Hinduism

4 basic principles

Karma, Reincarnation, All-Pervasive Divinity, Dharma

Karma

universal concept of cause and effect, operative in the mind

NOT FATE, you create your own destiny

VEDAS: According as one acts one so does he become

Reincarnation

birth, death, and rebirth; cycle of samsara (problem: getting stuck in this cycle so solution can’t be getting up higher in cycle)

we are not the body we live in but the immortal soul which inhabits many bodies in its evolutionary journey, death is not a full end

Goal: break the cycle all together; if individual has negative karma to work off, she remains in that cycle

all pervasive divinity

“supreme being”

multiple names used

“all pervasive” all over the place, watching at all times, in everyting

unifying divinity that encompasses different beliefs/manifestations of divinity

may pervade all of these things but is transcendent

dharma

Duty

God’s divine law that he created to govern creation, moral law

cosmic concept: our task is to discover the order and do our duty, not everyone is born with same Dharma

J’ai Santoshi Maa God depiction

• Gods are very human like

• J’ai santoshi maa = mother of satisfaction, mother protector, female divinity, new goddess

Song of Santoshi maa and shot reverse shot

song:

• her eyes offer love, compassion, mercy

• ocular convo reflects finding deeper unity within each other and a new understanding of self: boundaries of self are porous

shot reverse shot

• offers artistic depiction of darshaan: devotee wants to be seen and see and have ocular convo

• everything that is talked about in song (mercy, love, compassion) is now shown who is giving it (santoshi maa) and who is receiving it (devotees)

Santoshi maa 2 parallel stories

Satyavati and Santoshi maa

Saty

• human protagonist, marrying into household and domestic conflict with sister in law who supresses her

Santoshi

• conflict with 3 established goddesses who dislike santoshi maa bc she is stealing devotees even tho they have been on the scene longer

significance

• one woman is suppressed by other woman, same type of conflict on human plane and divine plane

range of forms of santoshi maa

• she is every woman at every stage of life, and represents the stages of life that satyavati will go through

Bhagavad Gita: Arjuna’s dilemma

• arjuna feels conflicted because his duty (dharma) is to fight in the war

• he is being tugged away because killing of family may be involved

• he felt dejected, hesitant, paralyzed

• seeks counsel from krishna

Krishna’s initial teaching

Don’t grieve for reincarnation exists

• arjuna is mistaken about slaying for himself and his family, grief he is feeling is from error of thinking

reminds arjuna to commit to dharma as it is worse to not act on dharma than to act and kill (INACTION IS ACTION)

Action with Arjuna

3rd teaching: “a man cannot escape the force of action by obstaining from actions; he does not attain success just by renunciation”

• remaining in the state of inaction does not avoid consequences, it is equivalent to not doing his dharma and cosmic order is impacted on a larger scale

• you cannot withdraw: avoiding action is action

“Intent on actions, not the fruits of action”

• letting himself focus on feelings rather than duty, but in bigger picture he cannot control killing (cosmic order)

• if you are focused on worldly effects of action you are focused on all of the wrong things like what you cannot control

• illusion of individual agency

Make one’s action a sacrifice

• when you can act without attachment/act with detachment

• give up selfishness and actions are a sacrifice as it enables you to escape from cycle of samsara and achieve union with the divine

• action without attachment is doing your dharma

Effects of being too focused on the senses

67: if his mind submits to the play of his senses, they drive away insight as wind drives away a ship on water

61: with discipline focus can be on krishna, when senses are under control his insight is sure

when one renounces his desires he can find peace and infinite spirit

Raw divine form of Krishna (11th and 12th teaching)

arjuna needs divine eyes in order to see krishna in raw divine form of immutable self/all forms

• krishna will give him divine eyes, but there is no other way for him to get it, must be given it

• devotion to krishna is how one acts, path perscribed by God to get liberation from samsara

Arjuna sees Krishna in all his divine mastery

• “boundless divinity” “multiform, wondrous vision”

• mouths, eyes, arms, callouses, not human, but power shown through multiplying all forms of human power

• “all the universe” vision of it all and how it all unites with the God of Gods

• when you see with divine eyes, you get to see everything krishna sees, reveals the bigger picture

lesson of vision of god

will i do my dharma or not?:

• to do your dharma, you have to understand how it fits into bigger universe and cosmic picture

• krishna is giving arjuna the bigger picture, arjuna realizes he is not the cause of actions

• seeing krishnas destructive power: arjuna is an instrument in this, not the cause. basically, get over yourself and do your dharma