Hinduism

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Hinduism

• Beliefs Part 1

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Key Beliefs

• Brahman is the only ultimate reality
• the cosmic spirit that underlies everything, all
  experience, all phenomena.
• The paramatman (universal soul).
• The atman (your individual soul)

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Key Beliefs

• Like the matrix

• Everything is temporary and illusionary ? maya
  (all forms, including the present world)

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Key Beliefs- Evil

• Evil and suffering a natural part of life
• Source Ignorance (first evil)
• Justified by the law of karma
• suffering is the result of ones prior actions
• He (Brahman) causes him whom he wishes to lead up
  from these world to perform good actions. This
  one, indeed, also causes him whom he wishes to
  lead downward, to perform bad actions.
• Upanishad 38

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Key Beliefs

• The goal of every Hindu is to break free of this
  imperfect world (maya) and achieve moksha
• Moksha - a blissful union with Brahman.
• To have ones individual soul, the atman reunite
  with the paramatman

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Key Beliefs

• Optimism everyone will reach this goal (moksha)
  at some point.
• No damnation
• Tolerance get there however you need to

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Key Beliefs Human Life

• Human life has no significance. It is part of an
  unending and essentially meaningless cycle of
  life, death and rebirth.
• It is through this cycle of successive rebirths
  reincarnation, that one reaches upwards to its
  ultimate goal of moksha

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Key Beliefs - Karma

• Humans are further up the ladder of reincarnation
  than other organism.
• Because of karma, (the totality of ones actions
  in life that determines the form that same soul
  takes in their next life) humans are the creators
  of their own fate

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Key Beliefs

• 330 Million gods ? all different expressions of
  the one universal god / essence, Brahman

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Key Beliefs - Key Gods

• Brahma The creator god
• Wife Saraswati (goddess of learning and the
  arts)

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Key Beliefs - Key Gods

• Vishnu Preserver god (4 arms)
• Wife Lakshmi (goddess of wealth, happiness and
  good fortune)

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Key Beliefs - Key Gods

• Shiva - Destroyer and restorer god (rides on a
  dancing bull)
• Wife Parvati (mother goddess / Durga/ Kali
• Shakti female energy)

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Key Beliefs - Trimurti

• The Trimurti Hinduisms holy trinity
• Time is cyclical this cycle repeats itself
  every 4,320,000,000 years vs Western time which
  is linear.

Brahma The creator god
Vishnu The Preserver god Avatars Reincarnates
as needed Rama, Krishna, Buddha.
Shiva The Destroyer and Restorer god
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Hinduism

• Beliefs Part 2

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Hinduism in Practice

• Shrines in homes are the focus of worship.
• The temple is the centre of the religious, social
  and cultural life of Hindus
• Are devoted to gurus (spiritual leaders) and
  often form Hindu communities called Ashrams

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Paths to Salvation - Yoga

• Dharma - Ones moral and sacred duty as defined
  by
• their stage in life (student / householder /
  retirement / renunciation)
• their caste determines ones occupation
• their gender
• Yoga to yoke or bind together

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4 Paths to Salvation

• Bhakti Yoga love and devotion (to be attracted
  to god)
• Karma Yoga good deeds and thoughts
• Jnana Yoga scripture and meditation
• Raja Yoga - meditation

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Bhakti Yoga love and devotion

• Most simple path to salvation
• Devotion and love towards a personal deity
• Provides an opportunity to worship Brahman in a
  concrete way, rather than as an abstract notion
• Images / statues of deity help followers focus
  their devotion
• Prayer / ritual

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Karma Yoga good deeds and thoughts

• Good deeds lead to the accumulation of good karma
• Unselfish actions done not for reward but because
  they are morally right
• Duty of an individual

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Jnana Yoga scripture and meditation

• Difficult path
• Guidance of a guru / teacher
• Learn about
• the relationship between the Brahman and atman
• Nature of the universe
• Scriptures
• Meditate to gain the insight needed to achieve
  salvation / moksha

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Raja Yoga - meditation

• Achieve salvation through intense mediation /
  contemplation on mediation on Brahman
• Trans like state
• Become one with Brahman
• Strict physical and spiritual discipline

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Hindu Worship - Animals
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The Sacred Cow

• Is revered as the source of food and symbol of
  life
• May never be killed or eaten (no beef)
• The Cow and Worship
• Hindus do not worship the cow
• cows do not have especially charmed lives in
  India
• more accurate to say the cow is taboo in
  Hinduism, rather than sacred.
• Most rural Indian families have at least one
  dairy cow, a gentle spirit who is often treated
  as a member of the family.

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The Sacred Cow
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The Sacred Cow
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Cow Veneration Continued

• The five products
• milk
• curds
• ghee butter
• urine
• dung are all used in puja
• The milk of the family cow nourishes children as
  they grow up
• cow dung (gobar) feul, building.
• Most Indians do not share the western revulsion
  at cow excrement, but instead consider it an
  earthy and useful natural product.

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Monkey Veneration

• Animals depicted as helping the gods in Hindu
  mythology are venerated
• Monkey, or Monkey God ( Hanuman) is considered to
  be the God of power and strength
• Seen here helping Lord Rama

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Elephant Veneration

• Elephants symbol of success
• Ganesha
• Lord of Success and Destroyer of Evils and
  Obstacles
• Also god of education, knowledge, wisdom and
  wealth
• head symbolizes the paramatman (ultimate supreme
  reality)
• his human body signifies Maya or the earthly
  existence
• The elephant head denotes wisdom and its trunk
  represents Om, the sound symbol of cosmic
  reality.