Hinduism
Hinduism is the world’s oldest living religion and the worlds third largest in terms of followers (behind Christianity and Islam). There are currently over 800 million Hindus in the world. Hinduism has been traced back to an ancient civilization known as the Indus Valley Civilization which flourished between 3500 and 1500 BCE. This civilization came to an end at about the same time a nomadic Indo-European people called the Aryans invaded India. What we know of the Aryans comes mainly from a collection of hymns known as the Vedas and what we know about the Indus Valley people comes from the archeological finds at the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.
Over the past four millennia, Hinduism has developed an elaborate and very sophisticated system of thought because India is such a culturally diverse country. Unlike Western belief systems, there is no specific dogma and unlike any other of the world’s religions, Hinduism had no single founder, no central holy figure from whom the basic religious beliefs stemmed. This has allowed Hinduism to be very flexible with respect to the content of the faith. However, Hinduism does promote a basic theme of the forces of good and evil.
Hinduism’s aspiration is the following philosophy known as the “Eternal Way.” “Lead me from ignorance to truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality.”
But for most Hindus, beneath all the variety there is one unchanging reality, called the Brahman.
The Basic Beliefs of Hinduism
For many Hindus, Brahman is the absolute, unchanging, ultimate reality that exists beyond the everyday world. Some see Brahman as God while others see Brahman as an impersonal power beyond all description.
Hindu legend says that a wise man taught his son about Brahman by asking him to put salt into water and then take it out again. Of course the salt dissolved so the son was not able to remove it. The father said the presence of Brahman is like the salt in the water; invisible but everywhere.
Hinduism teaches that each individual has a soul called Atman. Many Hindus believe that the Atman (soul) is a part of the Brahman. For many Hindus, the only real things in life are the Brahman and the Atman. The world in which one lives, that which one sees, touches, feels and hears is only an illusion, a dream. The plight of humans is that they are bound up in this world of illusion and ignorance thinking that it is real, unaware of their true identification with Brahman.
This ignorance is often illustrated with a parable about a tiger orphaned as a cub and raised by goats. All his life he believed he was a goat. He ate grass and bleated like a goat. One day another tiger took him to a pool where the first tiger saw his true image. The second tiger then forced him to eat meat for the first time and he slowly came to realize his tiger nature. In a similar way, Hindus believe humans are deceived about their true nature. Hindus believe it is the task of religion to reveal the divine within us and show us how to live on a higher level.
Hindus believe humans are incapable of grasping the fullness of divine truth so their tradition has created a lot of imagery, some (like the Judaic or Islamic faiths) would call it idolatry. But every belief system has a wide array of visual and verbal imagery, even Islam and Judaism.
In Hinduism, living things don’t have just one life, they are trapped in an endless cycle of life, death, and rebirth. This endless cycles is called samsara, which means “cosmic flow, endless wandering.” Samsara is symbolized by the wheel, often called the wheel of life.
Through what is known as the Transmigration of the Soul, after death one’s soul is transferred into another body (reincarnation). This produces the continuing cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth through many lifetimes. The human condition consists of getting stuck in this endless cycle which is seen as difficult and pointless. Each person’s earthly existence comes to an end or death, but the state of one’s soul at the moment of death determines whether that being remains caught in the cycle. Hindus hope to be eventually freed from this endless cycle, but that only happens when their ignorance is replaced by wisdom, which takes many lifetimes. Release from rebirth and suffering is called moksha (Nirvana). When your soul has attained moksha, you are one with the Brahman because you have attained total enlightenment or wisdom. Your soul has been liberated to reach Nirvana. It is said “By knowing God, man is freed from all bonds.”
The power that keeps the wheel of life spinning is called Karma. All action (karma) has spiritual consequences. Karma is the accumulated sum of ones good and bad deeds. Karma determines how you will live your next life. Through pure acts, thoughts, and devotion, one can be reborn at a higher level. Eventually one can escape samsara and achieve enlightenment or moksha (Nirvana). Bad deeds will cause a person to be reborn to a lower level, or even as an animal. The unequal distribution of wealth, prestige, and suffering are thus seen as natural consequences for one’s previous acts, both in this life and in previous lives.
The Caste System
No country in the world exhibits more cultural diversity than India, and variety in India comes on a scale unmatched anywhere else on Earth. Under Hindu doctrine, castes were fixed layers of society whose ranks were based on ancestry, family ties, and occupations. Hinduism and the caste system have been the glue that has held the diverse country of India together for over 3000 years. Even though the caste system was abolished by law in 1949, it remains a force throughout India, especially in rural areas. In Hindu society, it was quite clear that all men were not created equally.
The caste system may have its origins in the early social divisions into priests and warriors, merchants and farmers, craftspeople and servants. Over the centuries, its complexity grew until India had nearly three thousand castes, some with a few hundred members, others containing millions. So in cities and villages, communities are segregated according to caste, ranging from the highest (priests, princes) to the lowest (the untouchables).
Each follower of Hinduism is assigned (or born into) one of the four social castes, called Varna, or the fifth group called the untouchables. Your caste, and an even more specific designation called a jat, determined the range of jobs or professions you could choose from. Your caste determined who you could marry, who you could eat with, drink with, even socialize with. The system was very rigid and the caste you were born into you died in (no upward mobility).
Hindu mythology states that the four castes came from the father of humankind… Purusha. In decreasing status they are:
Brahmins (priests and scholars) who came from his head (the highest part)
Kshatriyas (rulers, warriors) who came from his arms
Vaishyas (farmers, landlords, merchants) who came from his thighs
Sudras (peasants, servants, manual laborers in non-polluting jobs) who came from his feet
A fifth group is known as the dalit or untouchables. They were outside the caste system and were considered impure. They are outcasts, too impure to be considered worthy human beings. They worked in what were considered polluting jobs like working with animal skins (India has a large leather industry). They are untouchable by the other four castes; in some areas of India even contact with their shadow is considered polluting. Prejudice defines their lives and they are in constant danger of being shunned, insulted or humiliated in public.
Your karma was what determined which of the caste you were born into…karma legitimized the social distinctions between India’s very diversified population. If you were a Brahmin or Kshatriya, you could point to an abundance of good karma from past lives (you were kind, compassionate, thoughtful, etc.); similarly if you toiled as a Sudra or were an untouchable, you believed in past lives you must have generated too much bad karma. The system was designed to constantly promote and reinforce “good” behavior.
Brahman is the ultimate reality at the core of Hindu thought. Hindus see him in terms of three forms or functions. Hinduism has the concept known as the “triple-form” (tri-murti) which forms a “trinity” of the three most important divine roles. Simply put…
Brahma the Creator, the universal spirit.
Shiva the Destroyer, is very complex. At first his power is simply associated with destruction, death, disease and decay; but he also the god of vegetable, animal, and human reproduction, which paves the way for the renewal of the endless cosmic process through rebirth (samsara). He is also the god of dance.
Vishnu the Preserver, by contrast is simple. Always benevolent, this god appears as the expression of divine love, benevolence, and forgiveness. Vishnu is so concerned for humanity that he appears in times of great trouble on earth as an Avatar. Vishnu supports the dharma of the world - the moral order. But sometimes evil takes over the world. To restore the balance, Vishnu appears on earth. The earthly form he takes is called an avatar.
An Avatar is the incarnation of Vishnu in the form of a human, animal, or mythical creature. God appears from time to time to pass on some message or accomplish some task through the incarnation, usually to combat some evil. Tradition indicates that there are ten Avatars and that nine have already appeared. The Buddha, whose life we will examine shortly, was one of the nine Avatars to come to earth. To some Hindus, Jesus and Muhammad were also avatars. The tenth and final avatar has not yet appeared, and it is said Vishnu will come as an avatar riding a white horse bringing time to an end. He will then punish and destroy the wicked, re-establish order, and reward the virtuous.
To this we add the Dharma (natural principles of cosmic law). In Hinduism, all things of the natural world from vegetation to humans are subjects and objects of the eternal Dharma, which is the natural harmony of the universe.
One of the ways to achieve harmony or dharma is through meditative yogas. Hindus believe that meditation is necessary if one is to ever break free of the birth, death, rebirth cycle (samsara). It is even necessary for the gods. There are four different forms of yoga, each stressing mental and physical discipline as a way to free the mind of anger, lust, hatred, greed, pain, etc.
Hindus try to live according to their dharma, which is the code of behavior or duty which governs a person’s life. In the Hindu tradition, a person’s duty was determined by their position in society and by the stage of life they have reached. It was from here that the Caste System developed its intricacies.
What does the mark on the forehead mean?
The colored dot on the forehead (Bindi) is a sign of piety and reveals to others that the wearer is a Hindu. It symbolizes the “third eye” the one focused inwards toward God. Both men and women wear it but it is gradually falling out of favor with men. Traditionally, unmarried women wore black dots and married women wore red. Today however, most women wear dots that match the color of their saris.
Why is the cow sacred?
Cows form the core of religious sacrifices, for without ghee or butter, which is produced from cow's milk, no sacrifice can be performed. In the Mahabharata, we have Bhishma saying: "Cows represent sacrifice. Without them, there can be no sacrifice…Cows are guileless in their behavior and from them flow sacrifices…and milk and curds and butter. Hence cows are sacred..."
Bhishma also observes that the cow acts as a surrogate mother by providing milk to human beings for their whole life. For India, the cow represents the sacred principle of motherhood. She symbolizes charity and generosity because of the way she distributes her milk, which is essential for the nourishment of the young. So the cow is truly the mother of the world.
It is said that Hinduism has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance.
Most Hindus not only believe in universal tolerance, but they accept all faiths as true.
It is said, “As different streams having different sources all mingle their waters in the sea, so different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to God.”