Hinduism
Meditation is their finary ritual
Ritualistic action
Central to the religious experience of eastern religion
Religion is internal because mediation is an internal process
Experienced in mind
Internal process of focusing on something that is symbolic
Incorporates change, process, abstract way, and nature
Meditation leaves benefits for the person
Mode of devotion
Soul is not center
Hinduism and Buddhism focus on the river as how time flows and changes
River flows to five stages
Hinduism
Coming from India
Hinduism as a non native word is Sanatan dharma(everlasting way)
India is a fertile ground for religion
The land itself bursts forth with religion
Via negativa(what hinduism isn't)
Nondogmatic
Dogma is a central doctrine or source for what the religion teaches, non dogmatic means there isn't a central authority
Non Evangelical
Evangelical is the idea you want to spread the word/teachings
Hindus don't push the religion on others
Diverse
They are diverse in the way they worship and how they worship.
Ex: someone who doesn't leave the house and fasts and prays. Another who is a nature worshiper and who lives outside
Indian spirituality(Sanatan)as river
Stage 1
Mohenjo- Daro (aka Harappa) society in Indus River Valley (2000 BCE)
One of the first groups outsiders encountered
Alexander the Great came and attacked this area to try and make it part of the empire. He wanted to go here because he heard of the reputation of this place. Fabulous technology and people. He was 1700 years too late for this society.
From archeological digs there have been found religious artifacts that are similar to those in India today.
Ex: great mother goddess
Believe that this is the way you are born, spiritual
Sanatan is the way we are born and develop as naturally spiritual beings
Step 2
Aryan migration (1500 BCE)
Aryans said to be the “pure” and the original race, this is the german term
The Aryans are from the Euro mountains near the south of Ukraine. Move toward Asia and mediterranean. Iran has a connection to Aryan people
Migrated into India and had superior technology and methods and took charge of the whole peninsula
They brought the language Sanskrit was what they brought down and they have the Vedas. This is a form of literature. This language is connected to Latin and Greek
They have similar gods, words, numbers, ex, zeus and dyaus
Similar aspects of religion: need a priest, temple, sacrifices
They brought over the father religion type
Mother religions = nurturing
Father religions = anger and need to sacrifice
Society today for hindus is casts(form Aryans)
You are born higher or lower than someone else and are in that cast for your whole life
Structure to society
Vedas = the book all hindus revere, but don't necessarily read
In sanskrit, but no one reads it because they don't know the language
Evolution of Mantra
Mantra = sound or syllable that releases sacred energy
When one here's something they try to repeat it but it can get misconstrued. Ex: hocus pocus = hoc est corpus
Step 3 Upanishad
Shifting towards Gurus, giving power to the people
Upanishads “sitting at feet of the master”
Gurus use mantras, new “clergy” but dont have the same temple sights or rituals. Wise men and women who know how to chanel mantras
“Axial age” revolutions
Every so often (in years) power shifts
Priests to gurus
Ex: confucius, socrates, Buddha
They speak of these poetic ideas
The power shifts to those who learned the sounds of the priests and can “harness” the power for themselves and teach others.
Ideas in poems
Brahman - the reality at the heart of all reality
Sacred energy but no personality
Tranquil, serene, all encompassing
Meditation experiment: imagine you are on the shore of a lake with a storm coming in, it's chaotic. Now imagine you're a fish in that same lake 50 ft down, it is serene and comforting, no noise or problems form the storm. Going deep within Brahman to get away from chaos around you
Atman - self or soul
Container for energy
Svetaketu parable
Bees bring juices from multiple plants and form it into one thing where the juices don't know they came from different plants.
Juice is atman
Honey is Brahman
Source or container for unifies Brahman
Another example
These rivers in front of us run in the east, the Ganges, in the west the Indus river. They go from sea to sea, the clouds lift up water from sea to sky then send it as rain through rivers to sea. Everything leads to the sea. The creatures in it doesnt know where they came from.
Sea Brahmen
Rivers Atman
Maya - illusion(=english cognates: magic/matter)
Superficial reality
Back to the lake example standing on shore. After a storm blows over you realize that your fears are dissipated and the danger is gone. It is superficial and we can escape these non-lasting fears/dangers.
Sometimes we get carried away with things that aren't real, like AI or virtual reality.
Cognates are matter or magic
Karma - the moral law of cause and effect(mecanism to get maya, atman, and brahmin)
“When you do good things, you start storing up the good things to help you on the path”(maya, Atman, Brahman)
Analogous to law of gravity
No judge or scorekeeper, the good or bad reverberates in world
Reincarnation as the solution to apparent injustice
If you do bad in this life and karma doesn't catch up to you, it will in your next life and you won't advance with Maya, Atman, or Brahman.
Moksha- liberation
When we go through the process of living and dying so many times with stored up energy(karma) it finally comes out as liberation.
Ghandy described it like this:
“Imagine yourself on the shore of the Indian Ocean, and you have a teaspoon and you take some water and pour it on the sand, and repeat it. How long until you end the Indian ocean?”
One would ask, why do this?
They think it is just the way life is, you just keep going.
Believe that all religions are apart of this, everyone is living in this type of world/system
Are there any gods?
No
Is there religious hierarchy(priests)?
No
Is it a simple social hierarchy in India?
There is but how long will it last?
Stage 4 Ordinary life
Bhagavad Gita = the bible for Hinduism
The story in the BG, Prince Arjuna and charioteer(Krishnah)(god/avatar)(vishnu)(incarnation of this god)
Prince Arjuna was told by his dad that his father was going to Abdicate. Problem is that he has such a big family with a lot of brothers and sisters and when told they were upset because all of them were telling him he was not the rightful leader. He is literally fighting for his throne with his family and sees his opponents standing there, his family and friends. He talks to Krishna about how he sees his family and is disheartened, he sees omens of chaos. He says what use is kingship over life itself. He does not want to kill for the sake of his kingship. Krishna says to him that learned men don't grieve for the dead or living. He says that once dead everything enters another body. He says that Atman was enduring. He told Arjuna to fight the body.
Summary: it doesn't matter, we all come back in the end, do your duty(if you don't do it you are unfaithful for what you came here to do)(part of your karma), fight.
This puts princess in charge with gods to guide them
Reversal of axial age reform, brings back gods
Caste system enforced
Cast system
The practices of the original Aryan society: enforced thought marriage costumes
Marry in cast
The system in modern india
It is breaking down
Laws that you aren't supposed to discriminate but also supposed to stay in caste
Money making is fueling it
Caste system lowest to highest
Untouchables(outcasts from caste), Sudra(commoners and peasants and servants), Vaishya(merchants and landowners), Kshatriya(warriors and kings), Brahmin (priests, academics)and Gods
Stages of life for Sanatan(Hindu) believers
Student
learning
Householder
Starting family
Retiree
Sometimes going to guru
(Sunyassin)
Doesn't always happen
Become a guru yourself before you die
Yoga as part of ordinary devotional life
Yoga = yoke
What you put on so people can take you somewhere
Like yoke for horse, so you cant be out of line. Disciplinary action
Types
Intelectual(jnana) mind
Put stuff in front of you that improves your intellect. An example would be learning a language, maybe learning sanskrit so you could read the og documents. Study for two hours every day maybe
Action(karma) service to others
Said that westerners would do well at this
Doing good deeds, service
devotion(bhakti) gods
Apply yourself to procession, rituals, anything to do with devotion to gods
Royal(raja) public service
People who are in leadership places have to decide what's good for the public
Force(hatha) will power
Exercises that involve stretches with breathing and postures.
The west borrowed biofeedback from this, where you can slow your heartbeat and lower your body temperature
Mind is so incharge that you can control your body
The general practices for most hindus is devotion, bhakti
Upanishads(stage 3) brought revolution
Bhagavad Gita(stage 4) brought counter revolution
Ordinary life customs attempts to return to the status quo before the upanishads
Modern hinduism
Bhakti
Hindus is like monotheism
There are thousands of gods so the people go back to one or two of the gods that they think support them the most
You chose your god by family, good luck, caste, village, etc
Governed by practical circumstances
Trimurti (the triple form, like the christian trinity)
Three gods who work together
Brahma, god of being, creator of world(unseen creator), Vishnu, god of life and history(inserts in history), has ten physical representations, krishna was one(incarnated avatars(incarnation of a god)), and Shiva/Siva, god of creativity through destruction(fire of recreation), gateway between life and death
Mohandas/Mahatma Gandhi
Apostle fo non violence
Was born in the middle merchant class, but had enough money to send him away for education, got a scholarship at oxford. At age 15 he was married. In Britain he got involved in partying, which his parents didn't want. He walked into a church and decided to study jesus. He then began studying his own religion and decided Hindu was the correct one. Got his law degree and then went to south africa and organized the Brown Skins, non violent practices and led to rights for them. He went back to India and organized and participated in non-violence.
Spent time making his own clothes, go back to basic handiwork trades, work with your hands
Gave up things that cluttered the mind, sex, talking, etc
Extreme hinduism “slumdog millionaire”
ISKCON, “hare Krishnas”
Evangalistic Hinduism
Allow outsiders to join
Ashram = monetary for one guru, visit and have relationship, beatles visited one
Conventional approach
Casts, yoga, stages of life, populist religion
Routine devotion, Puja practices(ritual devotions), folklore of past Hindu myths, echoes of the Aryan empire
Higher hinduism
Focuses on the vedas as source of enlightenment
Downplays caste system
Returns to Upanishads
Equipping India after colonialism
Education, housing, health care and nutrition
Swami Vivekananda
Religious ambassador to US
“We are all streams of the same religious force”
Cared for India, humanistic programs, teaching ab education and health things, working with poor and needy