Chapter 3 - Hinduism
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All reality is made up of one substance
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All things are ultimately Brahman-Atman without any qualifications
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All things, all creatues, ultimately phases of That One—"the priest by the altar, the guest in the house"
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All-inclusive being or reality
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The All-Soul is the very stuff of which the human soul is formed
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To ignore the inner self and be content with the natural world would be an act of ignorance that could only result in illusion and suffering
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Connected in Upanishads w/ the idea of imperishable atman to produce a doctrine of transmigration of soul from life form to life form, the reincarnation of the atman in a succession of bodies
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Practice involved Brahman knower meditating in profound quiet of mind, seeking to know, verily know, be spiritually certain that the internal knower and the external world of sense had alike the same ground of being
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Pralaya—period of absolute nullity and repose
Brahmins
Priests Priests were fascinated by and completely absorbed in the process of elaborating and interpreting their rituals, and second, that they regarded these rituals as having not only a compelling but even a creative power, for they caused events to occur at the demand of words and ritual acts alone
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Pure actions guarantee emancipation from samsara
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Rebirth may occur of a finite period in any of the forms of life
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Referred to w/o motion or feeling, impersonal matrix from which the universe has issued and to which it will in time return
Vedic Attitude
best described as ritual or devotional henotheism
Marraige Across the Class Barrier
forbidden, as well as friendly social intimacies
Aryans
formed the upper strata of a still-fluid social order; below them were the non-Aryans
Southern Fire
half moon shaped—representing the dome of air between earth and heaven
Ushas
largely mothers, wives, sisters, and lovers
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1st, there was a trend toward asceticism (away from activity in the world toward inward activity of the mind and spirit)
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2nd, there was a trend away from external ritualism—react against ritualism by finding equivalents, for rites around the altar—in the acts & states of the body and mind of ascetics and sages
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Saguna Brahman (Brahman w/ attributes)—can be known & described—he is the Lord God regnant in the heavens who responds to human love and prayer
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Salvation is best attained by breaking away from the natural world & from one's sensory and mental experiences in it through mediation
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Samsara—the belief in a birth-death-rebirth-re-death cycle of change, not peculiar to India
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Self and world are held together in their pure essences, striped of all distortion and illusion
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Shifting from altar sacrifices to their equivalents, one continued living in the spirit of the rituals of the Brahmanas, and retain their essence after discarding them in practice
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Soul is reborn into another existence that will terminate in due time
Martus
Storm spirits
Dasas
may have been surviving representatives of an earlier fast-declining culture—contained the ideas now embodied in the Hindu doctrines of the Law of Karma and reincarnation.
Hinduism
recent coinage; first used by outside observers looking on at what seemed to them a distinctive religious and cultural complex.
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"limitless one" "He awakes this world"
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Caste system starting to develop
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Castes began to form sub-castes
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Class in society w/ the best record of spiritual attainment should be at the top
Soma
also necessary in sacrifice—during each ceremony, soma juice was poured into the grass where gods invisibly sat
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Mind of India has been at work at this for over four centuries
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Only hidden Brahman is utterly real and imperishable
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"You who think life is evil and are so distressed by the prospect of ever-recurring rebirths are forgetting something. There is a realm that is eternal and changeless, not at all like this world that is so full of change and decay, of becoming and passing away. You can be liberated into it if you try"
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"abandoning the body...freeing the soul"
Brahman
"holy word" "sacred knowledge" "incantation", Mystic utterance
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"one reaps, what one sows"
Rig Veda
"the Veda of stanzas of praise" Anthology of religious poetry in ten books containing over 1,000 hymns and reflecting the religious devotion. Earliest were in oral form—prayers addressed to a single or often to two or more deities, called devas (shining ones)
Pure Consciousness: Turiya
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Ritual Interiorized
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Thoughts of Reincarnation & Karma
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Trend toward Monism
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(refer to class notes for hierarchy)
Brahman
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Brahman and Atman
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Cosmic Cycles
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Experiential Unity
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Moksha
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A kind of deity endowed w/ personality
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A man of low social status now may be reborn as a rajah or a Brahmin, or, more likely, an outcaste, an animal, a beetle, a worm, a vegetable, or a soul in hell
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All events both within and outside the body require heat to come to pass
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Aryans became inclined to give up the world and seek emancipation from its illusion & pain
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Ascetics and meditative thinkers rivaled priest in commanding highest respect
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At the bottom there was the untouchables
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Atman, the inner self,
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Atman—inner self, innermost and unseen self of a person as distinct from the body, sense organs, and mentality
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Brahman, the objective All,
Brihaspati
Brahmanspati, represented a subtle blending of prayer, had to be present along with the priests or it would be but empty sound
4 Varna
Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Shudra—pictured as separate creations in the original cosmic order.
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Brahmins began retiring to forests and engaging in meditation and dialogue
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Deep, dreamless sleep is closest to state of union w/ Brahman because it represents a sinking back into a type of non-consciousness in which subject and object are no longer distinguished.
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Everything one does determines destiny
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Experience is to attain moksha—final liberation—release from rebirth
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Hard & fast lines were drawn
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Heat is present in the altar, in the sun, etc.
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How does one achieve release from the round of rebirths?
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How may one know and experience the truly real as against the deceptively and only partially real?
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How may one reach a state of experience or being that transcends this life's imperfections?
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Human soul knows its complete identity with Brahman
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Outcastes constituted the dregs of society, unclean and w/out hope of ever rising in the social scale, unless they happened to be individuals outcasted temporarily for infraction of caste rules
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Interiorizing religious practice took two forms:
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Karma is the cause of what is happening in one's life now
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Law of Karma—the law that one's thoughts, words, and deeds have an ethical consequence fixing one's lot in future existence
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Light that shines above all worlds, is the same light that is within man
The Vedas
Magic runes and spells became Hinduism's earliest sacred writings Consisted of: Rig-Veda, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda, and Atharva-Veda
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Maya—the source and ground of all manifested things and beings
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Moksha- the realm of true being and freedom
Varuna
Morally far above the other gods stood the awe-compelling originally the god of the high-arched sky who was later assigned the inclusive function of directing the forces making everywhere for natural and moral orderliness. He upheld the physical order of the world against the forces making for its breakdown—It was his concern to keep men obedient to the moral law, he was the discloser of sin, the judge of truth and falsehood
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Neuter word
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New emphasis on the high worth of the spirit or soul, one's inner self (atman).
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Nirguna Brahman (unmanifest Brahman)—the ultimate, and the personally manifest Saguna Brahman is the immediate, source of the external world
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No longer refers only to holy power of prayer but applies directly to ultimate reality
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One thing, substation substratum of everything
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The Lord of Creatures, Prajapati. The sacrifice = the sacrificer = Prajapati
Agni
The god of fire in general, celestial or terrestrial, but especially the altar fire He was praised and adored with utmost sincerity—removed sin and guilt, drove away the demons and protected the home whose hearth he occupied, mediator between gods and human beings
Philosophy of the Upanishads
The oral compositions which expressed the ideas are among the appendages "Vedanta" attached to the Vedas
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The state is considered the highest of all states of mind because it represents the purest being of soul, when the soul is sleeplessly intent and when subject and object are indistinguishable in the purity of being
Hinduism (Narrower)
The vast social and religious system that has grown among the peoples of India since bout the third century B.C.E.
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There is an actual identify between Brahman and atman—true of every atman whether found in humans or other creatures/things
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Three mental states which may be usefully compared with it: state of waking consciousness, state of dreaming sleep, state of deep, dreamless sleep
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True self of a person and world soul are one, identical
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Two forms of Brahman: formed and formless
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Ultimate reality, Brahman-Atman (objective & subjective are one)
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Ultimately, all things are bound together, in being
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When caste was linked to karma, inequalities of life had a simple explanation
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With the rise of caste system, karma, and reincarnation, the development among the sensitive few of a world-denying asceticism, disaffection with the world grew in ancient India
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World comes again into being, souls take up a new embodiment in all creatures
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World dissolves away at the end of every Kalpa—period of created being, and all of the souls in the universe depart from their bodies into a state of suspended being
India
a family of religions
Plant described in the Rig-Veda
a plant with no roots, leaves, fruit, or seeds, but with a white stem, red cap, and juice that was golden (mushroom soma came from)
Sacrifices
categorized into public and domestic Public were extravagant, domestic were much simpler done in the hearth of the fire at home
Varna
classes of castes
Sama - Veda
collection of rhythmic chants mainly for the use of the singing priests at the soma sacrifices, its hymns in great part borrowed from the rig-Veda
Vaisyas
common people
Passages in the Vedas
conceive of the universe as having been in its totality a cosmic cow or a horse or man that was primordially sacrificed and dismembered to produce the mountains, rivers, earth, and living creatures of everyday experience.
Rita
conceived to be the indwelling principle in everything in the universe that shows regularity and order of action
Upanishads
conclude first half of what later came to be a 2 part classification of Hindu sacred literature: Shruti "that which is heard" and Smriti "That which is remembered" In the form of dialogues, composed with memorization in view Upanishads mostly composed of Brahmins Kshatriyas made up some of them, they were more inclined than the Brahmins to proto-Hinduism surviving from pre-Aryan times...fertility rites/magic practices based on accepting reality of external world & its magical forces
Rudra
contrast with Indra, dread mountain God not often addressed but greatly feared, the fierce author of disastrous storms sweeping down from the snows of the Himalayas, who in his proper nature, was no ally of the Aryans at all but the destroyer of their goods and persons. Worshipers approached him in humility and trembling supplication, beseeching him as "an immortal one" to be "auspicious" rather than malevolent, and to merciful to their children and grandchildren. Found at times to be a gentle healer—He also was the early form of Later Hinduism's great god Shiva the destroyer
Brahmins - Phenomenal Power
declared that they occupied the central place of power; they were the pivotal beings in a vast process reaching into all parts of the universe, hell, earth, and heaven
Sacrificial rituals
designed to achieve human security in both changing and settled situations; the gods were at times reconceived and endowed with new powers.
Brahmanas
directed the priests in hymns and prayers—curious and voluminous body of literature, the textbooks of the different schools or families of the Brahmins
Ushas, The Dawn
is eternally young and nubile, shining afar in her chariot drawn by red-spotted horses
Matar (mother)
joined with husbands in conduction domestic rites.
Yajur - Veda
mostly prose and meant to supply dedications, prayers, and litanies to accompany the devotional use of the Rig-Veda
Panis
people of some power and wealth, who for a long time refused to patronize the Aryan priests and their rituals
Brahmin
priest who in his person represented the central sacred petition or Brahman(the prayer) The Brahmin was not merely one who used verbal symbols to point to sacred realities or to address gods—The sacred reality actualized itself in the Brahmin's throat.
Western Fire
round shape—representing the earth
Indra
ruler of the gods of the mid-region of the sky and particularly the god of storms, especially of the rainstorms (monsoons) that end the dry season. He was the god of war as well. Seemed a gigantic figure, with long flowing hair and wind-tossed beard through which he shouted and roared with a loud voice. Clasping enemy-destroying thunderbolt, took the field as ally and patron of the Aryans
Soma
sacred drink; poured out as libation on a sacred fire or consumed by participants
Shudras
servants (presumable the Dasas)
Eastern Fire
square shape—representing the four-directional heavens
Henotheism
temporary flattering elevation of one of many gods to the highest rank that can be accorded, verbally or ritualistically the particular god of the moment is made to absorb all the others, he is given attribute which in strict logic could only be given to a sole monotheistic deity
Shruti
that which is heard
Smriti
that which is remembered
Vishnu
the far strider who encompassed the extent of earth, air, and sky in three swift strides and thus redeemed the world from night.
Mitra
the god of loyalty, honor, and promise keeping
Kshatriyas
the ruling
Hinduism (Broader)
the whole complex of beliefs and institutions that have appeared from the time when their ancient (and most sacred) scriptures, the Vedas, were composed until now.
Vayu
the wind, bearer of perfumes
Atharva-Veda
treasury of charms, incantations, maledictions, and spells of great antiquity, many of them clearly of non-Aryan origin—espressions offear, passion, anger, hate, physical distress, and the human effort to amend it (rites of atharva-Veda were those of the common people in their homes and villages)
Tribes
typically composed of tall, light-skinned people of Indo-European stock—Aryans.
Rajah (Chieftain of tribe)
was expected not only to maintain a private army for the protection of his people but also to gather around him numbers of priests to aid him in securing divine blessing on his subjects and the gods' approval of his own acts.
Pitar (father of farmer/herder families)
was family priest
dharma
way of life and thought; "duty" determined by one's caste and gender
Devas (shining ones)
whose residences were found in three regions: the earth, the heavens, and the intermediate air.
