Hinduism

Dinesh Chandra

• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9789385975431
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Hinduismo

This book is, thus, an effort to compile the history, development and the basic tenets of Hinduism which guide the way of life of one fifth of humanity on earth. Effort has been made to include only the basic information that has helped a Hindu to choose a desired path from amongst the many that have been lighted up by Hindu sages to achieve their goal, that of attaining 'Moksha' or 'Mukti', which means that he or she obtains relief from the cycle of birth and death through good Karmas. This is the central precept of Hinduism. Interaction with people in foreign countries, other than Hindus, reveals that they have little knowledge about Hinduism. It is learnt that British schools have a period or two, in class eight, to deal with all religions which is obviously insufficient to make a child of that age to even understand the actual meaning of the word religion. Hindus who migrated abroad from India at a young age and those who were born abroad, except for Mauritius and Fiji islands where Hindus have lived as a cohesive community for over a century, and those who have continued to maintain their links with their original faith, many have started losing touch with the basics of their religion. Generally, there is a perceptible lack of authentic knowledge about the beginnings of Hindu religion and its evolution over the ages into what it represents today.

Chapter 1

Beginnings of Hinduism

One of the many human races that branched out from the Persian region in ancient times was known as Aryans. One of their branches came to India, described as Indo-Aryans by historians. The way of life followed by this specific branch of Aryans was based on the teachings of Vedas, words that are believed to have come down directly from that unseen Almighty who created this universe. Vedas are known as Shrutis (revelations that are heard). They brought their faith and their way of life to India which, with time, mingled freely with the cultures and beliefs of the numerous tribes that inhabited the sub-continent for ages before their arrival. Mutual influence of each on the other produced a new way of life, an amalgam of sorts, that we call Hinduism. It has taken some four to five thousand years of constant evolution and development of their spiritual philosophy. Their way of life is now a glorious example of how people of different faiths can live together, harmoniously, without having to sacrifice their individuality. Thus, theirs has been a post-modern way of life, for over four thousand years; a concept that is being propagated by the elite amongst thinkers in the modern world now.

Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of human needs talks of three more steps beyond the basic biological needs, namely those of ‘comfort’, ‘recognition’ and ‘self-actualization’. These, perhaps, relate more to the corporate world where a person has to grow in a competitive environment. There is another step, the need of a thinking mind, namely ‘Self Realization’. This need could manifest itself any-where, any time, in the chain of needs, without fulfillment of the other needs before its emergence. Self-realization is, perhaps, the most impelling need of a modern mind, even when materialism has superseded all other needs. This quest goes on simultaneously till a man can find peace with himself (his conscience) and his work and living environment.

A thinking person is obsessed with questions like the ‘purpose of life’ or ‘whether there is a purpose to life’ and the never ending quest to find the answer to ‘who am I’. While many thoughts emerged with the passage of time in human development, some took the shape of ‘religion’, which inherently implied a halt to further pursuit of answers to such questions. Many got satisfied with the explanations put out before them and felt comfortable with the others doing all the thinking for them.

But, some did not think that these questions were answered fully. They continue to toy with the various explanations, like experimentation with ideas, to find the truth. This has given rise to a group of people who are now called Hindus. They have not been able to subscribe to any dogma so far that may fully answer the basic queries. They have their own theories. We shall trace the beginnings of this group of people, and their way of life, called Hinduism.

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Chapter 2

Quest for Truth

Religion has remained a great source of inspiration for mankind in its quest for survival amid the host of adversities, both natural and man made. When we study the development of human mind ever since its emergence on earth, especially in comparison to its predecessor bipeds, we find that homo- sapiens has been blessed with a superior brain than any other living being on earth. It is the brain that makes it superior to others even though many other species have far greater physical attainments and means of survival in putrid and near suffocating environments where they seem to flourish. Adaptability to survive in hostile environments does make millions of living species far superior to humans in purely physical terms. But none of them have been able to think beyond the need to survive and procreate. Nature has helped them to devise ingenious ways to evade predators.

The sheer number of species discovered so far nears some forty million of them, living under water, on the surface of the earth and many remain suspended in air. Their life spans range from a mere seconds and minutes to over hundred years during which they mature, indulge in sexual activities required for reproduction of their species, spend their youth in whatever they perceive as merry making and, finally, die naturally, unless they are gobbled up by some other as food.

Perhaps this cycle of birth and death fascinated man and made him think about the unseen force that made it all happen. Some saw the happenings as nature’s plan that every thing that moves is food for mankind just as it was for others. Some others felt that man was made differently by that unseen force and did not have to follow the ways of other living beings and should find a more refined way of meeting its needs of food and drink.

The thoughts developed with time and no one can state with certainty as to when a particular thought got crystallized. The generally well known thoughts are ascribed to periods when mankind found the way to transfer his thoughts to writing. But many thoughts survived through words of mouth from generation to generation before being put on paper.

As is believed, the origin of man (homo-sapiens) took place some two hundred and fifty thousand years ago, somewhere in South Africa. With time, he branched out to all parts of the world. Many races were formed, as affected by the climate and living environments of the new habitats. Different languages, food habits and social manners came into being, with the wise and wily ones exerting their influence in different groups. These groups could well be described as races and their sub groups as tribes.

A reading of the now available scientific study of man’s origins and the course of development from his initial way of life to modern times shows how he surmounted several obstacles to dominate nature to make his way of life so different from that of the aborigines who are still found in many parts of the world. The progress has been the result of a constant endeavour of human mind to go beyond the basic needs of a living organism, namely food, water, air and reproduction of species.

Anthropologists and sociologists have recorded the various stages of development of mankind over the ages. Their findings are supported by scientific evidence that they collected during their researches and cannot be faulted. We have, thus, an authentic account of human development ever since its appearance on this planet. This account does not support the common view of the people who generally rely upon descriptions found in their scriptures or related mythological stories about the origins of man. However, we shall only refer to the mythological stories that tell us about creation of man by the Almighty in our book since a common man considers them far more authentic than the theory of evolution of species. After all, these stories form the bedrock of his belief in the Almighty.

A common man is neither educated enough to understand the scientific explanations nor does it affect his daily life. He is dependent upon nature for his survival and is more concerned with the vagaries of nature that affect the availability of food, water and shelter for him and his family. Adverse effects of natural disasters make him mortally afraid of natural phenomena like lightening, thunder, drought or floods. Similarly, creatures like snakes which could slither up surreptitiously and kill one with a mere bite are still feared. His fears make him pray for nature’s benevolence. He, thus, continues to pray to these phenomena or the related deities which were conjured up by his imagination and flights of fancy. Such imaginations are strengthened through experiences of people who had a flare for such activities, like the witch doctors, who still survive wherever modernism has not made sufficient inroads. It must be stated in their defense that they held their people together in times of distress, even though, with time, many of their concepts were transformed into strong superstitions which continue to have a hold on human mind.

Hindus like to perform many rituals relating to various life events as a matter of tradition even though not many may be aware of the genesis and background of these rituals; even when they have been performed in their families for ever. This is especially so for modern Hindus who may have missed out on the joy of hearing bed time stories from their mothers or grand mothers as has been the practice in Hindu families for ages. Such stories relate to various mythological events that form the base for a majority of their festivals and rituals. We shall find references to such stories in this book.

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Chapter 3

Purpose of Religion

It is important to understand the purpose of religion before we go any further. As per Oxford Dictionary, religion is ‘belief in the existence of god or gods, who has/have created this universe and given man a spiritual nature which continues to exist after the death of the body’. Another definition is ‘particular system of faith and worship based on such a belief; like the Christian, Buddhist and Hindu religions’. The third definition is ‘controlling influence on man’s life, something one is devoted or committed to’.

The above meanings are fairly restrictive in as much as they do not throw any light on the purpose of religion in a man’s life. We must be able to understand at the very outset whether any of the above three meanings are relevant to a man’s existence on earth. Does he require believing in a god or gods for his existence? Should he be grateful for his being here in his present form to anyone? Is it necessary for him to discover the source of his creation and why? At best, it could be an idle curiosity for no one has been able to find the source so far. The world has been busy battling over the issue since time immemorial. There are so many conjectures, some supported by claims of someone having received the so called ‘revelations’ from the Almighty, some claimed to have been sent by Him directly to enlighten the world about Him and some claimed to be the incarnation of God in human form since man could only understand the word when he got it from another human being. So what is the importance of believing in a supernatural power?

The second meaning of religion leads to the question of why so many different ‘faiths’ came into being? If the Almighty wished the entire humanity to follow one set of values and faith in Him, He could as well have done so Himself. Why did He leave this task to His messengers who, themselves being human, suffered from similar inadequacies that He wanted them to get over? After all, history tells us that none of them were perfect and, in retrospect, people find so many faults in their personal lives.

The third definition, that religion has ‘a controlling influence on a man’s life’ makes one wonder whether religion should ‘control’ a man’s behaviour or ‘mould’ it to conform to accepted values.

A deeper analysis of the requirement of religion in one’s life should make us examine the evolutionary process that led a caveman to become a modern man. This progress has been very slow and far between till the advent of scientific inventions that led to closer interaction between people living far apart, in different corners of the world.

Simply put, each tribe had a world of its own. As they progressed towards growing their food, instead of gathering it from wherever nature grew it for them, they started settling down. This led to seeing the resources of nature as property which, initially, belonged to the whole tribe in their settlement. With time, individuals started owning land, houses, animals and a family (including a wife or wives) to call their own. This required formulation of a set of rules to regulate life; different tribes formulating their own set of rules according to their perception of right and wrong. Much later, the concept of society, as we know of it now, came into being. This required widening the scope of local rules to bring about commonality of behaviour in the number of tribes that got together to form the society of like minded tribes. Those who did not think alike chose to stay away. In due course, these rules came to take the shape of laws to govern the conduct of people who chose to stay together. These came to be understood as Societal Laws or Customs and Traditions of that society.

It may seem simplistic to accept this analysis without looking into the inherent nature of man that did not allow for a smooth transition from his roots; of being a caveman for thousands of centuries; when he roamed as a loner and the only rule that prevailed was ‘might is right’. He had all the beastly instincts of self preservation and sexual activity (for procreation of species) besides development of emotional qualities that are rather specific to human beings. Societal laws were formulated to suppress the emotions of greed, violence and lust that affected harmony in society. Such emotions are now termed as negative emotions.

Mere statement of a law does not ensure its compliance. Man’s nature could not be overcome by other men wanting him to act in a particular way unless he himself controlled his negative emotions. Fear of physical retribution by society does not prevent him from satisfying his inborn urges as he can find ways of subverting man made systems that keep check on an individual’s activities. Therefore, a need was felt to find ways to make one accept societal needs as superior to individual needs. This gave rise to the concept of ‘religion’. Fear of societal punishment had to be replaced by development of man’s conscience to firstly know and understand the difference between what is right and what is wrong by the standards of society and, subsequently, to make him averse to indulging in wrong acts by his conscience.

Fear of the Unknown forms the intermediate stage in controlling a man’s urge to indulge in wrong acts. The concept of an Unknown Force that has to be feared by all, including the physically strong ones, can be seen to have existed in all tribes across the world in the history of human development. Natural happenings like lightening, thunder, rain, storms and floods were seen to be God’s (God is that Unknown, who is referred to by several local names in each tribe, till date, since ages) punishment for an act prohibited by the laws of a tribe. The idea was reinforced by the local priest (also called witch doctor), who generally was a clever, crafty and scheming fellow, and could perform miracles (to an ignorant mind) to help or harm someone through the powers claimed by him to have been bestowed on him by their God. Even today, there is no dearth of witch doctors, even in the so called advanced societies.

Thus, the concept of God, the Almighty, came into being. A common man was kept in dark about how He was discovered. Only His chosen ones could’ converse with Him, some could even see Him, but that required some very special qualifications which were not easily acquired. It is interesting to note that most such happenings took place when mankind was emerging from the age of darkness. People were largely naive and would accept the word and advice of anyone in authority. Complete nations changed their religion on the dictate of their ruler. If only a similar thing could happen now, we could find human kind adopting a single religion; that of ‘Humanity”.

From the above deliberations, it becomes clear that the ‘purpose of religion’ is to mould the minds of people to behave in a manner that does not interfere with the personal lives of others; that respects the laws made by society to regulate their way of life and ensures harmony and peace all around. That their religious beliefs, which are cultivated from one’s childhood, act as the prime source of self-control towards this end. Apart from this, they are free to act and live in any manner they choose to as long as they do not harm others. This, in Hindu parlance, is called one’s Dharma, what others like to call religion. We will examine the larger definition of Dharma later in the book.

If we understand the purpose of religion in this vein, we would be able to appreciate the variety of local and regional concepts of God and various gods and goddesses that exist in different societies. They have been seen and worshipped as moulders of the destinies of those who believed in them since time immemorial; and there is no need to interfere with their beliefs; because their beliefs have guided their destinies for so long. Anyone who is capable of comprehending a bigger picture of God will do so on his own.

All religions have emerged as the need of their times and have catered for societal changes that were needed in the region of their origin. When we speak of universal relevance of any religion, we only refer to some specific tenets of that religion which hold universal values; of compassion, love and harmony in society. There are several aspects in each religion that have no relevance to the life and culture of regions other than where a particular religion took its initial form. For how can one preach ‘vegetarianism’ to Eskimos? What is relevant in a desert is irrelevant in a fertile river valley.

We should look for the universal values contained in each religion, ones that have come to be accepted by mankind as a whole and are universally applicable to all communities. These values need to be collated and a new Code of Conduct be written down for the modern world. This can be considered as the new religion for mankind, Apart from this, people may continue to follow whatever religion they wish to believe in as long as they do not interfere with the provisions of the new Code of Conduct. This would give the desired freedom to an individual to pursue one’s inclinations for believing in whatever satisfies one’s spiritual leanings.

This boils down to accepting a civilized way of life which would be acceptable to all; the very concept of Hinduism, a post-modern outlook; at all times; in all ages; calling of the whole world in modern times.

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Chapter 4

Brief History of Hinduism

The name Hindu was given to the people who inhabited the plains of River Sindhu, which flows from Ladakh in India through the part of Punjab which now lies in Pakistan, into the Arabian Sea, by Greeks and Persians in ancient times. Their land was called Hindustan, their language Hindi and their religion as Hindu. Later on, Sindhu was pronounced as Indus by the British colonizers, giving the sub-continent the name of India and its people as Indians. The people that originally inhabited the Sindhu valley were overwhelmed by people who came into the sub-continent from the Persian region some four to five thousand years ago. This race was known as Aryans. Many believe that they were the original inhabitants of the land. But this is not supported by historical facts that have since been discovered from excavations etc. The pre-Aryan people in the sub-continent comprised of Negritos, Proto-Australoids or Austrics, Mongoloids, Medeterranians or Dravidians and Brachycephals, the broad headed Negroids from Africa. Austrics, people with medium height, dark complexion, long head, low forehead, thick jaws, small chin and flat nose had spread over the whole of India and, in fact, were the founders of the pre-Aryan Indian civilization.

Dravidians, on the other hand, had built up the city civilizations in the valleys of rivers Sindhu and the mythical Saraswati. The remains of Harrappa and Mohan-jo-daro, the two cities that now lie in Pakistan, are regarded to have been Dravidian settlements that flourished between 6000 BCE and 1500 BCE. The Harrappan culture flourished in the regions of western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, along the southern fringes of Kashmir and part of Afghanistan in the North West, including some parts that now lie in Turkmenistan, Balochistan and Sind in the west, and the entire region of present Gujerat and upper Maharashtra. Established in the fertile valleys of rivers Sindhu and the mythical Saraswati, The culture was resplendent with properly organized cities. The archaeological remains of the area have thrown up beautifully laid out cities with underground sewage and drainage systems. The Harrappan way of life was very advanced for its times.

A very large number of seals have been recovered. Absence of remains of tall buildings like palaces or temples has caused some uncertainty about their ruler ship and the religion they practised. But, a seal depicting a three faced man in a yogic posture, surrounded by animals is regarded as the image of Lord Shiva, who is also known as Pashupatinath (master of animals); indicating that they followed a pre Aryan religion that revered Lord Shiva which got absorbed in the Overall Hindu religion after the advent of Aryans. Lord Shiva is considered to be an original Dravidian god who was later depicted as one of the Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. As for their ruler ship, it is presumed that a group of rich traders may have managed the affairs o...