- Hinduism is the oldest religion in
the world.
- It is the third largest religion,
with approximately 1 billion followers worldwide, 98 percent of whom live
in the Indian subcontinent. After including Yoga followers, Hinduism has
around 1.2 billion followers worldwide.
- The only official Hindu state in
the world is Nepal. India is the most Hindu-populated nation, but it is
officially secular.
- Many Hindus view all religions as
one whole religion. The reason for this is due to the notion that Hindus
don't believe that Hinduism is a religion in the first place. There is no
one main prophet, no main scripture, no date of when the religion was
created, and scripture uses the word Hindu. People who follow the Hindu
faith don't generally preach their religion as the "one true
religion" over other religions. It is generally taught that if one
can find another path that works better, then it is fine to follow a
different path, instead of a Hindu path.
- Hinduism is the most pacifist
religion in the world. There is a statistic that says that India has never
invaded another country in the last 10,000 years. Social workers help out
the underprivileged but missionaries are non-existent. Hinduism believes
that religion is just a path to God, who is present in everything and
everyone.
Origins of Hinduism:
• There is no specific date as to when Hinduism
was formed. It was considered by the Europeans to have been in existence from
around 1500-3000 B.C., parallel to the beginning of the Egyptian and the
Mesopotamian civilizations and that the Aryan invasion catalyzed this. This
theory was pushed by Nazi Germany. However, many now think that there was no
Aryan invasion theory, & therefore Hinduism has always been out of and part
of ancient India.
• Hinduism is not even an accurate Sanskrit
word. The word Hindu was a label given by Muslim invaders invading Ancient
India. There is a river called the Indus River which was in Ancient India &
is now in present day Pakistan . The Muslim invaders mispronounced the people
living by the river & instead of calling them the Indus people, they
instead called them the Hindus people.
• Hinduism cannot be called an organized
religion. Rather, it is a federation of loosely banded religions and cultures.
Whereas the majority of other religions are based on a person or prophet,
Hinduism has no main prophet or person that founded the religion.
Many people of Hindu faith do not consider Buddhism, Sikhism, & Jainism to
be separate from them.
Tenets of Hinduism
- Religion to the Hindu is the
native search for the divine within the Self, the search to find the “One” truth that in actuality never
was lost.
- What can be said to be common to
all Hindus is belief in Dharma, karma, and moksha (liberation) of every
soul through a variety of moral, action-based, and meditative yogas. Still
more fundamental principles include ahimsa (non-violence), the guru/chela
dynamic, the Divine Word of OM and the power of mantras, love of Truth in
many manifestations as Gods and Goddesses, and an understanding that the
essential spark of the Divine (Atman/Brahman) is in every human and living
being, thus allowing for many spiritual paths leading to the One Unitary
Truth.
- An example of the pervasiveness of
this paramount truth-seeking spirituality in daily life is the laltika (or bindi) , which is a religious symbol
denoting marriage. It is sometimes also
said to symbolize the need to cultivate supramental consciousness, which
is achieved by opening the mystic "third eye."
Four Goals of Life
1.
Kama - pleasure, physical or emotional.
2.
Artha - power, fame and wealth.
3.
Dharma -With
maturity, one learns to govern Kama and Artha in the pragmatic framework of
dharma, or moral harmony for all.
4.
Moksha - The only
true, infinite goal: liberation from samsara or reincarnation, the cycle of
life, death, and existential duality.
Four Stages of Life
Based on the assumption that a man lives for 100
years.
• Brahmacharya - 1 to 25
years.: Brahmacharya is the phase where a human obtains knowledge of God and the
world.Learning to keep strict control of his mind, senses and body. During,
this period of time is spent in celibate, sober and pure contemplation of
life's secrets under a Guru, building up body and mind for the responsibilities
of life
• Grihasthya - 25 to 50
years: The householder's stage, or known as samsara, in which one marries and
satisfies Karma and Artha within a married life and
professional career.
• Vanaprastha - 50 to 75 years : The
gradual detachment from the material world, ostensibly giving over duties to
one's sons and daughters, spending more time in contemplation of the truth, and
making holy pilgrimages.
• Sanyasa -75 to 100
years : The individual goes off into
seclusion, often envisioned as the forest, to find God through Yogic meditation
and peacefully shed the body for the next life.
Four major denominations in Hinduism
Hinduism does not teach god as having one true
form. It is believed that because god is the almighty, god is everywhere &
everything; he/she has no one main identity. It is incorrect when it is taught
that Hindus believe in more than one god. In actuality it is that Hindus
believe in one almighty power that a human can't comprehend as "one true
main form," hence the reason why there are many different versions of this
one true form. To be Hindu you have the option of praying to some or all the
different forms of the higher power, or to just pray to one almighty power.
Monists believing in different manifestations of
the same God � often confused with polytheism.
• Smarthism - Main
tenet is the monist belief in the sameness of all the deities, and its
conceptualization of the myriad deities of India as various manifestations of
the one divine power. The Supreme Court of India defines Hinduism using the
Smarthi school of thought, as it is the most secular.
• Vaishnavism - the branch of Hinduism in
which Vishnu or one of his avatars is worshipped as the supreme God and is a
monotheistic faith. Followers of Vaishnavism are called Vaishnavites.
• Saivism - branch of Hinduism that
worships Siva as the Supreme God. Followers of Saivism are called Saivas or
Saivites. Saivism is a monotheistic faith. It is parallel to Vaishnavism in its
monotheistic belief; its supreme God is the only difference.
• Shaktism - a denomination of Hinduism
that worships Shakti, or Devi -- the Hindu name for the Great Mother -- in all
of her forms whilst not rejecting the importance of masculine and neuter
divinity. In pure Shaktism, the Great Goddess, or Devi, is worshiped as nothing
less than the highest divinity, Supreme Brahman Itself, the "one without a
second," with all other forms of Divinity, female or male, considered as
merely her diverse manifestations.
The Four Vedas
Hindus believe that the Vedas existed since time immemorial as
vibrations in space, some portions of which are believed to have been perceived
by seers and transmitted accordingly via an oral tradition. The four books are:
1. Rig Veda - Oldest and longest. This long collection of
short hymns is mostly devoted to the praise of the gods. However, it also
contains fragmentary references to historical events, notably the struggle
between the early Vedic people (known as Aryans, more precisely Indo-Aryans)
and their enemies, the Dasa.
2. Yajur Veda - Contains religious texts focusing on liturgy and ritual.
3. Sama Veda - Consists chiefly of hymns to be chanted by the Udgatar priests
at the performance of those important sacrifices in which the juice of the Soma
plant, clarified and mixed with milk and other ingredients, was offered in
libation to various deities.
4. Atharva Veda- The last Veda, contains
hymns, especially dedicated to the Fire deity.
Caste System
The four Varna’s (literally,
'colours') or castes once had equal standing in the society and were based upon
the duties to society. These duties worked together towards the welfare of a
society. Caste in the older days is similar to caste in today’s world. There
are those who are preachers, soldiers, skilled workers, & those who have
low-income jobs. It was never meant as the negative view that people have today
of caste.
• Brahmins - the priestly caste.
• Kshatriyas - a member
of the military or reigning order
• Vaishyas - mercantile caste.
• Shudras - traditional roles providing
menial labor, which was not necessarily unclean.
Religious Symbols/ Customs
Om - Aum is the
standard sign of Hinduism, and is prefixed and sometimes suffixed to all Hindu
mantras and prayers. It contains an enormous and diverse amount of symbolism;
Hindus consider its sound and vibration to be the divine representation of
existence, encompassing all of manifold nature into the “One” eternal truth. Thus it represents the supreme energy or
Brahman.
Ahimsa and Cow - Ahimsa means “Non-violence”.' Hindus believe in a
transcendent as well as an imminent God. Thus, in a bid to respect the higher
forms of life, many Hindus are vegetarians, limiting their diet to vegetables
and plants.
The cow is an important, sacred animal in
Hinduism. This reverence probably stemmed from the value that was placed on the
cow and bullock in an agricultural country, and evolved into obtaining a
religious sentiment. Some Gods have cows or buffalos as their sacred animal
consorts. Hindus abstain from eating beef and even try to avoid leather
products.
Swastika -Is noble symbol.
It stands for satya, truth, and stability within the power of Brahma or,
alternatively, of Surya, the sun. Its rotation in four directions has been used
to represent many ideas, but primarily describes the four directions and their
harmonious whole. It has been used in Hinduism since the early Vedic culture
and is still widespread in the Indian subcontinent.
