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HINDUISM Rev. Dr John Dupuche Honorary Fellow, 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 Brish

India, Hindus: Worldwide: Indus As at 2010 (approximate figures) River,

2.2 billion Chrisans (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 Populaon (%) born o/s

Buddhism 529.0 2.5 69.4 Chrisanity 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-Chrisan 168.2 0.8 57.2 Hierarchy No hierarchy Moment of revelaon No beginning Mission No proselysm

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Hinduism is polytheist, monotheist and Monotheist: atheist, all at once. The devoon to some of these is more widespread: , Rama, , 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 manifestaons. 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: Rejecon of castes Cosmic order, duty Individualism 1. , priests, 2. , warriors, rulers, Sense of community living outside 3., workers, traders renunciaon, 4.śudra, servants, individual salvaon

Hinduism moves between two tendencies c/ d/ Outcaste, Untouchable Time is cyclical: All is illusion (māyā) Foreigner (mleccha) 4 ages () 1. , 2. , 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 pracces

e/ karma, (acon): Wrong acons have exact performance of dues 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 (reincarnaon): Cycle of rebirths into another existence, higher or lower, v. presge of meditaon and yoga moksha (liberaon): Freedom from the cycle Tutelary deity: Vishnu who maintains order of rebirths v. tutelary deity: Shiva, the ‘eroc ascec’ tapas (austerity): A spiritual pracce

c. 3300–1300 BCE Guru: gives instrucon, iniaon and Indus Valley Civilisaon (Harappan culture) mantra Mantra: a sound, word, a sentence, the of Pashupa seal phonic form of one’s deity, it has power and efficacy. (incarnaon): Vishnu has several incarnaons of which the Buddha is one, Jesus is now another. laka: the sign traced on the forehead,

c. 2000-1500 BCE Aryan migraons (arya 1500-500 compilaon of the by the ‘best’, ‘noble’) Aryans 1.Rig Veda

2. 3. 4.Arthavaveda • Creaon hymn Rig Veda, 10.129 • The Primal Man Rig Veda, 10.90.

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c. 600 start of Upanishads The Upanishads are somemes 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 tradions. everything, everything sll 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 slling (nirodhaḥa) of the Raja yoga etc. modificaons (vṛ) of the mind (cia)" 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, compilaon of the Epics: (or Deepavali, the "fesval of Ramāyana and lights") is the biggest and the The Ramāyana recounts the banishment of brightest fesval in India. The fesval Rama (an avatar of Vishnu), Prince of spiritually signifies the victory of light Ayodhya, the abducon of his wife Sitā by over darkness as well as the return of , King of Lanka, the bale led by Rama and Sita and Hanuman. In the Hanuman, the monkey warrior, and their Gregorian Diwali falls triumphant return to Ayodhya. In joyous celebraon 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 aending over one week The Mahabharata period of the fesval, Diwali at Federaon Square has now been recognized as the biggest celebraon in The Mahabharata recounts the Kurukshetra Australia.” War and the fates of the Kaurava and Pandava princes. It also contains philosophical and devoonal 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, compilaon of the Purāṇas 2 stories from the Purāṇas

These consist of narraves of the 1. Kumba Mela (‘gathering at the pot’) history of the universe from creaon to When the gods and demons were fighng destrucon, genealogies of kings, over the nectar of immortality, Vishnu heroes, sages, and demigods, and flew away with the pot of nectar spilling descripons of , drops of nectar at four different places: philosophy, and geography. Prayag (Allahabad), Hardwar, Nasik, There are tradionally 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 constuted the largest worshipped deies in Hinduism. His elephant human gathering on a single day when head makes him easy to idenfy. 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 leers and learning during wring sessions.

c. 600-700 rise of Tantrism The four purposes of life : The essence of tantra is 1. ‘right living’ (), “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. ‘liberaon’ (moksha). liberaon.” (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 narrave 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 personalisc monotheism, supreme goal of all their work of the yoga of acon with the yoga of and act without selfish transcendence of acon, aachment, who devote and these again with yogas of themselves to me completely devoon 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 renunciaon. If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me, Listen, O Lord of the meeng 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 melng into the sea, Everyone can see. But the sea absorbed in a drop — A rare one can follow!”

1857-1947 The Brish Raj Vivekananda Chief disciple of Ramakrishna. (1863-1902) Among other organisaons, he founded the Ramakrishna Ramakrishna . Mission. He created a sensaon 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 qualies: 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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