Hinduism

Mahabharata

- a ruling family in north india - good guys are the 5 brothers and the bad guys are their evil cousins -both feel that theybshould rightfully inherit the throne of the kuru kingdom -climax- gigantic war between the cousins -good guys win thanks to krishna (avatara of vishnu) -good and bad isn't as distinct -more like biggest army versus most righetous-- righteous win -about dharma

Parvati

- shivas wife

yoga

- yoga, which is a generic term used to describe methods for achieving spiritual liberation (moksha) -The term yoga comes from the Sanskrit root √yuj, which means 'to yoke or join- together.' -In its original application, dating back to the Early Vedic Period, the term yoga referred to a yoked chariot, and metaphorically, to the 'chariot of the gods,' which was said to transport brave warriors killed in battle up into the heavens. Later, the meaning of yoga broadened to include any 'discipline' or 'set of practices' that would convey the practitioner to spiritual liberation. These days, the word yoga usually conjures up images of physical postures and breathing exercises used for promoting health. This style of yoga, now popular worldwide, dates back only to the 1920s -The primary method used to attain this lofty goal was meditation, and yogic meditation practices were developed in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions. Thus, yoga was not exclusive to Hinduism. -YOGA IN THE BAGHAVAD-GITA: -For the most part, the practice of hardcore yoga was restricted to those who were willing to renounce society and devote their entire lives to spiritual liberation. Such people included Hindu ascetics and Buddhist and Jain monks, all of whom could be referred to as yogīs. -yoga managed to wash back into the mainstream Hindu tradition as well, in a somewhat watered-down form. -rishna was teaching Arjuna about how a man could perform his duty (dharma) to society while, at the same time, working towards spiritual liberation. This involved performing appropriate (i.e. dharmic) actions with one's body while mentally renouncing the inner enemies of anger, fear, desire and so on. As it turns out, this method described by Krishna is actually referred to as karma-yoga, or the 'discipline of action.' It was a form of yoga one could practice while appearing to operate normally in society. -Krishna also taught arjuna jñāna-yoga, or the discipline of knowledge --involved the attempt to reach spiritual liberation through correct knowledge, as was advocated in the upanishads. This involved studying the holy scriptures (such as the upanishads), engaging in philosophical debate, practicing some meditation, and slowly turning one's mind towards the truth that one is an eternal spiritual being, rather than a mere physical body, and bhakti-yoga--a person should simply be devoted to God, and God would take care of the rest., or the discipline of devotion. -Brahmin Priests ⇒ Ruler/Warriors ⇒ Commoners ⇒ discipline of knowledge (jñāna-yoga) discipline of action (karma-yoga) discipline of devotion (bhakti-yoga) -**yoga-sutras

Laws of Manu

-'Manu' wrote his Laws of Manu sometime between the 1st century BCE and the 2nd century CE - Manu chose to present his text as being handed down to humanity by god (i.e. the creator god Brahmā‡),This was intended to lend a divine authority and approval to his prescriptions for a righteous life. -dharmic matter i.e dharmashāstra -Laws of Manu became the most consulted, most cited and thus most influential of all of the texts in the genre -The text as we have it now is not in its original form; that is, it is clear that people have inserted additional passages at a later date. - However, most of the text hangs together so well, and shows such a consistent organizational structure, that the majority of the text probably was written by one person. Ascribing the text to Manu is like ascribing it to the Judeo- Christian 'Adam' - in other words, we have no idea who the real author was, and so for lack of a better alternative, we call him what he called himself, 'Manu.' -we should take the Laws of Manu as a brahmin priest's ideal vision of how things ought to be in society, rather than as a description of how things actually were. -in accord with the vedas -birth ceremonies: ------The rule is that the birth rite of a male child must be performed before his umbilical cord is cut; he is fed gold, honey, and ghee to the accompaniment of vedic formulas. For females, on the other hand, this entire series should be performed at the proper time and in the proper sequence, but without reciting any vedic formula, for the purpose of consecrating their bodies. For females, tradition tells us, the marriage ceremony equals the right of vedic consecration; serving the husband equals living with the teacher; and care of the house equals the tending of the sacred fires. -Manu was not exactly a feminist, but you have to admit that he speaks rather well of women in the above passages. But, alas, he is not always so kind to women, as the following passage makes abundantly clear! The dreaded fear that a woman would mess around with a man she had no business messing around with, was serious business in Indian society. If a woman had a child by a man not her husband, there was the chance that the child might inherit all the husband's worldly goods, which was considered an absolute disaster. This was why kings always kept their wives locked up in a harem. That way, the king could be absolutely sure that any children his wives bore were his

Gayatri mantra

-Are there still brahmin priests who, from the age of eight, begin learning by memory the hymns of the Rig Veda, such that by age twenty or so, they could recite them all from memory? Yes, there are. But in truth, few if any brahmins these days are able to make a living at conducting Vedic sacrifices. Thus, for the majority of brahmins, the learning of the Vedas and the conducting of fire sacrifices has become symbolically expressed through two practices: (1) the recitation of the Gāyatrī Mantra; and (2) the performance of the agnihotra ritual. -The Gāyatrī Mantra is said to encapsulate the entire Vedic Canon; thus, reciting the Gāyatrī is a short form for reciting all of the Vedas; it is also recited at virtually all Hindu rites and ceremonies, and is not entirely unlike the Lord's Prayer in Christianity. The Gāyatrī is, by the way, the mantra that would be whispered in the ears of a twice-born male at his initiation into Vedic study (upanayana).

brahmins

-Because of his distinctive qualities, the eminence of his origin, his observance of restrictive practices, and the distinctive nature of his consecration, the Brahmin is the lord of all the classes.

the Vedas

-During the Middle Vedic Period, the Rig Veda became the basis for a whole lot of other religious texts, which became known collectively as the Vedas. Included in the Vedas are hymns (such as those in the Rig Veda), ritual texts, and books of philosophical speculation, composed by (or revealed to) a wide variety of people over a very long period of time. -eventually grouped together into a single book or canon, the Hindu Vedas contain writings that span roughly a thousand year period, from 1400-500 BCE. Because of the composite nature of this collection, the Vedas are often referred to collectively as The Vedic Canon. In this context, a canon means a group of texts that are gathered together and deemed to be, as a whole, sacred scripture. -the orthodox Hindu tradition has considered the Vedas or Vedic Canon to be to be the most sacred scripture of Hinduism. But the Vedas were not merely labelled as 'revealed' - they were also said to be eternal and perfect.

Rama

-avatara of vishnu -protagonist of ramayana -occasionally aware that he is vishnu

Indra

-During the period of the Rig Veda, it was Indra, depicted as a great warrior god, who was proclaimed King of the Gods! -rain, thunder, lightning -The warrior god Indra eventually became known as the King of the Gods, though he may not originally have been held in such high esteem. -The Indo-Āryan tribes were, as they admit in the hymns, rather war-like, and Indra is often depicted as the great warrior among the gods, killing demons, just as the Indo-Āryans themselves were great warriors on earth, killing their enemies referred to as the dasyus or dāsas. It is commonly assumed that the dasyus/dāsas were the indigenous peoples -indra is often associated with violent storms, and is the wielder of the thunderbolt. -Also, do not miss the fact that Indra is said to be a mighty drinker of soma; it is in fact soma that makes him such a great and wild warrior. And it is humans who provide Indra with soma -Indra is also associated with cattle, as the giver of cattle to his devoted worshippers--the Indo-Āryans depended on cattle for their very lives -

Rig Veda

-Early Vedic Period (1400-1000 BCE) is represented by the religion found in the earliest Vedic text, the Rig Veda, -The Rig Veda, which is a collection of hymns addressed to a wide variety of gods and goddesses, is not only the earliest religious text we have from India: it is the earliest text that we have from India period. It has the reputation of being the holiest text in orthodox Hinduism, but this title is somewhat honorary. In practice, the Rig Veda has been superseded by much more popular and accessible texts; nevertheless, Hindus will sometimes insist that it is the most sacred text of Hinduism, even if they have never read or studied it. -Well, that much is easy: veda (pronounced VEY- duh) means 'knowledge,' and rig means 'verse of praise.' So, the Rig Veda constitutes a special kind of knowledge composed in verse, or in the form of hymns. -From an historical perspective, one is obviously tempted to say that the hymns were composed by the Indo-Āryans themselves, but from the point of view of Hinduism, these hymns are regarded as revealed, rather than the work of human authors. -They were revealed to a special group of people known as 'seers' (rishis), who received the revelation and kept the hymns as a closely guarded treasure within their respective families. For most of the hymns, we actually have the name or names of the 'seers' to whom they were revealed. But what was so important about these hymns that they had to be closely guarded? That's easy: if a well-trained person recited the hymns at the right place and the right time, the hymns would allow contact with the various gods in the universe, and these gods had the power to make life better for the person who recited the hymns. -The right place was at a ritual fire sacrifice, and the right time was while the fire was being kindled, and the sacrificial food was being prepared and/or offered into the fire to one or several gods. There were three basic kinds of food-stuffs offered to the gods, depending on the specific sacrifice being conducted: (1) animal flesh; (2) grains such as rice and barley, or cow- products such as milk or butter; and (3) a beverage known as soma, consisting of the juice squeezed from soma plants (see below), mixed with milk. -According to the ritual theory of the Rig Veda, the fire would turn the food offerings into smoke, which would rise up to feed the gods. -For various reasons, the families of the 'seers' eventually decided to gather up all their hymns and arrange them into a single book, the Rig Veda. -The Rig Veda, until recent times, was always memorized, generation after generation, through an elaborate oral tradition, rather than being written down. -The Rig Veda as we have it now contains a total of 1,028 hymns, composed between 1400-1000 BCE, and divided into 10 books. Each of the hymns is directed to one or more gods, generally praising the gods, and often asking the gods for something in particular. -one can say that these fire sacrifices operated on a simple quid pro quo (i.e. this-for-that) system: humans made sacrifices to the gods so that the gods would give good things in return. The gods were clearly more powerful than humans, and were in a position to make life comfortable for anyone who offered them rich sacrifices. But the gods were not invincible all on their own. Just as the humans needed the gods, the gods needed humans. -oftentimes, Gods in the rig veda the personifications of the natural forces in the world. -these Vedic gods bear some resemblance to the Greek gods on Mt. Olympus, though in the Rig Veda one finds only bits and pieces of their mythologies -As for the afterlife, some of the funeral hymns of the Rig Veda imply that one's 'spirit,' after death, was taken somewhere or other (heaven, or the place of the ancestors) by the god Yama, King of the Dead, and that the sacrifices one performed in life would be of benefit in the afterlife.

karma

-Karma is a Sanskrit word that means 'action' or 'deed', but in this context it means both an action and its consequences. This notion of karma was based upon an agricultural model, in which one plants a seed, time passes, and eventually a plant grows up. The law of karma states that when one does an action, one will eventually experience a 'fruit' of that action. -When the notions of reincarnation and the law of karma are combined, you get a cycle of reincarnation that is directed by actions: do good deeds in one life, get a better rebirth in the next; do wicked deeds in one life, get a lousy rebirth in the next. -the Sanskrit word karma is a noun meaning 'an act, action, deed.' In the earlier Vedic texts (hymns and ritual texts), action or karma always referred to ritual action done during a sacrifice. But in the upanishads, we see this limited definition expanded to include all actions a person commits, sacrificial or otherwise. Here, we begin to see an ethical philosophy of action (karma) that connects all deeds with their consequences. -the upanishads tell us that a person will experience the consequences of his or her prior actions through the process of reincarnation: if one's actions are good, one will obtain a favourable rebirth, and if one's actions are bad, one will get a lousy rebirth. This is what is meant by the law of karma.

darshan

-SEEING, AND BEING SEEN BY, THE DIVINE -In the Hindu ritual tradition it refers especially to religious seeing, or the visual perception of the sacred. When Hindus go to a temple, they do not commonly say, "I am going to worship," but rather, "I am going for darśan." They go to "see" the image of the deity -Beholding the image is an act of worship, and through the eyes one gains the blessings of the divine.

agnihotra

-Some orthodox brahmins continue to dutifully perform a modest Vedic sacrifice called the agnihotra. This is a ritual done twice a day, at sunrise and sunset, and usually consists of a small offering of rice into a fire, kept at home. -On special occasions, however, brahmins will still be hired to conduct fire rituals called homa sacrifices, which are not unlike traditional Vedic fire sacrifices although they are generally smaller in scale, and require only a single priest

Swami Vivekananda

-Swami Vivekananda was something like the first Hindu missionary, or at least apologist, to the West. And he achieved this high distinction as a direct result of attending, and speaking as a delegate at, the World's Parliament of Religions in 1893

Ramana Maharshi

-Tamil Nadu (South India) in 1879, and at the age of sixteen is said to have achieved moksha; that is, he lost his sense of being an individual 'self' and merged with brahman. Soon thereafter, he went to a mountain known as Arunachala, considered by Hindus of South India as a sacred mountain, and spent the rest of his life there. In 1950, he died at the age of 70 (presumably never to be reborn again). It did not take the South Indian Hindus long to realize that a saint was living on Mt. Arunachala, and Venkataraman began to attract disciples who venerated him as a living saint and who wished to learn from his wisdom and insight. Or to put it another way, he came to be seen as a guru, a teacher of spiritual wisdom. -Thus, one of the main ways in which the ancient ideas of the upanishads continue to be relevant in the modern Hindu tradition is through the teaching of gurus to their disciples, and Ramana Maharshi represents only one of thousands of such living, breathing teachers (though of course he is no longer breathing!). Such gurus are revered by their followers, not merely because the gurus have read and studied the upanishads or other important Hindu scriptures, but more importantly because they embody the teachings, and are therefore able to speak authoritatively on spiritual matters out of their own personal experience.

The 4 Stages of Life

-The dharma for the 'twice-born' classes was further subdivided into the Four Stages of Life (āshramas/āśramas). These four stages were as follows: (1) Student (brahmacarya), a time for study and celibacy (sorry folks!); (2) House-Holder (gṛha-stha), a time to get married, have babies, do sacrifices; (3) Forest-Dweller (vana-prastha), beginning sometime after one's grand- children were born; it involved retiring to a hut in the forest where religious practices could be taken up without the distractions of everyday life; (4) Complete Renunciation (sannyāsa) of all worldly things in an effort to achieve full and complete liberation (as described, for example, in the upanishads). Most people never adopted this final stage of life, but it was there for those who wished to pursue it. - it was one's duty to know one's own religious duty (sva-dharma), according to one's social class and stage of life, and it was in the Manuals on Dharma that one could find one's own duty. -participate in hindu society before renouncing it so that the society didn't fall apart -Manu is clear that it is the householder that functions as the glue holding the whole system together -But these stages were also sub-divided or punctuated by a number of rites (saṃskāras) that celebrated smaller milestones of the various phases of life. The term saṃskāra literally refers to anything that "has be well- put-together, perfected, embellished, accomplished." In a sense, these saṃskāras marked an end to one phase of a person's development, and introduced a new phase (i.e. they represent a sort of initiation into a new phase of life). -The goal of following such prescriptions was to become a 'well-constructed,' 'accomplished,' 'perfected' orthodox Hindu, and the saṃskāras were the markers of a person's development/accomplishments on that path. Abiding by these rites of passage was also considered a part of the dharma for the twice-born classes.

reincarnation

-The idea of reincarnation, meaning that a person lives, dies, and is reborn over and over again, is found in all four of our Indian religions. In point of fact, Hinduism existed for almost a thousand years without any real notion of reincarnation, but by the time Buddhism and Jainism arose (~500 BCE), reincarnation was accepted as a basic fact -That is, reincarnation originally meant merely that all living beings die and are reborn into some other life, but the new life into which they were reborn had nothing much to do with their previous life. What really made reincarnation interesting was its linkage with morality and ethics, or to put it another way, its linkage with karma. -the upanishads freely admit that the Vedic sacrifices are effective at procuring worldly things (e.g. long life, gold, sons, victory in battle), and will even win a person a good place in heaven. But then, SUDDENLY, the upanishads tell us that this is not the end of the story: life in heaven doesn't last. According to the upanishads, after spending time in a celestial afterlife realm, the merit a man had accrued by performing sacrifices eventually runs out, and the man will fall again to earth to be reborn. And thus did the notion of reincarnation, as we know it today, begin to enter the Hindu tradition.

atman

-The little part of brahman that is in you is called your ātman or 'self'. Thus, the upanishads give us the startling revelation that, all appearances to the contrary, ātman is brahman, the spiritual life force in you is part of a single, unified life force! -Furthermore, the way to escape from the cycle of rebirth is to know this is true, to fully realize it.Anything that gets in one's way of realizing this great truth, including family and society and desire for wealth, must be laid aside once and for all. Most important of all, perhaps, is that your salvation is no longer a matter of what you do, but of what you know. Actions lead to rebirth, but knowledge leads to freedom! -A realization that your true self (ātman) is none other than brahman means that you are no longer fooled by the apparent multiplicity of names and appearances. What at one time appeared to be many, now appears in its true form: the One.

Sathya Sai Baba

-Until his death in 2011, Sathya Sai Baba was one of the most important and powerful figures in the Hindu tradition, both within India and across the globe. -He was born in South India -he declared himself to be the reincarnation (or rather, the avatāra) of an earlier popular Indian saint known as Shirdi Sai Baba. Later, he claimed (or it was claimed on his behalf) that he was actually Vishnu's Kalkin avatāra, which you may recall from our discussion of Vishnu's ten major incarnations, was the avatāra yet-to-come. -He was famous for miraculously producing things out of thin air, such as holy ash, food, and trinkets such as gold rings and necklaces and watches. People also claimed miraculous healings associated with Sathya Sai Baba. -He raised millions of dollars, mainly from devotees outside of India, and built free hospitals and clinics, schools, and had fresh, safe drinking water pumped to hundreds of villages in the South that previously had little or no safe water source

brahman

-VEDAS -the mantras found in the Vedas were increasingly seen as something akin to magic spells, or words that had a special power all by themselves regardless of meaning -This special power inherent in these Vedic mantras came to be referred to as brahman, an incredibly important term in the Hindu tradition, as we will soon see. In a sense, brahman was power! -This new understanding about the power of mantras marked a change in attitude to the Vedic fire sacrifices themselves. Increasingly, the priests came to see the sacrifices themselves as having a special power to bring about change in the world, and the gods started to take a back seat to the power of ritual sacrifice. In other words, the true power of the sacrifice was now believed to reside in the correct pronunciation of mantras spoken during ritual actions, and thus in the priests who recited them, rather than in the gods. -UPANISHADS -The truth is this: there is only one true life-essence in the universe, and you are part of it, or perhaps more accurately, you are not different from it. You are not, as you might typically assume, a separate and individual physical being - you are not your body, you are spirit, and 'your spirit' is merely one 'part' of a unified whole. the upanishads call this unified whole brahman. -the sacred syllable oṃ is said to be the sonic representation of brahman, reciting oṃ repeatedly just might help you attain this earth-shaking realization.

dharma

-Wherever possible, the brahmin priests based their rules to live by on relevant statements made in the Vedic texts, but as we just mentioned, the Vedas were often silent on how people should conduct their lives in a day-to-day sense. Thus, the priests mainly relied upon the unrecorded, age-old traditions of their society. The term they used for the proper rules to live by, or what we might call righteousness, was dharma. -as time passed, and the Hindus began settling down into permanent settlements ruled over by kings, the meaning of the term dharma broadened to include Social or Societal Order as well not just cosmic order like before -the term dharma expanded to include a sense of righteous behaviour or religious duty that people in society had to follow, and the brahmin priests set about determining what everyone's righteous duty to society actually was. -Eventually, the brahmin priests produced a new genre of literature that dealt with such issues, known generically as dharma-shāstras, or Manuals (shāstras) on Righteous Living (dharma). These manuals are sometimes referred to as Hindu Law Codes, -This notion of dharma or righteousness came to be identified, in the Hindu tradition, as one of four legitimate goals of human life -One of the interesting aspects of these Manuals on Dharma (dharma-shāstras) is that they do not prescribe one grand dharma for everyone to follow, but rather different dharmas for each social class (varṇa) in society: the Priests (brahmins), Ruler/Warriors (kshatriyas/kṣatriyas), Commoners (vaishyas/vaiśyas) and Servants (shūdras/śūdras). -The upper three classes, who were deemed to be of Indo-Āryan heritage, were referred to as the 'twice-born' classes, due to the fact that, around the age of ten to twelve, the boys would be initiated into the study of the Vedas, constituting a sort of 'second birth,' for males at least. At this second birth, boys received a special 'sacred thread' they wore over their left shoulder and under the right arm, for the rest of their lives. The lowest class, the Servants, who were not of Indo-Āryan stock, were forbidden to learn the Vedas, and thus were only 'once-born.' Not surprisingly, the Hindu Law Books do not really pay too much attention to the dharma of the Servants.

Ramayana

-adventures of rama -24000 verses or critically 19000 verses -written by a sage named valkimi--actually cultural products meaning many people contributed to their making -added to by philosophers, religious people, etc.leaving plot undisturbed -king dasartha, Ramas father retires so queen kaikeyi wants her son bharata to be king so she get rama exiled to the forest for 14 years -rama is louyal to his father and very righteous -rama is an avatara of vishnu -ramas brother and wife go with him to the forest -in the forest, ravana's sister falls in love with rama but was turned down by rama when she attempted to seduce him -so she describes to ravana site's beauty so ravana flies through the air and takes sita back to lanka (sri lanka) -rama and lakshmana set out to find sita, this took them many years -hanuman from the race of the talking monkeys leads them to sita eventually and also becomes a loyal devotee of rama -ravana and rama come face to face in a battle, rama killed ravana

puranas

-collection of ancient tales -group of texts that date between 300-1500 CE -20-25 major puranas ex. vishnu purina, shiva purana, brahma purana, linga purana, bhagavata purana -about a million verses -cultural products not a single author -does not have a single storyline that runs through like the epics but instead the purina are just a selection of a bunch of different mythologivcal tales -many versions of the same purina exist which leads to hindu mythology having little consistency in details -mythology is a realm of truths not facts -they all express the same truth vishnu, shiva, and brahma are the most important gods in the puranas -can be shaiva or vaishnava -puranic trinity: brahma the creator, vishnu the preserver, shiva the destroyer --- in this case they are equal which in unusual

yuga

-cycles of time -world is reborn like humans-- born, sustained, destroyed, then recreated -vishnu creates the world and creates brahma to create the world and shiva to destroy it (1) krta/satya yuga-- everything in the world is good, all are righteous (2) treta yuga-- things start to go downhill, ramayana epic occurs (3) dvapara yuga-- world is visibly deteriorating, Mahabarate epic occurs (4) kali yuga-- world is deteriorated, barbarian and heretics reign, vishnu destroys the world

Ravana

-demon in the forest -10 headed -villain in ramayana -gained his power by practicing asceticism to build up inner power to fly, read minds, create illusions--if they dedicated practice to one God, that go would appear and grant them powers-- ravana dedicated himself to brahma and asked brahama for incivility against the gods and demons BUT not humans so vishnu used his human form to defeat ravana

Upanishads

-final genre of texts in the Vedic Canon - the upanishads (~700-500 BCE). These new doctrines present a very different account of the human problem, and therefore offer an entirely new solution.--addresses karma, moksha, samsara, etc. -The meaning of the term upanishad, by the way, seems to be something like 'hidden or secret teaching.' In practice, however, an upanishad is a text, and there were 13 principal upanishads added to the end of the Vedic Canon. Because the upanishads constitute the chronological end (anta) of the Vedas, i.e. they were the last group of texts to be added to the Vedic Canon, they are often referred to collectively as the Vedānta -Some of the new doctrines found in the upanishads (e.g. reincarnation, the law of karma) are indeed presented as 'secret' doctrines, not known by most people. This is, by the way, a common device for introducing something entirely new into an otherwise ancient religious tradition - instead of saying a belief or doctrine is new, it is claimed that the doctrine is very old, but had (until recently) been kept secret by a small group of people 'in the know.' -The philosophical shift seen in the upanishads, which focus on the idea of individual salvation, might be explained by Olivelle's suggestion that the upanishads were written by the new class of urban brahmins, living in conditions very different from their rural ancestors. -Not only do the upanishads take the individual seriously; they often UNDERMINE the Vedic sacrificial system with its emphasis on upholding a stable society. This might seem surprising, since the upanishads are included as part of the Vedic Canon; one might think that they should be in harmony with the earlier texts rather than critiquing them. But it is perhaps less surprising if consider that the upanishads were written by a new class of urban brahmins, who felt free to add on to the earlier Vedic texts, but who could certainly not do away with the earlier texts. -Taken as a whole, the upanishads represent a new formulation of the human problem and its solution. So long as you live in ignorance of your true nature, you will be born and reborn forever, and this (i.e. saṃsāra) is the NEW PROBLEM. The new solution, salvation or spiritual liberation (moksha) from saṃsāra, is only attained by knowledge of your true nature, and when this has been accomplished, you shall rise above saṃsāra to a blissful state from which you will never more be separated; you will never be reborn again! -In fact, it was around the same time that the Hindu upanishads were being written that that the Buddhist tradition first arose (~500 BCE)!

Agni

-fire -Fire provided the Indo-Āryans/Early Hindus with light and heat, it cooked their food and cremated their bodies, and carried their sacrifices to the gods. This miracle of fire is called, in Sanskrit, 'Agni,' both fire and the God of Fire -Many of the Agni-hymns in the Rig Veda ask Agni to burn brightly, to bring the gods down to the sacrifice, and to safely deliver the offerings to the gods. -agni is cognate with 'ignite,' -The very first hymn of the Rig Veda is addressed to Agni, which is appropriate seeing as how fire sacrifices can hardly be done without fire. Agni is a god in himself, of course, and receives his own hymns and oblations (i.e. offerings), but he is also the one by whom all sacrificial offerings are transferred to the gods.

The 4 Social Classes

-in the early days: (1) Priests; (2) Rulers/Warriors; (3) Common Folk, e.g. herders/farmers/merchants; (4) Servants. -------In theory, the first three classes were made up of people of light-complexioned, Indo- Āryan stock, while the fourth, the servants or slaves, were made up of dark- complexioned, subjugated indigenous peoples -likely that the class structure was adhered to rather strictly. -These four social classes are known as the four varṇas (literally 'colours'), and are a bit different than the castes* (jāti) or caste-system -Loosely speaking, the caste system represents further subdivisions within the four main classes, such that there is one priestly class (varṇa), but many priestly castes (jāti). -This four-part class system has dominated Indian society now for about 3000 years. -Hinduism is not egalitarian but hierarchical--What this means in practice is that there is not one set of laws or moral guidelines for everyone - each class in society has its own set of rules and regulations. -In other words, while a Buddhist certainly recognizes that some people are born into the Priestly class, while others are born into the Servant class, they do not believe a person's religious purity comes from the family into which a person was born. -Middle vedic period- shift from tribes to kingdoms--need priests to give divine sanction to kings in order to establish their power-shifts hierarchy to kings above royals -

Soma

-juice of the soma plant -One of the most important Vedic sacrifices was the soma sacrifice. -It involved collecting stalks from the soma plant, grinding or 'pressing' them to collect the juices, and then offering the soma juice (mixed with milk) to the gods. -Among the gods in the Rig Veda, Indra, King of the Gods, was especially fond of soma, and for that matter, the priests also imbibed a little soma juice themselves! -soma plant's juice had mind-altering qualities, producing a powerful, invigorating and perhaps slightly psychedelic experience. -At least some of the hymns in the Rig Veda were composed under its influence, and it is possible that the altered state of consciousness brought on by soma juice led to the conviction that the hymns were revealed, rather than composed.

moksha

-liberation

Krishna

-manifestation of Brahma, the creator God

Vishnu

-minor in rig veda but rises to become supreme cosmic gods -vaishanava tradition focuses on vishnu as the most supreme god -hindus find it hard to conceptualize the idea of brahman so as time passes vishnu and shiva are risen to the level of brahman since all other gods are too well known to raise them -IN THE PURANAS: -is the creator, maintainer, destroyer of the world -he creates shiva and brahma -purely celestial only comes to earth as an avatar -10 famous avatars of vishnu iinclude krishna and rama and buddha! -lots of stories about krishna -asutere, ascetic, matted hair, animal skins

Sita

-rama's wife

puga

-ritual worship of images i.e. shrines, pictures, statues,etc. -can be performed by brahmins towards images

Shiva

-shaiva tradition focuses on shiva as the main supreme god -IN THE PURANAS: -began life as ruder, minor storm god in the vedas -god of hearth, righteousness and home -is found in the himalayan mountains or cremations grounds -lives on earth practicing asceticism -lord of yoga -rigorous harsh asceticism by which he generates enough power to shake the world to its foundation -embodies eroticism and education, phallus is the core of his cult (shiva linga) and is the central form through which he is worshiped -Laws of Manu says that sex and asceticism don't go together -creates, sustans, and destroys the world, he creates vishnu and brahma -in 4 forms: (1) a great ascetic-- 2 symbols in his hair: a pray of water to rep the ganges river because originally it was in heaven but gods decided t should go to earth but to avoid flood shiva let it crash on hs head first, and crescent moon (2) the phallus or linga-- the story (3) a family man (4) lord of the dance, dance of destruction -

Ganesha

-son of shiva -elephant head

Bhagavad-Gita

-the Bhagavad-Gītā, which dealt with the issue of dharma in an interesting and creative way. The Bhagavad-Gītā, or Song of the Lord, became one of the most well-known and loved texts in all of Hinduism. -It probably dates to roughly the 1st century CE, and it is made up of about 700 verses found in the middle of the massive Hindu epic Mahābharata -For many centuries, the Bhagavad-Gītā has been treated as though it were a stand-alone text, like the 'Ten Commandments' or the 'Sermon on the Mount' in the Christian Bible. It is part of a larger work, but is often read and studied all on its own. -The Bhagavad-Gītā takes the form of a dialogue between a warrior named Arjuna and his friend and wise advisor Krishna (Kṛṣṇa). In the context of the story, Krishna is a human being who was actually a relative of Arjuna. However, unbeknownst to Arjuna, his buddy Krishna was also an incarnation of the Supreme God of the universe! -The setting of the dialogue is a battlefield, just before the 'good guys' go to war against their cousins, who are the 'bad guys.' Arjuna is one of the main 'good guys', and Krishna, who had vowed not to take part in the battle as a warrior, agreed to function as Arjuna's charioteer. -At the beginning of the Bhagavad-Gītā, just before the war is to commence, Arjuna asks Krishna to drive their chariot out between the battle lines so that he can survey the troops on both sides. Because this impending war is between two sides of a single family, Arjuna inevitably sees friends and relatives on both sides of the battlefield, and he suddenly feels confused and depressed. He begins to think of all the slaughter that is about to occur, and how many of his friends and relatives (on both sides) are about to die, and he tells Krishna that he no longer wants to engage in this war. He drops his bow and slumps down in his chariot. Ostensibly, the dialogue that follows (i.e. the Bhagavad- Gītā) is Krishna's attempt to convince Arjuna that he must fight the war, but in fact what Krishna really teaches Arjuna is a whole new religious philosophy, centering on the practice of yoga. -Krishna teaches Arjuna about how to follow his dharma as a Warrior. As was made clear in the Laws of Manu, the highest duty or dharma for a Warrior is to train in the use of weapons and to use such training to 'protect the people.' The problem with this is that sometimes 'protecting the people' means killing thousands of other people in battle, and that is a terrible thing to have to do, particularly if some of the people you kill are your own kinsmen. When the law of karma is added in, it is more terrible yet -The Bhagavad-Gītā, like the Laws of Manu, was concerned with the potential threat to society caused by the tradition of world renunciation. -Bhagavad-Gītā, Krishna teaches Arjuna that it is not the world itself that should be renounced, but only worldly desires. According to Krishna, what keeps us bound in the cycle of reincarnation (saṃsāra) is not our participation in society; rather, it is our egotistical, self-centered, worldly desires. The highest spiritual path, Krishna suggests, is one in which a person remains in society, fulfilling his or her dharma, while inwardly renouncing worldly desires. That is, Krishna suggests that one's sacred duty (dharma) is what one must do on the outside, while renunciation of worldly desires takes place on the inside. According to Krishna, one does not need to go into the wilderness to renounce the world: true renunciation is a mental, rather than a physical, thing. Thus, one can fulfill one's dharma in society AND renounce worldly desires -In essence, Krishna has split the world into the external and the internal, and suggests that each has its own battle to be fought. - Arjuna is utterly distraught at the idea of destroying his own family in a ghastly, bloody war. He even points out that a special place in hell is reserved for those who participate in the downfall of their own family! In response to Arjuna's dejection, Krishna begins to teach him the about the undying nature of the soul found in all people. The message here is that, all appearances to the contrary, nobody ever really dies! You may think you are killing people, but you are not: you are only killing their bodies. The spirit never dies, even when the body is struck down. When one body is gone, the spirit merely takes on a new body through reincarnation. Thus, the fear of killing people should not stop a Warrior from following his dharma or sacred duty: -Krishna tells Arjuna to go ahead with the battle. Because nobody ever really dies, there is no good reason why Arjuna, a Warrior by birth, should not perform his sacred duty (dharma) in this battle of good against evil. But in the last verse above, Krishna also tells Arjuna about the sort of mental state one should have while fulfilling one's dharma. One should be "impartial to joy and suffering, gain and loss, victory and defeat, Krishna teaches Arjuna that this state of impartiality is actually a state of equanimity - a tranquil interior state impervious to disturbance from outside influences.---Equanimity is one of the hallmarks of yoga, and cultivating equanimity is one of the most important yogic practices. -he tells Arjuna that any action performed as a sacrifice to God does not bind a person to saṃsāra. -t is not the physical action itself that binds a person to the cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra), but rather the desire attached to the outcome (or 'fruit') of the action. If one acts out of personal desire, if one acts because one is trying to get something out of it personally, then one is acting in a self-centered manner and will be 'bound' by that action (karma); in other words, one will have to suffer the consequences of that action. But if one acts without desire, without any selfish motivation, without anger, without greed, without fear, then one will NOT be 'bound' by that action (karma). -Krishna has completely redefined both renunciation and sacrifice. Renunciation doesn't literally mean abandoning society and entering the wilderness, it means mentally renouncing selfish motivations. Sacrifice doesn't mean dumping food into a fire to feed the gods, it means performing your religious duty to society (dharma) out of a devotion to God. The words are the same, but the meanings are quite new.

Indo-Aryans

-the Indo-Āryan tribes (i.e. those Indo-European tribes who migrated through Persia into India, discussed in our last chapter), who we believe were the 'founders' of Hinduism, came from the outside (circa 15th century BCE) -we begin our discussion of Hinduism with a scripture called the Rig Veda (i.e. the earliest existing religious text in India), which was composed by foreigners (the Indo-Āryans) after they arrived in India sometime around the 15th century BCE. -there was an impressive city-culture in India long before the Indo-Āryans showed up, known now as the Indus Valley Civilization. It was centered around the Indus River-basin in what is now northwest-India/Pakistan. -There were probably some Indus Valley sites still thriving when the Indo-Āryans arrived in the 15th century BCE, however, and in their earliest texts, the Indo-Āryans make reference to dark-skinned people who lived in fortified cities. -It is almost certain that elements of the Indus Valley religion did percolate up into the Indo-Āryan Hindu religion, but it is damnably difficult to prove. -What we will call Hinduism seems to have begun in the 15th century BCE, when certain Indo-European Tribes (known as the Indo-Āryans) migrated, perhaps originally from the steppes of Southern Russia, into an area known as the Punjab (literally 'five rivers') in what is now Pakistan and Northwest India -The spread of this new Indo-Āryan religion of Hinduism, from the Punjab to the rest of the Indian sub-continent, took many centuries. In the process, it continually encountered indigenous forms of religion (of which we know little or nothing), and was continually renewed and transformed. -The original Indo-Āryans, who were divided into a whole bunch of loosely affiliated tribes, were semi-nomadic cattle herders, and the area now known as the Punjab provided them with the two most important things for their cattle: water and grasslands. -Consequently, over the first thousand years they were in India, they left very little archaeological evidence behind. Most of the evidence we have about these Indo-Āryans comes from texts they produced and which, to this day, exist intact. The first of these texts was known as the Rig Veda, which was revealed/composed in an early version of Sanskrit, which, as you know by now, is an Indo-European language related to Greek, Latin, Persian, and most modern European languages including English. -

Tamil bhatki poet-saints

-the peoples and languages of South India are mainly Dravidian, rather than Indo-Āryan, and culturally, the South has always been somewhat distinct from the North. -At the southern tip of India is the State now known as Tamil Nadu, -among these Tamil speakers in South India that a new style of religious devotion was born sometime around the 6th-7th centuries CE. This new style of devotion ended up making a huge contribution to the Hindu tradition, and not only in the South: their new style of passionate devotion spread across the whole sub-continent, and was, in many important respects, the foundation of the Sikh tradition. In other words, while the Hindus of South India borrowed liberally from the North, they eventually gave back something equally valuable in return! -The founders of this new style of religious devotion (bhakti) were known as the Tamil bhakti-saints. They were not merely devoted to God in a normal way; they were passionately in love with God, and they injected this passion into all who encountered them. This passion was truly intimate, emotional and ecstatic, and the bhakti-saints often considered their chosen god (either Vishnu or Shiva) more as a lover and friend than as a distant, divine ruler. They believed that religion should have one and only one goal: a deep, direct, passionate and unshakeable relationship to God. In this belief, the Tamil bhakti-saints were rebels, in the sense that they bucked the prevailing establishment

samsara

-this cycle of rebirth or 'cyclical existence,' called saṃsāra in Sanskrit, came to be seen as nauseating, sickening and the very thing from which one needed to escape. Or to put it in Indian terms, people need to find spiritual liberation (moksha, nirvāṇa) from saṃsāra. Or as the psychologist William James might have said, saṃsāra was identified as the problem, and liberation from saṃsāra was the solution. But how does a person become liberated from cyclical existence? Good question! The answer is: Hinduism! Or Buddhism! Or Jainism! Or Sikhism! (take your pick). -The next thing the upanishads tell us is that this cycle of birth-death-heaven-rebirth (i.e. saṃsāra) is without end unless something is done about it. This constant cycle of rebirth came to be viewed as a bad thing; it was viewed as something from which we needed to escape. -if you are looking to escape from this constant cycle of rebirth once and for all, you must give up performing sacrifices. In fact, you must even give up your desire for the kinds of worldly things that the Vedic sacrifices can get for you. -The new upanishadic ideal, or new 'desire,' if one can call it that, is a desire to escape the cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra). In other words, life-in-this-world, followed by life-in- heaven, has gone from being the ultimate goal (in the hymns and ritual texts of the Early and Middle Vedic Periods) to being the VERY THING from which one needs to escape (in the upanishads of the Late Vedic Period).

avatara

-vishnu descened to the earth whenever he is nee and appears not as himself but as an animal or person (avatara)

Lakshmi

-vishnu's wife, goddess of domestic harmony and prosperity, money

Arjuna

-warrior in BV

pilgrimage

-yatra -new method of hinduism introduced in the epics -making a pilgrimage to one of the sacred sites where vishnu or shiva was said to have visited in order to receive religious merit ***bhatki*** -As far back as the Mahābhārata, the religious institution of pilgrimage (yātrā) was an important component of Hindu religious practice. With the introduction of the concept of darśan, i.e. seeing, and being seen by, the deity, we now have a better understanding of what, exactly, Hindu pilgrims are doing when they travel hundreds of miles on pilgrimages: