HINDUISM

The Indus Valley was an advanced civilization

occupied by the pre-Aryan (Dravidians) people
in about 3000 B.C.E. Their God was named
Dasa (association with slavery or submission).
Aryan invaded (or perhaps migrated into)
the Indus Valley at about 2000 B.C. The
Aryans considered the Dravidians as
uncilized and evil, led by their evil God,
Dasa.
• Perhaps originated from Persia area
(Persia, modern day Iran, the land of the
Aryans)
• Sanskrit, “the noble ones”
• Led by tribal chief, “raja”
• Eventually settled in Punjab
• Spoke an Indo-European language, basis
of Sanskrit
• Aryan society was organized in four
classes called the Varnas. The four
Varnas later developed into the caste
system
• *Brahmin (priest)
• *Kshatriya (kings and warriors)
• *Vashya (merchants)
• *Shudra (servants or slaves)
 The Aryan Religion
• They prayed twice a day (agnihotra), morning
and evening.
• Agni - fire, hearthfire, lightening, sun. Source
of fertility in man, animals, plants and land
• Indra - the sky god, the god of war. “Soma” (is
also a god of the plants), a drink which no one
knows at present what it was. They believed
the soma drink will gave strength to the gods
and humans. Indra was a great drinker of
soma. He helped to conquer and defeat Dasa
• Varuna - Guardian of the holy order or law of
the universe. God of forgiveness, help, and
assistance
• Mitra - Closely allied with Varuna. God of
agreements or contracts.
• Vishnu - Preserver. He became popular in
later Hinduism
• Rudra - Destroyer. He became Shiva in later
Hinduism
 Man prays to energize gods, gods energize nature,
nature energizes man…rituals and prayers regenerates
living power in the universe. Like the circle.

Nature

Gods

Humans
The Aryans were polytheists, like
the Graeco-Roman pantheon.
But they didn’t worship idols.
They worship forces of nature.
• Aryans practised animal sacrifice. The most
popular and expansive sacrifice was the horse
sacrifice. They believed if a person could
sacrifice 100 horses in his life time, he would
become the master of the universe.
 Differences between the Aryans
and the Hindus
Hindu Aryans
few major gods (the Trimurti) many gods
male and female gods gender neutral
built temples and images no temple or images
write literatures/hymns no songs or peoms
doctrine of avatar no avatar
passive and world denying aggressive and positive
bhakti-marga: devotion no such concept
 Vedic Era
• The Shruti
• in Sanskrit means "that which is heard" and refers to
the body of most authoritative, ancient religious
texts comprising the central canon of Hinduism.
 Vedas
• The Sanskrit word veda means "knowledge",
more particularly "sacred book“
• The oldest literature in the world (also oldest
part of shurti)
• usually the term veda applies only to the four
collections (Samhitas) of hymns and prayers
composed for different ritualistic purposes:
1. Rig-Veda
2. Sama-Veda
3. Yajur-Veda
4. Atharva-Veda.
• Each of the Vedas is divided into four parts (or
the sections): the Samhitas, the Brahmanas,
the Aranyakas and the Upanishads.
• The Samhitas form the first part of each of the
Vedas. A Samhita is a collection of mantras, so
the Samhitas are sometimes also referred to
as the ‘mantras’
• The Brahmanas, the second part of the Vedas,
are mostly in prose and are concerned with
the religious rites and rituals.
• The Aranyakas, the third part of the
Vedas, were developed by the hermits, living
in the forests.
• The Upanishads are the concluding portions
of the Vedas and are at the end of the Vedas.
It is referred to as the Vedanta, the end of the
Vedas.
• It is philosophy pronounced in the final parts
of the Vedas. Also meant sitting closely to a
teacher
• Later Upanishads are considered Agamas –
scripture from tradition according to the deity
worhip
• Smriti – different from shruti, it is based on
what human remembered instead of divinely
revealed.
• Mahabharata and the Ramayana
The following appeared in the Upanishads which
started the philosophy of Hinduism you and I
know today.
• Maya (false knowledge, illusion)
• Avidya (ignorance)
• Atman (individual soul)
• Brahman (God)
• Karma
• Rebirth
• Samsara (a process to moksha)
• Moksha (release)
• Prakriti (matter, physicals)
• Purusah (spirit, non-physicals)
• Kalpa (age of creation)
 Code of Manu (300 B.C. – 300
A.D.)
Moral teachings, duties of each castes,
food etc. The code also presented the
stages of life (men only) and goals of life
in a Hindu.
 Stages of life

• Student – learning about clothing, food, castes

duties etc. The length of schooling is different
for each other
• Householder – all are obliged to marry and
start a household
• Retired – “forest dweller”, become a hermit,
stay away from daily chores or works
 Samadhi or Asceticism

Not a “stage”. Anyone at any time may

renounce the world and become an ascetic to
search for the ultimate truth (like the Buddha,
a sannyasin, a wandering ascetic).
 Goals of life

• Dharma – virtue, caste-related duties, both

social and ritual, morality
• Artha – material success, attaining wealth and
power
• Kama – pleasure, aesthetic enjoyment of art,
music, dance, poetry, drama…sex (kama sutra)
• Moksha – release, the ultimate goal.
 Four Ways to Reach Moksha
(Salvation)
1. Devotion to knowledge (jnana yoga): study
philosophy, doctrine etc
2. Works (kama yoga) – perform duties
according to castes
3. Bhakti yoga: devotion to a god
4. Physical Discipline (raja yoga) – physical yoga
and meditation.
Two different but Hindu based religion
(about 300 B.C.)

Buddhism
•Jainism – ahimsa
(no injury to any living
beings) Karma is
matter, spirit is good.
A dualistic view on
reality. Founder is
Mahavira.
 Post Classical Hinduism
Classical
coming of the Aryans to the Mahabharata
(about 800 A.D.)
 Bhagavad Gita
(part of Mahabharata)
• Conversation between Arjuna the king and
Krishna
• Individual should perform the duties
of their caste
• Open to other religious expressions.
Moksha through asceticism,
meditation, knowledge
The Trimurti
 Henotheism
• Recognizes a single deity, and view
other Gods and Goddesses as
manifestations or aspects of that
supreme God
 Brahma (Creator)
represented with four bearded faces and four
arms, not many people worship him
consort (wife) is Sarasvati, goddess of
knowledge, speech, poetry, and wisdom. In
Bali (Indonesia), she is the patron of
performing art
 Siva (Destroyer)
• the most popular of the three
• represents death, destruction diseases
• in the Vedas, he is Rudra
• also a god of dance
• a special god to the ascetics
• god of reproduction, sometimes depict as
having a constant erection, ever ready.
Lingam and Yoni accompany the statue
 Consort: Shakti
• Siva was into meditation and the world lost its
lustre
• Brahman’s son’s daughter Shakti married Siva
to revive the world.
• Represent male and female energies in us.
Parvati, a perfect wife, goddess of love and
romance

Ganesh Murugan
 Consorts
Durga

Kali, very fierce goddess

 Vishnu (Preserver)

• God of love, benevolence, and forgiveness

• Vishnu is one of the primary deities in the
Hindu tradition and is known as the preserver.
He is charged with the protection and order of
the world and of dharma (virtuousness).
Vishnu and Lakshmi (consort)
 Vishnu and Lakshmi
• Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi, is the goddess of
wealth, prosperity and success. She ensures
the material and spiritual happiness of
humanity. Lakshmi is also considered to be the
embodiment of spiritual energy and serves as
an intermediary between Vishnu and his
devotees.
 The 10 Avatars
• Vishnu has 10 avatars in the world to help
people. Nine has come (the 9th was the
Buddha). When the 10th comes (Kalki riding
on a white horse), the world is going to be
destroyed and everything is going to start
again.
• Krishna, one of the most popular gods of
Hinduism, is believed to be an avatar of
Vishnu
• Consort: Lakshmi (story about Rama and Sita
in the Ramayana. Rama is the avatar of
Vishnu and Sita is the avatar of Lakshmi)
Hanuman
 Interaction with the Muslims

• Around 600 A.D., the Prophet Muhammad

was born in Mecca. In less than a century,
Islam had become one of the largest and
strongest religion in the region. Muslims
started to advance to the West into Eastern
Europe and to the East into India.
• After the invasion of Persia, and sack of
Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, Delhi
became the most important cultural centre of
the Muslim east.
• Many Islamic dynasties ruled parts of the
Indian subcontinent starting from the 12th
century.
• The prominent ones include the Delhi
Sultanate (1206–1526) & the Mughal empire
(1526–1857).
 Mongols
• Or more properly, Mongolic peoples, are a
Central-North Asian ethno-linguistic group.
Although the largest Mongolic group are those
of Mongolia, they also live as minorities across
Northern Asia, including Russia, China, and
many of the former Soviet states.
• These empires helped in the spread of Islam in
South Asia. but by the mid-18th century the
British empire had ended the Mughal dynasty.
 Sikhism

• Around 1400, Guru Nanak founded Sikhism, a

religion that combined elements of Islam and
Hindu together.
• Is a monotheistic, monist, pantheist religion
founded during the 15th century in the Punjab
region, by Guru Nanak and continued to
progress through the ten successive Sikh gurus
(the last guru being the holy scripture Guru
Granth Sahib).
Sri Guru Granth Sahib
• "Among the low let my caste be the
meanest,
Of the lowly, let me the lowliest be.
O Nanak! let such be the men I
know.
With such men let me keep
company.
Why should I try to emulate the
great?
Where the fallen have protected
been
is your grade and your goodness
seen."
• The Harmandir Sahib, also Darbar Sahib and
informally referred to as the Golden Temple is
a prominent Sikh Gurdwara located in the city
of Amritsar, Punjab, India.
• It was built by the fifth Sikh guru, Guru Arjan,
in the 16th Century. In 1604, Guru Arjan
completed the Adi Granth, the holy scripture
of Sikhism, and installed it in the Gurdwara.
Differences between Muslims and
Hindus
1. Muslims are monotheists, Hindus are
polytheists
2. Muslims don’t represent Allah in any form,
Hindus has many images
3.Muslims sacrifice cattle (cow), Hindu practice
non injury to living things and cows are sacred
animals
4.Muslims consider all men are equal, Hindus
practice caste system
 Hinduism in Modern Day

The influence of Christianity through

encounters with the West, especially with the
British
• Baptist missionary William Carey (1761-1834)
found himself needed to deal with certain
cultural elements: suttee (widow burning) and
child marriage
 Hindu Reformists

Ram Mohan Roy (1774-1833)

• “the Father of Modern India”

• Founder of Brahmo Samaj (the Society of God)
• Strict monotheist
• Joined William Carey to fight against suttee
and child marriage
 Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886)
• A priest of Kali in Calcutta
• Follower of non-dualistic Vedanta
• “behind all religions was a single reality that
might be called God”
Vivekananda (1863-1902)
• Ramakrishna’s disciple
• He thinks that Vedanta system is the “mother”
of all religions
• Perhaps, the first Hindu missionary to the
Western World. He attended the Parliament
of Religions in Chicago (1893) and introduced
Hinduism to the USA (West)
Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
• The most famous Hindu reformer in the 20th
century
• Led India into independence from the British
• Non violence resistance (ahimsha, Gandhi
grew up in a region where there were many
Jains)
• Got his idea of non violence resistance from
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), a Christian
minister in the USA
• Also greatly influenced by the teaching of
Jesus Christ in the Beatitude (the Sermon on
the Mount) Matthew chapters 5-7
• Dismantled the caste system (caste system as
we known today was developed around 700
A.D.)
• Gandhi had compassion especially for the
untouchables, he called them “harijan”,
children of God.
 Conclusion
• Hinduism does not have a single founder, a
specific theological system, a single system of
morality, or a central religious organization. It
consists of "thousands of different religious
groups that have evolved in India since 1500
BCE."
• Hinduism has grown to become the world's
third largest religion, after Christianity and
Islam. It claims about 837 million followers -
13% of the world's population. It is the
dominant religion in India, Nepal, and among
the Tamils in Sri Lanka
Vanakkam

Namaste