Hinduism/Buddhism Final

Nirvana/Nibbana

Nirvana translates to “extinguished”. When a Buddhist attains Nirvana, they have escaped from samsara, which is the cycle of rebirth. It is the ultimate goal of the religion. It is dissimilar to other religions’ ideas of life after death; Buddhists believe in the idea of anatman (no-self), so there is no fixed self to cling to when nirvana is reached - your stream of consciousness just ceases. Another way to think of Nirvana is the extinguishing of the fires of the three poision/defilments known as klesas.

Marga

The last of the Four Noble Truths, Marga’s literal translation is “path” or “way”; it states that there is path which leads to the end of suffering. In Buddhism, you cannot “think” your way to enlightenment- it requires conscious intentions and action. The path marga refers to is the Noble Eightfold Path, which is a list of principles that guide the way Buddhists live and can be seperated into the categories of wisdom, morality, and meditation.

Upasaka/Upasika

An upaska is a worshipper or follower of the Buddha who is not a monk but is closely associated with the monastic community. They are lay devotees of the Buddha who embody non-monastic devotion. They live according to the 5 Pancasila virtues/vows. They are: I will not hurt a living being, I will not take what has not been given, I will refrain from intoxication, I will refrain from sense-pleasure misconduct, I will refrain from false speech.

Bodhicitta

Translating to “the awakening mind,” it represents the goal of becoming enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings, not just oneself. It is one of the fundamental principles of Mahayana Buddhism and central to the bodhisattva path, which is a person on the path to becoming a Buddha.

Bhavacakra

The Bhavacakra is the wheel of existence. All sentient beings are reborn on this wheel and it contains six realms: Gods, asuras, animals, hells, ghosts, and humans. There is continuity across lives, and the karma created in one life acts as a planted seed that will manifest later in the future. The god and asura realms are the most pleasant, but it is hard to reach nirvana from the god realm because if you have no experience of suffering, you have no motivation to seek a spiritual journey. The human realm is ideal for reaching nirvana.

Anatman/anatta

Anatman is one of the three marks of existence and translates to “no-self”. This is the idea that we do not have individual souls, which was the predominant belief at the time of Buddhism’s emergence. The Buddha says that nothing exists independently and instead of the self, you can describe a person with the 5 aggregates.

Ganesha

Ganesha is the lord of beginnings and remover of obstacles. He has an elephant head and his mount is a mouse. He is the son of Shiva and Parvati. The festival of ganesha takes place in early fall and it is an important festival because it gave people a time to connect and strategize when political meetings were banned historically in India. His chant goes as such: “I bow to the lotus feet of the remover of obstacles, the elephant-faced, served by troops of spirits and so on, who enjoys the fruit of the wood apple and black plum tree, Uma’s son who destroys [all] sorrows!”

Sarasvati

Sarasvati is the goddess of learning, music, and language. She is often depicted holding a stringed instrument (called a vina), a rosary, and a book. She is part of the triad of goddesses commonly worshipped as Shakti (which means power or energy and is a feminine word). These goddesses, including Sarasvati are worshipped in a yearly festival called Naravaritri.

the word “Hinduism”

The word Hindu comes from the sanskrit term Sindhu, which referred to the people who lived around the Indus river. Hinduism as a category is constantly debated, reinterpreted, constructed and adapted. It not only refers to people who follow the Vedic tradition, but also holds more meaning in Indian culture as a legal category to encompass and exclude people. In the eyes of Hindu nationalists, the term only refers to a person whose ancestors are from India and whose religion arose in that religion. In the census, for example in 1881, it historically meant anyone who was unable to describe his creed.

Orientalism

Orientalism refers to the western view of the east as decadent, exotic, backwards, and traditional in contrast to the “superior” west. This exoticization is harmful because exoticization and demonization are two sides of the same coin, and leads to incorrect assumptions about the many cultures in this part of the world-for example, the “civilizing misson” of british colonalism in India.

Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley Civilization was at its peak circa 2200-1900 BCE, and had characteristics such as domesticated animals, wheeled transport, and grain storage. The relationship between the IVC and Vedic cultures is an active debate, and there is a lot of guesswork and hypothesizing based on artwork and remains. The main artefact is IVC seals, because the markings and depictions on them show a wide range of things, such as a figure that some think is shiva. The prevalent academic view is that the IVC faded away before the rise of vedic practice.

Veda/Vedas

Veda literally means “sacred knowledge” and refers to the ancient foundational scriptures of Hinduism. There is a well-developed tradition of passing down this information orally. There are four vedas. The Rgveda is the earlist hymns and ritual descriptions, the yajurveda is mostly ritual texts, the samaveda is a compendium of sung hymns, and atharvaveda is mixed content such as magic-medicine and rituals.

Upanishads

Literally translating to “sitting down (near a teacher) in the appropriate way” to learn hidden or secret teachings, The Upanisads are the concluding philosophical section of each of the four Vedas. They specifically focus on the importance of seeking knowledge and its value, with new emphases on things like increased speculation, teacher-student relationships, hidden connections and interpretations, and speculation on sound and the power of language and speech. The Upaniṣads also introduce new ideas such as rebirth, karma, samsara, moksha, and atman and brahman (the individual soul vs. the supreme ultimate reality).

Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita, meaning the “song of the Lord,” is a 700-verse section of the Mahabharata, right at the start of the war. This is when Krishna gives Arjuna a series of teachings that are extremely important to the tradition today and have been for centuries. The teachings included topics such as karma and the nature of the atman, detachment from the fruits of action, and yoga as “skill in action.” He also stressed svadharma, which means “one’s own duty” and the importance of performing it rather than other people’s duties. The climax of the Bhagavad Gita occurs when Krishna reveals his true form to Arjuna, rather than his charioteer form.

Agni

Agni is the Vedic tradition term for ritual fire. It is also deified into the deity Agni, who receives and transports offerings to the gods. Agni is central to Vedic worship, as yajna (the fire sacrifice) was the main form of worship in the Vedic tradition before the shift to puja. It demonstrates the principle of reciprocal exchange, which means that humans give things up in a cycle of giving and receiving with the gods.

Moksha

Moksha means liberation. It refers to the final freedom of being released from the cycle of samsara, and is one of the two sides of one of the greatest tensions in the Hindu tradition. There is a debate between liberation (moksha) and social engagement (dharma) because different people disagree on whether one should engage with the world or withdraw to an ascetic lifestyle to reach the final “goal” of moksha.

Varnashrama-dharma

Varnasrama dharma refers to the dharma according to one’s social position (varna) and stage of life (ashrama), with dharma meaning “right action,” or sacred duty. This means your duty depends on your class (brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, or sudra) as well as what stage of life you are in (student, householder, forest dweller, or renouncer). Varnashrama dharma ties back to the idea of each person having their own dharma, their svadharma.

Atman and Brahman

Atman is defined as the all-pervasive individual soul, or self. in the chandogya upanisad, it says there is some imperceptible essence that the whole universe has it as itself, and lead to the famous phrase “tat tvam asi” which means “that you are",” basically saying that you have access to everything that is made of that essence. Brahman is the supreme, ultimate reality (which doesn’t necessarily mean a god/dess). One of the main messages of the Upanisads is that the individual self and supreme self are the same, similar to the idea of individual waves in one ocean.

Purusharthas

The Purusharthas are the four goals of life, literally translating to the “aims of human beings.” They are dharma (right action), artha (political and financial success), kama (enjoyment of sense pleasures), and moksa (liberation, release from the cycle of birth and death). These four are supposed to be pursued in the four distinct stages (asrama), which are student, householder, forest dweller, and renouncer. The purusharthas were a Brahmin orthodoxy compromise in response to the tension between sacrificial religion to obtain a better rebirth, and renunciation in order to secure liberation from rebirth entirely.

Samskara

Literally meaning “construction” or “refinement,” samskara is the term for a rite of passage or life-cycle ritual. Traditional example are things like pre-birth rituals such as the rite of conception, childhood rituals such as the naming ceremony or first haircut, and upanayana, which is the rite of initiation and investiture of the sacred thread that represents the beginning of a boy’s formal Vedic education under a guru.

Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta is the school of vedanta that promotes the philosophy of non-dualism. It asserts that Atman (self) and Brahman (the ultimate reality) are one, and this realization will lead to liberation, or moksha. Shankara, a philosopher, who wrote commentaries on the upanishads and bhagavadgita, placed emphasis on advaita and the power of knowledge.

Krishna

Krishna is a major deity in the Hindu tradition. In some communities he is worshipped as the supreme deity, with an emphasis on a personal relationship and devotion to him, and in others as a reincarnation of Vishnu. Krishna’s three stages of life were as a mischievous child, an amorous youth, and as an adult, a serious warrior and ruler. He is a central character in the Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita, serving as Arjuna’s charioteer and a friend and counselor to the Pandavas.

Avatara

Avatara means “descent” or incarnation of a deity in the world- for example, Vishnu has ten avatara. It is connected to one of the three broad ways of thinking about divinity related to Vishnu, Shiva, and Shakti. This strand of thinking is about the unity in linear plurality, royal power and order, continuity, and dharma. Vishnu exemplifies all of these points, as his multiplicity of avatara is spread across time, and every time dharma is threatened, he steps in to maintain order.

Karma-yoga

Karma-yoga is the discipline or path of action. Throughout history, different political figures had their own interpretations of the Gita and used karma-yoga as a cause or reasoning for their actions. For example, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the “father of Indian unrest,” emphasized action and quoted the gita to support the idea that no blame could be attached to anyone who killed an oppressor without any thought of reward. Gandhi interpreted the Gita differently, more in a metaphorical sense (calling it his “spiritual dictionary”), and emphasized non-violent action. Karmayoga can also refer to service and volunteer work.

Jnana-yoga

Jnana-yoga is the discipline or path of knowledge. A big proponent of this interpretation of the Bhadavadgita was Shankara, a philosopher who wrote commentaries on the upnisads and bhagavadgita. He stressed the liberating power of knowledge, along with advaita vedanta. Ramana Maharshi, an early 20th centruy teacher, said that the way to attain self-realization is through Jnanayoga. The technique is called vicara, or inquiry, and is a relentless pursuit of the question “who am I?”

Bhakti-yoga

Bhaktiyoga is the discipline or path of devotion. Two proponents of bhaktiyoga as an intepretation from the bhagavadgita were Jnaneshvar and Prabhupada. Jnaneshvar, who produced the first vernacular Marathi translation/commentary in the 13th century, emphasized bhakti as a whole. Prabhupada focsed specifically on personal devotion to krishna, and founded ISKCON (the international society for krishna consciousness).

Vishnu

Vishnu is a deity associated with the sky and space, and is depicted with blue skin and four hands. His hands hold a spinning discus, a club, a conch, and a lotus (which represents auspiciousness). His importance varies by tradition- in a shiva focused context, vishnu is a minor deity who just carries out his work, but vishnu-focused contexts exist as well (which is Vaishnavism). He has ten avatara, or reincarnations: a fish, turtle, boar, narasimha, young boy/dwarf, parashurama, rama, krishna, the buddha, and kalki, which is his future incarnation. In contrast to shiva’s presence as multiple things/ideas at the same time, vishnu’s multiplicity is represented as multiple things/ideas throughout time; at different moments in history, when dharma is in peril, Vishnu comes to intervene.

Shiva

Shiva is a deity associated with nature, asceticism, yogic practices, and paradoxically, family. He is depicted with white skin (because he is covered in cremation ashes), a third eye on his forehead, snakes in his hair, and a garland of beads around his neck. However, despite this appearance he transcends impurity and is beyond the dirt of ashes. He also transcends paradox- he’s forever celibate, but also forever with his wife Parvati and his children, such as Ganesha. Unlike Vishnu’s linear multiplicity throughout time, Shiva’s multiplicity is all at the same time. In temples, he is represented an-iconically with a shiva linga, which is an abstract symbolic marker.

Shakti

Shakti literally translates to power or energy and is a feminine word. Shakti means the Goddess, and all goddesses in the Hindu tradition are said to be Shakti (or alternatively referred to as Devi). The goddess is worshipped in triads, with some notable goddesses being Sarsvati (goddess of knowledge, music, and learning), Lakshmi (goddess of benevolence, prosperity, and royal power), Durga (understood as a singular deity who holds all the weapons of the male gods as she was able to defeat what they could not), Kali (ferocious gooddess who has multiple interpretations, sometimes representing female power), and Ganga, the river goddess. In temples, Devi/Shakti is represented anthropomorphically.

varna and jati

Varna and jati are the terms used to describe caste in India. Varna means social class or category, and jati means birth group, or kind. Jatis are highly localized and there are hundreds of Jatis that vary across India; they do not neatly fit into the varnas. There are four varnas: brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra. They can be a framework for restricted conduct and exclusion, particularly in social practices including rituals, dietary rules, and dress- for example, the first three are considered “twice-borns” and are able to undergo the sacred thread ritual (upanayana). Outside of the four-fold varna conceptualization, Dalit is a self designation of many communities that means oppressed or downtrodden. Although it is illegal to discriminate in India based on caste, the discrimination still occurs, and it also affects the lives of Chrisitians, Muslims, Jains, and others in South Asia.

Dalit

Dalit means oppressed or downtrodden. It is a self-designation term used by many communities in India that is outside the four-fold varna conceptualization. The official term used by the government of India is scheduled castes, and people in this category are legally regarded as socially disadvantaged. Due to the discrimination they have faced throughout history, Dalit political organizations have formed. For example, the Dalit panthers were a social organization who fought against caste discrimination and the Bahujan Samaj Party is a national political party which represents the scheduled castes.

Dr. Ambedkar

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was an Indian jurist, social reformer, and key architect of the Indian Constitution. He was of the Mahar caste (which is Dalit) and fought against the Dalit disenfranchisement, exploitation, and dehumanization imposed by Brahminical hegemony. At the 1932 Round Table conference, he voted in favor of separate electorates granted for religious minorities and scheduled castes, and the conference resulted in the creation of the Poona pact. This pact stated that there would be a single electorate for Hindus, with scheduled castes having seats reserved within it.

puja

Puja is the ritualized form of devotional worship, specifically with material religious objects and prayer. Puja both refers to the space and the act of worship occurring there. A central aspect of puja is darshana, which is the concept of “seeing” and being seen by the deity; this mutual seeing is an intimate moment of devotion and grace. The standard ritual actions that occur during puja are called upacaras, and they all circulate around treating the god as the “guest” of the worship space, including things like washing the installed deity, providing food offerings, and putting the deity to bed. Puja is also seen as a ritual of transvaluation that produces prasada: both material and abstract favour.

darshan (darsana)

Darsana is “seeing,” and being seen by, a deity. This mutual seeing is an intimate moment of devotion and grace and represents a core practice within puja (worship).The eyes of a deity are extremely important to the hindu tradition, and once the eyes are drawn on to a sculpture, the wood or stone becomes a living embodiment of the deity. Upacaras then begin being performed when the sculpture becomes a murti.

nirguna & saguna bhakti

Nirguna means without attributes or beyond form. An example of this would be the idea of “neti, neti” (not this, not that) from the Upanisads; it refers to knowledge that is cannot be conveyed with the abilities of language. Saguna means with form, embodied, and accessible to the senses. An example of Saguna is an idol of Krishna or any other deity in a temple. Plays/retellings, images, and even the idea of mother India are all forms of Saguna because they are physical things that one can see, hear, or touch. One example that is both saguna and nirguna bhakti is a shiva linga, because it’s physical but also anionic.

prasad

Prasada means divine grace or favour in both abstract and material forms. The abstract favour refers to blessing, beneficence, grace, knowledge, and insight. The material favour is often something edible, or a souvenir or token of ritual. There is a belief of transformation that occurs when something is received by the deity and then received back by the worshipper- this sharing of food is a deep intimacy, and the food become blessed and a form of material prasada. Puja is a ritual of transvaluation that produces prasada.

Ramayana

The Ramayana is an influential text that, much like the mahabharata, became a tradition from said text. Many ramayanas exist, but arguably the most famous and influential one is Valmiki’s Sanskrit Ramayana. It is roughly 25,000 verses, and follows the lives of Rama and Llakshmana, the princes of Ayodhya. It is a literary backbone of South Asian culture, and is often a key part of debates on dharma, ethics, morality, and gender. The Ramayana doesn’t discuss complexities between family members such as Rama, Llakshmana, and Sita, but instead talks about humans and the non-human demonic “other.” A particularly famous way it influenced the Hindu tradition is the Ramlila, which is the tradition of an extended performance of the Ramayana.

Ramlila

The Ramlila is the “Open-Air Ramayana.” It literally translates to Rama’s “play” and is an extended performance tradtion. In different regions of India it is based off different tellings of the Ramayana, but the themes of bhakti, puja, kirtan (devotional signing), and darshan are present throughout. The nightly, month-long Ramlila at Ramnagar is distinct because people walk from location to location for different scenes of the story, and the audience is actually part of the play.

Raslila

Raslila is a traditional folk dance celebrating Krishna’s divine love. The origin of raslila comes from the story of Krishna’s youth, when all of the gopis chase after young Krishna in the forest and he replicates himself so that each one is dancing with him. Radha is Krishna’s favorite gopi, and his paradigmatic consort. The dance is meant to show how intense the gopis’ love for krishna is, and in modern times represents general devotion and spiritual unity for all of his followers.

Ravidas

Ravidas was a 16th century nigurna poet of the Camar caste (dalit). His main focuses were bhakti and social protest, specifically for caste reform; the sharing in God that bhakti implies creates networks that cut across social divisions. Even Brahmins came to listen to his teachings, as he was such a charismatic poet and singer. He believed that nothing on Earth was really pure, and in relation to God every person was untouchable; it was God’s choice to make everyone “touchable.”

Mirabai

Mirabai was a sixteenth century bhakti poet and paradigmatic devotee to Krishna. Although she had an earthly spouse, she considered herself to really be “married” to Krishna. There are many film adaptations of her dramatic story, from avoiding being posioned to miraculously being merged into a Krishna idol. One of the most famous films about Mirabai was the 1945 Tamil film Meera.

Kabir

Kabir was a 15th century bhakti poet. He was of the weaver caste, and beloved both by many Muslims and Hindus. He was critical of all organized and elite religion, and his writings influenced the bhakti movement in the tradition. His writings argued that caste did not matter and that no one is lowly born. To him, only worship of Ram mattered: “Kabir says, plunge into Ram! There: No Hindu. No Turk.”

Lakshmi

Lakshmi is a goddess association with brightness, abundance, success, and prosperity. In images, she is depicted with coins flowing out of her hands and lotus flowers surrounding her. Her iconography also includes elephants, beuty, wealth, lotuses, and mudras of dispensing favour and dispelling fear. She has multiple theological interpretations; sometimes she is seen as a supreme goddess, sometimes spritual wealth/liberation itself, or sometimes as an intercessor with Vishnu.

Durga

The goddess Durga is famous for slaying the buffalo demon Mahishasura. She is pictured riding a lion or tiger, and is closely associated with the trident. Along with the trident, she holds all of the weapons of the male gods, representing the fact that she was able to defeat what they were unable to. She is understood as a singular or supreme deity, not paired or grouped with other deities like many of the other female goddesses in the Shakti manifestation are.

Mother India

Mother India is an example of geopiety, which means a way of embodying and relating to territory. Bharat Mata, or mother india, is one way you can think about Hindu Nationalism. In the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, there was a much larger spread of political control under Britain. There were hunderds of languages and many religions, so hindu nationalism was an attempt to unify such a diverse nation. Mother india is ofter pictured as a woman in a long sari surrounded by her “children”- all the famous saints and figures brought together under her motherhood. It could also be seen as a form of saguna, because it is a national devotion to a physical embodiment.

Ayodhya

Ayodhya is where the Babri Masjid was built, on the site that many Hindus believed to be the birthplace of Ram, leading to the eventual destruction of the mosque. The destruction of the mosque at Ayodhya, and the building of the temple in its place is one of the most poignant examples of Hindu Nationalism. A characteristic of this nationalism, specifically according to nationalist leader V.D. Davarkar, is that it uses religious identity to claim a certain type of priority in “Indian-ness.” This view of superiority can lead to violent outcomes, such as the many Muslim deaths that occured at the Ayodhya mosque’s destruction.

Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda was a Hindu monk and chief disciple of the 19th century saint/mystic Ramakrishna. He was a charismatic speaker and teacher, and came to the US in 1893 for the World’s parliament of religions and consequently a teaching tour that taught contemplative meditation as yoga. The Hinduism that he was teaching had emerged from a context of global religion, in a way that would speak to his largely Western audience. He founded several organizations, such as the Ramakrishna Math (a monastic order), the Ramakrishna Mission (a volunteer organization), and the Vedanta society in New York City. His famous quote is “Be free. This is the whole of religion.”

Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi is the current prime minister of India. Throughout his reign, including as chief minister, there have been many instances of Muslim-Hindu political tension. For example, in 2002, violent riots followed a train fire that had caused many deaths because it was said to be intentionally started by Muslims. He contributes to the political narrative of Rama in many ways, saying that Rama is the “connecting link” in India’s unity. This belief is demonstrated through actions such as inaugurating the Ramayana Postal Stamps, and the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Tilaka

A tilaka is a sacred forehead marking. In some cases they are simply for adornment, but they usually convey layers of social and religious meaning. Sometimes they denote the marital status for women, sectarian identity or religious affiliation, or recent ritual activity. For example, if a worshipper performs a ritual in the morning and a tilaka is applied to their forehead, they might leave it for the rest of the day. There is much variety in tilakas; for example, a shaiva tilaka is three horizontal stripes on the arms, forehead, or body and a shakta tilaka is a very big red dot in the center of the forehead.