Hindu Samskriti Ten Questions About Hinduism people ask and ten terrific answers! -3
Posted in Labels: Hindu Samskriti - Ten Questions About Hinduism -3
Ten Questions
About Hinduism
people ask
…and ten terrific answers!
7. Do Hindus have a Bible?
Our “Bible” is called the Veda. The
Veda, which means
“wisdom,” is comprised of four ancient and
holy scriptures
which all Hindus revere as the revealed word
of God.
Like
the taoist Tao te Ching,
the Buddhist Dhammapada,
the Sikh Adi Granth, the
Jewish Torah,
the Christian Bible
and the Muslim Koran—the
Veda
is the Hindu holy book. The four
books of the Vedas—Rig, Yajur,
Sama and
Atharva—include over
100,000 verses. The knowledge
imparted by the Vedas ranges
from earthy devotion to high philosophy.
Their words and wisdom
permeate Hindu thought, ritual
and meditation. The Vedas are
the ultimate scriptural authority
for Hindus. Their oldest portions
are said by some to date back as
far as 6,000 bce, orally transmitted
for most of history and written
down in Sanskrit in the last
few millennia, making them the
world’s longest and most ancient
scripture. The Vedas open
a rare
window into ancient Indian society,
proclaiming life’s sacredness
and the way to oneness with God.
Elaboration:
For
untold centuries
unto today, the Vedas have
remained the sustaining force
and authoritative doctrine, guiding
followers in ways of worship,
duty and enlightenment. The
Vedas are
the meditative and
philosophical focus for millions of
monks and a billion seekers. Their
stanzas are chanted from memory
by priests and laymen daily
as liturgy in temple worship and
domestic ritual. All Hindus wholeheartedly
accept the Vedas,
yet
each draws selectively, interprets
freely and amplifies abundantly.
Over time, this tolerant allegiance
has woven the varied tapestry of
Indian Hindu Dharma.
Each of the four Vedas has
four sections: Samhitas (hymn collections),
Brahmanas (priestly manuals), Aranyakas
(forest treatises)
and Upanishads (enlightened
discourses). The Samhitas and Brahmanas
affirm that God is immanent and transcendent
and prescribe
ritual worship, mantra and
devotional hymns to establish
communication with the spiritual
worlds. The hymns are invocations
to the One Divine and to
the Divinities of nature, such as
the Sun, the Rain, the Wind, the
Fire and the Dawn—as well as
prayers for matrimony, progeny,
prosperity, concord, protection,
domestic rites and more.
The Aranyakas and Upanishads
outline the soul’s evolutionary
journey, provide yogic philosophical
training and propound
realization of man’s oneness with
God as the destiny of all souls.
Today, the Vedas are
published
in Sanskrit, English, French, German
and other languages. But it is
the popular, metaphysical Upanishads
that have been most amply
and ably translated.
The Vedas advise: “Let there be
no neglect of Truth. Let there be
no neglect of dharma. Let there
be no neglect of welfare. Let
there be no neglect of prosperity.
Let there be no neglect
of study
and teaching. Let there be no
neglect of the duties
to the Gods
and the ancestors” (Taittiriya
Upanishad 1.11.1). “United your
resolve, united
your hearts, may
your spirits be one, that you may
long together
dwell in unity and
concord!” (Rig Veda 10.191.4).
“There, where there is no darkness,
nor night, nor day, nor being, nor
nonbeing, there is the Auspicious
One, alone, absolute and eternal.
There is the glorious splendor of
that Light from whom in the beginning
sprang ancient wisdom”
(Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4.18).
“Taking as a bow the great weapon of the Upanishad, one should
put upon it an arrow sharpened by meditation.
Stretching it with
a thought directed to the essence of That,
penetrate that Imperishable
as the mark, my friend” (Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.3)
8. Why do many Hindus wear a dot
near the middle of their forehead?
The dot worn on the forehead is a religious
symbol.
It represents divine sight and shows that one
is
a Hindu. For women, it is also a beauty mark.
T he
dot worn between the
eyes or in the middle of the
forehead is a sign that one is
a Hindu. It is called the bindi in
the Hindi language, bindu in
Sanskrit
and pottu in Tamil. In olden
days, all Hindu men and women
wore these marks, and they both
also wore earrings. Today it is the
women who are most faithful in
wearing the bindi.
The dot has a mystical meaning.
It represents the third eye of spiritual
sight, which sees things the
physical eyes cannot see. Hindus
seek to awaken their inner sight
through yoga. The forehead dot
is a reminder to use and cultivate
this spiritual vision to perceive
and better understand life’s inner
workings—to see things not just
physically, but with the “mind’s
eye” as well. The bindi is
made
of red powder called sindur, traditionally
made from powdered
turmeric and fresh lime juice, or
from sandalpaste or cosmetics.
In addition to the simple dot,
there are many types of forehead
marks, known as tilaka in
Sanskrit. Each mark represents
a particular sect or denomination
of our vast religion. We have four
major sects: Saivism, Vaishnavism,
Shaktism and Smartism.
Vaishnava
Hindus, for example, wear a vshaped
tilaka made
of white clay.
Elaborate tilakas are
worn by
Hindus mainly at religious events,
though many wear the simple
bindi,
indicating they are Hindu,
even in the general public. By
these marks we know what a person
believes, and therefore know
how to begin conversations.
For Hindu women, the forehead dot is also a
beauty mark, not
unlike the black mark European and American
women once wore
on the cheek. The red bindi is
generally a sign of marriage. A
black bindi is
often worn before marriage to ward off the evil eye.
As an exotic fashion statement, the
dot’s color complements the color
of a lady’s sari. Ornate bindis are
even worn by actresses in popular
American TV shows.
Elaboration:
Men and women
of a particular religion wishing to
identify themselves to one another
often do so by wearing distinctive
religious symbols. Often these are
blessed in their temples, churches
or synagogues. Christians wear a
cross on a necklace. Jewish boys
wear small leather cases that
hold scriptural passages, and the
round cap called yarmulka.
Sikh
men wear their hair in a turban.
In many countries, Muslim women
cover their head with a scarf,
called hajib.
Do not be ashamed to wear the
bindi on
your forehead in the
United States, Canada,
Europe or
any country of the world. Wear
it proudly. The forehead dot will
distinguish you from all other
people as a very special person, a
Hindu, a knower of eternal truths.
You will never be mistaken as belonging
to another nationality or
religion. The sacred forehead dot
is an easy way of distinguishing
Hindus from Muslims. And don’t
be intimidated when people ask
you what the dot means. Now you
have lots of information to give a
good answer, which will probably
lead to more questions about your
venerable religion.
For both boys and girls, men
and women, the dot can be small
or large depending on the circumstance,
but should always be there
when appropriate. Naturally, we
don’t want to flaunt our religion
in the face of others. We observe that many
Christian men and
women take off or conceal their crosses in
the corporate business
world. Some communities and institutions
disallow wearing religious
symbols entirely.
9. Are the Gods of Hinduism really married?
It is true that God is often depicted with a
spouse in our
traditional stories. However, on a deeper,
philosophical
level, the Supreme Being and the Gods are
neither
male nor female and are therefore not
married.
I n
popular, village Hinduism
God is represented as
male, and God’s energy,
or Shakti, is personified as His
spouse—for example, Vishnu and
Lakshmi. In Hindu temples, art
and mythology, God is everywhere
seen as the beloved, divine
couple. Philosophically, however,
the caution is always made that
God and God’s energy are One,
and the metaphor of the inseparable
divine couple serves only to
illustrate this Oneness.
Hinduism is taught on many
levels to many different people,
and to uneducated people who
are not able to understand high
philosophy, Hinduism is taught
in story form. Because the temple
is the center of every Hindu
community, and everyone is focused
on the temple and the Gods
within it, the Gods are the major
players in these stories. Hindus
who understand the higher philosophy
seek to find God on the
inside while also worshiping God
in the temples. Simple folk strive
to be like a God, or like a Goddess.
These tales, called Puranas, have
long been the basis of dance, plays
and storytelling around the fire in
the homes to children as they are
growing up. The stories illustrate
how a family should live, how
they should raise their children,
and much more. Before the printing
press, there were few books,
and Hinduism was conveyed orally
through stories and parables.
While these often violent children’s
tales should not be perpetuated,
there remains much of value in the
extensive writings of the Puranas.
Elaboration:
Those who learn the higher Hindu philosophies
know that Gods are neither male nor female.
In fact, attaining
to that Godly level of being is one of the
mystical goals of yoga.
This is accomplished by blending the feminine
and masculine
currents, ida and
pingala, into
the spiritual current, sushumna,
in the center of the spine within
each individual.
Hindus know that the Gods do
not marry, that they are complete
within themselves. This unity is
depicted in the traditional icon
of Ardhanarishvara, Siva as half
man and half woman, and in the
teaching that Siva and Shakti are
one, that Shakti is Siva’s energy.
Siva is dearly loved as our Father-
Mother God. Yet, sexual gender
and matrimonial relations are
of the physical and emotional
realms, whereas the Gods exist
in a stratum that far supersedes
these levels of life. For that matter,
the soul itself is neither male
nor female.
Some modern swamis now
urge devotees not to pay any attention
to Puranic stories about
the Gods, saying that they have
no relationship with the world
today—that they are misleading
and confusing and should no longer
be taught to the children. Instead,
they encourage followers
to deepen themselves with the
higher philosophies of the Vedic
Upanishads and the realizations
of Hindu seers.
Other faiths sometimes criticize
the Hindu religion as a sort
of comic-book religion, and we
should not be part of perpetuating
that image by passing on such misconceptions
as the marriage of the
Gods. Other religions move and
adjust with the times. Hinduism
must also do so. It must offer answers
to the questions about God,
soul and world—answers that are
reasonable, that can be understood and
accepted even by a child,
that are coherent, sensible and strictly in
accord with scripture and
tradition. This is necessary in the
technological age, necessary in
order that Hinduism will be a religion of the
future, not of the past.
10. What about caste and untouchability?
Caste is the hereditary division of Indian
society based on
occupation.
The lowest class, deemed untouchables, suffer
from
discrimination and mistreatment. It is
illegal in India
to discriminate
against, abuse or insult anyone on the basis
of caste
Caste,
from the Portuguese
casta, meaning
“clan” or “lineage,”
refers to two systems
within Hindu society. The first is
varna, the division of society into
four groups: workers, business
people, lawmakers/law enforcers
and priests. The second is jati,
the
thousands of occupational guilds
whose members follow a single
profession. Jati members
usually
marry within their own jati and
follow traditions associated with
their jati.
In urban areas they often
enter other occupations, but
still usually arrange marriages
within the jati.
Wealth, especially in urban
areas, often trumps caste. Industrialization
and education have
greatly altered India’s jati system
by eliminating or changing the
professions upon which it was
originally based, and opening
new employment options. The jatis
are evolving to function today
less like guilds and more like large
clans of related families. At the
bottom are the so-called untouchables,
who perform the dirtiest
jobs and have suffered much like
the black people of America, who
were freed from slavery just 138
years ago. Strong laws have been
passed in India to end caste-based
discrimination. Modern Hindus
rightly deplore caste abuse and
are working to set matters right.
Just as in the US, it is a difficult
task that will take decades, especially
in the villages.
Elaboration:
Caste is, no doubt,
the biggest stick that Hindus get
beaten with. It is taught as the
defining attribute, or fatal flaw, of
Hinduism in Western schools. Untouchability
as a formal system
shocks Westerners. One response we can make
is to separate social
stratification from the issue of racial/class
discrimination.
First issue: social stratification. India is one of the world’s oldest
societies. It has sustained a continuity
of culture and religion for
thousands of years. Europe,
on the
other hand, has seen millenniums
of upheaval. Still, one only has to
go back to before the 17th-century
industrial revolution to find a social
system that is similar to caste. European
society then comprised the
landed elite (including royalty, a
hereditary caste maintained to this
day), merchants, artisans and peasants.
The artisans formed guilds,
occupation-based organizations
that served both as closed unions
and marketing monopolies. The
guild legacy remains in Western
surnames such as Smith, a metal
worker. There was no public education
system, and each generation
learned at home the family occupation.
There was little technological
change, so jobs were static.
Industrialization
and public education
altered (but did not destroy) this
class system in the West, just as
they are changing caste and jati in
India today.
Second issue: racial/class discrimination.
Most Indians are unfamiliar
with the extent of discrimination
in the West today. In America,
for example, hundreds of thousands
live destitute and homeless
on city streets, as true “untouchables.”
US cities are more racially
segregated than before the 1950s
Civil Rights Movement because
of “white flight” to the suburbs.
Black Americans receive harsher
sentences than white Americans
for the same crime. Many Native
American Indians live at the
bottom of society, destitute and
alcoholic, on barren Indian reservations.
This kind of response—we can call it the
“You’re one, too”
defense—doesn’t mean Hindus should not work
much harder to
end caste discrimination. But it reminds
others that no country in
the world is yet free from racial
discrimination
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My
humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya
Subramuniyaswami
ji, Hinduism Today dot com for the collection)
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