Monday, jan 27 2002
Religions of India
Michelle Andujar

Upanishad Reading:
Read Katha, Kena, Mundaka, Taittireya, Aitareya, Chandogya, Kayvalia, and Suetasvatara.

GITA:
-Gita is a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil.
-Vishnu has two physical reincarnations: Krisha and Rama.
Krishna's advice to Arjuna:
1) Dharma, in Hinduism means your duty with respect to caste. There are social repercussions for shirking duty.
Arjuna is in the warrior's caste so his "duty" is to fight as a soldier, kill the enemy and win the battle. He doesn't have the "right" to stop fighting because he has personal feelings for others in the battle.
2) Death is not a bad thing because everybody dies eventually and because the body can die but the soul can't. (Soul is eternal).
So this is supposed to make him feel better about the battle.
3) Act with detachment and your suffering will be minimal. So as a soldier he won't suffer. (Kind of pessimistic view)
Detachment = freedom from the bonds of desire.

-Karma: If you act through detachment in life you won't be cought up in the world, you would be "free" from it, if you act with desire for money, material things, status, etc, you will be "tied" to the world and its things. So Karma: Detached action brings you closer to separation from the world.
-Goal of Hinduism: Moksha (Liberation, becoming one with Brahman) from Samsara ("Wheel" of reincarnation).

Hinduism is very different from Judaism, for example, in the Jewish Religion, their "rewards" are material things. In Hinduism the goal is to get detached from those material things, to get closer and closer to Brahman. But, a part of giving up desire, may include detachment from the desire of being one with Brahma. It's being debated weather or not the detachment is only from material things or from spiritual matters as well.

3 Ways of "salvation" in latter Hinduism:
1) Karma Yoga- Path of action
2) Bhakti Yoga- Way of devotion
-Even women can be saved through devotion to Krishna (Krishna doesn't discriminate women)
-Those who worship other Gods are really worshipping me (There is really only one God, Brahma, says Krishna, who is only a incarnation of Brahma, so even if you're worshipping Christ is the same as worshipping Krishna).
-One God who appears in different personal forms.
Depiction of God: glorious and multi-facetal. Krishna is good and evil, he is the God of love and war, Gods and demons. So God is beyond good and evil, vastness, infinity. Everything is one according to Hinduism, even good and bad.
3) Jnana Yoga- Path of knowledge.

If you love Krishna, you will reach him. So apparently is good to be detached from everything except from Krishna.

3 principles of soul:
1) Satlva - light - reason/enlightment (attracts happyness)
2) Rajas - fire - passion/desire-ambition (drives you to do things)
3) Tamas - darkness - ignorance/lethargy-apathy (drives you not to act) "sleepy dullness".

Attack in traditional especially ritual and ceremonial religion. Emphasis on LOVE (In Gita, the way to God is through love, not through memorizing texts, etc.).


Hindu Scriptures:
-Are written in Sansksrit, an ancient language that not many people speak today, contrary to Hebrew, which many people have learned)
-4 vedas: Rig, Sama, Yajur, Athara
-Brahmanas came along later, expanded on the Vedas: Manuals of sacrifices and their interpretation.
-Aranyakas: Manuals for how to be a hermit (How to meditate, eat, live, in the middle of nowhere).
-Upanishads: philosophical and metaphysical
-Mahabharata: Bhagavad Gita is a portion of this really long poem
-Ramayana Epic: Prince Rama (avatar, incarnation of Vishnu) rescues his wife Sita from Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka (Sri-Lanka) who had kidnapped her. Rama, his friend Hanuman (monkey God, God of friendship and loyalty), and an army of monkeys rescue Sita. But Rama ends up ramashing (divorcing) his wife Sita after rescuing her because the people in his town aren't sure if she is still pure after having been with the demon-king. Even if Rama loves her so much, he sacrifices his desires for his poeple because he is the king (Dharma). So the story doesn't have a happy ending, his duty is more important in hiniduism than his desire.
-sutras:Yoga and Dharma Sutras, Kama sutra (sacred sex manual).

Brahma is the creator God, the ultimate reality. He is not very popular today.
Shiva: the destroyer. He is very popular today, the dancing God with 4 arms. He is both male and female, etc.
Agni: God of fire, one of the oldest Gods.
Ganesha: elephant head. Son of Parvati (Parvati is Shiva's wife). Parvati is upset because Shiva won't have sex with her so she impregnates heself with a handfull of dirt---->Ganesha is her son. Shiva cuts his head off and then replaces it with an elephant head.

*Atman: Originally meant soul. Now it means like the God in each person, the supreme self--->Atman is Brahman, the Self is God.

Brahman is everything, is not a particular God, but it manifests itelf in Gods.

Maya: The illusion of the material world. Separate from maya through meditation.
*Jati: Subcast. Part of the worker caste.

The caste system came from the Aryans, and the warrior caste was originally the first one.
How to remember differences of Brah...
Brah-ma------->ma=mama that created you
Brah-mins----->Priest caste -min=minister
Brah-man

Polytheism and pantheism: Many Gods are manifestations of the One God.