Hinduism Discussion Questions Flashcards
Who is a Hindu?
The term Hindu is a Western designation for this religious tradition of India, which derives from a Persian word meaning “Indian”. Some question whether this term is appropriate, but seems commonly accepted by Hindus themselves as an inclusive term to designate their various religious practices.
Hind identity is very broad and inclusive. It almost seems that being a Hindu implies accepting and respecting the ancient traditions of India, especially the Vedic scriptures and the social class structure with its special respect for Brahmans (the priestly class).
The only people of India who are really excluded from this Hindu identity are those who do not accept the authority of the Vedas and the special place of the Brahmans - that is, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs, together, of course, with Indian Muslims, Christians, and Parsis.
Hindu identity is filled out by a vast realm of sacred texts, teachings, stories, ritual practices, forms of behavior, and deep personal experiences
Discuss the relationship between the history of Hinduism in the modern Western sense of ‘history’ and the traditional Hindu story as told especially in the epics. Which is more important to Hindu identity?
Western senses of history are more concerned about founders and historical events that give rise to the religion.
Traditional Hindu stories are less about the founding of the religion and are more about the foundations of the religion i.e. timeless and ahistorical, transcend historical age. Therefore, events occur in a transcendental kind of timeframe, with the Vedic scriptures being considered timeless and eternal.
Because Hindus view sacred reality to be reflected in ages and cycles, but also transcend them, the eternal/ahistorical approach is more important to Hindu identity.
What were some important features of the Indus valley civilization, and what influences did this culture have on Hinduism?
The Indus valley people lived by agriculture with domestic animals, developed a system of writing (although undecipherable), and built many towns and cities. They had striking uniformity of culture throughout their civilization, respectable technology, and intentional design.
They had great reverence for water, large bathing tanks for ritual purposes, considered water to have important purifying powers (an idea that is found within Hinduism.
They had clay figurines of animals and people, appeared to be an emphasis on the fertility of mother earth. Symbols of a horned goddess amid the branches of a pipal tree (sacred in later India). It may be that later Hindu traditions of the great goddesses and of the recurring patterns of death and life were influenced by the fertility religion of these ancient people.
Another religious emphasis is on male creative powers. Male animals represented sacred power to be worshipped. A number of phalluses, suggests some worshipping of male sexual power. A figure depicting a male person in a kind of yoga posture similar to the posture used in yoga meditation in later Hinduism.
The combination of symbols: fertility of plants and animals, yogic meditation, and male sexual energy are suggestive of themes in later Hinduism, especially those associated with the great god Shiva, who is known as the great yogin and often symbolized through the phallic symbol.
Indus valley civilization contributed to some characteristic Hindu ideas and practices, especially those associated with water, the cyclic pattern of existence, yogic meditation, and the great goddesses and gods.
Discuss the main features of Aryan religion in the Vedic period.
Although the Aryans did not have a writing system, from early times they composed hymns and ritual verses called Veda (knowledge), transmitting them orally in priestly families.
The Rig Veda is the oldest and most important collection, with over one thousand hymns. The Sama Veda contains verses arranged to be sung by the musical specialist during the sacrifice, and the Yajur Veda supplied short formulas spoken by the priest who performed the physical operations in the sacrifical ritual. The Atharva Veda, contains incantations for priests to use for various needs such as childbirth, illness, securing the affection of a lover, and much more. These Vedic hymns were recited, chanted, and performed as sacred liturgy.
The religion that is expressed in these Vedic hymns and formulas centers on worship of gods by means of sacrifice, petition, and praise. There are many gods and they are seen as the powers that create life and growth, that are present in wind, fire, water, speech, consciousness, and all facets of existence.
Hymns from the Rig Veda detail various important Gods such as Varuna, Indra, Agni, and Soma.
In the early Vedic conception, then, power for running the world and human existence derives from the gods. How humans live and relate to the gods is important; properly serving the gods results in wealth, long life, many sons, and a happy life after death. The Aryans thought of human life as centered in the atman (breath, soul), which lived on after the death of the body. At death, the atman, by means of funeral fire sacrifice, with help from the person’s meritorious deeds, is transported to the heavenly realm of the fathers to enjoy the continued blessings of life.
In the early Aryan system, the most important way of serving the gods was sacrificing to them by means of the fire sacrificial ritual. Humans are partners with gods in continuing the creative processes of the world by sacrifice.
Explain the new ideas of the authors of the Upanishads about Brahman, the atman, karma, and rebirth. Do these ideas seem to fit together as a religious worldview?
Upanishads added a new level of speculation.
Karma is the cause of samsara (continuous rebirth and death, the cyclicality of all life). It is action, causes have consequences.
Atman is the soul that dwells within the body and has reached its present state through karma.
Brahman is the one, source of all. Brahman is the liberation from death and rebirth. It is the inner source of all.
Knowledge of Brahman brings liberation (moksha) for the atman from the cycle of samsara. No longer the outer rituals and actions, it is the inner knowledge that leads to the source that brings the power of transformation and transcends the trap of samsara.
The basic ideas of the Upanishads have become foundational for Hinduism. All Hindus recognize the described forces as fundamental to the religion.
In the Bhagavad Gita, what kinds of advice does Krishna give to the warrior Arjuna? How is this a synthesis of Hindu teaching?
Krishna teaches that atman is imperishable and action done without desire is higher then non-action. Peace is found by renunciation of desire. Finally, selfless action and wisdom through loving and surrendering to Krishna the supreme lord is the highest path.
What are the main devotional cults that developed in the medieval period with the Puranas and other writings?
The Guptas, gave strong support to worshipping gods, especially Vishnu, raising theism to the level of state religion, supporting devotional groups and building temples
Bengal was led by the famous saint Chaitanya. He and his followers established Krishna temples and systemized the theology of Krishna worship. Chaitanya was widely regarded as an incarnation of both Krishna and Radha (Krishna’s lover) in one body.
Worship of Shiva became dominant in southern India. Known as Shaivites, the Shaiva Siddhanta (the largest group), consider their ritual texts, called Agamas to be equal in value to the Vedas.
Virashaiva developed in 12th century as a kind of countercultural movement, its founder refusing to go through the sacred thread ceremony. Known as the Lingayats because they wear a small stone lingam on a chain around the neck, they protested against the caste system, worship of images, and many other Hindu beliefs and customs. In their poems in praise of Shiva, they insist on Shiva monotheism.
There was also a group who worshipped Shiva’s female aspect known as his Shakti.
Some families have traditionally been devoted to Vishnu (Vaishnavites), others Shive (Shaivites), or the goddess Devi (known under different names such as Durga, Kali, or Lakshmi). While bhakti seems to presuppose a great number of gods and goddesses, devotees tend to focus on one of the great Gods or Goddesses as the source of ultimate sacred power. Devotee’s are essentially monotheistic.
Compare the Brahmo Samaj and the Arya Samaj as modern reform movements.
The Brahmo Samaj movement was started by Ram Mohan. He spoke out against what he considered abuses within the Hindu system, such as polytheism, worship of images, neglect of women’s education, and the practice of burning a widow alive at her husband’s cremation (called sati or sutee). Found through study of Vedas that they taught s imple monotheism. Later the Brahmo Samaj broke away from orthodoxy by asserting that reason on conscience, not the Vedas, were the final authority of religion. - all possessed inner light.
Revised old rituals to excise references to the many gods, pressed for laws against child marriage and polygamy.
The Arya Samaj was founded by Swami Dayananda Sarasvati, represented another attempt to restore original purity of Hinduism. Samaj came to reject the Puranas and all the popular gods of Hinduism, together with image worship and the caste system. Held that Hindus should rely on older Vedas alone for all religious truth. Found other religions such as Islam, Christianity, and bhakti Hinduism had corrupted this pure truth. Early Vedas are the source of all scientific truth. The caste systems made up of numerous subcastes should be abandoned, anyone can study the Vedas, woman should be educated, widows should be allowed to remarry, abandon child marriage.
Both were against image worship. Both were reformist in that they were both against child marriage and wanted more rights for women. The former was heavily influenced by Christianity but the later found it to taint Hindu’s purity. While the latter moves in the same direction of the former, it differs in its rejection of Western influences and in calling for a strict return to the early Vedas as supreme religious truth. Advocating Hindu laws for India, the Arya Samaj rejected the modern secular constitution of India and engaged in intense opposition to all non-Hindu elements in India. Although both approaches operated with quite differing religious visions, they both helped to revitalize Hindu pride in the face of Western dominance and laid the groundwork for a Hindu spiritual revival by asserting Hindu tradition as the source of value for modern society.
What new vision of Hinduism has emerged from the work of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda?
Ramakrishna believed that the ultimate reality may be approached by any tradition or worship. He developed an expansive Hinduism, not by pruning it but by incorporating into it Western religious ideas and experiences, remaining all the while devoted to the Hindu tradition. Already in his lifetime he was widely regarded as a great Hindu saint and even an avatara of the divine.
Swami Vivekananda was a disciple of Ramakrishna, who after the masters death, organized the Ramakrishna Order and the Ramakrishna Mission. Went to the united states to speak at the Parliament of Religions at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and excited many with his presentations on Hinduism. Thereafter he traveled about lecturing on Hinduism, founding Vedanta Societies to continue work of teaching the Hindu tradition to America. In India, the Ramakrishna Mission was dedicated to a wide variety of charitable missionary, and educational activities for the masses. By his example, Vivekananda established a new samnyasin model, a holy man actively engaged in social concerns.
What were Gandhi’s main ideas and activities? Why did he attract such attention worldwide?
Gandhi brought India independence from British rule.
His main ideas were nonviolence and selfless action for the welfare of society. Drawing from the influences of the Bhagavad Gita and the Sermon on the Mount (Christianity), he developed the philosophy and technique of satyagraha (holding to the truth), by which he meant a style of nonviolent resistance that awakens in the oppressors a sense of wrongdoing.
He taught that it is wrong to seek personal victory over opponents, he taught one must purify oneself of all selfish motivations and act without any violence and anger.
By gaining independence for India from Britain he attracted the attention of the world.
What new visions seem to be developing in the global Hinduism advocated by some in India and in the Hindu diaspora?
Hindu nationalist groups try to promote India as Hindu rather then a secular state. Hindu national identity is a modern one, linked with the idea of India as a modern nation-state, and projecting that identity into the past. Political parties and cultural organizations have developed that attempt to uphold Hindu rights and establish a Hindu value system in India. Some nationalist groups have sparked violence but most leaders of these groups advocate political change rather then violence to achieve their goals.
Global Hinduism - emphasize universal values of the Hindu tradition that are beneficial for the spiritual transformation of humankind. This kind of global Hinduism has wide appeal to many in India, but particularly also for the Hindu diaspora communities - that is, the growing numbers of Hindus living in the Americas, in Europe, in Australia, and in many other parts of the world. These Hindus still think of India as the center for Hinduism, and many of them hold to traditional values and ideas such as respect for the Vedas as ancient revelation, belief in reincarnation, acceptance of a transcendent divinity manifested in various forms of Hindu gods and goddesses, and acknowledgement of the value of practices of ritual and meditation. These Hindus tend to stress the aspects of Hinduism that transcend national barriers, deemphasize, the importance of caste, giving more space to women’s influence and leadership and advocate that Hindus share truths found in other religions.
Why do you think some Westerners are so attracted to Hindu practices today?
Influence movements such as Ramakrishna Mission and the establishment of the Vedanta Society has provided Americans with solid knowledge of Hinduism. Westerners are familiar with yogic practice for exercise and are being drawn into the deeper philosophical and spiritual practice.
Other religious movements widely influential are transcendental meditation and the international society for Krishna Consciousness. Transcendental meditation emphasizes inner divine essences and creative powers which may be harnessed it fits well the American desire for personal success and wellbeing. Krishna Consciousness group has spread awareness in the western world. Practices include public chanting.
Outline some of the main aspects of Brahman seen as ultimate reality, including the difference between nirguna Brahman and saguna Brahman.
Brahman was used to refer to the sacred power that pervades and maintains all things. For a major portion of the Hindu tradition, Brahman is ultimate reality.
One major themes is oneness in contrast to multiplicity. Brahman is the one life of all gods, the one soul of the universe, the one source of all. Brahman is without qualities and limiting attributes, transcending this universe. Everything else derives from Brahman. It cannot be described because this would reduce it to something else. Although indescribable, it may be known directly for it is immanent. Most importantly, ones true self (atman) is Brahman.
Hindu thinkers outline two levels of truth: Brahman without qualities is called nirguna Brahman. It is the very ground of existence, prior to any limiting characteristics, which can only be described negatively and known intuitively - Saguna Brahman is the ultimate truth of Brahman, the creative power of the universe, the foundation of the phenomenal world. Saguna is considered to be experienced as God in a personal sense (Ishvara). This deity can be described and known and worshipped.
What is meant by different levels of knowing Brahman as proposed, for example, by Shankara? how does the idea of may fit in?
Refers to the formed and formless ways of knowing Brahman
Brahman is apprehended under two forms, in the first place qualified by limiting conditions owing to the multiformity of the evolutions of name and form (multiformity of the created world) in the second place as being the opposite of this i.e. free from all limiting conditions whatsoever.
Nirguna Brahman is the impersonal, ultimate ground of all with no limiting characteristics and saguna Brahman as the creative power and foundation of the universe.
Maya (illusion) refers to how we mistakenly see the world through multiplicity (as exemplified through the snake rope analogy). However, higher knowledge through pursuing Brahman, distinct realities, with the associated subjective experiences of them, face away in the unity of Brahman. From the viewpoint of nirguna Brahman, then, even saguna Brahman is the result of maya.
To Shankura, saguna Brahman (personal God) is known at a lower level of truth.
Sketch out the main theistic visions of the ultimate associated with Vishnu, Shiva, and the great Goddess Devi. How do theists relate their God to Brahman?
The thinker Ramanuja held that whereas Brahman is one unified reality, there is within the one Brahman a qualitative distinction between the soul, the world, and the highest Lord. Just as the body and soul are united yet different, so the Lord is the soul of one’s soul in a personal relationship that includes both identity and difference.
Vishnu: all beings emerge from Vishnu and he is the dissolution of all. His abode is far beyond the worlds of samsara. Vishnu concerns himself with cosmic stability. He is the creator and preserver of the world. He embodies himself in an avatar to restore cosmic order when the world is threatened by demons. Vishnu is the one supreme reality encompassing all gods, displaying divine radiance to the whole world through his incarnation Krishna. Most popularly depicted in the Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana Epic.
Shiva: Many Shaivites have a theistic vision similar to Vaishnavites but consider Shiva to be the great Lord of all, the ultimate One. Yet the theology of Shaivism is different from the former. When thinking of what is central to all existence, evil must be considered with good, pain and death as well as birth and growth. Divine creativity involves death and rebirth so on and so forth. Shiva is the power connected with lingam and yoni, the power of yogic meditation, and the dancing divine energy. Central to the theology of Shiva is the encompassing of all dualities - male and female, good and evil, creation and destruction, eroticism and ascetism. Shiva is the vigorous creative power that permeates all life. Shiva expresses the diving truth that sacred power is continually creating and destroying the world.
Durga, is widely worshipped for her power in combating demons and protecting the world. Durga is the embodied strength of all male Gods. She also turns her strength to creative ends, blessing, protecting, and nourishing the world.
Devi is the unified great Goddess that is revealed in all the different goddesses. The term Shakti (power) is applied to her, for she is the active dimension of divine reality, the power that underlies all creating activities. This theological perspective sees the different goddesses as manifestations of the unifying cosmic principle that is female, powerful, active, the divine energy from which all creative processes derive. She often constitutes the material world. So she is the divine mother, guarding and nurturing all her children. Creation and preservation also have their destructive side, and the divine mother kills and destroys her creation as well. But this side is seen as natural and necessary. Shakti is an intrinsic part of Brahman.
Hindus can encompass both nondualism and theism in thinking about ultimate reality. The truth of one ultimate Brahman does not forestall the experience of the ultimate in personal form as the great Goddess Shakti/Kali.
