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Introduction to Hinduism |
Hinduism is the name given in the 19th century to describe a broad range of religions
in India. It comes from the Persian word hindu, in Sanskrit sindh, which means
"river" and refers to the people of the Indus valley; it therefore means Indian. About 80 percent
of India's one billion people consider themselves Hindus, and there are about 30 million more
dispersed throughout the world. There are many common threads running through the religion, but
no one expresssion of "Hinduism" is likely to exhibit them all, and there are many ways of being
Hindu: village religion, for example, is very different from philosophical religion.
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Historically, Hinduism is seen as unfolding in stages, but this is misleading, because
some of the earliest forms persist to the present, relatively unaffected by later
innovations. The roots spring from the traditions of the peoples of the Indus valley
(2500 BC -1500 BC), in the more developed Dravidian culture (which persists among the
Tamils in southern India), and from the Vedic religion of the Aryans. The Aryans invaded
northwest India from about 1500 BC on and brought a religion based on oral texts known as
Vedas, which are, for Hindus, eternal truth.
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The Vedas consist of four collections of texts, and with the later Samhitas,
Brahmanas, Upanishads, and a few Sutras, are known as Shruti,
which means "that which is heard." They are considered eternal truth and were transmitted
orally until the beginning of the present age when they had to be written down. This age is called the
Kali Yuga and is part of the Hindu cycle of time. Other texts, known as Shmriti,
or "that which has been remembered," reinforce Shruti and include the great epics such
as Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which contains the epic poem the Bhagavad Gita.
Vedic religion is characterized by an elaborate world of elemental gods and goddesses such as Indra and
Rudra, and led to the later trinity, or trimurti, of the gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
They are approached through rituals and sacrifices. The Rig Veda text consists mainly of
hymns and prayers addressed to them.
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Developments in Indian Religion: In the early period, religion became dominated by
the Brahmins, or priests, as society was divided into four roles (varna), the others being
kshatriyas (warriors), vaishyas (traders and farmers), and shudras (menials
and servents). Scholars disagree whether the more elaborate caste system (Jati) developed
from this or was a parallel elaboration of rules governing marriage. The caste system still
dominates Indian society, even though the government has tried to imporve the often desperate
condition of the outcastes and untouchables, who perform the foulest, most polluting tasks.
These divisions in Indian society are mead bearable by the belief that within the human is an
eternal soul, or atman, that is reborn millions of times and in many forms, from the
heavens to the hells, according to the moral law, or karma, that prevails in the universe.
Karma is not itself reward or punishment; it is a law as impersonal and as certain as
gravity. But release, or moksha, from rebirth is possible, and Hinduism is a coalition of
ways in which it might be reached.
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The major paths to moksha are known as margas: jnana-marga, the way of knowledge
or insight; karma-marga, the way of action or appropriate works; and bhakti-marga,
the way of devotion to God. There are many practical applications of the margas, such as
yoga, or the way of individual holiness. Organized traditions of teaching and practice gradually
developed and are known as sampradaya; some are well known in the West, such as the
sampradaya derived from Caitanya (1485-1534), a descendant of which is the International
Society of Krishna Consciousness.
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Most of the ways of progressing toward moksha, or release, share a belief in maya
and dharma. Maya is the power of Brahman or God to make things manifest. When
people impose wrong views on appearance, the world becomes illusory and ensnaring. Therefore,
the basic ill that must be dealt with is ignorance, or avidya. Dharma means many
things, but "appropriateness" is perhaps the best translation: Hinduism is really a map of
dharma, or appropriate behavior, and thus of a path to a good rebirth and to moksha.
The usual Hindu name for "Hinduism" is Sanatana Dharma, or Everlasting Dharma.
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For virtually all Hindus there are four purushartha, or desirable goals of life:
dharma; artha, the pursuit of legitimate worldly success; kama, the pursuit
of legitimate pleasure; and moksha. A Hindu would normally expect to pass through
four ashramas, or stages of life: those of student, brahmacarya; householder,
grihastha; one who withdraws for reflection, vanaprastha; and world-renouncer,
samnyasin. So basic are these social structures that another Indian name for Hinduism
is varnashramadharma. Even so, some forms of Hinduism maintain that moksha will
never be attained until you have shown that you are detached from all feeling tying you to the
world, including the repulsive and polluting. Therefore, some sects, such as "left-handed"
Tantra require living in cremation grounds or partaking of the five polluting pancamakra:
wine, meat, fish, parched grain, and sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman.
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Hindus are helped in their quest for dharma. As well as gurus and philosophy, there
is also help from God. Philosophical Hindus came to understand Brahman as the source and
pervader of all appearance who is present in humans as atman, or the soul. The Advaita
philosophy, being nondualist, believes that the appearance of diversity in the world is an
illusion, and that in essence all reality - the earth, sun, moon, sky, birds, and animals - is one.
Therfore Advaita understands moksha as the realization that the individual and
Brahman has always been one, tat tvam asi, "That thou Art." But most Hindus believe that
Brahman has the character og God, or uses God to create and sustain the universe, so that moksha
is union with God for ever. God as Lord is known as Bhagavan and Ishvara, but Hindus may have their
own personal devotion to a cult or a specific deity, as well as a sense that God becomes manifest
in many ways. In particular, he or she may take form as avatara, which means "descent." The
most important avatars are those of Vishnu - above all as Krishna. Among the many personal
devotions to God or Goddess, those of Vaishnavas, who are devoted to Vishnu, Shaivas, devotees of
Shiva, and Shaktas, who worship Shakti, are the most widespread.
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