Some Lecture Notes and Key Hindu Terms
Linked with readings
Darshana - name of Hindu religion, meaning "Seeing" or "Experience"
Bhagavad Gita ("Song of the Blessed One") - luminous scriptures, part of the longer epic, Mahabharata (400 BCE). If the Rig Veda (poetic hymns that contain the oral traditions of the gods; the foundations; 1,500 BCE) can be thought of as the pure grain and the Upanishads (collection of teachings; the methodology; 900 BCE) can be thought of as the sacred cow, then the Bhagavad Gita is the holy milk - the nectar of Hinduism. The Gita is in the form of a dialogue between Sri Krishna (avatar of Vishnu) and the mighty Pandava warrior, Arjuna.
Reading: Arjuna’s Dilemma and Background - Shri Swami's Bhagavad Gita (continue as discuss other topics)
Four essential Goals/Aims:
within the Path of Desire,
within the Path of Renunciation,
3. dharma - religious and civic responsibility, e.g., Hanuman, and 4. moksha- spiritual liberation and realization of the hidden Infinite Self within our own being, the Atman. One in a hundred million.
Reading: Goals: Paths of Desire and Renunciation - Smith 18-22
Nature of Landscape:
Readings: Landscape and Challenges: Cosmos, Divinity, Maya, Gunas and Cycles of Time - Smith 24-25, 47, 52-53, Landscape and Challenges: Soul, Self and Relation to Divinity - Smith 24-25, 49-50, and Stages and Stations in Life and Society - Smith 40-41, 43-44
Divinity: Brahman/Atman - Infinite, Formless, Singular, Changeless, Pervades, Equal in all things, Transcendent and beyond personification, Precipitous of all Creation
Manifest World: Maya - material, waking state, changing, diversity, impermanent, ("non-dualistic" given precipitation of the Infinite)
world of gunas (basis of one's personality): tamas - inertia, ignorance; rajas - energy, passion; sattva - knowledge, law, harmony, purity
Maya has the power to:
obscure and hide - delude - veil
a projection of the finite diverse forms
yet also reveal the hidden, through art, song, poetry, etc
self made up of: three gunas, a personal soul - jiva, and the infinite Spirit - Atman
Time: great reoccurring cycles and not a creation point; a day for Brahma is equal to 4,320,000,000 human years
Relation of self (gunas, jiva, Atman) to God (Branhman)
One's current state reflected in accumulated karma (accumulation of morally-based past deeds) at ones stage along the cycle of samsara (reincarnation)
one's responsibility - not deterministic
"as above, so below" - self is microcosm of Infinite macrocosm - experience God directly
Given unique and diverse personality types, four possible paths (yogas or marga) to the Infinite - Analogy of the many paths up the mountain to the single summit - each path effects one's karma in route to moksha
Readings: Means to the Goals: - Smith 26, Raja Yoga and Aum - Smith 34-39, Jnana Yoga - Smith 27, Karma Yoga and Dharma - Smith 32-33, Bhakti Yoga and Gods and Goddesses - Smith 28-31, and Sacred Places and Pilgrimages: the Mountain and Tiger - Smith 56
jnana (way through knowledge)
Three stages: listening, reflecting, detaching - "third person method"
karma (way through work and action) - Three components:
Be true to your dharma, given your social (age and caste) and spiritual dharma stations
- brahmins - seers, priests and scholars
- kshatriyas - administrators, rulers and warriors
- vaishyas - producers, craftsmen and merchants
- shudras - workers, laborers and peasants
- act with utmost skill and effort
- act, renouncing the fruits of one's actions
ultimately you have no control over outcomes, only performance
to focus on outcomes adversely effects performance
to focus on outcomes enslaves you to attachments and selfish ego enhancement; by renouncing the fruits of actions you are freed from the bondage of attachments
by so acting, you eventually will obtain moksha
bhakti (way through love and devotion; only yoga where God revealed; as there are many routes to the divine, so to are there many Gods and Goddesses to lead the way - ishta; 330 million and counting)
- Wayang - shadow puppet play - seeing beyond the veil of Maya
- "It is obtuse to confuse Hinduism's images with idolatry, and their multiplicity with polytheism." (Smith p. 29)
- Brahman - Godhead; the Infinite and Ultimate Divinity in all phenomena; inclusive of the trinity of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu - the Trimurti
- Brahma - the Creator
- Vishnu - the Preserver
- Lakshmi - consort of Vishnu; goddess of good fortune and wealth
- Rama - one of Vishnu's earthly incarnations (one of ten avatars of Vishnu)
- Krishna - one of Vishnu's earthly incarnations (one of ten avatars of Vishnu)
- Shiva - the Destroyer
- Kali - one of Devi's incarnations; consort of Shiva; mother of all other Gods
- Kamadeva - god of love and the Apsaras
- Ganesha - step-son of Shiva, elephant-headed god of wisdom and business success
- Hanuman - god of strength, humility and loyalty
- Charvaka School of Hinduism - Founded by Brihaspati around 600 BCE. A atheistic form of Hinduism, dying out sometime after 1400 CE. As a religious following, Carvaka dies out after 1400 CE.
- Expressions of devotion:
- tirtha - a crossing place, a ford" - a scared place
Example of the Ganges
- tirthayatra - "journey to a ford" - a pilgrimage
Example of Varanasi - (Benares, City of Light, City of Shiva, City of Dead)
darshan - seeing and experiencing - "sacred sight seeing" - goal is journey itself
ritual activities include: bathing, ritual offerings and prayer (puja), and repeating of God's name (japam), and cremation
- Story of Goat-Tiger