Hinduism

Hindu Spiritual Disciplines

• The Sacred Thread– spiritual training only for upper-caste

males• women and shudras excluded

– cord of three threads worn over the shoulder

The Hindu Life Cycle

• Traditional life periods– 25yrs each

• chaste student and teacher• householder stage

– raise a family contribute productively to society

• begin retirement from society• age of 75 sees full detachment

– a sannyasin» ashram - monastic life

A Guru?

• The guru– “the venerable”– a teacher

• do not proclaim themselves teachers, the students simply come

– no guru necessary for the sincere earnest seeker…most need help

Yoga

• Yoga– yoke or union with the infinite

consciousness– One should use some form of

disciplined technique to achieve this.• Raja Yoga• Jnana Yoga• Karma Yoga• Bhakti Yoga

The More Common

• Raja Yoga (89)– asanas - physical postures– prana - invisible life energy– chakras - bodily energy centers– mantras, sound repetition– yantras - a visual form

Entering The Mental Aspect• Jnana Yoga

– rational mind emphasis• restraint, renunciation, resignation,

concentration, faith– not mind, not senses, not body, then what?

A Thousand Points of Light....• Karma Yoga

– any service rendered without thought or interest in its effect on anything• God doing it through you, but not you

The ULTIMATE Love Story

• Bhakti Yoga– love affair for the god– the bhakta EXPECTS the god to

appear at any time

Major Theistic cults

• Three unifying aspects– creating– preserving– destroying

The God’s of Hinduisim... (some of ‘em)• Three major groupings of deity

types;– Vaishnavites– Saivites– Saktas

The Feminine

– Vaishnavites• worship divine as Vishnu

– the tender, merciful deity» basis for Hare Krishnas

– the lotus floats serenely on the water with it’s roots firmly in the mud

» refined spiritual energy rising from worldly contamination

The Masculine

– Saivites• worship divine as Siva

– Siva = destroyer

• Often represented with a consort (Parvati his spouse)

And everything else

– Saktas• worship the female creative power

– Durga» beautiful woman with ten arms and weapons

– Kali» warrior goddess» destruction is actually transformation» one hand a sword, one a head, one saying

fear not…» mask of ugliness, symbolizing pleasant with

unpleasant, creation and destruction

BUT, Is it Poly or Mono?

• Ultimate faith in one genderless deity– Brahmin

Philosophical Systems

• Three common features– rooted in Vedas and other scriptures

and truth through meditation– ethics are central to social life, hence

good and bad karma are incentive for living ethical lives

– cause of suffering is peoples ignorance of their true self, THE true self

Mindsets

• Two common systems– Samkhya– Advaita Vedanta

Material versus Non-material• Samkhya

– dualistic• pre-vedic

– two states of reality• purusha = eternal self that is wise, pure,

etc.• prakriti = the cause of the material

universe

Monasticism

• Advaita Vedanta– monistic

• single reality– life is an illusion we make it. The absolute is

there, we misperceive

• Devotions and rituals– rites of passage– cleanliness is a NECCESITY– multisensual

• sounds, smells, taste, sights, touch all involved

– the image of the deity• NOT the deity

Forms of Worship

A Good Excuse For a PARTY• Festivals

– riotously joyous• water pistols in worship!

• Ghandi established two overreaching precepts;– awareness of spiritual truth– non-violent resistance to military-

industrial oppression

Modern Hinduism

TM

• Transcendental Meditation– a stilling of the mind and internal

reaching for the true reality• for couple mil we can stop your crime

A Return to the Ancient Ways• Hindu fundamentalism

– restoration of perfect rule, like in legendary times with perfect Hindu virtue being observed

A Newly Offered Path to Equality• Exodus to Christianity

– no castes