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HINDUISM Rev. Dr John Dupuche Honorary Fellow, Hinduism Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, Australian Catholic University and ‘Hinduism’ 19th cent. term invented Senior Lecturer, Catholic Theological College / MCD University of Divinity by the Bri sh
India, Hindus: Worldwide: Indus As at 2010 (approximate figures) River,
2.2 billion Chris ans (32%), Hindu, 1.6 billion Muslims (23%), Sindh, 1 billion Hindus (15%),
c. 0.5 billion Buddhists (7%), Bharat, 14 million Jews (0.2%).
Hinduism: a plethora of beliefs and rituals Australia: that cannot be reduced to any coherent system. Yet, a family resemblance. Religion '000 Popula on (%) born o/s
Buddhism 529.0 2.5 69.4 Chris anity Hinduism Islam 476.3 2.2 61.5 Creed No creed Hinduism 275.5 1.3 84.3 Founder No founder Judaism 97.3 0.5 48.9 Magisterium No magisterium Other non-Chris an 168.2 0.8 57.2 Hierarchy No hierarchy Moment of revela on No beginning Mission No prosely sm
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Hinduism is polytheist, monotheist and Monotheist: atheist, all at once. The devo on to some of these is more widespread: Vishnu, Rama, Krishna, Hanuman,
Shiva, Parva , Ganesh, Kālī. Durgā, Each has its Polytheist: devotees who consider their chosen deity Innumerable gods and goddesses, ‘the 33 (ishtadevatā) to be supreme, and therefore the million gods’, each with its mythology, its others to be its lesser manifesta ons. So there is a own temples and rituals. sort of monotheism. Atheist: Ordinary people as well as the elite conclude that the gods represent different aspects of the impersonal, transcendent Absolute.
Hinduism moves between two tendencies b/ a/ Castes: Rejec on of castes Cosmic order, duty Individualism 1.brahman , priests, 2.kshatriya , warriors, rulers, Sense of community living outside 3.vaishya, workers, traders renuncia on, 4.śudra, servants, individual salva on
Hinduism moves between two tendencies c/ d/ Outcaste, Untouchable Time is cyclical: All is illusion (māyā) Foreigner (mleccha) 4 ages (yuga) 1.Satya Yuga , Golden Age 2.Treta Yuga , Age of Ritual 3.Dvapara Yuga , Age of Doubt 4.Kālī Yuga , Age of Conflict
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Hinduism moves between two tendencies Some ideas and prac ces
e/ karma, (ac on): Wrong ac ons have exact performance of du es consequences which bear ‘fruit’, which must v. doctrine of non-violence (ahimsa) be expiated either in this life or another life. rituals maintain the cosmic order saṃsāra (reincarna on): Cycle of rebirths into another existence, higher or lower, v. pres ge of medita on and yoga moksha (libera on): Freedom from the cycle Tutelary deity: Vishnu who maintains order of rebirths v. tutelary deity: Shiva, the ‘ero c asce c’ tapas (austerity): A spiritual prac ce
c. 3300–1300 BCE Guru: gives instruc on, ini a on and Indus Valley Civilisa on (Harappan culture) mantra Mantra: a sound, word, a sentence, the of Pashupa seal phonic form of one’s deity, it has power and efficacy. avatar (incarna on): Vishnu has several incarna ons of which the Buddha is one, Jesus is now another. laka: the sign traced on the forehead,
c. 2000-1500 BCE Aryan migra ons (arya 1500-500 compila on of the Vedas by the ‘best’, ‘noble’) Aryans 1.Rig Veda
2.Yajurveda 3.Samaveda 4.Arthavaveda • Crea on hymn Rig Veda, 10.129 • The Primal Man Rig Veda, 10.90.
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c. 600 start of Upanishads The Upanishads are some mes c. 600-500 rise of Buddhism and Jainism referred to as Vedānta, variously interpreted to mean either the "last The Upanishads contain the earliest chapters, parts of the Veda" or "the emergence of some of the central object, the highest purpose of the religious concepts of Hinduism, some Veda". The central ideas of the of which are shared with Buddhism Upanishads are at the spiritual core of Hindus. and Jainism. More than 200 Upanishads are known, 13 of them are classed as ‘principal’.
From the Isha Upanishad. c. 600-300 BCE Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali
This is everything (pūrna). Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali consist of That is everything. 196 sūtras (aphorisms) compiled Everything comes from everything. around 400 CE by taking materials When everything is taken from about yoga from older tradi ons. everything, everything s ll remains.
The text fell into obscurity for nearly 700 years from the 12th to 19th There are many other ‘yogas’ century, and made a comeback in late such as 19th century due to the efforts of Swami Vivekananda. In the 20th Hatha yoga century the corporate Yoga subculture Karma yoga, elevated the Yoga Sūtras to a status it Bhak yoga, never knew previously. Jnāna yoga “Yoga is the s lling (nirodhaḥa) of the Raja yoga etc. modifica ons (vṛ ) of the mind (ci a)" Yoga Sūtras 1.1.
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st 1 cent. CE, Rise of Shaivism c. 1st cent. expansion of Hinduism into South East Asia pantheism? (Indochina, Indonesia)
Nataraja, Lord of the dance
c. 200-400 CE, compila on of the Epics: Diwali (or Deepavali, the "fes val of Ramāyana and Mahabharata lights") is the biggest and the The Ramāyana recounts the banishment of brightest fes val in India. The fes val Rama (an avatar of Vishnu), Prince of spiritually signifies the victory of light Ayodhya, the abduc on of his wife Sitā by over darkness as well as the return of Ravana, King of Lanka, the ba le led by Rama and Sita and Hanuman. In the Hanuman, the monkey warrior, and their Gregorian calendar Diwali falls triumphant return to Ayodhya. In joyous celebra on of the return of their king, the between mid-October and mid- people illuminated the kingdom with earthen November. oil lamps and fireworks.
Diwali in Melbourne “From the sheer numbers alone a ending over one week The Mahabharata period of the fes val, Diwali at Federa on Square has now been recognized as the biggest celebra on in The Mahabharata recounts the Kurukshetra Australia.” War and the fates of the Kaurava and Pandava princes. It also contains philosophical and devo onal material such as the Bhagavad Gita. The Mahabharata consists of over 200,000 individual verse lines, and long prose passages. The importance of the Mahabharata is comparable to that of the Bible, the works of Homer, or the Qur'an.
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c. 300-400, compila on of the Purāṇas 2 stories from the Purāṇas
These consist of narra ves of the 1. Kumba Mela (‘gathering at the pot’) history of the universe from crea on to When the gods and demons were figh ng destruc on, genealogies of kings, over the nectar of immortality, Vishnu heroes, sages, and demigods, and flew away with the pot of nectar spilling descrip ons of Hindu cosmology, drops of nectar at four different places: philosophy, and geography. Prayag (Allahabad), Hardwar, Nasik, There are tradi onally 18 major Purāṇas Ujjain. Kumba Melas are celebrated (totaling 429,000 verses) and 18 there. ancillary Purāṇas.
10 Feb 2013 was the biggest day at the 2. Ganesh Maha Kumba Mela at Allahabad and Ganesh is one of the best-known and most probably cons tuted the largest worshipped dei es in Hinduism. His elephant human gathering on a single day when head makes him easy to iden fy. He is widely over 30 million devotees bathed at the revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the god of confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna intellect and wisdom. As the god of Rivers where the third hidden river, beginnings, he is honoured at the start of the sacred Saraswa , is suppose also rituals and ceremonies. Ganesh is also to flow. invoked as patron of le ers and learning during wri ng sessions.
c. 600-700 rise of Tantrism The four purposes of life : The essence of tantra is 1. ‘right living’ (dharma), “to place kāma – pleasure – (in all 2. ‘wealth’ (artha), the meanings of that term) and the values which are associated 3. ‘pleasure’ (kāma), with it, at the service of 4. ‘libera on’ (moksha). libera on.” (M. Biardeau)
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c. 900 CE The Bhagavad Gita is a 700-verse scripture that is part of the great epic The Mahabharata. It is set Kālī in a narra ve framework of a dialogue between a Pandava prince, Arjuna, and his guide and charioteer, the god Krishna. Facing the duty as a warrior to fight the war between Pandavas and Kauravas, Arjuna is counselled to "fulfill his duty as a warrior and so establish righteousness.”
Bhagavad Gita is a synthesis: of impersonal spiritual monism with “Those who make me the personalis c monotheism, supreme goal of all their work of the yoga of ac on with the yoga of and act without selfish transcendence of ac on, a achment, who devote and these again with yogas of themselves to me completely devo on and knowledge. and are free from ill-will for any creature, enter into me.” (11.55)
Poetry: 2. Kabir (+1518) 1. Basavaṇṇa (South India, 12th cent. CE) O servant, where dost thou seek Me? The rich will make temples for Shiva. Lo! I am beside thee. What shall I, a poor man, do? I am neither in temple nor in mosque; My legs are pillars, the body the I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash; shrine, Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, the head a cupola of gold. nor in Yoga and renuncia on. If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me, Listen, O Lord of the mee ng rivers, thou shalt meet Me in a moment of me. things standing shall fall, but the moving ever shall stay.
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900-1000 first Muslim invasions “... What is God? 1526 -1858 Mughal Empire He is the breath inside the breath.”
“A drop mel ng into the sea, Everyone can see. But the sea absorbed in a drop — A rare one can follow!”
1857-1947 The Bri sh Raj Vivekananda Chief disciple of Ramakrishna. (1863-1902) Among other organisa ons, he founded the Ramakrishna Ramakrishna . Mission. He created a sensa on at the (1836-1886) first Parliament of the World’s Religions, in Chicago in 1893. He wrote: "One, infinite, pure, and holy, beyond thought, beyond quali es: I bow down to Thee".
Tiruvanamalai Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) “There is nothing but the thought ‘I’.”
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North India style of Temple Temple at Puri
Today!
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