Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
An Introduction
to the
Sanatana Dharma
Write these questions down:
1) What are the 4 things people want?
2) What are 3 of lifes limitations?
3) What are the stages of life?
4) What is the Caste System?
5) Define Jiva, samsara, karma, and
moksha.
Simple Background
Hinduism is a 19th-century word
Persian: hindu
Sanskrit sindhu (river)
Religions from the Indus Valley
Indian Religion(s)
750+ million Hindus in India
30+ million Hindus abroad
Third largest religion in the world
Definition of Hinduism
Indian Supreme Court 1966 (reaffirmed 1995)
Acceptance and reverence for the Vedas
A spirit of tolerance
Belief in vast cosmic periods of creation and
destruction
Belief in reincarnation
Recognition of multiple paths to salvation and truth,
Polytheism
Philosophical flexibility (no single dogma)
Partition of India
1947
Though relatively stable, there is still some conflict, such at the
Ayodhya Temple.
Hinduism is one of the oldest extant religious
traditions in the world.
Shaiva (Shiva)
Worship focuses on union of opposites,
especially creation and destruction
Tend to emphasize ascetic practices.
Shakta (Devi)
Worship the goddess as ultimate reality
(Bengali)
Not as likely to be vegetarian
Hindus worship principally through seeing (Darshan) an
image of the divinity.
What Brings
You Back?
Two Things:
Desire
and
Fear
Jainism
There are about 4 million Jains today,
most of them lay people
Historians consider Jainism to have
been founded by Mahavira (599-527
BCE) as a reaction to the conservative
Brahminism of the 6th-century BCE
In general, they do NOT accept the
Hindu Scriptures or rituals, but they do
share a belief in the transmigration of
souls
The most obvious characteristic of
them is their devotion to the principle of
ahimsa, or non-injury
monks wear a veil
even lay people forbidden to drink after
sunset
Jainism (cont.)
Hatha Yoga.