World Religions, Seventh EditionWarren Matthews

Chapter Three:

HinduismThis multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:

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The Origins and Historical Development of Hinduism

Dravidian peoples lived in cities along the Indus River in modern-day

Pakistan and northwest India

Around 1000 BCE, Aryans migrated into Dravidian territory from the

west

From the intermixing of Dravidians and Aryans, the earliest forms of

Indian society (including the caste system and Hinduism) emerged

The Sites and Sacred Rivers of Early Hinduism

Recent India and Neighboring States

Shruti and Smriti: Revelation and Scriptures

The Vedas

Sacred oral traditions brought by migrating Aryans

Were regarded as having been revealed to humanity

Were the subject of later commentaries

Accounts of the gods

Instructions on the performance of ritual to influence the gods

Shruti: Revelation and Scriptures

Vedic scriptures

Rig-Veda – stories of the gods

Sama-Veda – chants used by priests in soma sacrifices

Yajur-Veda – litanies and prayers used in devotions

Atharva-Veda – charms and spells for use by ordinary people

Shruti and Smriti

Shruti also expands on the theological implications of the accounts

and rituals revealed in the Vedas

Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads

Smriti is “remembered” and thus less authoritative

Laws of Manu (how to live as a Hindu)

Itihasa-Purana

Mahabharata

Ramayana

The Four Stages of Life

According to the laws of Manu (composed 200 BCE - 200 CE)

For upper-caste males:

Student

Married householder

Retired contemplative

Renunciate

Goal is samadhi – unity of the soul with Brahman

Raja yoga helps release the soul from the body

Women practice three stages, with the fourth being optional

Gods of the Rig-Veda

Agni – the god of fire (a central element in ritual sacrifice)

Indra – warrior god who slays demons and protects human beings

and gods

Soma – the sacred drink

Varuna – the god of truth

Mitra – the god of contracts or agreements

The Upanishad

Some Hindus branched out from the Brahmins and Vedas

The Upanishads seek a sacrifice of psychological aspects to unite

the Atman in humans with Brahman, the absolute of the universe

Many Hindus consider the Upanishads to be natural developments of

thoughts already suggested in the Vedas

No social upheavals were necessary to bring about this evolution of

religious thought

The Upanishads have a common spirit of inquiry, offering ways that

religion can supplement other practices of the Vedas

The Guru

A teacher who has gained a special insight into reality

Upanishads – formulated as dialogues between student and guru

Yajnavalkya – a prominent guru in the Upanishads

Regarded as more than human

Karma, Samsara, and Castes

Law of karma – the Hindu principle that thoughts and deeds are

followed by deserved pleasure or pain, we reap what we sow

Samsara – the Hindu concept of the wheel of rebirth that turns

forever, meaning that souls are reborn until they reach perfection

Caste – the particular social standing into which one is born,

according to one’s karma in prior lives

Kshatriya – the Hindu caste of rulers, warriors, and

administrators

Vaishya – the third Hindu caste, that of merchants and artisans

Shudras – the fourth Hindu caste, that of laborers

The Bhagavad Gita

A portion of the Mahabharata, an epic poem

A battlefield dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and his chariot

driver, the god Krishna in disguise

Krishna sees Arjuna’s reticence to enter battle, tells him to fulfill

his duty as a warrior, the caste into which he was born

Karma yoga, or fulfilling one’s caste duty, is a way of ultimately

achieving moksha – liberation

Krishna and His Brother Balarama

The Bhagavad Gita – Four Ways of Salvation

The Path of Work – karma yoga

The Path of Knowledge – jnana yoga

The Path of Physical and Mental Discipline – raja yoga

The Path of Love – bhakit yoga

The Laws of Manu

A Hindu code of conduct compiled from about 200 BCE to 200 CE

Developed full discussions around a thread of precepts, or sutra

Described an ideal code of behavior for Hindus

Depicted Brahmin ideals for each caste and for each member of

society

Described four stages of life – student, householder, forest-dweller,

and samadhi (optional stage); allowed women to observe the first

three stages

Orthodox Hindu Systems of Philosophy

Sankhya – frees souls from bondage to matter

Advaita Vedanta – accepts that appearances are not ultimate reality,

and that ignorance, that avidya keeps individuals from seeing

Other philosophic systems

Yoga philosophy – liberates the soul from the body

Nyaya philosophy – focuses on intellectual analysis and logic

Vaisheshika philosophy – studies the external world and

understands it in terms of atoms

Purva-Mimamsa – emphasizes literal truth and duty

Hindu Responses to Western Influence

Ramakrishna (1836-86) – a Brahmin with a devotion to the goddess

Kali, taught that all divinities are manifestations of the one God

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) – turned to the resources within his

Hindu tradition to improve India’s social conditions and resist British

imperial rule

Sri Aurobindo (1827-1950) – underwent a transformative religious

experience that led him to practice and teach yoga, and taught that

world reform comes through spiritual development of the self

Kali, the Fierce Goddess Who Destroys Forces of Evil

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Hindu Worldview

Henotheistic rather than polytheistic understanding of the Absolute

One superior god served by lesser deities

Cyclical universe marked by polarities of creation and destruction

and influenced by the divine

Human life marks the appearance of the atman and is influenced by

the law of karma

Hindu Worldview

Human fate is bound to endless cycles of reincarnation unless some

method for attaining moksha is adopted

Solution to samsara (reincarnation) is harmony with the Absolute

through the liberation of the soul

There are various paths to harmony but all follow the laws of

karma

Assistance of deities is necessary at times

Hanuman statues in Hindu Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple

A Contemporary Hindu Temple in Flushing, New York