Religions of India

An Introduction

Sushil Mittal, Gene Thursby, Sushil Mittal, Gene Thursby

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138681262
• eBook ISBN: 9781134791934
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

India is a highly diverse country, home to a wide array of languages, religions, and cultural traditions. Analyzing the dynamic religious traditions of this democratic nation sheds light on the complex evolution from India's past to today's modern culture. Written by leading experts in the field, Religions of India provides students with an introduction to India's vibrant religious faiths. To understand its heritage and core values, the beginning chapters introduce the indigenous Dharmic traditions of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, while the later chapters examine the outside influences of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These chapters are designed for cross-religious comparison, with the history, practices, values, and worldviews of each belief system explained. The final chapter helps students relate what they have learnt to religious theory, preparing the way for future study.

This thoroughly revised second edition combines solid scholarship with clear and lively writing to provide students with an accessible and comprehensive introduction to religion in India. This is the ideal textbook for students approaching religion in Asia, South Asia, or India for the first time. Features to aid study include: discussion questions at the end of each chapter, images, a glossary, suggestions for further reading, and an Companion Website with additional links for students to further their study.

Part I
^• What India Has Given to the World

1
^• Hindu Dharma

JOHN GRIMES, SUSHIL MITTAL, AND GENE THURSBY

Figure 1.1 Kṛṣṇa and the ten avatāras of Viṣṇu.

Courtesy of the artist Nicola Barsaleau.

• The Traditions Defined

To survive and succeed in life, we have to find our way through a world that is made up of diverse authorities, interests, energies, and powers. Many of them, whether they appear to be attractive or repulsive to us or somehow manage to elude our awareness, will influence us and shape the available choices and the eventual outcomes of our lives. How they are named and the extent of their influence is different from one place on this planet to another place—and within the same place over time. The goal of this chapter is to introduce some of the most influential authorities, interests, energies, and powers that have been acknowledged and named in traditional Hindu ways of interpreting, understanding, and living in the world.

Hindus are people who share many assumptions about the nature of the world and acknowledge a wide range of practices that are appropriate responses to living as a human being (whether or not every one of them seems to suit their own specific nature and situation). In this chapter, the term for those generally available assumptions and practices is “Hindu Dharma,” although the less well-fitting but more widely adopted label “Hinduism” will be used, too. We begin with a few key categories that have considerable importance in Hindu tradition and perhaps will connect with your own experience.

Kāla (Time)

In every human society, part of becoming an effective adult is learning how to put into practice a maxim that advises that while there may be a time and place for everything, each activity should be done at an appropriate time and in a suitable place. Most of us have learned by now (perhaps in response to pain or embarrassment) that what seems fine at one time and place can cause real problems for oneself and others at another time or in a different place. Hindus have explored this truth for thousands of years and have developed detailed ways to identify auspicious and inauspicious (seemly and unseemly, or helpful and harmful, or supportive and resistant) times and places correlated with various kinds of behavior and activities. Many centuries of astronomical and astrological study, as well as daily observation and deep contemplation, have enabled Hindus to develop sophisticated calendar systems and closely related ideas about types of character and modes of action. Those resources are used by traditional experts to guide people through a lifetime and beyond. Because traditional ideas are their basis, some resources may seem outdated to contemporary academic students (and to some modern Hindus) who have grown up with other notions about how to find their way to a successful or a good life. But because traditional Hindu teachings have directed the aspirations of millions of human beings over countless generations, they merit our consideration. Everyone, after all, can appreciate the value of having methods for time management and character development.

Here is an example of one Hindu traditional idea about time. If you were to go shopping in India on a Saturday morning, whether in a regional town or a large cosmopolitan city, you would be likely to see some small dark iron images in front of a few stores. Probably there would be a bit of incense lit near them and money that had been placed in front of them. If you were to pause near one of the images to observe, it is likely that you would see a few people who join their hands together and bow briefly to acknowledge the image respectfully and perhaps leave a few coins before continuing along their way. What is the significance of this? In India, Śanivāra is a traditional name for the day that we call Saturday, and the iron images are a reminder of the influence of Śani—the distinctive energies, opportunities, and challenges closely associated with this day and different from those of other days of the week. Although this may be your first acquaintance with Śani, perhaps you will agree that not every day is simply the same as the one before. Different days and times have different qualities. For Hindus, then, time has qualitative as well as quantitative dimensions.

Hindus assume and observe that time goes through cycles, and so do people and places. Śanivāra may be distinctive, but it comes around again and again. The characteristics that make days different from one another are embedded in a sequence that is regular and repeated. The moon has its repeating phases, the cycles in which it can be seen to wax, then become “full,” and wane until it becomes “new” again. Seasons arrive and depart in a seemingly endless series. These recurring patterns of difference-within-repetition generate a large but limited set of possibilities—unless or until something is able to break through and escape time’s ever-repeating cycles.

Veda (Knowledge)

One major breakthrough continues to be highly authoritative today in Hindu tradition. It is associated with extraordinary ancient visionary poets known as ṛṣis. Somehow they were able to tune into higher levels of awareness that allowed them to perceive subtle currents of sound that had eluded ordinary human beings. Those sounds, after entering the consciousness of the ṛṣis and being recited, became known as Veda and the language Vedic Sanskrit. We still know about Veda now because recitations of the ṛṣis were collected together, arranged, and passed down to and through generation after generation of carefully screened and specially prepared pupils. Transmission was directly from mouth to ear—orally rather than in written form—because the chanted Vedic sound was believed to have a power and importance too great to allow it to fall into the possession of just anyone. Collections (saṃhitā) of Vedas are known as Śruti because they were first preserved and transmitted orally. That remarkable feat was accomplished with teaching methods similar to ones that would be required to learn how to accurately and reliably perform the metrical patterns and lyrics of a song catalogue at least as complex and extensive as the one by Nobel laureate Bob Dylan. An early part of the saṃhitā, for instance, the Ṛg Veda has ten major sections with over a thousand hymns in more than ten thousand verses.

This capsule introduction to Veda calls attention to the central place of lineage in Hindu tradition. One form of it comes to be called guru-śiṣya lineage, the transmission of knowledge from master to apprentice or from teacher to student. A second form is genetically determined lineage, most typically patriarchal, a line of descent from father to son and more widely through extended kinship groups. When you started reading this chapter, you may have assumed that it is obvious that separate and unique individuals should be central to the study of any religious tradition. An individual within Hindu tradition, even if the chapter may refer here or there to “the individual Hindu,” is typically understood to be just a small component part or a link in a more inclusive and more basic genetic and social identity. In Hindu contexts, it is the families, kin groups, and extended lineages—whether created by initiation and training or sustained by genetic connection—that are assumed to be the more basic and fundamental realities.

Veda, in any case, is respected as the key criterion for what is and is not Hindu. Those who reject Vedic authority are called nāstika (Cārvākas, Buddhists, and Jainas, for example) and are considered non-Hindu. And yet the notion of what truly is Vedic has been interpreted in Hindu tradition in multiple ways—and not as if the question of what merits the honor of being considered Vedic were merely simple or obvious. Two contrasting ways of thinking about what is Vedic have some similarities with two ways that Americans have viewed their Constitution. The first is strict construction or the Founders’ meaning. The second is loose construction or the living document approach. Similar to the first, Veda is understood to refer to the content of the saṃhitās (whether oral or later written). These remain primarily the domain of hereditary lineages of Vedic Brāhmaṇas. Selections from them are chanted in various ritual settings by men who have a hereditary responsibility to act as priests. Similar to the second viewpoint, any teaching or practice that is regarded as derived from or generally consistent with Veda is honored by the adjective Vedic or even the noun “a(nother) Veda.” Hindus from across all social classes and hereditary groups have used the second kind of approach to affirm the Vedic status of their texts, teachers, and practices.

Dharma (Order)

Dharma (which can be loosely glossed as “religion”) is what the Veda reveals. Literally, dharma is “what holds together,” and thus it is the basis of all order, whether natural, cosmic, social, or moral. It is the power that makes things what they are. This idea contains the implication that what Hindus do is more important than what they believe. It was by means of ritual (dhārmic) actions that Vedic culture sought to create, reinvigorate, nourish, and maintain cosmic order. Eventually, as classical Hinduism developed from Vedic roots, not just specific rituals but every human action was said to affect the maintenance of social and cosmic order. Dharma, when adhered to, was expected to yield a long, robust life full of happiness and blessings.

Although dharma is a pivotal concept around which Hindu self-understanding revolves, its range of meanings accounts for much of the tradition’s internal diversity, ongoing tensions, and reinterpretations. There is not a single privileged understanding of dharma, but a network of interactions between different usages. Each use of the term is indebted to, oriented around, and to some extent reflects traditional Brāhmaṇical usage. This brings us back to the authority of Veda, for Veda ultimately reveals dharma.

A major implication of dharma is that the ideal human society is composed of separate status groups arranged in a hierarchy from bottom to top, and each group has inherited or inherent functions that complement those of other groups. There are different types of people with distinctive aptitudes, predilections, and abilities. Hereditary classes or castes (varṇa-dharma) are responsible for social functions that maintain the vertical and horizontal organization of society. In addition, there are stages of life (āśrama-dharma) that support human development toward eventual liberation from saṃsāra—the repetitive cycle of births, deaths, and rebirths. This is varṇāśrama-dharma. There is also sanātana-dharma (“eternal religion”), sva-dharma (“one’s own duty”), āpad-dharma (“law in circumstances of calamity”), yuga-dharma (“law in the context of a particular epoch or time-period”), and sādhāraṇa-dharma (“general obligations”). These areas of application of dharma not only address the fact that humans have different aptitudes, but also acknowledge multiple ways of being and several kinds of spiritual paths, each of which can be a valid way to foster the eventual fulfillment of a particular destiny.

The requirements of responsible worldly life for Hindus involve conforming to social and ritual duties and other rules of conduct for the caste into which one was born, as well as one’s kin group and form of labor. Together these constitute one’s dharma, one’s part in ongoing maintenance of the traditional social and cosmic order. Until recently, it was without question that dharma could be protected or violated only by Hindus because they are subject to its provisions from birth. Outsiders to the varṇāśrama-dharma system, as non-Hindus, had no obligation or any right to uphold it.

Mokṣa (Release)

The requirements of dharma to maintain the traditional social and cosmic order are complemented and completed by the ideal of attaining mokṣa, liberation from the limitations of temporal existence. They are twin values in the tradition, and many teachings seek to harmonize the two sets of values. Although human beings are physical animals governed by social needs who seek to live in harmony with other beings so far as possible, they are also spiritual souls who are destined at some point to transcend human physical and social limitations. A spiritual orientation is a natural consequence of Hindu worldviews that affirm that life always depends on higher, more powerful, more worthy beings and processes. Because of this, every action, person, place, or thing potentially has religious implications. Dharma orders life within time, while mokṣa (release from the otherwise endless cycle of births, deaths, and rebirths) brings ultimate resolution beyond time’s cycles. And yet what the best way is to describe the characteristics of mokṣa—whether as an embodied or disembodied state, as personal or transpersonal—is a matter of continuing debate among various Hindu philosophies, theologies, and scriptures.

Karma and Saṃsāra (Action and Repetition)

Karma and saṃsāra are two concepts that provide a context for appreciating the competing yet complementary value orientations of dharma and mokṣa. Karma literally means “actions” and involves the idea that all actions have effects. In a general sense, the idea of karma teaches that each actor is ultimately responsible for every action they perform. Every cause produces effects, and every action produces results. From this perspective, the present circumstances and character of every place and person are results from past deeds. Although this is an understanding of the world in which there are no mere coincidences or accidents, karma is not a doctrine of despair. Each action when performed creates a residue, a trace, and a dispositional tendency. Past actions made their contributions to forming one’s character and make it vitally important to summon one’s energies and direct one’s efforts toward creating a more honorable and better future.

Saṃsāra is the idea that one’s present life is only the most recent in a long chain of lives extending far into the past. Saṃsāra is “the cycle of births, deaths, and rebirths” and implies that individual identities are temporal and temporary. All who live have passed through countless lifetimes already, in myriad forms other than their current one, and all of those had some bearing on their present life. Each lifetime is a small part in an enduring drama that includes thousands if not millions of lives, nonhuman and human—even if it is inc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• Note on Transliteration
• Acknowledgments
• Contributor Biographies
• Introduction
• Part I What India Has Given to the World
• Part II What India Has Received From the World
• Part III Beyond the Introductory Study of Religions
• Glossary
• Index