knows a pen does not become a pen and one who knows a book doesnot become the book but the scripture says that one who knows 3rahman becomes3rahman.

!e noted abo"e that the #i"a is nothing but consciousness and e istence appearing asthough delimited by the body mind comple . !hen a person identifies himself with the

body mind comple and de"elops an identity such as belonging to a caste, a race,religion, se , etc., he de"elops so many binding factors around him. 0edanta asks himto know his real self by negating all these imposed identities. He has to first get rid ofthe e ternal identities like caste, religion etc., and then slowly get rid of the internalidentities such as the body, mind, and so on. This knowing is through a long process ofself6purification and contemplation, described in te ts.

This getting rid of identities will lea"e him as nothing but e istence6consciousnessprinciple, which is the same as 3rahman. ust as 3rahman has no doer6ship in it, so is

the #nani who has no doer6ship in him. He may be performing some duty, but he doesit as an actor in a play.

>or him, religion, caste, se , nationality, etc, /which define our identity1 are only detailsof a temporary address. His real address is that he is none other than the $upreme4 istence6Consciousness principle.

That is why 3rihadaranyaka ;panishad calls him -ati"arnashrami . He is the one whotranscends the "arna and ashrama. He is neither a 3rahmin nor a kshatriya or of any

other "arna or caste. He goes beyond the ashrama i.e. the four stages of life. Thoughhe is not bound by the duties en#oined on these categories, he may still perform thoseduties in order to set an e ample for others. )rishna calls it -loka sangraha . If a wiseman does not perform actions, all others would follow suit, and there will be chaos insociety. Hence though the #nani transcends the le"el of religion, he still performs ritualsetc., for the sake of others. In other words, #nani is one whose morality is his "erynature.

0edanta also says that #nani goes beyond good and e"il. It does not mean that he can

do anything and get away. It only means that his actions are so purified that he willne"er do any prohibited action and for all other actions he will not be attracted by thefruit of those actions.

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!e saw abo"e that a person who does nishkama karma /i.e. without e pecting the fruitof the action and doing the duty en#oined on him as an order from the @ord and anoffering to the social good1 does not get affected by the fruit of the karma.

Bhaga&ad $ita

It has been acclaimed by scholars world o"er as the most comprehensi"e philosophicalte t of mankind.

In all the abo"e discussion, I ha"e been citing from the (ita. As we know, (ita is acon"ersation between )rishna and Ar#una when Ar#una, standing in the battle field,

was in a dilemma about his duty. 'uring the course of con"ersation )rishna gi"es abroad picture of human acti"ity /karma1, the fruit of that karma and the differencebetween a jnani and an ignorant person in their attitude to karma. )rishna s mainteaching is that each person, placed in a particular varna or ashrama /a stage of lifesuch as bachelor, married person, renunciate etc.,1 has a duty en#oined by dharma andthat duty has to be performed.

!e saw that e"ery person is entitled for self6knowledge. There are two options for a jnani : one, to renounce the world and two, to continue to do action for welfare of the world. In both cases he will not be affected by the fruit of actions.

*ne who is not a jnani' but who wants to pursue that path in future, has to start in asmall way to gi"e up the desire for the fruit of action. $uch person will ha"e the idea ofdoer6ship in him but he performs actions in the larger interest of collecti"e good, as anorder from the (od. This person will not be affected by the fruit of the karma, but hispast karma /of pre"ious li"es1 may be pending.

)rishna s counsel to Ar#una is to perform his duty as a kshatriya without seeking thefruit of action /desire6less action, which )rihsna calls - nishkama karma’ 1. Heoccasionally e horts Ar#una to get up and fight, which is actually his duty. To asuperficial reader, this ad"ice can gi"e a wrong impression that )rishna is e hortingAr#una for war and that the book itself is ad"ocating war. Critics ha"e e"en tried to

denigrate so. In fact, $hankaracharya himself raises this uery in his commentary onthe eighteenth "erse of second chapter. He clearly mentions : G)rishna is notprescribing war at this point. Ar#una had already made all preparations for war, andcame to the battle field. A temporary delusion clouds his #udgment about his duty.!hat )rishna does here is only to remo"e the confusion clouding his #udgment .

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The message of (ita is sanatana dharma , which is applicable for all people at alltimes. A broad picture of the path of action and the path of knowledge andrenunciation is gi"en. 0edas ultimately commend the path of knowledge. The samemessage is contained in se"eral other conte ts in 5ahabharata, 3haga"atam andother te ts. The conte t and characters are different in these places. It so happensthat a warrior is the character in the present conte t and hence war has been

recommended to him.

$elf6reali+ation is the reali+ation that one s essential nature is that of $upreme3rahman. This is told in the famous statements in the ;panishads : -That you are , -Iam 3rahman , -All this is 3rahman which talk of the oneness of indi"idual and the3rahman.

(ita s main purpose is also to tell the strategies for self6reali+ation.

)arma6yoga, that is, doing nishkama karma is one strategy. It leads to purity of mind whereupon the seeker has to approach a teacher and contemplate on the lines of;panishads and reali+e 3rahman.

3hakti6yoga is the strategy of meditating on some di"ine form which leads topurification of mind, whereupon one has to go through the process of contemplationand attain reali+ation.

'hyana6yoga is another name for 7atan#ali yoga. Yoga is now wrongly understood as amere physical e ercise. In fact, huge "olumes ha"e been written about this school ofthought and it will be enough to say here that it is an important tool for self6reali+ation.7hysical discipline is only a way for mental discipline, following the principle thatconscious habits influence the unconscious mind. 7urity of mind and concentration ofmind are both prere uisites for contemplation.

(ita tells of the nature of Absolute in and the nature of the indi"idual. It talks of theinterplay of the three gunas, which I mentioned. It talks of the man of action /one inpra"ritti6dharma1 and the man of renunciation /one in ni"ritti6dharma1 and finally tells

that they are one and the same. In short, no religious te t has reached thephilosophical and psychological depths as 3haga"ad (ita has.

o Sum %p

>ollowing will be the broad features of Hinduism.

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• It is the most ancient sur"i"ing religion in the world, dating back to at least fi"ethousand years.

• It was not started by a single prophet. The ancient seers, whose practice was torenounce the world and spend their time on contemplation, had re"ealed certaineternal truths.

• It did not originate in a strife situation. It e"ol"ed in a peace situation, in a wellde"eloped ci"ili+ation when philosopher6kings ruled.

• As someone put it, Hinduism is not comparable to a building built by one personbut it is like a banyan tree which grew up o"er a period of time with se"eralbranches and aerial roots.

• A Hindu child should be proud to say that Hinduism can ne"er be fundamentalist

in nature. It does not say that it is the only path for liberation. /To say that one sown faith or belief leads to liberation is mere ignorance or fundamentalism. It would mean that before such religions originated, those billions of people who were born and died did not ha"e sal"ation1.

• It is a uni ue religion /apart from 3uddhism and ainism1 where religion andphilosophy are intertwined.

• A Hindu child should also be proud that as per Hinduism all religions are e ually

"alid and there is no blasphemy if someone "isuali+es one s own deity. It is areligion which does not ha"e confrontation with any other religion.

• 4"en a non6belie"er in god will not go to hell as long as he is performing hisdharma, i.e. the duty en#oined on him. 'e"otion will gi"e additional benefit likepurification of mind and entitles one for the $elf6knowledge.

• (od can be worshipped in any form i.e. in the shape of a yantra /a diagrammaticrepresentation on a metallic sheet1, mantra /spoken words1, idol or symbol of any

type. These things are only a medium for achie"ing concentration andpurification of mind, and for contemplation.

• !e do not worship different (ods but contemplate on the same truth in differentforms.

• (od is not "indicti"e or #ealous, and does not ha"e any fa"orite race or tribe.<E



• Hinduism does not stop at a mere intellectual le"el of understanding of reality butit in"ol"es internal transformation, total negation of the ego and becoming3rahman oneself. At the philosophical le"el it says that the indi"idual is nothingelse than the $upreme 3rahman.

• %eligion and ritual are accepted as a lower degree of reality / vyavaharika

satyam 1 whereas knowledge of the $elf is the highest degree of reality/ paramarthika satyam 1.

• 'harma, though called eternal ethics, is not infle ible. There are certainunchanging aspects of dharma like truth, compassion, non6"iolence, etc., butthere are changing aspects in human beha"ior in different situations. This wase plained in the conte t of untouchability.

• Hindu society had different te ts of dharma for different periods. The 5anu smriti

was for the earliest times called krita yuga and it was not e"en followed in the lastse"eral centuries. The 3ritish pulled it out in order to portray a "ery primiti"epicture of Hinduism. The smriti for kali yuga is known as -7arasara smriti ande"en this is sub#ect to change. The eternal doctrine of 0edanta about #i"a,Ishwara and 3rahman are untouched by these changes in dharma which relateto social conduct.

A word on Sanskrit

0ery few of us reali+e that $anskrit was the link language in the entire Indiansubcontinent till the 3ritish came.

ust as 4nglish does not mean Christianity, $anskrit does not mean Hinduism. It wasthe language of all educated people #ust as 4nglish is today in India. The whole cultureof ancient India is known only through $anskrit. &ot only the religious te ts, but all

works in sciences, astronomy, mathematics, literature and so on were written in thesame language.

0edas, the basic te ts of Hinduism were mastered by all scholars from )ashmir to)erala. The 3uddhists initially tried to write in 7ali, a regional language, in order toreach out to masses, but their sphere of influence was getting narrow. Then theyswitched o"er to $anskrit. Hundreds of "olumes of 3uddhist and ain works are thusfound in $anskrit.

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Interaction of scholars all o"er the country was naturally in $anskrit #ust as it is in4nglish now. The great $hankaracharya was the noted teacher from )erala whomo"ed all o"er the country up to )ashmir, held discussions with the scholars, andstrengthened the 0edic dharma.

The anti uity of 0edic $anskrit is around BBB 3.C. %ig 0eda is acknowledged to be

the oldest written document of mankind. The 5ahabharata is the largest epic ofmankind with one hundred thousand "erses.

The uni ueness of $anskrit is its unchanged nature o"er the millennia.

If you take a te t of 2B th century 4nglish, you cannot make head or tail of it. 4"enChaucer s 4nglish is totally inscrutable. It is so with all languages including Indianlanguages. @anguages do change o"er a period of time, but miraculously $anskrit hasbeen preser"ed in an absolutely unchanged form for the last at least three thousandyears.

The great grammarian 7anini who li"ed around EBB 3.C. /near a "illage named$halatura near @ahore, in present day 7akistan1 composed certain rules of grammarknown as -Ashtadhyayi , that is, a book in eight chapters. He has noted that prior tohim there were se"eral other grammarians whose rules he cites, but those books arelost for us now. It was the greatness of Indian scholars that they meticulously followedthe rules of grammar, rules regarding formation of words and sentences and preser"edthe language till date. The %amayana and 5ahabharata which were written about three

thousand years ago can be understood by the present day student of $anskrit if onlyhe learns the language.

0edic $anskrit is a bit different. The language is much older and the teaching wasthrough oral tradition. $ome portions of 0edas would ha"e been totally inscrutable butfor the commentaries of sage 0idyaranya of 2 th century.

Almost all Indian languages, e cept the 'ra"idian languages, ha"e originated from$anskrit. The diction of e"en 'ra"idian languages is of $anskrit origin to a good e tent

/up to about BN1. There are se"eral stone inscriptions in $anskrit in the entirecountry. All regional religious literature is deri"ed from the $anskrit te ts with someminor changes.

%egional languages like Hindi, Telugu or (u#arati ha"e also undergone a lot of changeo"er the centuries and the old books are now unrecogni+able. A serious student who

wants to know the Indian or Hindu or 3uddhist or ain tradition will know more through<F



the books in $anskrit than through the regional language works, which are translationsor adaptations of the $anskrit works, the language of which has undergone a lot ofchange in time. The easier thing for a modern scholar is to study $anskrit in order toknow the primary sources of our religion and culture.

A Word to Parents

A modern Hindu parent has the additional burden of studying 0edanta in addition toreligion in order to e plain the allegory and symbolism in religion.

Ac uaintance with $anskrit will gi"e ability to read the primary te ts instead of relyingon secondary sources like puranas, satsangs and so on, which may be marketing bliss.

A study of world history is also needed to know the growing competiti"eness amongreligions and to appreciate Hinduism in the right perspecti"e.

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How to Tell Hinduism to Children