Hinduism quiz (part 2)

Which Hindu festival has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest gathering in human history?

Great Kumbh Mela

Another popular festival is _______________.

Holi

The _____________ ("Journey of Rama") tells the tale of the prince Rama and his wife Sita who is kidnapped by a demon king named Ravana.

Ramayana

The reading focuses on two Hindu epics. What are they?

Ramayana, Mahabharata

The hymns of the Vedas are the soundtrack to this fire sacrifice. The fire sacrifice was also accompanied by another form of speech. What is it?

The mantra, or sacred sound

The second most important deity in the Vedas was __________, the god of fire, sacrifice,and the sun. He was also a messenger who shuttled between the human and heavenly realms.

Agni

In Vedic religion, a patron could go to a priest and ask for a sacrifice to be performed on his behalf. Once performed, the merit of that sacrifice would accrue to the patron. In what way did Classical Hinduism, of the Upanishads, call for more self-reliance?

merit could not typically be transferred. the karma accured was yours alone as a result. the goal of moksha could be achieved only by full-time religious professionals

Ramanuja is celebrated for his contributions to a debate carried forward in many religions about self-effort and other-help. How did Ramanuja think one can achieve moksha?

moksha comes not as a reward won by merit, but as a gift delivered by grace

After the Samhitas came three additional subclassifications of Vedic texts, composed around 800 to 100 BCE. They offered philosophical reflection on the hymns and mantras of the Samhitas. They are the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and the _______________.

upanishads

______________: later philosophical speculation on the Ultimate Reality to which Vedic rituals point, often presented as dialogues between teachers and students.

upanishads

This shift from ritual action to philosophical speculation is most pronounced in the_______________. The term Upanishad means "________ _________ _________.

upanishads, sit down near

These renouncers also cultivated the yoga of ______________—leaving behind homes, jobs, and families in order to work full time to cultivate liberating wisdom.

wandering

In the Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna that we must do our dharma—as parents, as students, as merchants, as warriors. How must we do our dharma? What kind of yoga is this?

we must do our dharma selflessly, without regard for outcomes it is karma yoga

These later Vedic texts served as bridges connecting the earlier way of ritual action in Vedic religion with a new way of ____________ that became ____________ Hinduism.

wisdom, classical

__________ had responsibilities in this new Hindu tradition that they had not had in classical Hinduism: gathering flowers for the shrines, offering prayers on behalf of male members of their families, and cooking the food offered to the gods.

women

What is puja?

worship of their gods

Is the Aryan Invasion Thesis controversial? Are there variations of it?

yes

Is there both good karma and bad karma?

yes

The word ___________, a cognate of the word yoke, means "to unite"—in this case to unite oneself with the divine. This union can be achieved only through discipline. Yoga also means"_____________."

yoga, discipline

The technique to achieve this goal—and the central preoccupation of Vedic religion—was__________ _____________.

fire sacrifice

Those who walked in this new way of devotion set aside the ________ _____________of Vedic religion and the __________ speculation of classical Hinduism for an easier path to spiritual liberation.

fire sacrifices, philosophical

During puja, what kinds of things do devotees offer their gods?

flowers, food, water, money

Vedic sacrifices were ________ to the gods.

gifts

Like Divali, Holi is a _____________ festival, though in this case the festival comes in late February or early March—a Thanksgiving of sorts for the start of spring

harvest

Part of the Mahabharata is the ___________ _______ ("Song of the Lord"), the most beloved scripture for many Hindus today. (50) It was composed around 100 CE.

Bhagavad Gita

Today, the word "Hinduism" is all but synonymous with ____________. Rather than relying on their own or their own wisdom, most Hindus prefer help from the gods.

bhakti

In the Gita, Arjuna experiences a crisis of conscience. We might call it has a moral dilemma consisting of two conflicting duties (dharmas). What are the two conflicting duties?

1. as a warrior, his dharma is to fight, causing untold deaths of relatives and friends 2. kinship dharma, not to harm his family

When did this new religion emerge?

6th century BCE

The main character in the story is the warrior and a member of the Pandavas, named____________.

Arjuna

One explanation for this disappearing act is the __________ _____________ thesis, which argues that Northern European invaders calling themselves Aryans ("_________ _______")swept across Pakistan and northern India from the west, displacing the Indus Valley Civilization

Aryan Invasion, noble ones

The exemplars were ___________ ___________ tasked with performing these rites.

Brahmin priests

Which is the most popular Hindu festival in India?

Divali

The most important Vedic god was __________. He was a warrior god and the closest thing to a high god in Vedic religion. His most important role was killing a demon who had locked away the world's waters. So, Indra prepared the way for agricultural civilization to come.

Indra

The __________ ____________ civilization emerged near the Indus River around 2500 BCE and disappeared around 1500 BCE.

Indus Valley

Who is the other main character in the Bhagavad Gita? He is also an avatar of which god?

Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu

Most Hindu festivals are annual, but ___________ ____________ are held during a twelve-year cycle at four auspicious sites in India.

Kumbh Mela

The ________________ contains over one hundred thousand verses and 1.8 million words. It is longer than the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Bible combined.

Mahabharata

The _______________ tells the story of two related clans (or cousins) drawn into a family feud. What is the feud over?

Mahabharata, who should rule/be king

The most powerful of these mantras is ______ (or Aum). It is employed at the beginning and end of many Hindu prayers and rituals. It is said to be able to create union with the divine simply through its utterance.

Om

__________ eventually kills Ravana, rescues Sita, and returns to his throne. However, Rama's people question Sita's alleged infidelity, since she spent so much time with Ravana.

Rama

The _____________ ("collections") are the ___________ Vedic texts, consisting largely of mantras and hymns chanted in Sanskrit during Vedic sacrifice. Scholars estimate that they date to around 1500 BCE.

Samhitas, earliest

__________ ("what is heard"): these texts are eternal and unauthored revelations merely "heard" by ancient sages and then memorized and transmitted orally

Shruti

__________ ("what is remembered"): these texts are lesser scriptures made by human hands

Smriti

Hindus divide their scriptures into two categories: __________ and ___________

Smriti, Shruti

Which Hindu scripture has come to be widely regarded by Hindus and non-Hindus alike as the core expression of the Hindu tradition?

The Gita

Which Hindu scripture inspired Gandhi?

The Gita

By the sixteenth century, which yoga became the primary way that Hindus practiced their religion?

bhakti

What did the gods do for humans in exchange for the gifts?

They would keep the cosmos in order, help you be prosperous

What we now call Hinduism began to speak through the _________, the most ancient and revered Hindu scriptures

Vedas

The highest of the shruti texts are the __________. The word "vedas" comes from vid which means "_____ _________."

Vedas, to know

Hindus trust that gods can ____________ the inanimate statue. In fact, Hindus believe the god takes up ______________ in the image.

animate, residence

Through these "interior sacrifices," ______________ claimed to be able to generate inside their own bodies the spiritual heat that priests during the Vedic period had generated on the sacrificial fire.

ascetics

The "great" Kumbh Mela is held every twelve years at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers in Allahabad in North India. Holy men line up, led by a group of naked ___________ called the Naga Sadhus, to take a dip in the ____________, and millions of pilgrims of all casts follow them in.

ascetics, Ganges

Non-renouncers, or householders, took aim at the proximate goal of a ___________________.

better rebirth

Because of the principled disregard for hierarchies of sex and caste, Tantra was, like_________, open to women and low-caste practitioners.

bhakti

Once awakened, this energy moved up through six __________, or sacred centers. Ideally, the awakened shakti energy united with _________ at the top of the skull.

chakras, shiv

In the world according to the Vedas, the problem was ___________—cosmic, social, and domestic.

chaos

During Holi, what do Hindus throw and spray on one another?

colored powders and colored water

This union, achieved in kundalini yoga, reenacted ___________ itself, which occurred when Shiva and Shakti united for the first time. It also demonstrated the ____________ of male and female.

creation, nonduality

When Hindus go to a temple, they go to look in those eyes and to see the god of their choosing look back at them. This is known as _____________: the sacred seeing; eye-to-eye moment in Hindu worship when a god and a devotee take in one another in a visual embrace.

darshan

These epics redirected the Hindu tradition away from its origins in Vedic ritual and Upanishadic philosophy toward a more popular piety of _____________.

devotion

Its themes veer toward love and war but, like the Mahabarata, its preoccupation is___________—in this case, the duties kings have to subjects, wives to husbands, sons to fathers, and brothers to brothers.

dharma

Krishna also tells Arjuna that rather than expecting that the fruits (results) of our actions will accrue to ourselves, we must give up these fruits to the ____________—as if they were a_____________ offering. What two types of yoga are combined here?

divine, sacrificial bhakti and karma

This devotional movement was an __________ movement whose verses were sung not only in Sanskrit and not only by high-caste men but also by women and men from all social classes.

egalitarian

Out of this primordial being's body came the ___________ ____________, including animals and human beings, the sun and the moon, the gods, and even the verses and chants of the Vedas themselves.

entire universe

What question does the Gita raise?

how he is going to fight, and this is where the Gita's core teaching about dispassionate action comes in

Unlike the Jewish tradition, which forbids approaching God through "graven images,"Hinduism revels in ____________ of the divine which grace home shrines and city streets.

images

The Upanishads typically spoke of god in ___________ terms, as _________ brahman ("god without attributes")

impersonal, nirguna

An individual devotee selects his or her _______________ ("the god of one's choosing").

ishtadevata

During the great Kumbh Mela, why do Hindus bathe in the Ganges?

it is believed to earn spiritual merit and to wipe away wrongdoing

What is the way out of samsara?

jnana or wisdom

Divali is a five-day festival of ____________.

lights

____________ were used to concentrate the mind in meditation, and they were believed to unleash supernatural power or win spiritual liberation.

mantras

Ancient Indian renouncers used a variety of "yogas" to achieve their goal of spiritual liberation. They disciplined their bodies through breathing techniques, ______________strategies, fasting, and abstaining from meat.

meditation

In the bhakti approach to moksha, do people have to give up home, family, and employment to achieve it?

no

Is doing good (accumulating good karma) a way out of samsara?

no

Bhakti yoga produced a new form of Hinduism in which moksha came not through self-effort but through __________—not through wisdom but through ________.

other-help, love

Where do Hindus devotees worship their gods?

on their own time in the temple and the home

The solution was __________ in all these realms.

order

Devotees in the bhakti approach were more likely to speak of God in ___________ terms, as__________ brahman ("god with attributes").

personal, saguna

_______________ (yatra) is another way Hindus demonstrate their devotion to the gods of their choosing.

pilgrimage

What are some things that worshippers would offer the gods as gifts?

plants(soma), animals(bulls, horses)

The heroes of these epics are neither __________ (like in the Vedas) or __________ (like in the Upanishads) but __________ and _________ and _________. Their stories attend with care to the stuff of ________ life—to duty and desire, love and loss, exile and return.

priests, ascetics warriors, kings, gods daily

Philosophically, this bhakti path was advanced by ___________, a devotee of Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi.

ramanuja

What was the goal of kundalini yoga?

realize ones unity with the divine without sacrificing worldly success in the process

What are sannyasins?

renouncers, wandering mystics or philosophers

By advancing this understanding of karma (action without desire), the Gita redirected the attentions of many Hindus from _________ action to _________ action.

ritual, moral

In Vedic religion, karma referred to ____________ action, but as classical Hinduism emerged, it took on ethical import, referring to ____________ action and the consequences(good or bad) that flow from it.

ritual, moral

According to one story in the Rig Veda, the world came into being through the ___________of a primordial being.

sacrifice

A central concern of the Upanishads is _____________.

samsara

Those sannyasins (renouncers) inspired by the Upanishads came to view _____________ as the human problem and __________ as the human goal. The goal was attained by attaining_____________ that __________ is ___________.

samsara, moksha wisdom, atman, brahman

Instead of performing sacrifices or engaging in meditation, bhakti Hindus _______ _______of praise, _________ the names of their chosen god, and danced ecstatically to conjure up the experience of intimacy with the divine.

sang songs, chanted

The bhakti path benefited from its teachings about divine favor, which radically redirect the Hindu tradition from __ _______ _ to __ _________. In what way did it do this?

self-effort, self-help

In kundalini yoga, a Tantric innovation, the practitioner attempted to awaken the_________ energy of the goddess said to lie coiled like a serpent at the base of the spine.

shakti

Because of its emphasis on _________, Tantra was widespread among __________worshipers.

shakti, goddess

Which has been more influential, smriti texts or shruti texts?

smriti

The ___________ __________of __________ also had its origins in this account of sacrifice.

social system, classes

___________ is an esoteric movement in Hinduism and Buddhism focused on mantras, mandalas, and transgressive behaviors designed to cultivate union with the divine (or Buddhahood).

tantra

This "karma without kama" (action without desire) approach serves as a sort of "moral Teflon" that allows an action's consequences to slide easily away from the person who did it. What does this mean?

that ordinary people no longer have to choose between life as a householder and life as a renouncer. by doing their household duties with the dispassion of a renouncer. they can have it both ways

Traditionally, Divali marked the last fall harvest. What does it mark today?

the end of one financial year and the beginning of another

In a story in the Upanishads, a father teaches his son that "Thou art That." What does this mean?

the essence of the individual soul (atman) and the essence of the divine (brahman) are equivalent

Many Hindu festivals feature _______________ ________________ rooted in episodes of the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, or popular vernacular epics.

theatrical performances

And the emphasis in Vedic religion was practical and __________________; it did not yet contemplate rebirth.

this-worldly