Hinduism is more a culture than a creed

John(godhas4legs)Gilbert posted this explanation of Hinduism because of the valuable results from his practice of ‘Hatha Yoga’ which cannot be easily explained rather needs to be experienced. == Reproduced from R. Pierce Beaver’s, et al., Eerdmans’ Handbook to the World’s Religions ©1982 First American Edition William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company All Rights Reserved The Eternal Teaching: Hinduism Raymond Hammer ‘Hinduism is more a culture than a creed.’ –Radhakrishnan The religious tradition we call ‘Hinduism’ is the product of 5,000 years of development. The name, however dates only from about AD 1200, the time when the invading Muslims wished to distinguish the faith of the people of India from their own. ‘Hindu’ is the Persian word for ‘Indian’. Indians themselves, however, prefer to speak of the eternal teaching or law (sanatana dhanna), indicating the ‘givenness’ or revelatory character of the beliefs to which they are committed. No founder, no creed Hinduism has no founder and no prophet. It has no particular ecclesiastical or institutional structure, nor set creed. The emphasis is on the way of living rather than on a way of thought. Radhakrishnan, a former president of India, once remarked: ‘Hinduism is more a culture than a creed.’ Not everyone who is born a Hindu is a practicing Hindu. But it is claimed that ‘they are Hindus because they were born as Hindus’. The origin of the name suggests that the common ingredient in Hinduism is the Indian origin of its adherents. (In fact, one writer somewhat cynically asserts that the only unifying features in Hinduism are the Indian character of the faith and the universal reverence for the cow!) Mother India The Hindu religion is closely intertwined with tradition about the land of India, its social system and its history. The Indian subcontinent has clear geographical demarcations. Triangular in shape, it is bounded on two sides by the ocean and to the north by the impenetrable Himalayan range of mountains. The actual shape of the land recalls for Indians the figure of a mother and speaks to them of ‘Mother India’. A large part of the country is a rich, fertile plain. This is what makes the mountains, and the rivers which flow from them, so sign)ficant. In the north it is the rivers, in the south the monsoon rains, which make plentiful harvests possible throughout the year. The whole of nature is seen as vibrant with lifeãtrees, rocks and waterfalls provide a focus for the sacred, becoming shrines at which worshippers discover meaning in life. The mountains and forests often speak to the Indians of the powers that confront human endeavour and so become pointers to the struggle between divine and demonic powers. Although the yogis go on pilgrimage to desolate regions in search of ‘Reality’, it is primarily the rivers which are seen as the source of support and spiritual life. Sacred river The sacred River Ganges not only provides water for the land; the water is itself the symbol of life without end. Hundreds of thousands flock to its banks daily to perform their ritual ablutions in its waters and sip from its life-giving stream. Once every twelve years as many as 10 million people share in ritual bathing at the great Kumbh Mela festival at Allahabad, where the waters of the Ganges and Jumna combine. Varanasi (on the Ganges) is the most sacred cityãthe place for a Hindu to die. Then, after cremation, the ashes can be cast upon the waters of the sacred river and life continues! A rich variety The population of India is far from homogeneous. Each district has its own language and customs as well as its own religious ideas and practices. The vast majority of the people are agricultural and, despite large populous cities, most live in small villages, of which there are almost 700,000. This factor contributes to the tremendous local variety within the larger regions. The oldest continuous culture is to be found in the four southern states, where the languages are classified as ‘Dravidian’. The north as a result of the Aryan invasion which took place in the middle of the second millennium BC, possesses a group of related languages, in which Hindi is dominant. The north-eastern states are dominated by Bengal which was late in receiving Aryan influence. About 400 million people in the Indian subcontinent may be regarded as Hindus. And wherever Indians have gone, they have taken with them their culture and religious ideas and practices. One faith or many? Hinduism embraces a wide diversity of religious belief. * The vast majority of Hindus believe in God in some way or other, but there are some who do not. * Some Hindus believe that a respect for all living creatures demands that they be vegetarians, others will sacrifice animals at the temple and joyfully share in a roast by the river-side. * Some Hindus worship Shiva; others Vishnu or his incarnations (avatars), most notably Krishna or Rama; others again are worshippers of the goddesses. * The inhabitants of one village do not share in the precise focus of worship which will unite the villagers in another place. * The individual Hindu may reverence one god, a few, or many, or none at all! * He may also believe in one god and in several gods as manifestations of him. * He may express the ultimate in personal or impersonal terms. It has been suggested that Hindu ism is ‘a federation of cults and customs, a collage of ideas and spiritual aspirations’. So, is it possible to speak of ‘Hinduism’ in the singular, or are there many ‘Hinduisms’? Under one umbrella For Hinduism, as for other religious traditions, the name is an umbrella term which does not demand a total homogeneity. (To draw a parallel: the ritual of an African independent Christian church will be far removed from a Coptic or Armenian liturgy, and yet all come under the name ‘Christian’.) But if Hinduism embraces a ‘family of religious beliefs’, we still need to find something which can be called the ‘ethos’ of Indian religion. The flow of life One concept which is found everywhere within Hinduism today is the idea of reincarnation or transmigration. Whereas Christianity thinks in terms of the importance of decisionmaking within one life, and sees salvation in terms of the individual (though not neglecting the group or the whole), the Hindu thinks of the flow of life through many existences. This lies behind the notion of samsara which expresses this flow from birth to death and then on to rebirth, and so on. As a result the limited span of history is lengthened to billions upon billions of years. Linked with the notion of samsara is the concept of karma. Karma literally means ‘work’ or ‘action’, but also indicates the consequences of actions within one existence which flow into the next existence and influence its characterãand so the chain goes on. Hindu hope, therefore, is for release (moksha) from this chain or cycle. The other great unifying feature is the attitude of Hinduism to society (see ‘Roots’). Roots: The Devemopment of Hindu Religion Raymond Hammer The roots of Hinduism (as we now meet it) go back thousands of years. So what do we know about the earliest forms of religion in the Indian subcontinent? Temple-citadels The earliest evidence we have comes from excavations that have taken place since 1922 in the Punjab and the Indus Valley. A homogeneous urban culture was established in the third millennium BC, and two cities have been excavated: Harappa, the prehistoric capital of the Punjab on the banks of the River Ravi, and Mohenjo-daro, 400 miles/ 645 kilometres away in Sindh, on the banks of the Indus. It is evident that the rivers were vital for their inhabitants, irrigating the broad, fertile plains with their flood-waters. Ritual purity was most important to these early people and the ancient temples incorporated ceremonial ablutions (as they still do today). Ritual bathing was not confined simply to the baths at the sanctuary. People also bathed in the rivers which provided the livelihood for their community, and so could be thought of as ‘rivers of life’ and therefore sacred. The finds at the temple-citadels suggest that there was a unity of the political and the religious. There may be parallels with the sacral kingship in ancient Babylon, where the ruler was seen as a ’son’ of the divinityãin both cases a mother-goddess, the symbol of creativity and the ongoing flow of life. There are many figurines of the goddess, signifying the origin of life (a pregnant figure) or the nurture and continuance of life (figures which emphasize the breasts). All the indications are of an early matriarchal society as the background to the host of goddesses in India today. Each village seems to have its own goddess, venerated as the giver of life and fertility. They may also be seen as embodiments of the female principle, called Shakti in developing Hinduism. There are figures of a male god, too, with horns and three faces (seemingly the original of the triad, Trimurti, later expressed by the three deities Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva). He is shown in the position of a yogi (one who practices yoga, the way of self-discipline) in a state of contemplation. He is also seen surrounded by animals, which suggests that he is the original form of the great god Shiva, who is often spoken of as ‘Lord of the Beasts’. The fertility symbols, the lingam and yoni (representing the male and female sexual organs), both still present in popular forms of Hinduism, have also been found. It would appear, the that this ancient Indus civilization shows traits wh still a powerful force in religion. The Aryan faith In the middle of the second millennium BC the Aryan ( ‘noble’) peoples invaded India, bringing their language and traditions and profoundly influencing, although in no way ousting the older religions, ideas and practices. Their language developed within India into what we call Sanskritãa parellel of Greek, Latin and other European languages. It appears that their religion, too, had close affinities with that of Homer’s Greece. At any rate, the pantheon recalls the gods of The Iliad and The Odyssey fundamentally manifestations of nature. Whereas the older Indus Valley religion seems to included yoga, renunciation and purification ritesãall of continue to mark the ‘holy men’ of Indiaãthe Aryans appear to have been much more world-affirming. They were originally nomads (coming perhaps from the Baltic regions). They appreciated the ‘openness’ of natureã trees, fields, sky and so on. Like Homer’s Greeks, they made their sacrifices to gods who represented the forces of nature. Animal sacrifice was very much a feature of their practices. Whereas rivers provided the meeting-place for the pre-Aryan worshippers, the Aryans gathered around fire and performed their ceremonies there. They would cast grain, butter and spice into the flames. Unfortunately there have been no archaeological finds from the early period of Aryan settlement, but we do possess a literature (written down probably about 800 BC, but reflecting an oral poetical tradition from centuries before). The Vedic texts (Vid expresses ‘knowledge’) enshrine the main evidence for the original Aryan faith. Songs of knowledge: the Rig Veda The Rig Veda (’songs of know-ledge’) are the oldest. Many of these religious hymns may have been composed when the Vedic peoples were still in central Asia. But most of them probably date from a time after the settlement in India. In later times they were considered to be a revelation from Brahman (the ultimate source of all being) in the form of words, received by the inspired sages (rishis). The sages, it was held, had been granted the ability to apprehend the knowledge which was eternal (hence the title sanatanaã’eternal’ãdharma) and divine. The religious tradition later distinguished between what was revealed (shruti) and what was remembered (smriti) and so possessed not direct, but only a secondary, inspiration. The gods The Rig Veda is made up of more than I ,000 hymns. They are usually addressed to a single god, and several dozen different gods feature in them. The most popular is Indra, who is portrayed as a warrior who overcomes the powers of evil and brings the world into being. The god Agni is the person)fication of the sacri ficial fire (Latin ignis) and so links earth and heaven, carrying the gifts which the priests pour into the flames into the presence of the gods. ‘May that Agni who is to be extolled by ancient and modern seers, conduct the gods here.’ The divine parentss Heaven and Earth, symbolize the expanses of nature. Their marriage indicates the indissoluble link between two worlds, the celestial and the terrestrial. Varuna (Greek Uranus) is the chief of the gods, because ceremonial rite (rita) and law (dharma) are administered and regulated by him. The cosmic order is within his control and he ensures that there is no transgression, cosmic or human. The Veda distinguishes between the World Soul (purusha) and substance (prakriti). The former is seen as the cosmic sacrifice, which ensues in life and order. There can be no life without sacrifice, we are told, and the divisions of the World Soul are seen as the basis of the human social order. The mouth is the priestly order (the Brahmins), the arms are the rulers (Rajanya, later known as the Kshatriya), the thighs are the land-owners, merchants and bankers (vaishya) and the feet are the workers, artisans and serfs (shudra). (It is likely that the shudras represented the subject-peoples who came from the indigenous population and were subordinated to the conquering Aryans.) Power for the priests The priority of the priestly class is linked with the crucial position given to sacrifice and the magical use of incantations. The priests alone could bring the people into touch with the cosmic powers and guarantee the continuation of life. This priestly ascendancy was not accepted without question, as the ruling class seem to have held the leadership for much of the time. It was only the elaboration of rite and ceremonial which increased the power of the priests. The more complicated the forms of worship, the more essential it was to have the expert! But the Veda also reflects a growing speculation which was I to lead to the Upanishads (the I Vedanta, the end of the Veda) with which the revealed word was to terminate. In the early creation myth Indra was seen as the personal agent in creation, bringing existence out of nonexistence In later speculation the ‘One God’, described in personal terms, gives way to ‘That One’ã the impersonal force of creation. There is also a questioning note: ‘Who knows it for certain; who can proclaim it here; namely, out of what it was born and from what creation proceeded … whether he made it or whether he has not? . . . he alone knows, or, perhaps, even he does not know.’ In this passage we have the basis for the future philosophizing which was happier to describe the ultimate or transcendent in negative rather than in positive terms and which was to accept a basic relativism in all attempts to describe the absolute. Classes and castes From the four class groupings of the poem on creation, the idea grew that some hierarchic structure in society is a part of the divine intention for the natural order. The classes (varnasãcolours) were later to proliferate into a large number of birth-groups (Otis), which differentiated families much more according to work done in the community. Although some aspects of the caste system have been outlawed by the Indian government in recent times, the system continues as an integral part of Indian society. Questions of marriage and eating are all linked with the class caste groupings. The first three classes are cut off from the fourth by being ‘twiceborn’, or ‘the initiated’. They wear the sacred thread as an indication of superior status. In addition, birth-groups differentiate between the ‘pure’ and the ‘impure’, indicating both the importance of ritual purity and the impurity that accrues from mixing with another group. It is likely that the shudras were first despised by the invading Aryans and regarded as belonging to an inferior colour (varna) being dark instead of light-skinned as they were. The idea of the cycle of rebirth later indicated that the shudras could hope for salvation only in a future life, as they were not yet among ‘the initiated’. The priests were gaining a stranglehold on society through class differentials. But this was not to go unchallenged. Revolt in the temple! By about 600 BC the ascendancy of the priest in society was commonly accepted in northern India. The priestly ritual of sacrifice and its appropriate mantra (verbal utterance) as set out in the manuals of the priestly class dominated the sacrificial system. It was at this point that the movements of Jainism and Buddhism (see relevant articles) emerged within Hinduism. At the same time the Upanishads provided a redirection of the Vedantic tradition, being accepted as ‘revelation’. These formed an indispensable ingredient in the new synthesis which was to emerge and be called ‘Hinduism’. The Jains Both Mahavira (?599-527 BC) the figure behind Jainism, and the Buddha (about 563-483 BC), the founder of Buddhism, belonged to small republican citystates that had emerged amongst the Aryan tribal units. They came from ‘noble’ families of the ruling class which had once held the leadership in society. The Jains believe that Mahavira was the twenty-fourth ‘Fordmaker’ in the current era of cosmic decline. (The cyclical view of history was unquestionngly accepted.) He, like the Buddha after him, had wandered in search of ‘release’ or ’salvation’ from the age of thirty. He found it when he was forty-two, when he became a completed soul (kevalin) and conqueror (jina). (The name ‘Jain’ is derived from jina.) He died at Pava (near Patna in Bihar) after teaching for thirty years. Mahavira was much more of a rationalist than the Brahmanists. He rejected revelation and based his religious scheme on logic and experience. He accepted the somewhat pessimistic view of the human situation and was concerned for release. As he saw the situation, the human soul was enmeshed in matter and needed to regain its pristine purity and thereby achieve immortality. It can only gain liberation as it loses its accumulation of actions and their consequences Each soul is seen as an entity in its own right. Jainism in this way affirms a plurality of beings as against one ultimate reality (monism)which was the most sign)ficant affirmation of the Upanishads Though the existence of superhuman beings is not explicitly denied, the approach of Jainism is fundamentally atheistic, rejecting both the concept of creation and all thought of the operation of providence in the world. The path to knowledge is the important thing, and the Jain analysis of right conduct. (See the article on Jainism.) First of the five virtues was non-violence ahimsa), or what Albert Schweitzer called ‘reverence for life’. This was adopted by Buddhism and, in modern times, has been the fundamental element in Hinduism, as Mahatma Gandhi interpreted it. The other virtues in Jainism are speaking the truth, honesty, chastity and a non-attachment to worldly things. The Buddha If we can sift history from legend, the Buddha, Siddharta (his personal name) Gautama (his family name) rejected the sacrificial cults and the caste system, and taught a new way to release and salvation, which he described in terms of a ‘quenching’ (nirvana). What needed quenching was the desire which kept a person prisoner to the cycle of rebirth by reason of his actions. If desire was the reason for the anguish and suffering which marked the human lot, it was clear that the desire had to be set aside before release was attained and nirvana reached. Like a doctor, he not only analysed the symptoms of the human malaise, but also prescribed a cure. Here he pointed to a ‘middle way’ which came out of his own experience. For he had found that neither a sensual life in the world nor the extreme asceticism of the hermits had satisfied him. His teaching set forth the Noble Eightfold Path to nirvana (see further the articles on Buddhism). The Buddha’s message was perpetuated through the community of his disciples and Buddhism spread rapidlyãto the south of India and from there to Sri Lanka and Burma. Schools of Buddhism grew up and from the first century BC Mahayana (’the great vehicle’) emerged. Mahayana Buddhism made some accommodation to Hindu thought and there was interaction with it. The Buddha was thought of as the incarnation of the ultimate Buddha for this age (i.e. an historical manifestation) and the dharma came to be virtually identified with Brahman in the sense of an absolute and eternal law within the universe. Nagariuna, the great Buddhist thinker, introduced the notion of accommodated teaching, which allowed for a multiplicity of religious approaches, because none, as such, was grasping at the reality. The ‘Buddha nature’ was within all and needed to be expressed, but the truth was to be apprehended intuitively and not through sense-experience. The Upanishads Although Jain and Buddhist ideas had a great influence on the development of Hinduism, later Hindu teachers regarded them as unorthodox. By contrast, there was another form of semi-secret teaching which was circulated by teachers who were within the Vedic heritage, but reshaped the Hinduism of the future. This teaching came to be known as the Upanishads (upa = near, ni = down, shad = sit), because those who received it sat down beside their teachers! These teachers were not involved in pleading with the gods or ritual sacrifice. They were more concerned to discover the ground of the universe, the Reality (Brahman) which was prior to all other existence. At the same time they were concerned to explore the nature of human consciousness. They came to the conclusion that it was basic to the individual self (atman) was none other than the Reality which undergird the cosmos. Like the Jain~and the Buddhists they were concerned to overcome the fundamental sense of anxiety and frustration which marks human existence. They also recognized the sense of flux and impermane!hce in life. But they looked for the essence of permanence not only outside man, but also within. Their way to salvation was that of knowledge or spiritual insight. Like the manuals of the priests, each Upanishad is attached to one of the four Vedic hymn-collections. They are speculative treatises which draw upon parable to communicate their view of reality. Every book on Hindu religion quotes the story of Svetaketu in the Chandoya Upanishad. He is asked to split off the fruit from the banyan tree and then continue to subdivide it until he can see nothing at all. His father reminds him that nothing comes from nothing and that even within the infinitesimally small there is still present the power which pervades the whole universe and is the basis of all existence. ‘Have faith!’he is told. ‘That is the spirit-breath (Brahman) which lies at the root of all existence, and that is what you are too, Svetaketu!’ ‘That is what you are’ expresses the unity of the human self (or soul) with the ultimate Reality. He is told, too to see the impossibility of extracting salt from water in a saline solution. It penetrates the whole. In the same way, he is assured that the reality within the human self (atman) is Reality itself (Brahman). Radhakrishnan has stressed the subjective and the objective sides in the Upanishads. Svetasvatara (one of the speakers), he says, ’saw the truth owing to his power of contemplation and the grace of God.’ It follows, therefore, that the truths are to be verified not only by logical reason but also by personal experience. Although the Upanishads are speaking of the ultimate there is a great deal of personalized language which could later be brought into devotion (bhakti). We are told that ‘Brahman dwells within all and outside allã unborn, pure, greater than the greatest, without breath, without mind’ and yet Brahman is ‘ever present in the hearts of all — the refuge of all and their supreme goal’. ‘In Brahman exists all that moves and breathes.’ Brahman is seen as ‘the adorable one’. To ‘know’ Brahman is to find one’s being within Brahman. Age of the epics The period from 300 BC to AD 300 was crucial for the emergence of what we may call classical Hinduism. Although Buddhism and Jainism reached their widest growth within India during this time, it was also the period when Vedantic ‘orthodoxy’ was developing. Sutras were written. These were for the most part collections of aphorisms which sought to highlight the teaching of the Vedas and Upanishads. But, even more significantly for the future of popular religion, this was the time when bhakti ~ devotion to one of the gods) entered religion, so that what was already part and parcel of religion at the grass roots received approval. There was also a wider synthesis of Aryan and non-Aryan elements in the tradition. I he divinities of the Vedas were either replaced by the older gods fir identified with them. For example, Rudra, the powerful one in the Vedic hymns, was identified with Shiva, the ‘dancing god whose figurines are among the finds in the Indus Valley excavations. Legend and story This was also the time for writing up stories of the past. What had originated and been circulating as local legends came to be regarded as the best statement of the Indian view of the world. Although there may be some historical allusions to events long past, the epics point rather to the perennial struggle between good and evil, cosmos and chaos in human affairs. They provide the assurance that order will prevail and that there is a way through the morass of doubt and puzzlement. The basic thesis of both the lkameyana (which has 24,000 couplets) and the Mahabharata (90,000 couplets) is that history is divided into cycles. At the beginning, righteousness and order (dharma ) marks the world. But then, through four ages, standards deteriorate until the gods decide to destroy the world and fashion it afresh. The poems indicate the need to discover meaning and purpose, even during the period of disorder. The loving husband and faithful wife: Ra~nayana The Ramayana is placed within the second age, when order, though under attack, is still largely intact. It is the story of intrigue in which Rama is ousted from the throne and his faithful wife Sita abducted and taken off to Sri Lanka. The monkey-god, Hanuman, the symbol of loyal service and ingenuity, assists in the rescue of Sita by establishing a monkey-bridge from the mainland of India to Sri Lanka. Rama is the personification of righteousness and is looked upon as one of the ten incarnations (avatars) of Vishnu. The notion grew up that the gods send one avatar for each age. (This same notion of a series of ages or aeons and the appearance of a saviour-figure in each age is also present in Buddhist thought.) In popular Hinduism the Rama story is not only heard from earliest childhood, but becomes the basis for everyday life. Rama will be invoked at the start of any undertaking and thanked on its successful completion. His exploits become an example to follow and an encouragement to upright behaviour. His name will be used to coruple the aged and chanted by the assembled mourners, as the bodies of the dead are taken away for cremation. Sita, too, belies the model of the faithful wife who is so identified with her husband that, at one time, she would even ascend his funeral pyre and be cremated with him. Sita is praised for the virtues of piety, loyalty and unassuming courtesy. ‘Song of the Lord’: Bhagavad Gita The Mahabharata story is set towards the end of the third age. And the civil war of which it tells ushers in the fourth age, the era of final disintegration and unrighteousness. Two sets of cousins claim to be the rightful rulers. The five Pandora brothers prevail in the end, but only after a bitter and lengthy conflict. The reaction of the five brothers is crucial to the story. The eldest, Yudhishthira, finds war distasteful and wishes to opt out of the conflict. He looks in the direction of ascetic meditation. Attention finally rests on the third brother, Arjuna, who shares his brother’s distaste for war, but shows great ability as a general. The high point of the lengthy epic is the section entitled Bhagavad Gita (’Song of the Lord’), where Arjuna is hesitating about entering the battle against his kith and kin. He is engaged in dialogue with his charioteer, who is none other than Krishna, the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. The Bhagavad Gita has sometimes been called ‘the bible of Hinduism’ because of its popular appeal. There have been more commentaries written on it than on any other Indian writing. The story tells how Ariuna is finally persuaded by Krishna to issue the order for battle against the Kuru family. Krishna argues that death does not destroy the soul and that a man must furfil his duty in accordance with his class. To perform one’s duty does not involve guilt, if it is done in a spirit of detachment. Krishna points out that knowledge, work and devotion are all paths to salvation. Through devotion to himself (in whom the impersonal Brahman becomes a personal, loving god), Arjuna can be freed from his doubts and attachments. The Gita stresses that salvation is available to all: class distinctions are not a barrier but a way of securing salvation. The Krishna cycle There is a further cycle of stories about Krishna, which are widely circulated. The most important is the Bhagavata Purana. The stories begin with him as a prince of the tribe of the Yadavas, and there are miraculous stories of his birth and infancy. In devotional art-forms he is often portrayed as a plump baby full of vitality. During his youth he fled from his wicked cousin Kamsa and dwelt among the cowherds of Vrindaban. The stories tell of his skill as a flute-player and the pranks he played upon the wives and daughters of the cowherds outdoing Don Juan in his ways of seduction. The suggestion is that he is father friend and elder brother to his worshippersãbut also lover and husband. The sexual imagery of union with Krishna is symbolic of the intimacy of the worshipper with God, which is a feature of the bhakti emphasis in Hinduism. The Krishna stories are not intended to be taken literally as something to emulate! The sacred cow The fact that Krishna is commonly portrayed as the cowherd is also sign)ficant, for it brings Krishna-worship into the context of the ancient cult of the mothergoddess. The cow is the living symbol of Mother Earth and of the bounty she bestows upon mankind. Feeding the cow is in itself an act of worship. Even the cow’s urine is seen as sacred, being used, for example, in purification rites by those who have broken caste taboo. (Although some Hindus eat meat, the majority are vegetarian, for reverence for the cow is also a symbol of reverence for all animals.) Concepts of Hinduism Raymond Hammer In the Veda the ultimate or absolute is Brahman, defying all atempt at definition. The Absolute Brahman is neutral and impersonalãthe origin, the cause and the basis of all existence. In it are to be found: * pure being (sat); * pure intelligence (cit); * pure delight (ananda). Brahman is the unknowable one. But the only way he can be considered is in terms of a personal deity. So it was natural for the Indians to see the several attributes or functions of divinity manifested in a multiplicity of forms. In the Vedic hymns god is not fully seen in human terms. I’he gods are the manifestations of nature or cosmic forces. The cli\ine names may be countless, hut they are all understood as expressions of Brahman. For, although it may have limitless therms, it is still regarded as one in essence. So, Hinduism is not troubled h! the fact that each village may ha\ e its own divinity or divmities. The multiplicity is not seen as polytheism, since Brahman is One. The gods are simply as of approaching the ultimate. The Vedic gods Indra is the god most frequently invoked in the Veda and many stories are told of his deeds of prowess. With his thunderbolt he was able to suppress the dragon that sought to stem the flow of the waters. He appears as conqueror of the sun, releasing from the sun’s grasp the imprisoned dawns. He is depicted astride an elephant, bejewelled and with a kingly turban or tiara, thunderbolt in hand. Like the other divinities, he has his female partner, Indrani or Saci. Agni is the god of fire and sacrificeãthe one who unites earth, heaven and the atmosphere in between. He is seen as the life-force within nature. The Rig Veda hails him as the one who ‘restores life to all beings’. ‘The all is reborn through you!’ Chief of the Vedic gods is Varuna who is the preserver of the cosmic order. He is described as clothed in a golden mantle and is often associated with Mitra (the Mithra of Persian religionã the deity in Mithraism). There are, of course, a number of other gods and goddessesã symbolizing the sun, the moon and the starsãas well as Dyauspitr, the ‘heaven father’ (Jupiter in Roman religion and Zeus in Greek religion), Vayu, the wind, and Prajapati, the father of the gods (devas) and the demons (asuras) and lord of all creatures. The Vedic pantheon, however, gave place to another hierarchy of divinities, which reflect the non-Aryan elements in the religion. At the head of the other array of divine forms stands a divine triad (Trimurti) who share the activities of Ishvara, the one supreme god who symbolizes Brahman: * The power to create belongs to Brahma. * Preservation is in the power of Vishnu. * Shiva is the great destroyer. Their three-fold activity corresponds to the rhythm of the world. This is seen first as emerging from Brahman; next as reaching its full embodiment, then as being reabsorbed either into Brahman or into the period which precedes the next age. Creation, like history, is understood in cyclical terms. There is no true beginning or end. The beginning is an end and the end a new beginning. Brahma Despite his function as creator, Brahma remains fairly abstract. His function is to bring multiplicity into being in place of a primal unity. His female counterpart is Sarasvabi, the energy that comes from him. She is identified with the Word on the one hand, the goddess of the sacred rivers; on the other, the symbol of knowledge and of ‘the waters of truth’. Brahma is often portrayed with four faces, embracing the four points of the compass, and with four arms, in which he holds the four Vedas. At times he is depicted as riding on a swan; at other times he sits upon a lotusã a symbol of the fact that he comes from himself and is not begotten. Vishnu Vishnu, as the great preserver, is thought to be in charge of human fate. He is usually portrayed in symbolic form. He may be reclining or asleep on the ocean, which stands for chaosãthe thousand-headed serpent. He may preside over the heavenly court. Or, as a symbol of the sun, he may appear mounted upon the heavenly eagle (Garuda), traversing the heights of heaven. The cult of Vishnu is very popular. He is the symbol of divine loveã sometimes in company with Lakshmi, his female counterpartãthe symbol of beauty and good fortune, but more often drawing near in grace to mankind through his ten ‘descents’ or incarnations. Many of these incarnations are thought to be partial. The significance of Krishna (by far the most popular of the manifestations of Vishnu) is that in him the being of Vishnu is held to be totally present. There is a similar approach to Rama on the part of his worshippers. They would see in him, too, all the fullness of the being of Vishnu. Shiva The third of the Trimurti is Shiva. He is the deity in whom all opposites meet and become resolved in a fundamental unity. Although the phallus (lingam) is his symbol and he is naturally identified with the masculine role in fertility and procreation, he is open portrayed as perpetually chaste. (In most of the temples dedicated to Shiva there is the statue of a bull, the symbol of v irility. ) He is the destroyer of life and yet also its recreator; the terrible one, and yet the epitome of mildness. In him there is both ceaseless activity and eternal rest. In him there is sexual differentiation and yet he is also the symbol of unity which transcends all division. He is the source of both good and evil. In artistic representations from the twelfth century AD onwards he is often portrayed as the king of the dancersãthe embodiment of cosmic energy. The sculptures show both the unfolding of the universe and its ultimate destruction. The dance speaks of rhythm at the heart of all existenceã whether in the cosmos or in the individual consciousness, the will or the emotions, where knowledge and illusion (mama) are in conflict. He is also shown with many hands, one pair to express the balance between life and death, another indicating the clash between good and evil, and so on. Both Vishnu and Shiva are the focus of cults in which the worshipper seeks for unity with the god. In the Shaivite form (which looks to Shiva) it is identity with the source of movement (life itself which is the goal. But the sense of creatureliness is not lost. The strength of Shiva worship in south India from the twelfth century AD and also in Bihar and Bengal (areas where the Aryan influence was late) reflects the rejection of the Brahminic Aryan forms of worshipãanimal sacrifice, prayers for the dead and other rites. In one popular story Shiva is the one who averted a catastrophe, when the waters of the River Ganges flowed down upon the earth. Knotting his hair, he received the waters upon his head, so that they flowed harmlessly away. But he is also the master of the yogis (the disciplined ascetics) and, in this capacity, he is portrayed as halfnaked, smeared with ashes, with skulls around his waist and a necklace of intertwining serpents. Kali Shiva, like the other gods, has his female partner to whom his powers are delegated, but the different names probably reflect the varying qualities of the ‘Great Mother’, who is present in Indian thought from the earliest times. Most significant is Durga or Kali who, in her strength and dominance, reflects the matriarchal approach of the older, preAryan culture. This is probably the background to Shaktism, where the divine being is thought of in female terms and the female is the dynamic and the male the more passive manifestation. There is a contrast between the inner self-aufficiency of Shiva and the creative-destructive power of Durga-Kali. Kali is portrayed in paradoxical terms. On the one side, there is the ferocious aspect, expressing judgement and deathãwith the figure of Kali wearing a garland of skulls and a skirt of severed hands. On the other side, her serenity is indicated by her portrayal as the night of rest and peace between the cycles of world-creation. Even in her most fearful aspect, Kali is understood as granting peace to her followers by overcoming their fears. She can therefore be the object of an intense and passionate devotion. Although Shiva is sometimes considered to be the supreme deityãfar removed from time and creationãit is Kali who touches him and brings him into the world of time and touch as the creator and animator of all. The act of destruction can be interpreted as the abolishing of ignorance, in order that the soul may come to knowledge, or the removal of all dross and impurity, so that the heart becomes pure and god-like. These portrayals are never meant to be representational. Hindu art, unlike Greek art where the divinities are portrayed simply as humans, indicates that the divinities are far more than humans. Power is expressed by a multiplicity of arms, and divine wisdom (as in the case of Shiva) by a third eye in the middle of the forehead. Even animal characteristics are pointers to special qualities possessed by the god. Ganesha is always portrayed with an elephant’s head and a single tusk. The portrayal speaks of the strength of the one who protects through life. The monkey form of Hanuman is the pointer to dexterity and intelligence. Bhakti and the concept of grace Bhakti, the devotion to a particular god, which became such a strong element in popular religion, was perhaps a reaction to the severity and rigour of yoga. The yogis had sought to suppress desire, love and feeling in general. How, then, were the worshippers’ emotional needs to be met? By bringing together bhakti, knowledge (Jnana) and karma, the Bhagavad Gita suggests that it is not simply the expression of the emotional; it is always associated with the intellectual and practical side of human living. Nevertheless, at the popular level, the intellectual or rational element is often lacking, and it is the ecstasy and rapture of a loving relationship which come to the fore. Between the seventh and tenth centuries AD a number of Tamil writers (Tamil is one of the four Dravidian languages in south India) expressed their religious feelings and experience with tremendous warmth and fervency. And in the Bhagavata Purana (which was written about AD 900), the source of many of the Krishna stories, there is even more passion. One writer has said that, in this work: ‘Bhakti is a surging emotion, which chokes the speech, makes the tears flow and the hair thrill with pleasurable excitement and often leads to hysterical laughing and weeping by turns, to sudden fainting fits and to long trances of unconsciousness.’ In the eleventh century Ramanula brought bhakti within the classical, developed Hindu tradition. For him it was more a type of intellectual meditation, accompanied by love, but lacking the rapture and ecstasy which continue to be present at the popular level. He pointed to the sign)ficant link with the avatara doctrine in the Vaishnavite form of bhakti, when he asserted that God becomes incarnate simply out of compassion, ‘to give light to the whole world with his indefectible and perfect glory and to fill out all things with his loveliness’. The Vaishnavite usually dresses in orange or white with a rosary in his hand. He paints red or white vertical lines on his forehead or red, black or white spots between his eyebrows. In the fifteenth century AD the Chaitanya sect of the Krishna bhakti movement was established in Bengal. This sect lies behind the Hare Krishna movement, seen in the West, where music and dance mark the worship of Krishna and ecstatic trance is a means of achieving unity with the deity. In the West, because of the stress on history in the Christian tradition, adherents of the movement tend to accept the myths attached to Krishna as historically true and they give unquestioning adherence to every utterance of Chaitanya. If it is a person’s duty to commit himself in loving devotion to God, it follows that the attainment of moksha (release) is made possible by God. Does this mean that it is ‘grace alone’, or is human effort also involved? Something like the debate about grace which emerged in Christian theology is present in the Hindu: debate. Two theories of the operation of grace were put forward: the kitten’ and the ‘monkey’ approach. A she-cat seizes the kitten and carries it where she wills. This involves a total passivity on the part of the kitten and there were those who stated that God’s grace operates in the same way. All is effected by God, and man does nothing to achieve moksha. By contrast, the baby monkey clings to its mother. The mother monkey is responsible for the baby monkey’s continuance of life and movement, yet there is not total passivity. Most Hindu teachers within the bhakti tradition took this standpoint. We cling to God, and God effects our salvation. The path to salvation For the Hindu, the great goal is moksha The word speaks of ‘release’ãdeliverance, emancipation and liberty. On the negative side, it points to ‘being loosed from’ or ‘rid of’ something felt to be undesirableãi.e. the cycle of rebirth and attachment to the material world. On the positive side, it indicates an expanded outlook, a sense of calm and security, the notion of attainment (reaching a goal) or the power to be and to do. More often than not, this goal of salvation is descnbed in negative termsãthe negating of evil, grief and decay. The way of knowledge The idea of moksha was not Sways present in Indian religion. It is likely that, as the cycle of rebirth (samsara) became the funiamental presupposition (about the seventh century BC), indicating an unending round of existnces which were influenced by the deeds each individual performed (karma), the desire for release emerged. The desire for freedom was not political, but spiritual, and the Upanishadic tradition stressed release from the bonds of ignorance. It was ignorance which tied a person to the round of birthdeath-rebirth which was expressed by samsara. Release would be attained as knowledge replaced ignoranceãwhen reality was properly understood and the transient or illusory rejected. This was, basically, the way of knowledge (jnana-marga) towards moksha. It would involve yoga and the ascetic practices associated with it. It was that the control of breath would Al allow the self to escape from the body by closing the artery from the heart to the foreheadãthe path by which the self was understood to move to its home in the heart. The special knowledge is attained through meditation, accompanied by yogic discipline and the repetition of the mysterious mantra ‘Om’, which represented the ultimate in all its fullness (some would say ‘the triad of gods seen in their fundamental unity as Brahman, the absolute’). The repetition of the phrase would both assert and effect the unity of the worshipper with the ultimateãand this would be moksha. But the unity need not be identity. It is sometimes seen as the condition of a gnat in a fig or a fish in waterã neither total identity nor complete disassociation. The later songs in the Rig Veda saw man groping in darkness, but becoming conscious of the unfathomable mystery at the very centre of being. Nevertheless, bit by bit, he becomes assured of reality and light in the world around him, and so reaches out for moksha. ‘From the unreal lead me to the real! From darkness lead me to light! From death lead me to immortality!’ But this release will also be from life as it is now experienced. The way, therefore, will be by the suppression of a craving. As the Buddha put it, the craving is itself what links a person to the cycle of rebirth. Even the rapturous assurance of release must be purlfied of the element of desire which may cause us to accept a fantasy for the reality. The Bhagavad Gita sees moksha as involving liberation from evil, from the body, from lusts and anger, from decay and death, from karma and from maye In other words, moksha speaks of release from bondage, however conceived. The rapture is to be experienced at the level of emotion, for mokshainvolves a sense of security and assurance. The way of action But there is also the way of action (karma-marga). This path to release recognizes that we live our lives in the world, where there is work to be done and there are obligations to be met. Our status in society involves duty. We are not to opt out of the ethical demands of which we are conscious. The Bhagavad Gita indicates that it is ‘not by refraining from action’ that ‘man attains freedom from action’. It is not by mere renunciation that he ‘attains supreme perfection’. ‘action,’ we are told, ‘is greater than inaction’ and so there is the command to ‘perform your task in life’. The way of devotion Faith comes in with the way of devotion or love (bhakti-marga). It is in commitment to God that we accept the leap from the temporal to the eternal, the realm of limitation to the boundlessness of what is ultimate and absolute. This path accepts the truth that the absolute confronts us in personal formãso there can be human response to divine grace. In place of an impersonal Brahman, God is seen as approachable, evoking within humanity a spirit of adoring faith. The Bhagavad Gita speaks of Arjuna seeing in Krishna countless visions of wonder, as Krishna asserts that ‘only by bhakti can men see me and know me and come to me’. For the followers of this wayãand this is the path to which most Indians instinctively leanãsalvation is not the result of human striving, but is seen as a gift from God. Obviously, very few frame for themselves an articulated theology or religious philosophy. It is a faith expressed in life and not as dogma. But bhakti also demands acts of worship. Apart from ritual acts and ceremonies, there are the hymns of praise to be sung and the statues to be venerated and adored. It is not’idol-worship’as such. The idol becomes the focus through which God (who cannot be represented in any image) is worshipped.