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Hinduism




More correctly known as Sanatana Dharma (Sanskrit: The Eternal Way),
Hinduism is the oldest of the major world religions and at 1.05 billion
followers (according to a 1993 estimate) currently the third largest, behind
Christianity at 1.5 billion and Islam at 1.1 billion. All hindus revere the
Vedas (dating back to the 5th millennium BC) as scripture, in addition to
which each sect considers its own set of more recent writings sacred.

Overview

The meaning of Sanatana Dharma is that it represents those spiritual
principles that are eternally true; in this sense it represents the science
of consciousness. Historically, "Hindu" did not denote a system of religious
belief; the term is of Persian origin and refers to people who live on the
other side (from a Persian point of view) of the Sindhu, or the Indus river.
During British Raj, the term was used to denote a somewhat "fuzzy" set of
religious perspectives. In a 1966 ruling, the Supreme Court of India defined
the Hindu faith as follows for legal purposes:

       1. Acceptance of the Vedas with reverence as the highest authority in
          religious and philosophic matters and acceptance with reverence of
          Vedas by Hindu thinkers and philosophers as the sole foundation of
          Hindu philosophy.
       2. Spirit of tolerance and willingness to understand and appreciate
          the opponent's point of view based on the realization that truth
          is many-sided.
       3. Acceptance of great world rhythm-vast periods of creation,
          maintenance and dissolution follow each other in endless
          succession-by all six systems of Hindu philosophy.
       4. Acceptance by all systems of Hindu philosophy of the belief in
          rebirth and pre-existence.
       5. Recognition of the fact that the means or ways to salvation are
          many.
       6. Realization of the truth that numbers of Gods to be worshiped may
          be large, yet there being Hindus who do not believe in the
          worshiping of idols.
       7. Unlike other religions, or religious creeds, Hindu religion's not
          being tied down to any definite set of philosophic concepts, as
          such.

According to another view, a Hindu is one who believes in the philosophy
expounded by the Vedas and the Agamas. Vedas are the world's oldest
scriptures. Their basic teaching is that our real nature is divine. God, or
Brahman as is commonly referred to, exists in every living being. Religion
is therefore a search for self-knowledge, a search for the divine within the
self. The vedas state that a person does not need to be "saved." He is never
lost. At worst, one is living in ignorance of his true nature.

Vedanta, as the essence of the Vedas, acknowledges that there are many
different approaches to God, and all are valid. Any kind of spiritual
practice will lead to the same state of self-realization. Thus, Vedanta
teaches respect for all religions and distinguishes itself from other major
religions in that it strongly encourages tolerance for different belief
systems.

Hinduism exists today on two different planes - one based purely on faith
and another based on philosophy. Often, the two planes intersect.

The philosophical plane

     There are traditionally six ancient astika or orthodox (accepting the
     authority of the Vedas) schools of philosophy, or shaddarshana: Nyaya,
     Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa (also called just 'Mimamsa'),
     and Uttara Mimamsa (also called 'Vedanta'). (Note that the number six
     is traditional, and the division is somewhat artificial.) The nastika
     or unorthodox schools are Jainism, Buddhism, and Charvaka (ancient
     Indian atheist materialists). For more details about each of the
     schools of thought, refer below.

The faith-based plane

     Contrary to popular belief, true Hinduism is NOT polytheistic nor
     monotheistic. The various gods and avatara that are worshipped by
     Hindus are understood as different forms which the ONE supreme god,
     Brahman, has taken in order to be approachable. (Note: Brahman
     (pronounced braH-MUNN), the supreme being and ultimate source of all
     divine energy, is not to be confused with Brahma (pronounced braH-mA),
     the creator of this particular universe.)

In an interesting parallel to the Christian trinity, there are three main
gods in the Hindu pantheon: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, much like the two
sides of a coin are merely different aspects of the same physical object.
The God Brahma symbolizes the creator, Vishnu represents the maintainer and
Shiva represents the destroyer in the cycle of existence.

Vaishnava, constituting approximately 80% of today's Hindus, worship one of
the three most recent avatara (earthly incarnations) of Vishnu as their main
deity. The seventh (third most recent) avatar of Vishnu is Rama, the eighth
is Krishna, the nineth is Gautama Buddha or the founder of the Hindu sect
whose sacred texts are consulted. Some acknowledge all of the above as true
avatara, thus increasing the traditional count of ten (including Kalki, who
has yet to appear) to as much as 27. Most of the remaining 20% are Saivites,
who worship Lord Siva; the remainder is devoted Shakti. Most worship all the
forms of divinity.

Much like a single individual may be referred to as the daughter of someone,
the friend of another, or the sister of yet another, Hinduism allows each
individual to describe and develop a personal relationship with their chosen
god in the form of an avatar. Vaishnava worship Brahman through Vishnu,
ISKCON devotees through Krishna and Devi worshippers through Devi, but
ultimately all worship is of the divine essence, Brahman.

Origins of Hinduism

Very little information has survived about the earliest origins of Hinduism.
The earliest known documents are the Vedas, described below, which are
generally believed to have been codified in their present form centuries
before the oldest surviving written copies, and passed down accurately by an
oral tradition. The oldest texts were composed in an early form of Sanskrit,
an Indo-Aryan language, and show similarities with texts of Zoroastrianism.

The age of the Vedas and the origin of their authors is controversial. One
theory is that they originated from the early societies of India, an area
where the rock art tradition has been traced to 50000 BC and where the
beginnings of the first urban tradition has been traced to about 7000 BC.
The astronomical references in the Vedas remember events that go back to the
4th or 5th millennium BC.

Indus-Sarasvati Tradition contribution to Hinduism

The archaeological excavations of the Sindhu-Sarasvati have not yielded much
evidence of communal temples. However, there is sufficient evidence that the
civilisation was certainly not purely secular. Only one Indus civilisation
graveyard has been found and excavated, and has yielded no elaborate royal
burials, but the personal possessions buried with the bodies may indicate
that these people believed in an afterlife in which they would need these things.

Water seems to have played an important part in their social, and possibly
their religious, life, judging by the large number of public baths that were
constructed. The modern Hindu custom of bathing at the beginning of the day
and before the main meals may well have started here.

Many figurines of female deities have been discovered. These most probably
signified creativity and the origin and continuity of life, and they may
have been worshipped as symbolic embodiments of the female principle of
creative Energy and Power. In modern Hinduism, the counterpart of these
symbols is called Shakti. But they have no counterparts in the thousands of
clay seals that have been discovered, nor in major sculpture, so these
"mother Goddess" figurines may have been worshipped in the home rather than
in any major state cult.

Figures of male deities with elaborate horns (or horned headgear) have also
been uncovered, some of them with three faces. These are perhaps the
original conceptual forms of the triad that is expressed by the Trimurti of
Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva (Generator-Sustainer-Destroyer) in contemporary
Hinduism, but they are strangely enough also very similar to sculptures,
paintings and bas-reliefs of horned gods in Europe, stretching as far back
as the Paleolithic painting of the "sorcerer" in the cave of Les Trois
Fr�res in France. The Indian figurines are shown as sitting in the
cross-legged posture of yogis, suggesting that yoga or inner contemplation
was one of their modes of discovering the secrets of life and creation.

The Vedas and later scriptures

The sacred scriptures of ancient India fall roughly into three classes.
First, there are the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of the Vedic religion
from which modern Hinduism is derived. Second, there are post-Vedic Hindu
scriptures. Finally, there are the scriptures of the dissident movements
such as Buddhism and Jainism. These were in large part reactions against the
Vedas, but also took much from them, both in terms of actual teachings and
in terms of a general outlook on life. We shall only discuss the first two
classes here.

The Vedas

Scholars who have made a study of world scriptures maintain that the Vedas
are the oldest extant religious texts. The ideas expressed in the Vedas were
traditionally handed down orally from father to son and from teacher to
disciple. Therefore, these ideas had been in circulation for a long time
before their codification and compilation, which are attributed to a sage
called Vyasa (literally, "the compiler"). On the basis of both internal and
external evidence, scholars have suggested various dates for the origin of
the Vedas, ranging from approximately 1500 BC to as far back as 5000 BC.

In the traditional Hindu understanding, Vedas are said to be non-personal
and without beginning or end. This means that the truths embodied in the
Vedas are eternal and that they are not creations of the human mind. It was
precisely on this point that Buddhism and Jainism would part company with
Hinduism.

There are four Vedas: Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda. Each is
divided into four sections:

   * The Samhitas - Contains the mantras and hymns
   * The Brahmanas - The ritualistic teachings
   * The Aranyakas - The theological section
   * The Upanishads - The philosophical section

The religion of the Vedic period, particularly at its earliest, was distinct
in a number of respects, including reference to females in positions of
religious authority (female rishis, or sages), an apparent lack of belief in
reincarnation, and a markedly different pantheon, with Indra generally the
chief god, and little mention of the later trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.

Post-Vedic Hindu scriptures

The Vedas are referred to as the Shruti (that which is heard). The new books
that appeared afterwards were called Smriti (that which is remembered).
While the sruti literature was written in Vedic and Classical Sanskrit, the
smriti texts were written in the Prakrit, or common, languages of the
ordinary people. Since it was accessible to all, the smrti literature
established its popularity among every stratum of Indian society from the
very beginning. Even today, the greater part of the Hindu world is more
familiar with the smrti than with the sruti literature. Smrti literature
includes Itihasas (epics like Ramayana, Mahabarata), Puranas (mythological
texts), Agamas (theological treatises) and Darshanas (philosophical texts).

The Dharmashastras (law books) also form part of the smrti. From time to
time great law-givers (eg Manu, Yajnavalkya and Parashara) emerged, who
codified existing laws and eliminated obsolete ones to ensure that the Hindu
way of life was consistent with both the Vedic spirit and the changing times.

The Hindu philosophy reflected in the epics is the doctrine of avatar
(incarnation of God as a human being). The two main avatars of Vishnu that
appear in the epics are Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, and Krishna, the
chief protagonist in the Mahabharata. Unlike the gods of the Vedic Samhitas
and the abstract Upanishadic concept of the all-pervading and formless
Brahman god, the avatars in these epics are human intermediaries between the
Supreme Being and mortals.

This doctrine has had a great impact on Hindu religious life, for it means
that God has manifested Himself in a form that could be appreciated even by
the least sophisticated. Rama and Krishna have remained beloved and adored
manifestations of the Divine for thousands of years among Hindus. The
Upanishadic concept of the all-embracing Brahman is undoubtedly the pinnacle
of Indian thought, but the concept of the avataras has certainly had more
influence on the average Hindu.

Hindu Philosophy

The Astika (Believers or the orthodox school of thought) philosophies are
elaborated below. The nastika philosophies are omitted as they are not
descriptive of Hinduism.

Nyaya

The Nyaya school of philosophical speculation is based on a text called the
Nyaya Sutra. It was written by Gautama (not to be confused with the founder
of Buddhism), also known as Akshapada, round about the fourth or fifth
century B.C. The most important contribution made by this school is its
methodology. This is based on a system of logic that has subsequently been
adopted by most of the other Indian schools (orthodox or not), much in the
same way that western science, religion and philosophy can be said to be
largely based on Aristotelian logic.

But Nyaya is not merely logic for its own sake. Its followers believed that
obtaining valid knowledge was the only way to obtain release from suffering.
They therefore took great pains to identify valid sources of knowledge and
to distinguish these from mere false opinions. According to the Nyaya
school, there are exactly four sources of knowledge (pramanas): perception,
inference, comparison and testimony. Knowledge obtained through each of
these can of course still be either valid or invalid, and the Nyaya scholars
again went to great pains to identify, in each case, what it took to make
knowledge valid, in the process coming up with a number of explanatory
schemes. In this sense, Nyaya is probably the closest Indian equivalent to
contemporary Western analytical philosophy. But we should never lose sight
of the fact that the Nyaya sages performed their labours for a specifically
religious purpose.

Vaisheshika

The Vaisheshika system, which was founded by the sage Kanada, postulates an
atomic pluralism. In terms of this school of thought, all objects in the
physical universe are reducible to a certain number of atoms.

Although the Vaishesika system developed independently from the Nyaya, the
two eventually merged because of their closely related metaphysical
theories.

In its classical form, however, the Vaishesika school differed from the
Nyaya in one crucial respect: where Nyaya accepted four sources of valid
knowledge, the Vaishesika accepted only perception and inference. Vaishesika
atomism also differs from the atomic theory of modern science: according to
the Vaishesikas, the functioning of atoms was guided or directed by the will
of the Supreme Being. This is therefore a theistic form of atomism.

Samkhya

Samkhya is widely regarded as the oldest of the orthodox philosophical
systems in Hinduism. Its philosophy regards the universe as consisting of
two eternal realities: purusha and prakrti. The purushas (souls) are many,
conscious and devoid of all qualities. They are the silent spectators of
prakrti (matter or nature), which is composed of three gunas (dispositions):
satva, rajas and tamas (steadiness, activity and dullness). When the
equilibrium of the gunas is disturbed, the world order evolves. This
disturbance is due to the proximity of Purusha and prakrti. Liberation
(kaivalya), then, consists of the realisation of the difference between the two.

This was a dualistic philosophy. But there are differences between the
Samkhya and Western forms of dualism. In the West, the fundamental
distinction is between mind and body. In Samkhya, however, it is between the
self (purusha) and matter, and the latter incorporates what Westerners would
normally refer to as "mind". This means that the Self as the Samkhya
understands it is more transcendent than "mind", closer perhaps to what
Westerners would refer to as "soul". This makes it an explicitly religious
philosophy.

Patanjali Yoga

The Yoga system is largely based on the Samkhya philosophy, and the sage
Patanjali is regarded as the founder of the Yoga system. The most
significant difference is that the Yoga school not only incorporates the
concept of Ishvara (a personal God) into its metaphysical worldview, which
the Samkhya does not, but also upholds Ishvara as the ideal upon which to
meditate. This is because Ishvara is the only purusha that has never become
entangled with prakrti. The Yoga system lays down elaborate prescriptions
for gradually gaining physical and mental control and mastery over the
personal self, until one's consciousness has intensified sufficiently to
allow awareness of one's real Self (as distinct from one's feelings,
thoughts and actions).

Purva Mimamsa

The main objective of the Purva ("earlier") Mimamsa school was to establish
the authority of the Vedas. Consequently this school's most valuable
contribution to Hinduism was its formulation of the rules of Vedic
interpretation. Its adherents believed that revelation must be proved by
reasoning, that it should not be accepted blindly as dogma. In keeping with
this belief, they laid great emphasis on dharma, which they understood as
the performance of Vedic rituals. The Mimamsa accepted the logical and
philosophical teachings of the other schools, but felt that these paid
insufficient attention to right action. They believed that the other schools
of thought, which pursued moksha(release) as their ultimate aim, were not
completely free from desire and selfishness. In hinduism, we are all
illuminated under the light of god. When we have moksha, we believe that we
become closer to god. According to the Mimamsa, the very striving for
liberation stemmed from a selfish desire to be free. Only by acting in
accordance with the prescriptions of the Vedas could one attain salvation
(rather than liberation). At a later stage, however, the Mimamsa school
changed its views in this regard and began to teach the doctrines of God and
mukti (freedom). Its adherents then advocated the release or escape from the
soul from its constraints through what was known as jnana (enlightened
activity). While Mimamsa does not receive much scholarly attention these
days, its influence can be felt in the life of the practising Hindu. All
Hindu ritual, ceremony and religious law is influenced by it.

Vedanta

The Uttara ("later") Mimamsa school, more commonly known as the Vedanta,
concentrates on the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads rather than on
the ritualistic injunctions of the Brahmanas. But there are over a hundred
Upanishads and they do not form a unified system. Their systematisation was
undertaken by Badarayana, in a work called the Vedanta Sutra.

The cryptic way in which the aphorisms of the Vedanta texts are presented
leaves the door wide open for a multitude of interpretations. This led to a
proliferation of Vedanta schools. Each of these interprets the texts in its
own way and has produced its own series of sub-commentaries - all claiming
to be faithful to the original.

Monism: Advaita Vedanta

This is probably the best known of all Vedanta schools. Advaita literally
means "not two"; thus this is what we refer to as a monistic (or
non-dualistic) system, which emphasises oneness. Its first great
consolidator was Shankara (788-820). Continuing the line of thought of some
of the Upanishadic teachers, and also that of his own teacher Gaudapada,
Shankara expounded the doctrine of Advaita - a nondualistic reality. By
analysing the three states of experience (waking, dreaming and deep sleep)
he exposed the relative nature of the world and established the supreme
truth of the Advaita: the non-dual reality of Brahman in which atman (the
individual soul) and brahman (the ultimate reality expressed in the
trimurti) are identified absolutely. His theories were controversial from
the start and some of his contemporaries accused him of teaching Buddhism
while pretending to be a Hindu.

Subsequent Vedantins debated whether the reality of Brahman was saguna (with
attributes) or nirguna (without attributes). Belief in the concept of Saguna
Brahman gave rise to a proliferation of devotional attitudes and more
widespread worship of Vishnu and Shiva.

Qualified Monism: Vishistadvaita Vedanta

Ramanuja (1040-1137) was the foremost proponent of the concept of Sriman
Narayana as the supreme Brahman. He taught that Ultimate reality had three
aspects: Ishvara (Vishnu), cit (soul) and acit (matter). Vishnu is the only
independentreality, while souls and matter are dependent on God for their
existence. Because of this qualification of Ultimate reality, Ramanuja's
system is known as qualified non-dualism.

Dualism: Dvaita Vedanta

Like Ramanuja, Madhva (1199-1278) identified god with Vishnu, but his view
of reality was purely dualistic and is therefore called Dvaita (dualistic) Vedanta.

The bhakti (devotional) schools

Adoration and loving devotional worship of a personal god (bhakti) is part
and parcel of most religious traditions. In Hinduism, too, it has been found
since the earliest days, but only in the second millennium A.D. do we start
to see organised movements advocating this type of religious behavior. Among
the first was the Vira-Shaiva school, in the thirteenth century. Its
founder, Basava, rejected the caste system, denied the supremacy of the
Brahmins, condemned ritual sacrifice and insisted on bhakti and the worship
of the one god, Shiva. His followers were called Vira-Shaivas, meaning
"stalwart Shiva-worshippers".

The Shaiva-Siddhanta school is a form of Shaivism (Shiva worship) found in
the south of India and was established around A.D. 1300. According to this
school, Shiva is God, and his infinite love is revealed in the divine acts
of the creation, preservation and destruction of the universe, and in the
liberation of the soul.

In the period between 1400 and 1650, a great bhakti movement swept through
Northern India. The implications of this movement were that people could
cast aside the heavy burdens of ritual and caste and the subtle complexities
of philosophy and simply express their overwhelming love for God.

This period was also characterised by a spate of devotional literature in
the ethnic languages of the various Indian states or provinces.

In Southern India, there had been two parallel devotional movements just
before this period, one centering on Vishnu and the other on Shiva. It was
the Vishnu movement that mainly spread to the north, where it itself divided
into two camps, the one worshipping Vishnu mainly in the form of his avatar
Rama, the other in the form of Krishna.

The leader of the bhakti movement focussing on the Lord as Rama was
Ramananda. Very little is known about him, but he is believed to have lived
in the first half of the 15th century. He taught that Lord Rama is the
supreme Lord, and that salvation could be attained only through love for and
devotion to him, and through the repetition of his sacred name.

Ramananda's ashram in Varanasi became a powerful centre of religious
influence, from which his ideas spread far and wide among all classes of
Indians. One of the reasons for his great popularity was that he renounced
Sanskrit and used the language of the people for the composition of his
hymns. This paved the way for the modern tendency in northern India to write
literary texts in local languages.

Devotees of Krishna worship him either as an adult together with his first
wife and queen Rukmini (Rukmani) or, far more commonly, as an adolescent
together with his childhood sweetheart and eternal consort Radha, who is
regarded as an incarnation of Laxmi and the embodiment of devotion. Two
major systems of Krishna worship developed, each with its own philosophical
system.

Vallabhacharya (1479-1531) called his system of thought Shuddhavaita (pure
monism). According to him, it is by God's grace alone that one can obtain
release from bondage and attain Krishna's heaven. This heaven is far above
the "heavens" of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, for Krishna is himself the
eternal Brahman.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1485-1533) named his system of philosophy Achintya
Bheda-Bheda (incomprehensible dualistic monism). It attempts to combine
elements of monism and dualism into a single system. Chaitanya's philosophy
is one of the main elements in the belief system of the contemporary
International Society for Krishna Consciousness, better known by Chaitanya's
mantra as the Hare Krishna movement.

Beyond the confines of such formal schools and movements, however, the
development of bhakti as a major form of Hindu practice has left an
indelible stamp on the faith. Philosophical speculation had always been a
minority interest, in India as elsewhere, which really only left the general
population with increasingly archaic rituals and increasingly onerous
religious duties to perform. Bhakti practice, however, was instantly
available to all. If it did not do away with the worst features of the caste
system, then at least it gave people a temporary respite from it.

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