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Temple of the Sacred Spiral
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Last updated 16 July 1998
Hinduism is a word used to refer to the complex religious tradition which has evolved in the Indian sub-continent over several thousand years and is represented now by the highly diverse beliefs and practices of more than five hundred million Hindus. Apart from communities in neighbouring states and others which have been created by migration in Bali, South West Africa and the Caribbean, forming less than ten per cent of their totality, the vast majority of Hindus live in India. Hinduism however is so diverse internally that the only way of defining it acceptably is in terms of people and places. Hindu, in fact, is simply the Persian word for Indian. The land of India is crucial to Hinduism; its sacred geography is honoured by pilgrimages and other ritual acts and has become deeply embedded in Hindu mythology and scriptures.
Hinduism displays few of the characteristics expected of a religion; it has no founder, it is not prophetic, it has no creed nor any particular doctrine, dogma or practice held to be essential to it, it is not a system of theology nor a single moral code and the concept of God is not central to it, there is no uniquely authoritative scripture or work and it is not sustained by an ecclesiastical organization. Note that these criteria could very well apply to western Neo-Paganism.
Hinduism is also extremely diverse. It has evolved organically with new initiative and developments taking place within its tradition as well as by interaction and adjustment to other traditions and cults which were then assimilated into the Hindu fold. It is possible to find groups of Hindus whose respective faiths have almost nothing in common with one another and it is also impossible to identify any universal belief that is common to all Hindus.
The features which make Hinduism a single religious tradition are the common Indian origin, the historical continuity, the sense of a shared heritage and a family relationship between the various parts and, the most crucial of all, the fact that Hindus affirm that it is one single religion. It is the Hindu's self-awareness and self-identity which affirms Hinduism to be one single religious universe, no matter how richly varied its contents. Again, notice the similarities with western Neo-Paganism.
Proto-historic Hinduism developed in the Indus valley civilization between 4000 and 2000BCE. From this civilization are statuettes and seals of a male God seated in a yogic posture, displaying the characteristics of Shiva and female Goddesses phallic symbols and certain animals and trees. Ritual purification with water is also an important element. Although these details are fragmentary, all these features reappear in classical Hinduism and are widespread in current belief and practice.
Among the ruins of the ancient Indus culture there is much to indicate that the phallic cults of the Mother Goddess, despised by the later invading Aryans were a prominent feature. Moreover there survives in India to this day a Mother Goddess worship where the concept of the ultimate godhead is female rather than male. It is not to be marveled that human sacrifice which is everywhere characteristic of the Goddess in the tropical regions should have survived in force in India until suppressed by law in 1835. For example, the khonds of Bengal and Bihar had victims known as meriah set apart and kept for years, to be offered to the Earth Goddess to ensure good crops and immunity from disease.
The first observation to be made with respect of Indian mythology is, therefore, that its deepest root is in the soil of the timeless equatorial world of the ritual death from which life proceeds with a major tradition of human sacrifice and Goddess worship.
A second theme, also typical of India is seen with half a dozen Indus seals showing figures in yoga posture, most of which are perceived to have a prototype of Shiva, the present day consort of the Goddess Kali, along with numerous phallic and yoni symbols which are again the symbols of the God Shiva.
The culture of the Indus Valley slowly declined for reasons unknown, possibly due to a drying up of the river or a change in its course, particularly as the major legend of world annihilation seems to be of drought rather than flood. However the ancient God and Goddess became two of the major streams of modern day Hinduism, overtaking the initial Gods of the early Vedic Aryans.
The second historical phase was that of Veda, extending from 2000BCE to 500 BCE, which was ushered in by the arrival of the semi-nomadic Aryan tribes who spread across North India. The oldest of their works was the Rig-Veda, a collection of hymns addressed to various Gods (Devas) used during the main religious rites which centred around fire sacrifices and the use of a sacred plant (soma) from which a drink was made to heighten spiritual awareness. Specialist priests were required for these complex ceremonies but in addition there was a domestic cult requiring rites to be performed by the householder. The Atharva-Veda, intended for domestic use, contains magickal spells and charms to cope with a wide range of natural and supernatural situations.
The Gods were Agni, Mitra-Varuna (from whom comes Mithros and Ahuramazda of later Zoroastrianism), Indra and Savitri. The world drought was replanted into the early Vedic culture. Vritra, an archdemon without hands or feet hoarded to himself the waters of the world so the universe, deprived for centuries of all fluid, became a wasteland. Indra, the God of battle, courage, power and victory, hurler of the many angled bolt, flung his weapon, the fiery bolt, and slew the first-born dragon releasing the water and saving the world. We see here that the antagonist is the negative aspect of the priestly cosmic order itself, affecting the world of life; that the drought is the counterpart of the flood of the Middle East and it is not an automatic effect of impersonal rhythmic order but the work of an autonomous will. But note that the worker of the negative deed is not God Almighty to be honoured, but a thing to be despised and accordingly, unlike the Middle Eastern development where the highest God may be unfavourable to man, a jealous, dangerous, touchy God who, if displeased, becomes malignant, the Vedic Gods in general were genially disposed, readily pleased and if neglected simply turn away. Note that in these early Vedic hymns however, there is nothing of the spirit or mythological world image of later Hinduism, no idea of reincarnation, no yearning for release of the vortex of re-birth, no yoga, no mythology of salvation, no vegetarianism, non violence or caste. This is because the mythology of later India is not, in substance, Vedic at all but Dravidian, stemming from the Bronze Age complex of the Indus, for over the course of the years the Aryans were assimilated and the principal of the order of the cosmic God Varuna assumed supremacy over the principal of the autonomous will of Indra. Varuna's will became dharma, his creative maya became Vishnu's maya and the cycles of eternal return returned, to grind on for ever. And the dragon, Vitra, became a brahman and Indra's killing of the brahman became a crime which he had to expiate by a performance of an odious penance which we here about in the Mahabharata written a full thousand years later than the period of the Vedic hymns. Indra was afflicted a horrible apparition symbolic of his crime, clinging to him, and eventually he had to approach Brahma, the creator, in obeisance to set him free. We see here an echo of Prometheus and Christ crucified. The Savior of the World, Indra, when he has slain his man has become a war criminal and suffers mightily, despite his saving act.
The next stage in Vedic development is found in the Brahmanas, prose commentaries containing practical and mythological details relating to sacrifice. Here ritualism is pre-eminent. No longer was it the response of Devas to human praise and offerings that ensured the welfare of man and the order of the Cosmos, but rather correct performance of the sacrifice itself. This weakened the position of the Devas, a position further undermined by the search for one single underlying cosmic power which was thought to be the source of the Devas and their powers. This one cosmic power was sometimes personalized but eventually conceived of as the single impersonal absolute called brahman. Brahman's seat was the 'sacrifice' and knowledge of brahman was the key to 'cosmic control'. A trend to asceticism and meditation, which represented the internalization of sacrifice within man, was also apparent at this time.
The final stage of Vedic evolution was found in the last works of the Veda, the Upanishads. Here the emphasis is away from ritual towards the personal and mystical experience of the One. The human self (atman) is able to experience itself as one with brahman when all the various worldly influences are reduced. Samsara as the endless cycle of birth and re-birth to which each soul is subject until it obtains liberation (mukti) in brahman also appears in the Upanishads. The conditions of each birth are determined by acts (karma) performed during the previous life. Now the preoccupation was how to escape from the cycle of birth and re-birth.
Classical Hinduism extended from 500BCE to 500CE. The Vedic cult went into decline as the Upanishads and quest for mukti represented a 'turning away' from the world. The new merchant class was flourishing and their members supported either their non-Vedic cults or the new sects of which Buddhism and Jainism were the most important. The brahmans, as priest, were the educated elite and sole guardians of Sanskrit and the textual traditions. They created a sufficiently flexible religious and social framework in which they were able to assimilate the new classes and cults. In fact one of the main powers and functions of the Brahmans at this time was of legitimization of this process. Perhaps the first significant exercise of that power, as well as an affirmation of Hindu self-awareness was to establish allegiance to the Veda as the criterion of orthodoxy. In consequence Buddhism and Jainism were treated as heterodox and separated to go their own way although cross-fertilization continued for many centuries.
The change of emphasis to living in the world was firmly established in religious law books, the Dharma Sutras and Dharma Shastras, which codified how the Hindu society should be and how they should live. The essential concept was of a Varnasharma Dharma, that is the duties or right way of living of each of the four classes of society (varnas) in each of the four stages of life (ashramas). Although there was also a general dharma (righteousness or moral code) incumbent on all, this relativist code of behaviour was founded on the belief that people were not the same and their duties varied according to who they were and where they were in life. The four varnas (castes) were Brahmans (priests and teachers), Kshataryas (rulers and warriors), Vaishyas (merchants and cultivators) and Shudras (menials). They were ordered hierarchically and the first three, the "twice born", had full religious rights as having had already experienced reincarnation while those of the menials were much restricted. Those with unacceptable practices were considered 'untouchables' and outside the Hindu pale.
The Dharma Shastras dealt with domestic rituals, life-cycle rites, sin, expiation, ritual pollution, purification and many other matters fundamental to the Hindu way of life. The three 'aims of life' were dharma, (the acquisition of religious merit through right living), artha (the lawful making of wealth), and kama (the satisfaction of desires). Only later was moksha (the quest for liberation) added as a fourth. Right living (dharma) in this world had displaced moksha (liberation from this world) at the very centre of Hinduism but moksha was never ignored. Vedanta, one of the schools of speculative philosophy, was evolved at this time and played an important part in the later development of Hinduism.
Two Gods, Vishnu and Shiva, both relatively unimportant in the Veda, later became pre-eminent as they re-emerged from the proto-historic Indus Valley culture.
Vishnu became identified with various existing deities and his syncretism is given in the character of a benevolent God, concerned for the welfare of the world, who periodically in times of moral decline descends in various forms to restore righteousness. The cult of Vishnu is referred to as Vaishnavism. His avatars have been the fish, the boar, the tortoise, the man lion, the dwarf, Krishna and Rama as being the first seven. Krishna is worshipped in three forms, as a divine infant, a mischievous youth who plays the flute and wins the hearts of cowherd girls and as a mighty hero. The Mahabharata, one of the great epics, which includes the Bhagavad Gita is a poem which has become one of the most influential Hindu scriptures. In it Lord Krishan speaks of three ways to salvation; that of enlightenment, that of action including religious rites, and the most highly recommended, that of loving devotion to the lord (bhakti). It is bhakti which has inspired the greater part of Hinduism to the present day.
The Mahabarata tells of the epic struggle between the Kauravas, the father of whom was the blind kind Dhritarashtra and the Pandavas, the five hero brothers Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna and the twins, Nakula and Sahadeva.
This epic was in essence a conflict between the sons of darkness (a king who was conceived with the eyes closed) and the sons of light (one who was conceived with the eyes open) and in addition there was a third birth and this was the sage Vidura, uncle/advisor to the Pandavas who became as illuminate as a yogi. The blind Dhritarashtra gave up his throne so Pandu became king, however he died young so the elder brother had to return. The blood bath that occurred between Dhritarashtra's numerous sons, the Kauravas and the five excellent sons of Pandu, the Pandavas, caused the flower of chivalry of the feudal age of Vedic India to perish. Yudhishthira, the eldest of the Pandavas, performed a horse sacrifice by which all the sins of the battle were washed away and old Dhritarashtra and his wife, bereaved of their thousand sons, retired to the forest. The divine Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu who was the charioteer of Arjuna, passed away and the Pandavas themselves, along with the lovely Draupadi, their shared wife, set forth with a dog at their heels to climb to heaven. They came to the world mountain, Meru, across the Himalayas and on the way Draupadi dropped dead, and so in sequence did all the brothers so that only Yudhishthira remained alone with his dog and reached the summit. The God Indra descended in his chariot to carry him beyond but he demurred unless the dog himself could come. He argued the point with Indra and was willing to forego the pleasures of heaven until the dog was admitted to heaven. The dog became the God Dharma.
In heaven, sitting on a glorious throne, was the paramount villain, the leader of the dark Kauravas. Yudhishthira quit heaven, descending to hell, where he discovered his brothers and many other friends in terrible distress. There he learnt that those who die with little sin go first to hell to be cleansed, and then to heaven. Whereas those of little virtue ascend to heaven for a brief enjoyment of their merit and then are cast for a long and terrible term into hell.
Rama, like Krishna is a prince, and restored righteousness to the earth by destroying the demon Ravana who had abducted his wife, Sita and the whole action is related in the other great epic, the Ramayama.
Shiva is also syncretic but the various elements that go to form his mythology are not represented as separate avatars but rather as different aspects of his complex character. He does not descend to earth in a new form but intervenes to help those who worship him. To some he is a loving God, full of grace towards his devotees but there is also a dark side, Shiva the destroyer who is fearsome and frequents cremation grounds and other frightening places. He is represented as Lord of the Dance, as a great ascetic God meditating on the mountain tops and as Lord of the Beasts, the God of procreation. The cult of Shiva is referred to as Shaivism.
Vishnu's wife is Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity. The wife of Shiva is Durga in her fierce aspect and Parvati in her benevolent form. It was around the Durga/Parvati cult that the Mother Goddess re-emerged following a long slumber after her worship in rather cannibalistic form in the early Indus valley civilization. The followers of the Goddess were called Shaktas because they believed the Goddess to be the imminent active energy (Shakti) of the transcendent and remote Shiva who was otherwise inaccessible. Note how this also corresponds very closely to current western Neo-Pagan thought.
The Vedic sacrificial rites at this time gave ground to new forms of worship, often performed in front of an image symbolizing the deity in question.
Medieval Hinduism from the sixth to nineteenth century CE is characterized by proliferation in almost every domain. Most of the major initiatives were in South India where Buddhism and Jainism were in decline and new Hindu kingdoms arose fostering Hindu self-awareness. The proliferation of castes occurred in this period. It is not thought that these arose through the mixing of the four classes (varnas) from which they differ substantially but clearly the varna model of hierarchy specialization of functions and social separation provided an ideological backing. It served to provide social stability in times of political turbulence to ensure the continuity of a richly diversified culture and to give Hindus a social identity, even if it was not that which they wished for themselves.
The major developments in religious philosophy that took place within the Vedanta. Shankara (788-850CE) who advocated the way of knowledge (Jnana yoga) formulated his system of advaita or non-duality as an exposition of Upanishadic thought and founded a monastic order which was to be the forerunner of many others. He asserted that only brahman was real. All else, including the phenomenal world, even the sense of individuality, even the Gods themselves were unreal. It only appeared real because of maya brahman's power of illusion. When the human spirit through meditation and enlightenment, realized that it is itself the substance of brahman and has no separate identity, then it emerges with brahman as the drop is absorbed into the ocean. This non-dualistic position that the soul and God are of the same substance does not allow a relationship between the individual soul and God.
Thus in the twelfth century a new system was produced of differentiated non-duality which, while accepting that the soul and God were of the same essence, also taught that the individual soul retained its self-consciousness and able to exist in an eternal relationship with God. This opened the way for Theism, especially Vaishnavism within Vedanta.
Each of the three currents of Theism evolved and produced their own literature. The main Xonras (the Vaishnava Samhitas, the Shaiva Agamas, and the Shakta Tantras) are primarily handbooks dealing with doctrine, yoga, meditation, temple building and the consecration of the deity and the temple, worship, the festivals and the conduct expected of the adherent. Bhakti was transformed from a restrained respect into a passionate and ecstatic experience. Bhakti ceased to be a way to salvation, it became salvation itself. This new attitude was reflected in the Sanskrit Bhagavata Purana which became a powerful source of inspiration for Krishna Bhakti in the north. Shaktism developed the aspect called Tantrism which had a strong influence on both Shaivism and Buddhism. This movement was of a highly esoteric nature and had its own form of yoga, a secret language, a psychophysiological theory and characteristic modes of worship and practice, designed to lead to self-realization and liberation. It is now thought to have added a new vitality to much of medievil Hinduism, although some of its practices have been much criticised, probably because of their sexual nature, the critics being of a more sexually repressed culture (notably the west). The Sant tradition was also of major significance. The Sants were mainly of lower castes and rejected the caste system and all forms of external religion, both Moslem and Hindu. Instead they preached a form of interior religion based on constant awareness of and love for a personal God who was without attributes. One such sect later developed into Sikhism from the 19th century onwards.
When the British arrived in India in the 18th century Hinduism was static, if not stagnant. By the middle of the 20th century Hinduism had become self-aware, self-confident and self-assertive, seeing itself now as a world religion with missionaries in Europe, Britain, America and Australia. At the beginning of this process of re-vitalization was Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833CE) born of a well-to-do Bengali brahman family and educated in Patna, a centre of Moslem learning, where he formed an intense dislike for image worship. On studying the Upanishads he concluded that they contained a pure theism providing no justification for idle worship. He was appalled by certain Hindu practices and became an active social campaigner, particularly against sati, the practice where widows immolated themselves on their husband's funeral pyre so that by 1829 he was successful in making it illegal. He was a strong advocate for western education for women as well as men and he founded the Brahmo Samaj, a society that met weekly to hear readings from the Upanishads, sermons and to sing theistic hymns. Prayer or any approach to the divine formed no part of this cold, austere approach which appealed mainly to the educated, intellectual elite.
The next really significant influence came from Gadhadhar Chatterji, the son of poor brahman parents who became the priest of Kali. He was granted the vision of the Goddess and turned to Tantric disciplines to control the stream of spiritual experience he was passing through and eventually initiated in the Vedantic teaching of pure monism. The name he received on initiation and by which he is generally known is Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. His deep spirituality made a deep impact on all who came in contact with him. Much of what he said was not new but he saw God in every man and in every religion, affirming that all religions were true and that everyone should follow their own as their way to God realization. He was also insistent on the need to serve ones fellow men. Note again the resonance this has with Neo-Pagan theology.
Hinduism has a long history. Its followers call it "The eternal religion" (Sanatana Dharma). Uniquely among the world's religions, there is no single 'founder'. There are volumes of scriptures and six major schools of philosophy. Hindus have widely different beliefs and follow widely different practices of spirituality and worship; it is probably the most varied and flexible religious system in the world and at the same time is based on the most stable social system; its ethical requirements are elaborate from one perspective but very simple from another; it is traditionally tolerant but can be militant.
Hinduism has many stories. Unlike Christianity there is no main story about God's intervention in history, this would be seen as a limitation. Every Hindu myth is different, all Hindu myths are alike. In spite of the deep-seated, totally compelling world view that moulds every image and symbol, every word and idea, each myth celebrates the belief that the universe is boundlessly various, that everything occurs simultaneously, that all possibilities may exist without excluding each other.
With so many Gods and Goddesses the Pantheon can be very elaborate but some can explain it quite clearly like Dr Mehta in Delhi: "The family of the Gods is basically simple, at the top is the Mataji, the Mother Goddess, then are three others - Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. They have their consorts, Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Parvati who represent their shakti (power). All the other Gods are the aspects of one of these three or their lieutenants.
Nature is very important for Hindus who regard all of life as interconnected, with a strong emphasis on the fertility of the land and the people. Cows especially are venerated as symbols of provision and plenty and wander freely in the streets of any Indian town or city.
At the same time there is a feeling of detachment, that nature is ultimately unreal, that it is Maya (illusion). The exercises of yoga are designed to control the entrances and the exits to the body to maintain clinical purity and to master its breathing and to shut it down altogether so that the soul can be free from its confines and escape from the body.
Gurus have been a part of Hinduism from the earliest period but in the last fifty years there has been a dramatic increase in their number and importance. These include Maharishi, Mahesh Yogi (transcendental meditation), Bhagwan Osho Rhaneesh and Bhaktivedanta Praphupada founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness better known as the Hare Krishna Movement.
Is there such a religion as Hinduism? A vigorous debate is still going on, some argue that it is an artificial concept constructed by Europeans. Hinduism means nothing more than the beliefs, practices and culture of the different peoples of India. Others argue that there is a coherence and unity within Hinduism that go way back and refer to the religion as Arya Dharma. Others describe it as like a tree that has grown gradually, rather than a building that has been erected by some architect in a point of time, containing within it the influences of many cultures and as much variety as the Indian nation itself. Others state that Hindu was a person who was born into a Hindu family, in practice many a person from the Indian sub-continent with few exceptions. Others have described three major types of Hindu religion (a) village Hinduism based on belief in local demons, spirits and magick practices but with some observance of main-line festivals and practices; (b) Vedic Hinduism led by the priests, scholars and aesthetics; (c) Renaissance Hinduism followed by some urban, middle-class people based on the Guru's missions and other spiritual leaders. Finally with the expansion of Hinduism into the western world we can add an ideological definition as a Hindu being a person who adopts Hindu beliefs and practices whether they are outwardly accepted into the Hindu community or not. Gurus had made Hinduism accessible and the focus was clear: on the Guru as the authoritative spiritual guide and their message was open to all: the rejected caste and other social hierarchies, the only requirement was to accept the Guru and his message, usually with an initiation ceremony which might include a mantra and a technique for meditation or yoga. They incorporated Christian and other ideas into their teaching, arguing that all religions were equally valid or could be combined, based on Hindu notions such as the unity of all spiritual experience, the importance of meditation, the concepts of Karma and Dharma. As we realize the Gurus have been very influential in the New Age Movement providing a type of "designer Hinduism" with a concern for health and wholeness. In particular Deepak Chopra who is formally associated with transcendental meditation now runs the Chopra Centre For Welbeing promoting 'quantum' healing in California.
Stories have always been the traditional way into Hindu scriptures. The earliest collections of sacred writings are the Vedas, meaning knowledge or insight. The earliest collection is the Rig Veda, or Songs of Praise, composed around 1500-1000BCE containing over one thousand hymns dedicated to different Gods and the elements of nature. The oldest of the Gods was Dyaus Pitri (the heavenly Sky Father) who, however, was less important than Varuna who was also God of the Sky and Guardian of the Cosmic Order and Morality. Others included Gods of the Sky such as Surya (sun), Savitri (the sun's life-giving power) and Usha (dawn); the Gods of the atmosphere such as Veyu (wind), Ratri (night), Rudra (nature); and the Gods of the Earth such as Agni (fire) and Yama (death). The Storm God, Indra, became steadily more important, gradually replacing Varuna in primacy.
The hymns reflected the life of the Aryans. The Gods ride into battle in swift chariots to fight demons or the enemies, they drink the life-giving juice of the soma plant and they depend upon sacrifice which was fundamental to the Vedic religion.
The other Vedic collections were the Vajur Veda, a collection of sacrificial formulae; the Sama Veda, a collection of priestly chants and melodies; and the Atharva Veda, a magickal text detailing spells and charms and mantras used by the priests.
The second major group of collections are the Brahmanas (800-500BCE) which were priestly manuals concerned with communal and family sacrifices, and texts for the Brahman priests.
The third is the Aranyakas, the forest treatises (400-200 BCE) which focussed on the rituals and sacrifices but began to move behind them, stating that the rituals themselves were not the source of power but the mind of the individual performing the ritual was more important.
The Upanishads were the most influential Hindu text. A collection of philosophical and mystical dialogues written by travelling sages between 700 and 200 BCE, also known as the Vedanta (end of the Vedas). They moved behind the Gods of nature in the tradition of ritual and sacrifice and searched for one underlying reality, a spiritual reality more real than the physical reality we do today. One of their distinctive features was the focus on the self and the nature of consciousness. They experimented on different states of consciousness through meditation and different techniques, concentrating on the internal process of thinking itself. They concluded that there is a real self at the core of our being which remains whether we are awake, sleeping or dreaming, in this world or another. So they celebrated the discovery of the self, the innermost essence of a person, and believed that this was identical with the innermost essence or 'one' that lies behind all reality called Brahman. The self was called Atman which was identical with Brahman. "Tat Tvam Asi" (you are that) this is their most famous statement and is the central insight. This is equivalent to saying that "I am God, I am Goddess".
The great epics of Hinduism which also had a great influence on the spiritual development of Hinduism were the Rama Yama which is a story of Darma and high ethical standards and the Mahabarata, the longest poem in the world of nearly one hundred thousand verses. The most important addition in the text is the Bhagavad Gita, a short poem containing a dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna. The question of divinity, is it one or many? Personal or impersonal? is stated by Krishna thus:
God is portrayed as 'one' behind all their manifestations and is a personal presence, Krishna, who can be loved and related to. He is universal, greater than the entire universe. The Gita also resolves any conflict between the different ways to salvation stating that 'all are good and all can be practised'. Krishna goes a step further:
That is, the best thing is to focus always on the personal God.
Krishna also recommend the path of action without desire or selfless action which is a key ethical concept as the way to combine detachment from the world with involvement in it.
The Puranas, or stories from the ancient times, follows from the epics containing stories of the Gods and heroes. They deal with five major themes, the creation of the Cosmos, the re-creation after its periodic destruction and reabsorption, the geneologies of the Gods and the sages, the ages of the world and their rulers and the genealogies of the great kings, with information about festivals, caste obligations, pilgrim sites and the stories of the Gods. Each of the major Puranas is linked to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
The laws of Manu were yet another source of scriptural authority which spell out a system to order every detail of life. This is Dharma codified, composed around the second century BC.
The Sutras are short pieces believed to have originated from the teachings of influential sages. The best known in the west is the Karma Sutra. They deal with particular elements of the Vedas such as ethics, ritual law and Dharma. They are like text books for the first steps in religious teaching.
The Songs of Devotion were produced by the various Bhakti movement, composed in the languages of people and not Sanskrit. Some were erotic poems of human love, while most focussed on the devotion of the worshippers to the God.
And finally there are the commentaries by Sankara, Ramanuja and other scholars.
Three of the Gods are universally acknowledged as leaders; Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, often described as the trimurti (three images), indicating they represent only one reality - they are the creator (Brahma), preserver (Vishnu) and destroyer (Shiva). Brahma's role has virtually disappeared and there is only a single temple to Brahma in the whole of India. Vishnu and Shiva are the two most powerful deities worshipped as supreme by almost equal numbers of followers.
Other Gods are either part of their families like Ganesha, the elephant headed son of Shiva and Parvati; Hanuman one of the heroes of the Ramayana; or consorts such as Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati.
Avatars are also one way that Gods manifest themselves, the most important being the Krishna incarnation of Vishnu. He is not only the central figure of the Bhagavad Gita but his popularity is based on the stories about him in the Bhagavata Peurana, telling of his miraculous birth, his upbringing as a cowherd, the lover who is accessible to the human soul, his exploits with the milkmaids.
A distinct 'stream' is the worship of the Mother Goddess known as Shakti, Metujee or Devi, who destroys the wicked buffalo demon that the Gods were unable to overcome. Behind this story is the belief in the feminine principal, the highest form of beauty and energy as a key principal of life and the universe. Frequently combined with a male God, especially Shiva, representing the union of male and female, Shiva represented by his lingham and the Great Mother by the yoni. The Great Mother is often identified with Parvati or with Durga and Kali.
This is a key concept that goes back as far as the Upanishads and means 'non violence'. The older text did not particularly emphasise it but it became an important principal over the early Buddhists. The Great Emperor Asoka, who became a Buddhist, was convinced of the importance of Ahimsa, giving up all and becoming a vegetarian. Through Buddhist influence animal sacrifices were mostly replaced by offerings of grain, flowers, fruits, milk and ghee and vegetarianism became a major part of Hindu belief and practice. It is probably the most enduring aspect of Ahimsa. It is not a total ban on non vegetarian food, as the Laws of Manu comment "meat eating is not wrong, nor alcohol, nor sex, these are natural actions of living beings; but abstention from such action is highly rewarded"
Hindu beliefs and teachings are in abundance but few command universal acceptance. At the most general level there are certain underlying presuppositions which constitute a kind of understanding, modified however for each individual by personal, family, caste, regional and sectarian viewpoints.
One of the most prevalent concepts for Hindus is that of dharma. This signifies the religion or 'the right way of living' for Hindus. At a cosmic level it is the unchanging universal Law of Order which decrees that every entity in the universe should behave in accordance with the laws that apply to its own particular nature. In the world of man it is the source of moral law. It includes injunctions to perform meritorious acts such as going on pilgrimages, honouring brahmans, making charitable endowments as well as prohibitions against causing injury, lying, etc. In addition it is also understood as accepting and following the customs and rules of one's own caste. Thus dharma means eternal order, righteousness, religion, law and duty.
Caste is the principal factor which determines an individual's social and religious status. It is underpinned by the religious notion of purity and pollution. No-one can escape from pollution since the natural function of the body produces sources of pollution; all human emissions are polluting, saliva, urine, perspiration, faeces, semen, menstrual flow and the afterbirth; menstruating women and women for a period after childbirth are considered 'impure' and subject to restrictions which vary from caste to caste, to prevent them from polluting others, especially by means of food. The most powerful source of pollution is death and those who handle corpses are not only heavily polluted but usually of the lowest social status. The commonest way of purification is the use of running water. A pious Hindus morning bathing is not simply a 'wash' but a 'ritual purification' to bring him to the state of purity necessary in Hinduism before approaching a deity. Caste not only determines who one can marry and what purity rules affect you but also what work a person may do, whether meat may be eaten, or alcohol drunk and whether widows may re-marry. What one caste finds acceptable, another does not, so at this level Dhamrma produces a relative morality based on conformity to custom, backed by social sanctions and scriptural authority. It is these caste laws and attitude to the inherent "impurity" of the flesh that set Hinduism apart from western Neo-Paganism.
Dharma is ideologically supported by the doctrine of samsara, the endless cycle of birth and re-birth; and karma, where every action produces its inevitable result so that ones status in this life is determined by ones conduct in a former birth; and the notions of sin and merit. To follow dharma is meritorious, particularly pilgrimage, gifts to brahmans and sponsoring religious recitation. Papa (sin) are actions that deviate from dharma, whether by omission or commission. Certain expiatory rites such as bathing in the Ganges reduce papa and increase the merit balance. It is the balance between sin and merit that will determine, through the Law of karma, how a person is born in a future life, as an insect, animal or man and if man, with what status.
There is almost total freedom for the Hindu in the domain of belief, although there are many restrictions in the domain of conduct. Primary among the metaphysical presuppositions is the concept of brahman which is both eminent and transcendent. Brahman can be represented in a more personal form, such as the Lord (bhagvam) and those who worship a particular deity may replace bhagvam with their chosen deity. Broadly speaking Hinduism is a mixture of Pantheism and Monotheism, the blend being determined by the emphasis given to the concept of brahman as World Soul or to that of bhagvam as High God. The chosen deity of the individual can be worshipped exclusively as the Supreme God but connected with this is the inclusiveness of the Hindu approach where other deities and beliefs are not denied or opposed but accepted as valid for others, although not regarded as of the same order of excellence as ones own. Thus a devotee of Vishnu would subordinate all the other major Gods, seeing them as servants or manifestations of Vishnu; a devotee of Shiva will do likewise. For the individual there is one supreme God, however conceived or named, and various other Devas, Gods, or spiritual powers. These merit respect, or perhaps worship, but are conceived of as subordinate manifestations with specialized functions.
Another concept essential to Hinduism is moksha (liberation), one of the four Hindu aims of life. This is liberation from samsara (the great cycle). The immortal part of man passes at death to diverse heavens and hells where it works out its Karmic depth and is then re-born in the form it has deserved. This cycle continues until sufficient merit is acquired for it to pass out of the cycle altogether. Samsara is generally described as unbearable and characterized by grief. moksha and how to obtain it has been a major Hindu concern for over two and a half thousand years. One of the oldest methods is renunciation (sannyasa) whereby the renouncer abandons home, society, the world and all its bondage. Usually by performing extreme austerities and practising some form of spiritual exercises, now known as 'yoga', he seeks to become liberated while still alive.
The Bhagva Gita describes three-ways to moksha. 1) Karma, the way of good works (which however constitute a form of bondage in themselves), and the renunciation of the fruits of such actions, which instead should be performed disinterestedly, without attachment to the outcome. 2) The way of enlightenment (jnana) which deals with the illusion that prevents man from knowing what is real and unreal, particularly with regard to that part of himself which is immortal. With the various yoga techniques man attains enlightenment whereby he perceives reality, renounces unreality and obtains liberation. The way of loving devotion, bhakti, is preferred by the theistic traditions where there is total surrender of oneself to the Lord.
Just as man is subject to cycles of birth and re-birth, so the universe itself is thought to go through cycles of dissolution and recreation within immense time spans. Within these cycles are lesser periods, yugas or 'ages'. In the present 'age' the Kali yuga is thought to last four hundred and thirty two thousand years, having begun in the year 3102BCE. The characteristics of this 'age' are a decline in righteousness, piety and human prosperity. At the end of the 'age' the world will be destroyed by fire and flood.
Brahmans should perform a sequence of devotional rituals three times a day, at dawn, midday and in the evening - worship is to a personal deity; make offerings to the Devas; perform an act of charity; pay reverence to his teacher and read from the scriptures. The morning ritual, for example, consists of a ritual on rising, answering the 'calls of nature', brushing the teeth, purification by bathing, purifying his place of worship, practising birth control, invoking the deity by the ritual touching of his limbs, meditating on the sun, making offerings of water and constantly uttering prayers that he may be pure, free from his sins, strong enough to remain holy. One of the most important prayers, which may be repeated as many as a hundred and eight times, sometimes with the aid of a rosary, is called the Gayatri, a Vedic verse addressed to the sun as inspirer and vivifier. It has been estimated that if the rituals were all carried out, there would be barely time for eating and sleeping.
Of great importance among domestic rituals are the Samskaras which are the 'life cycle' rites marking major transitions of a Hindu's life. The purpose is to sanctify each transition, to protect them from harmful influences and to ensure blessings. The first observances nowadays are for those attending birth, to contain the pollution generated by the birth and to protect the mother and child. The exact date and time of birth is noted so the horoscope may be drawn. On the sixth or twelfth day there is the 'name giving' ceremony, the house is purified and a number of restrictions on the mother are lifted.
Following that is the rite of ritual tonsure when the child's head is shaved in the first year, often done at the temple or religious fair, sometimes in fulfilment in a vow made by the mother to a Deva in return for the Deva having kept the child healthy. The next rite, Upanayana (initiation) is the rite by which the three highest classes become twice born. It is now mainly the concern of the brahman castes. At this ceremony the young man is invested with the 'Sacred Thread' which is worn at all times and kept free of impurity. He is then initiated into the Gayatre Prayer by the presiding priest who becomes his 'guru' (spiritual preceptor) and whispers a 'mantra', or sacred formula, to the initiate.
The ritual climax of the life cycle is vivaha or marriage. It represents the point of maximum ritual purity in which the couple are treated as Gods for it is a religious duty to marry, where the religious 'debt' to the ancestors is paid off by production of progeny. The elaborate complex of marriage rituals can take over a week and the actual marriage is sealed by a rite during which the couple walk seven times around the sacred fire.
The funeral sacrament, antyeshti samskara, is the last of the rites performed and has a two fold purpose; the first is to enable the departing spirit to leave the world and attain the status of 'ancestor' so that it does not remain as a ghost to trouble the living, but can pass to its next destination; the second is to deal with the massive pollution that is released at death which affects the deceased's relatives. The body is cremated on a pyre lit by the eldest son of the departed and then begins a period of ten to eleven days of ritual restrictions on the relatives, at the end of which, offerings of milk and bowls of rice or barley are made to enable the departing spirit to acquire a new spiritual body which it can pass on.
Hindu worship falls into three categories - temple worship, domestic worship and a form of congregational worship which consists of hymn singing and is the characteristic mode of the bhakti devotion. A temple is the home of the enshrined deity usually represented by images and statues portraying many of the God's mythological attributes. Note that Shiva is usually represented by the Lingam, an object shaped like a phallus and often set in the yoni. These are the universal symbols of Shaivism. The temple priests treat the deity as royalty or an honoured guest, carrying out a schedule of worship and attendance beginning before dawn where the deity is awakened, bathed, fed, hold court, rests, anointed, decorated and is then finally retired at night. This schedule is accompanied by various ceremonies such as the waving of lamps, the sounding of bells, the performance of music, hymns, prayers, the offering of flowers, fruit, grain, food and incense together with other forms of worship and supplication. On festival days associated with the deity there are often spectacular ceremonies and processions which draw people from far around.
There is no requirement for any Hindu to go to a temple, although many do, for worship is private. A Hindu goes to a temple in the hope of obtaining sight or experience of the deity, to make offerings or to pray and petition him, or perhaps fulfil a vow.
Domestic worship takes place in most households but rarely is elaborate. In most houses there is an area set aside for worship and contained in a state of ritual purity where the household God is represented by an image. It is usually the women who attend the deity and carry out the various rituals such as waving of lamps, offerings, prayers and acts of supplications. Geometrical designs called Yantras and Mandalas are used as symbols for worship, ranging from complex mystical symbols used in Tantric rites to simple designs with different coloured powders.
Another highly meritorious and widely practised act is pilgrimage with local and regional pilgrimage sites as well as All India pilgrimage sites like Benares. These are sites which offer help to the blind, to the childless or to those suffering from skin complaints, or those with higher matters such as salvation, the absolution of sin or the obtaining of an experience of their God. People undertake pilgrimages for a mixture of motives: merit, salvation, absolution of sins, to experience the divine, to appreciate ancestors, to appease an angry deity, to obtain relief from illness or misfortune, to ensure prosperity.
The most colourful aspect of Hindu practice is the Annual Cycle of Festivals, indeed Hinduism has been described as a religion of fasts, feasts and festivals since these are usually integral parts of the celebrations. The number of actual festivals actually celebrated in any given locality will rarely exceed twenty and is usually much less, the number depends not only on locality but also the caste and sect. Devotees of a particular deity will be concerned mainly with the festivals associated with that deity. There are also festivals concerned with the seasons, New Year, Spring and Autumn festivals as well as many festivals connected with the major Gods of Hinduism such as Shiva, Rama, Krishna, Lakhme, Vishnu, Ganesha, Hauman and Kali.
There is such a diversity of sources and contradictory nature that a single view cannot be sustained. Apart from the omission of certain Sanskrit mantras and some of the Life Cycle Rites and the fact that marriage is regarded as such a significant event in a woman's life that initiation (upanoyana) is not needed to be performed, there are almost no major areas of Hindu practice from which women are excluded. She is held to be an equal partner in dharma with her husband and thought to share his destiny. Ritual purity is in her charge as mistress of the household, as are most household rituals. In fact, much of the living practice of Hinduism is dependant on female participation.
Sita, the wife of Rama is one of the Hindu ideals. She is portrayed as ever obedient and subservient to her lord's wishes. The practice of child marriage is illegal, as is the widow immolation (sati) - this always was the exception rather than the rule. Remarriage of widows is now lawful and the battle to overcome prejudice against the education of girls was won in the nineteenth century.
In the Hindu view, what is divine here is divine outside as well; nor has anyone to wait or even to hope for a day of the Lord. For what has been lost is in each person his self (atman) here and now, requiring only to be sought. Although the holy power and mystery have always understood to be transcendent (above the unknown), they are also immanent. It is not that divine is everywhere, it is that divine is everything and this is the major difference between the western religions which state that God is everywhere and Paganism and the eastern religions which state that God is everything. It is, of course, true that in oriental religions Gods are worshipped also as if external to the devotees but the ultimate realization is that the God worshipped as though without, is in reality a reflex of the same mystery as oneself. As long as an illusion of ego remains the commensurant illusion of a separate deity also will be there and vice versa. As long as the idea of a separate deity is cherished an illusion of ego related to it in love, fear, worship, exile or atonement will also be there; but that illusion of duality is the trick of maya. 'Thou art that' is the proper thought for the first step to wisdom.
In the history of modern religions, following a common development in the nuclear near east, the two branches of the orient and occident went apart and their psychological stages of experiences of the holy also went apart. Following what has commonly been called 'the fall' when the sense of holiness departed from the experience of many, both of the universe and their own nature, and there was a yearning for release from what was felt to be an insufferable state of sin or delusion, the ways of self-salvation that were followed in the west and the east were quite distinct. In the west, owing to the emphasis on the man/God disassociation and the emphasis on individual 'free will' the agony was read as divorce from God in terms of guilt, punishment and atonement, the salvation was to submit the ego voluntarily to the will of God; whereas in the east, where a sense of imminence of divinity in all things remained, the reading was psychological, the imageries of release there had the character of alternative therapies rather than of authoritative dictates, and salvation was to dissolve the ego completely.
In the Buddhist reading of the nature of existence all is absolutely void and without self. In the orthodox Vedic Brahamic Hindu reading, on the other hand, all is manifestation of a self-giving power brahman that is transcendent and yet immanent as the self Atman of each. There is therefore, in Hinduism, an essential affirmation of the cosmic order as divine; for what is achieved by ego sacrifice is a knowledge of identity, not with emptiness but with that being that is in its own sacrifice the wonder of the world, brahman. Since society is conceived to be part of the cosmic order, there is affirmation equally of the orthodox social order as divine and as the order of nature is eternal so is that of the orthodox society with no tolerance of human freedom or invention in the social field; thus no sudra can ever become a brahman and desiring to be one would be insane. "Better one's own duty ill performed than that of another to perfection".
There are a few contrasts that set the doctrine of Zoroaster and the west apart from Buddhism and Hinduism and the other mythologies of the east.
The first and most radical is that of a progressive rather than a deteriorating world cycle. The Zoroastrian version of the world presents a creation by a God of pure light into which an evil principal enters but where the cosmic battle will eventually end in a total victory of the light with no continuation of the cycle.
The second innovation is the responsibility it places on the individual to choose freely whether he will stand for the light or not.
The third principal is that of engagement, rather than disengagement, as the way to the ultimate goal. The freely acting individual applies himself zealously to his work for the cause of the world is by no means hopeless, whereas in the Indian system the only possible way to salvation lay in a disengagement from the world in its futile, ever repeating round.
Although the earliest centres of civilisation, the Sumerian cities of Mesopotamia, were the common source of both the east and west mythological visions of the universe, a differentiating process clearly separated the two over the course of time. In the west, in conformity with the Greek stress on the dignity of the individual, for each soul there was one birth, one death, one destiny, one maturation - whether in heaven, purgatory or hell. The visiting visionary readily recognizes the deceased, Mohammed in heaven speaks to his brave and loyal friends and he speaks to the dammed and the saved in the course of his adventure; Ulysses and Aeneas both talked to their departed friends in the underworld.
In the Orient, however, there was no such continuity of personality. The focus was not the individual but the reincarnating soul to which no individuality whatsoever pertained, but which passed on from one personality to the next. Although multitudes of beings are depicted in their agonies and joy in the oriental hells and heavens, none retains the traits of his earthly personality. While the typical western hero is a personality and therefore naturally tragic, doomed to be implicated seriously in the agony and the mystery of temporality, the oriental hero is, in essence, without character but an image of eternity, untouched by or else casting off successfully the delusory involvements of the mortal sphere; and as in the west the orientation of a personality is reflected in the concept of God as a personality, so in the east the overpowering sense of an absolutely impersonal law, harmonizing all things, reduces the accident of an individual life to a mere blot and the ultimate principle is seen as an impersonal cosmic concept - brahman.
The first observation to be made with respect to Indian mythology is therefore that its deepest root is in the soil of the timeless equatorial world of the ritual death from which life proceeds, with a major tradition of human sacrifice and Goddess worship.
A second theme, also typical of India, is seen with half a dozen indus seals showing figures in yoga posture, most of which are perceived to have a prototype of shiva, the present day consort of the Goddess Kali, along with numerous phallic and yoni symbols, which are again the symbols of the God shiva. The culture of the indus valley slowly declined for reasons unknown, possibly due to a drying up of the river or a change in its course, particularly as the major legend of world annihilation seems to be of drought rather than flood. However the ancient God and Goddess became two of the major streams of modern day Hinduism overtaking the initial Gods of the early vedic Aryans. These Gods were Agni, Mitra-Varuna (from whom comes Mithros and Huramazda), Indra and Savitri. The world drought was replanted into the early vedic culture. Vritra, an archdemon without hands or feet, hoarded to himself the waters of the world so the universe, deprived for centuries of all fluid, became a wasteland. Indra, the God of battle, courage, power and victory, hurler of the many angled bolt flung his weapon, the fiery bolt, and slew the first born dragon releasing the water and saving the world. We see here that the antagonist is the negative aspect of the priestly cosmic order itself, affecting the world of life; that the drought is the counterpart of the flood of the Middle East and it is not an automatic effect of impersonal rhythmic order, but the work of an autonomous will; but note that the worker of the negative deed is not God Almighty to be honoured, but a thing to be despised and accordingly, unlike the Middle Eastern development where the highest God may be unfavourable to man, a jealous, dangerous, touchy God who if displeased becomes malignant, the Vedic Gods in general were genially disposed, readily pleased and if neglected simply turn away. Note that in these early vedic hymns, however, there is nothing of the spirit or mythological world image of later Hinduism; no idea of reincarnation, no yearning for release from the vortex of rebirth; no yoga; no mythology of salvation; no vegetarianism, non-violence or caste. This is because the mythology of later India is not in substance vedic at all, but dravidian, stemming from the Bronze Age complex of the Indus; for over the course of the years the Aryans were assimilated and the principal of the Order Of The Cosmic God, Veruna, assumed supremacy over the principal of the autonomous will of Indra; Veruna's will became Dana, his creative Maya became Vishnu's Maya and the cycles of eternal return returned to grind on for ever; and the dragon, Vitra, became a Brahman; and Indu's killing of the Brahman became a crime which he had to expiate by performance of an odious penance which we hear about in the Mahabharata written a full thousand years later than the period of the Vedic hymns. Indra was afflicted with a horrible apparition, symbolic of his crime, clinging to him and eventually he had to approach Brahma, the creator, in obeisance to set him free. We see here an echo of Prometheus and Christ crucified. The saviour of the world, Indra, when he has slain his man has become a war criminal and suffers mightily despite his saving act. .
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