World Religions: Hinduism

good morning everyone and welcome we'll get started here great to see you all this morning for our second lecture in our series of on world religions some of you I know we are this may be if you didn't make it last week and are some of you were in our previous series of lectures that we have over our whole building but we're just starting up with this will be a recurring series different topics well probably in the eight-week lecture series and as you can see especially for last week our topic is going to be world religion so again for those of you who are here last week some people have said well why is the very Christian Church not the minister of this church why are we talking about well religion well partly because that's it some of my disciplinary background in terms of studies that I've done but also because while I am a Christian I come from a Christian worldview I think it's very important for me and in fact for you what never will do you come from in order to be able to sensibly it reasonably articulate what it is you believe well maybe even to decide what it is you believe I think we have to have a broader understanding than many of us do about what are the faith traditions of the world and so if anything being a Christian ministry Christian Church I talk about more religions because we need to decide what we believe but we also in the context of that you can decide what is it we don't believe because religions are very different they are not all the same even though that's perception these days that all religions are basically just just variations of the same themes they are quite different and so we'll get into that today or who are you talking about Hinduism or is our second lecture and we're going to bless we could get an introduction that introduction will be on the internet on our li t website or thinking that website will be later on the so you can get the introduction to world religions which I call the universal human experience the fact that we have never known in any culture anywhere at any time that has not had some kind of religious belief some sort of believe in the supernatural or supernatural beings or something beyond the material world today we're going to be talking about Hinduism which we're doing these in chronological order it was a feat the oldest of the extant meaning still existing world religions and next week we will be looking at Judaism then the religions of India now properly Hinduism is a religion of Indian I could have included different because it's the oldest and to be frank the most complicated in all the world religions and you'll learn that very soon then we needed to talk about it by itself say religions of India the size into has been clue Buddhism Sikhism Jainism all of them having come out of Hinduism originally they have on September 18th religions of trying to in Japan what is usually called the Far Eastern or Far East Asian religions but as I say Far Eastern could be anything beyond that went to Pokemon for us over like all the religions of China in Japan then on the 25th we will talk about Christianity on the 2nd of October Islam which I have let before that was in the last series always the people are very interested in it because what's in the news these days more than as well and then on October 9th was sort of threw up a clean sweep kind of mash up we'll talk about some of us animism New Age atheism especially the New Atheism in secularism and I'll sort of do some concluding remarks as well so that's where we're going in this and we will jump into that as we talked last week there are a lot of different definitions for robber religion actually is generally speaking most people would think of it basic dictionary definition is believing in or worship of God the word God belief in supernatural beings is one of the frequent definitions some people would identify religion is service or worship of God or the supernatural but there actually are a number of religions that don't advocate world religions that don't have the K belief in God in fact when we talk about Hinduism you will be surprised to find out there are many different ways you can look at Hinduism one of them is that it is atheistic that doesn't actually believe in God or date or gods that's very complicated but we're going to get into that that's what were here today so a good definition I think from the global philosophy of religion by Joseph Gonzales as genuine religion is fundamentally a search or eating beyond materialism that means the physical world a world religion tradition is a set of symbols and rituals myths and stories concepts and truth claims which a historical community believes gives ultimate meaning to life via its connections with transcendent beyond the natural order transcendent being something other than us apart from us beyond the natural world so that I think in terms of talking about world religions is a good definition we're looking but I we can conceive of religion as being of three types world religion which we're talking about are those extant still existing that were extant is a good one an important one those extant faiths which are historically transcultural and international not limited to one locale secondly indigenous religions are smaller culturally specific or nation specific religious groups that are in isolated areas are not ruled wide or international and then new religious movements are those faiths that are recently developed when we get to the end of our series the like a lecture I'll talk about animism which in terms of a religious belief or motivation is perhaps the oldest of all but then I also talk about new age new atheism and secularism which are the modern religious movements and people may say atheism is a religious movement absolutely I'm talking about that in terms of religions by size the largest religion in the world is still Christianity at about 2.2 billion people that's about 29 and a half percent of all the population of the world then second is Islam which is at 1.6 billion and I'm sure you've heard or read the Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world but a lot of people don't know it's not the bestest growing because of conversion actually Islam almost a flat conversion rate but it's the best destroying that Gaza birth rate the countries where Islam is the dominant or in some cases almost entirely the religious scene those are countries that have some of the highest birth rates in fact the talks I did in the last series I talked about the conflict why they can't find peace in Israel one of the reasons that campaign hasten Israel is that the Jewish nation of Israel cannot be of the vote or you know one man one low one person one vote to the Muslim Palestinians because they outnumber them and their birth rate is growing much faster that differentiation is going you know the difference is growing even faster and the nation of Israel which was founded as a nation to give the Jewish people refuge they feel if they give equality of vote to the Muslim Palestinians who are already bigger and growing faster than eventually that we wanted out of existence as a Jewish nation and that's one of the reasons there's a problem so Islam is growing fastest but it's primarily because a birth rate they add in Hinduism about 1.1 billion now these numbers you'll notice that they're they're very general and they're not exact Hinduism if you study it you'll get people saying anything from 800 800 thousand to 2.2 million double this number depending on who you ask but this is a widely accepted number and then Buddhism the Chinese traditional religions etc we'll get into some more of those later I showed you this map last week briefly it is a distribution of world religions today the major and in each case McCullough represents the dominant religions and we will be talking today about this area the green which is India Nepal Bhutan are the areas where Hinduism is the dominant religion a lot of people think of Buddhism in Nepal but still Hinduism is the dominant religion here so this part of South Asia is where we are talking about today in terms of data founding at our dimension Hinduism is the oldest growth religion it was founded somewhere between 4000 and 2500 BC so we're talking six thousand to four thousand five hundred years ago some people what advocator would say that the basis of Hindu religion maybe as much as up is a hundred thousand BC at the oral traditions that led to modern Islam now that's way before writing began writing again sometime in the fourth millennium BC but so they didn't have ready texts but it's believed the oral traditions may inspire that early Judaism is the second oldest of the world religions followed by Buddhism the Chinese traditional religions Shinto which is the national religion of Japan and on down that list Christianity coming right about the middle about thirty ad by our accountant by the way I also mentioned if you read any kind of scholarly or even sort of just general documents these days you will see that it's it's changing from the old designation of BC and 80 BC before Christ ati mobility because of the West we check we changed our calendar at the time of Jesus today they tend to use BCE which means before the Common Era because not of respect to the fact that many people Christian so why have that be done but whole world has gone that way so they came up with a different label so it'll be BCE and then instead of 80 which people don't I the year of our Lord they will use C or common here so before coming here and coming here I don't do that because there's enough stuff that's confusing anyway people are used to see we see an ad so that's what people see be using right now one thing I will point out we'll get into this a little bit later not today but later on lecture series you will notice that from Buddhism Chinese traditional religion Shinto Jainism all of those religions and Chinese tradition includes Confucianism Taoism some Chinese shamanism etc all of those world religions began within about a hundred years of each other it's an extraordinary anthropological phenomenon this era this time is called the axial age and we'll get into that a little bit when we get to Buddhism but this time is what religious motivations or spirit whatever you would say seem to be really exploding in the world especially in Asia because all of these are Asian religions as our most amount of theistic religions come from Middle East the Asian religions are most of the others that we'll be talking about okay that's all by way of preference let's get into our actual discussion of Hinduism Hinduism is not called Hinduism by those who practice it generally it goes by one of two names it's either called and this is these are translations of age sanskrit words sanskrit was the ancient language of India and India by the way we talk about Hinduism began in the in fact it's considered the manifestation of Indian culture and that in those days India included modern-day Pakistan Pakistan was formed in the middle of the 20th century it used to be part of India but the subatomic arm I meant by deep that Dharma mean in Sanskrit the internal way the law again we have to be careful translating words into word from other languages to our language because they don't always mean the same thing I think adharma leads the way or law of the Vedas they doubt the ancient writings which again some people believed again at an oral tradition as much as a hundred thousand years ago but certainly we know that there's evidence of them having being part of the real tradition by about 6,000 years ago now we know this as Hinduism the word Hindu is not originally a Sanskrit word Sanskrit being the ancient language of Fr liberal Hindi is the most popular language now and most of the languages in India and those areas developed across the ancient language of Sanskrit now just like most of the languages that we know today developed from Latin or Greek you know Greek is still spoken lap is not spoken anymore but their Latin roots are almost all our languages the same things true Sanskrit and some of the languages in this indo-european kind of language groups but Hindu most likely comes from an ancient named for the indus river river that runs through farah what we know of as Pakistan Park now western India the name in the ancient version of that river was Shin doom or sometimes Hindu and the rage' therefore the Persians conquered that area the region was called Hindustan the inhabitants of epic region were called Hindus and the religion they practice which they were practicing before the Persians or anybody else got there was called Hinduism now it is as I've already said the world's oldest extant religion we believe it started sometime 10,000 BC to 5000 BC but it is quite different as a religion because Hinduism has no single founder it has no prophets all of his teachers who ruses Swami's people who were monks who broke out the Vedas by inspiration of Brahma the Great God they believe it has no single concept of deity there is no central theological system Singles theological system no single holy texts no single central religious authority it is in many ways not fitting into any traditional definition of religion in terms of a three-goal system of beliefs you don't have to believe any particular things to claim your headman in fact Hinduism has variously and still today is variously perceived as being monotheistic meaning one God as polytheistic meaning many gods as penalty as thick meaning there are a lot of gods but we pick one to worship as pantheistic meaning all things are part of God as pantheistic meaning all things are part of God and God is more that have deistic meaning God created the world but then he sort of absorbed himself into the world that doesn't exist a part of the world anymore or even an atheist that God does not exist and so is it's almost unfortunate we started into ISM honey biscuits because it is very complicated I mean they have had 10 to 12 thousand years perhaps to develop and accrual of various kind of beliefs in various kinds of traditions one of the concepts of Hinduism is what's called the ashati body which means in sanskrit the chosen deity the idea that everyone must find their own best way to get to the ultimate reality which is called brahman I'll talk about that a few minutes and so therefore traditionally Hinduism has been extraordinarily tolerant you can believe almost anything and be okay with most Hindus never admit it recent history particularly event in the 1990s there was a very nationalistic very conservative Hindu government the king of the power in India and for a period of that government being in control they became very throw in to and very anti anything else it was a lot of persecution of Christians especially in India in that time but that government is gone back out they returned to a very tolerant approach but the reason that they're tolerant is the cause began there is there's no single kind of thing that you can call him do is it freely they do have common philosophy they do have some common expectations in terms of what the goals of life are etc but it is very different it is a conglomeration a very different rule they just fill us up on the cultural ideas the one thing that they especially have and as they all did originated in what was that India and some of those beliefs summit police that do carry over from the various schools and things we'll talk about the schools are reincarnation the absolute being of Brahman who is represented in multiple manifestations they believe in the law of cause and effect what we call karma what we know of what they call karma what we know of as Burma they believe in following up half of righteousness and a desire for liberation from the cycle of births and deaths the reincarnation is part of what everyone experiences but the goal is to get out of that movie we'll talk about that so their habit are thousands of different religious groups all of the ways got very different focus but all of which consider themselves part of the Hindu faith now part of what happened is as various people down through the millennia have invaded India they have influenced the development of the Hindu culture and religious disease in particular it hinduism tended before about 800 a.d so we're talking 12 years ago 800 a.d is when islam conquered all of that part of the world prior to islam coming in and conquering this area hinduism was pretty clearly polytheistic meaning they believed in many different gods well islam came in and the fundamental principle of as long as there is only one god fact the statement of faith it is love is there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet so the idea of having multiple gods did not go over very well with the Muslim rulers they actually gave considerable religious freedom but they did influence the religion because starting about the peak eight hundreds instead of a polytheistic Hinduism began to change into more of a monotheistic view but with the idea that the one God or the one ultimate reality they don't call it a government they don't think he is perfect as a personality in the way we think of God that Brahman the ultimate reality the one that encompasses everything he was he has been manifest or incarnated to use a more of a term Christians are more used to incarnated in various different deities that have come to earth those deities are called avatars avatar is not just a movie with blue balloon avatar means a DNA that has become taken on flesh and come to earth on purpose and so the idea became that after the influence of Islam and Hinduism Tibet brahmana is the one God there is only one God but could he has been manifested or incarnated in various avatars and that's sort of how they merge those two believes some I think that it's not unfair at all to say that most Hindus are still what we would have to consider effectively from the outside as being polytheistic now where do they get these beliefs Hinduism has a number of different religious texts which they call Shastras in fact the first group there's there's two main groups I'm going to put this up there the two main groups are called Shruti which means her literature it's heard because these these were her remembered and orally transmitted and later written down by Hindu monks and Hermits who lived in the forest it is believed that it is her because this was given by Rama it was given by the one ultimate reality to them they didn't make this up so they believed it is revealed in InfraGard and there are two main parts to the trudy truly the heard texts are the most important in terms of the faith the first and most important and oldest of these are called the Vedas the Vedas were oral prior to 5000 BC they were written down probably very early in the history of written literature all they are considered with the possible exception of some of the Egyptian pyramid texts they're considered some of the oldest religious writings in history there are four major Vedas the Rig Veda sama Veda Yajur Veda and atharvaveda and each of them focuses of a different thing the Rig Veda which is most important they're all list of all our hymns of praise and knowledge of the Divas in addition to believing in God again this is so complicated but everything on the side of one time in addition to major gods they believed in they also believe that there are celestial beings sort of angelic beings which are also God's minor gods that are called divas for that word go from comes from it means a divine v game and so we call something a diva that means all they're just a divine singer or whatever but the Divas is believed there are 330 million plus of these smaller gods that exist and so the Rigveda the oldest is the hymns of praise of knowledge of the day that's the the 330 million gods the sama Veda is wisdom for the priests to proclaim sacrificial chance the other way that is knowledge of sacrificial rituals for individuals and the atharvaveda is the knowledge of the incarnations of the deity the Brahma in two people now the authority that is not very popular because it's believed that it is a revelation about the gods that is so powerful that it is not to be red light in fact they say women have had miscarriages from reading this without taking proper precautions so they believe there is real power in these those are the Shruti Vedas the second kind of should be we heard literature is the apana shot dupatta shots are often referred to they are perhaps the most popular of the old ancient writings of Shruti they deal with the nature of ultimate reality they are the foundation of all Hindu philosophical thought and you'll sometimes you know people talking about ancient important documents you'll hear them say cause I remember us all play Watson humors plan which lily tomlin was ended and she said also really water shot ancient Hindu document that expands the philosophy of Hindu in the nature of ultimate and then the second big kind of religious text a big category is the 3d which are memorized or remember poetry or epics the word actually need to memorize so remember they came much later and they are not considered revealed at the same way as the famous but they are more popular because they are easier to read you're not as heavy they are often memorized with given the title one of them is called a trauma jana which means Rama's journey it is the most popular of all the epics these are epic epic poems and epic stories it's the story of a royal couple and it deals with their relationship and the relationships that give ideals about what what an idea water should be an ideal serving their brother a wife and King and then you have the Mahabharata the Mahabharata is the world's longest epic poem it deals with the philosophy and devotion it has to do with two families it's sort of a you know a Hatfields of McCoys or a romeo giulia there are two major princely families that are fighting each other and in the process of telling that story it gets into all sorts of truths about what's important what devotion real devotion is one part of that is the bhagavad-gita which is the most popular of all of the writings that can be in Buddhism it's that is literally the song of the adorable one it is about French are two men and his chariot driver happens to be Krishna which is a avatar a manifestation of Vishnu one of the great gods and Arjuna is getting ready to fight in this war with a against their family but he realizes he has relatives there if he doesn't want to fight because he feels like he might end up killing or hurting someone that that he has affiliation with her affection for and Krishna convinces him that he has a responsibility to fulfill his destiny and his destiny is to be a warrior and eventually Arjuna accepts that but in the process of that discussion we find a lot out about selfless action in fact Mahatma Gandhi the founders of the Indian also the founders of the Indian nation and others slows to the bhagavad-gita from what other exploration about being selfless of Mahatma Gandhi called this his spiritual diary because it was from that that we learned the responsibility for selfless action today there are other kinds of writings the sutras a collection of aphorisms of various kinds you may have heard the term Kama Sutra Sutra are sort of one-liners a book of one-liners but kama is the seeking of sensual pleasure the Kama Sutra is a sex manual dating which is one of the reasons has been very popular in the last tantric sex but you also have the Puranas the yada yada am I going to get a lot of detail to those but there are a lot of these documents in fact as I said the Ramayana is in seven volumes and it's not the longest of these the Hindu writings have been accumulating over thousands of thousands of years and they're huge and they're sections of it that Hindus probably never read there are other sections that are very popular amongst Hindu people and so this is where they get their ideas they believe the beta's especially were inspired by Rama the you know the ultimate reality as what they needed to know in order to live their life directly well yes so how would I guide and how do people get this if they're so being and not everybody has access to it because we need extensive report well much of it is memorized and much of it will be they may not have copies in their homes but there are good do temples and the priests haven't memorized or they have copies available one of the reasons what you love is the viola eat that is part of the Mahabharata and it's the sixth the sixth book in the sixth chapter and so it's a shorter version but they focus on that and so they don't deal with all of this stuff there are certain sections of it that they focus on much more okay but all of it has been influential in the development of Hindu food they can be faked now there are five principles of Hinduism I'm going to give you five principles and four goals and tip disciplines and you know and hard words and fair-trade will get there the five basic principles are one God exists but he does not exist in the form we would think of as a guy he is not a personal God he is the one absolute home you guys have seen movies where somebody sitting on all that sound is believed to be an expression of the one absolute reality who is that is called Brahman and in fact they say that we can do the home we can do that forever when it stops Brahman and habits that silence okay Brahman is a manifest in many different forms he especially is manifest in a trinity of Brahma Vishnu and Shiva talk about the gods in a minute and tell you that that's that's the Trinity if you will those three primer that Brahma ultimate reality is benefits Brahma fifty-fifty Brahma the big reality would Bravo one of his manifestations prabha the Creator Vishnu the preserver Shiva the destroyer secondly they believe that all human beings are divine when you hear people say you know get in touch with the God that is in you that goes back to Hinduism ultimately New Age is a of the New Age movement and much of it is a reflection of ancient Hindu ideas that have sort of a revamped polished and simplified and chief of Phi but the reason why all human beings are divine is because we are all part of the ultimate reality we are all part of the brahmana recording continuously there's also believe in the unity of all existence through love and that includes various disciplines of like non-violence and generosity and various things of that sort there is religious harmony and I mentioned to you earlier the idea that everyone must find their own path to this ultimate reality and so there is historically been a very generous attitude and then there is the knowledge of the three geez they are Gaga or ganja which I don't like to call it ganja love can be pronounced several ways ganja people think you know your resting area but I'm not the sacred river the river which is the Ganges River as we call it is considered a goddess it is the embodiment of all sacred waters and so in news we all regularly in the can if you're close enough or at least once will go dip themselves Ganges River there is neat I which is the sacred scripture bhagavad-gita eat I mean sacred writing and then there's the Gayatri which is a sacred mantra a song or hymn mantra can mean a chant prayer usually prayer but especially when they talk about the Gayatri maybe the Gayatri rod which addresses the Sun God Surya among other things the Hindus worship the celestial bodies the planets the Sun the moon etc pretty much anything falls in here you got three pretty women God so let's talk about the Hindu concept of deity first frog is the one the supreme absolute the unity of all reality again Hindu would say that's not God the way you understand it's not a personal God it's not somebody you could you know you can relate to as directly as you all think they do not see Brahma that way in fact I think the best description for the history of humanism is that it is a hand in theistic religion and in theism means everything is part of God and then God is something plus something okay the Native American religions are them when they talk about the spirit of the mountain of the spirit of the rivers etc but then they have the great spirit which is above even that but all over this part of him I think that's the best way to understand Hinduism that Brahman is the sum of everything and then a little born now Brahman is manifest or incarnated or as avatars the various nine particularly the Tri birthday the tri-party is the Hindu version of adrenaline now these are not individual but dependent again there they're seen as being manifestations of various kinds of Brahman there is Brahma the Creator may you think that he was the big gun but he's not of the nature the ABCs the least in fact he's considered to live on a lotus flower that is in the navel of Michigan who's the second Brahma is the creator fish is the preserver and she is mad fest in a number of avatars the two most popular what you may have heard of Krishna and Rama we have the George Harrison fans here with a song my sweet lord and that very time George Harrison was following the Krishna consciousness the ishka movement and so if the song if you listen to it it says Krishna Krishna Hari Krishna this is one of the manifestations or avatars of Vishnu the protector or preserver God there then is the third is Shiva the destroyer but in destroyer that sounds awfully negative but a lot of people are really keen on Shiva because he's also the remainder he destroys them and rebuilds he reconstituted and so he's seen as been accurately reflecting the nature of human life you know things get broken down anything could go back together so in the dishes again after 30 million days I'm not going to go through the whole list but of the other major gods that you will see mentioned there is Shakti also called Devi who is the divine mother there is Ganesha who's one of the most popular of all the Anu gods and you will recognize the nature because they know is they have an album okay which must have thrilled his mother but doesn't come on Ganesh is to pay for the writing of Arts and Sciences and pieces because it's going to add remover of barriers then you've got Surya which is the chief solar deity the God of the Sun and again they worship with planets as these divas as well now you will notice I have highlighted up here by seventies and she lays and shocky ISM and smart ISM there are four major denominations if you Miller schools within Hinduism and they variously will focus on vaishnavism focuses on the worship of Vishnu that's there and they in fact considered mission to be the supreme god contrary to what other musically those who would recognize shiva as being foremost practice was called shiva ism those who look to the divine mother Shakti worship according to the school of shaktism and then those who looking at a multiple of gods especially five gods which include Ganesha and sure practice was called smart ism or smart man so there are various kind of denominations is not a bad way to think of them within Islam based upon which of the gods they choose to focus on because you can focus on 330 million so they take this symbol which you have probably seen before I know a lot of people think this is Arabic it's not it's Sanskrit this symbol which is actually three characters from Sanskrit is the ohm which is a symbol of Brahma and it's also a symbol of the Ottoman non means soul we have sole personal spirit this simple recognizes the unity between Brahman and our the amount of every person and that's what that symbol is now we'll talk about that mine in a minute what our soul at Brahmin have to do each other the three primary manifestations of Rama the tribe 14 our Brahma the Creator Vishnu the Perfector and Shiva the destroyer in these are some of the ways those are representative these are the primary the Trinity of Islam and the ones you will bump into most often Vishnu we always recognize gushing blue shiva always has the third eye usually has skulls around his neck because he is the destroyed right flat there are 330 million others it turns out Hindu beliefs I want to give you some terms because that's easiest way to talk tough to believe first is Dharma this has nothing to do with that 1990's sitcom Dharma and Greg I always thought that was a fascinating thing to need your daughter Darla Darla actually I have a friend who spectres Christians in England Harman look into that minute Dharma is that which supports the universe in other words it is the way of ripeness or righteousness it is balance it is ultimate truth the goal of every person should be to seek Dharma meaning balance ultimate truth rightness righteousness and that is the dominant sort of philosophical concept it was no sport we then have karma karma is the accumulation accumulated sum of a person's good and bad deeds Hinduism believes that what you do has consequences in that regard they bring the bones as different as their most religious they breathe a pepper dark Pharma can also mean action it triggers a cause-and-effect and particularly the cause of the fact that comes from karma relates to some sorrow samsara is what we call reincarnation or the transmigration of the soul the idea that there is a continuing cycle of birth life death and rebirth that when you die unless you have really achieved the highest level of of Brahma then you will come back to the dead as something else and as a hell friend of mine used to say if you if you live your life and you're really good that you come back to another person if you live your life and you're really bad you come back as a Beatle if you live your life if you're really really really good you don't have to come back at all that's sort of the principle behind that in fact a word altogether minute moksha moksha is the liberation from samsara it's the river look by the being released from the responsibility to have to be reborn again it's sometimes called nirvana you've heard that expression Nirvana is more often used in Buddhism but some sorrow is the Hindu statement and that's where that idea came from and so it literally means one of two things moksha salvation the freedom from samsara either you just are no more you can absorb in the prominent insisting for which is the usual understanding or in some cases Brahma will invite you to come to the highest level of heaven to take to serve him for all eternity but either way to stop emu odd mana is the true is the spirit or the true self of every person that the goal is to try to have your bot on your true spirit United with Brahma that's why the simple folk ramen includes within that that character the simple four problem for the old is also the symbol for the hotend honor its included in avatar I mentioned is a deliberate descent of a deity to birth what most Christians would recognize as an incarnation a mantra is a sacred utterance of sound a syllable or word or group of words it's believed to have power it's especially a prayer those who are recorded at the Vedic scriptures that you learn them they were pre-written you don't make it up as you go along you're reciting something that was written there is yoga which is one of the things that's caused the West to accept the principles of Hinduism Yoga literally is a path or a practice of discipline in which your body mind and spirit all are perfected yoga various paths of yoga are the ways in which you can begin to gain a level of perfection that eventually could lead to not having to be reborn that's one of it the other way is through pooja pooja is worship and worship to a Hindu means purifying through washing the saying of mantras the giving of offerings of saving prayers if you directly do Brahman or to some of his avatars the other gods so through a combination of worship pooja and through disciplining yourself yoga you can become perfective of that you don't have to be reborn buffy is a devotional practice especially given to personal gods because many families will have their own personal God one of these 330 million that they selected as their primary divas I mentioned or the angelic beings of lesser gods of which there are 330 million and I hamsa is with Hindu principle of non-violence you all know about Hindus and calves right if you've ever been to India cows won't wander the streets and know what is allowed to bother them because ahimsa is one of the major disciplines of Hinduism which is non-violence which means not killing any animals the extreme version of that occurs in Jainism the Jainism which is an offshoot of Hinduism is a separate religion what began is so concerned about not killing any creatures that a practicing Jane will wear a mask literally like a surgical mask in order to keep from inhaling an insect and they will carry a little room in order to sweep the sidewalk in front of them so they never step on anything that's a lot they've taken the idea by himself of not of non-violence I'm not killing anything else to the extreme while most Hindus are lacto-vegetarian because if you're not electric vegeterian if you're not vegetarian you have to kill things and a major benefit station of ahimsa non-violence is we don't kill things and the cow especially is seen this representative of the gasps and abner true and so is especially revered in that regard okay but it's an extension of this not handsome now I mentioned Pharma and I mentioned yoga's there are three kinds of karma that you need to understand and for yoga's and I'm not unrealistic I know you're going to retain about three percent of this but you will at least have heard it and so when you hear it again to the future you'll be able to connect with it and I told I warned yet this was complicated okay the most complicated of all the world's religions is Hinduism so of the four corner of us karma remembers accumulated son go to bed all the things that you have done positive negative one the three kinds of farmer there is free amana which is current karma it's what you're doing that in this life what's being done now and you will not know the effects of that until later so if you do good now it's good for your mother if you do bad now you're mean it's bad really the second kind of garment is not cheetah which is accumulating it's all of the Karma from your past lives remember you've been reincarnated you have narmucca previous lives and it has followed you to the present the stuff piles up on you over bad anything so that's such even then there is proud proud of them that is these fruit very far about which means it is the part of the unalterable sanchita you can't do anything about sun TV you can't do anything about the stuff that's happened that you've done in previous lives that past but it's still affection but Prada is the part of sanchita that causes you to be in this situation you're in now the best that I'm in is because as a product on the part of some cheetah previous life so if you are poverty-stricken or sick or whatever there is a kind of fatalism in Hinduism that says well it's because of something you did this is the manifestation of bad works in the past if you're wealthy and actually one of the one of the four four aims of Hinduism as well but if you were wealthy and blessed and that's because the dot the step cheated and followed you from her previous life is positive but either way you were paying consequences for something that happened in a previous life and you can't change that you only deal with it try to be better before next time around okay make sense and I mean complete sense what exactly that there how do you get out of all that one of the primary ways other than worship puja is through yoga yoga are hidden paths or practices of discipline most of you probably or many of you probably didn't know that Yoga is a Hindu concept but within Hinduism there is Karma Yoga which is an action to do what is right in order to make your karma matter that is actually a discipline there is not a yoga which is gaining them knowledge that leads to awareness which causes you to be better there is Raja yoga which is meditation in order to cultivate your line to greater awareness related to job and then there is puffy yoga love toward God abortion Buffy is the word for devotion so a lot or got it butchered those are the four ways using those are kinds of yoga that you can use to try to make yourself better in order to have better overall harmony to have a better information victim now most of you how many of you all have ever taken yoga class you did not do any of that what you did was not a yoga hatha yoga is a secular yoga which was invented and transported to the West which is intended for health and wellness it involves stretching yourself an unnatural contortions in order to discipline your body and to train your mind it involves deep breathing and all sorts of things but that is that that's entirely secular has nothing to do with religious idea if you've gone to a yoga class that doesn't mean you become a Hindu we don't have the yoga's entirely secular okay so you so that you get that now there are four names for rashad us in Hinduism there's also called the doctrine of the fourfold and the Bible purpose of life the hasta Dharma or domestic religion this is for everyday people has four goals for the Prophet d-i by the way I don't read Sanskrit and then there's no perfect way like if you ever read about this stuff you'll see two or three different ways these things are spelled not as medicine it is little because there's no transliteration derivatives you know from the for the Quran for instance in writing that in English but these words are written in different ways but the property D means those in this world the everyday person people or just live in their lives there are four goals first we already mentioned is Dartmouth which is righteousness it is right living doing the right thing that's one of the goals the second goal is Arthur Arthur means the gaining of wealth and material prosperity that's one of the goals of life they do not have a problem with get rich in fact they see that as a sign of you haven't been blessed because of doing good karma in a previous life perhaps even in this life as karma doesn't always just wait till the next level there is the kama member kama sutra kama is the gratification of the sentence it's pleasure its sensuality its sexual and mental enjoyment this one is very popular in 2-axis the Kama Sutra there is also tantric sex the tantric disciplines is another part of Hinduism stay you know staying the evil musical artist is human joins he says he can have sex for four hours at a time because he practices intercepts you're going to run out by itself and moksha walk siya I did you go readies the liberation from the rebirth of samsara that is the supreme goal and everything else has up to that have you practiced the disciplines of yoga have you performed the exit worship the puja have you had devotion the muskie have you fulfilled what the Brahman desires your life and so the goal ultimately the final goal is vulture release from samsara not having to be reborn now those are all for us for very people if you happen to be one of the monks one of the ascetics there's a complete variate there's really only one focus for them they're not supposed to be gaining material wealth or satisfying their senses or whatever they're only focused on a monk shop festival that need lead even ev'ry Theo those who have renounced the world the ascetics and they have only one focus and that is doing the disciplines of worship and yoga in order to be able to be released from samsara now there are ten disciplines which are considered for of Hinduism there is the saying of truth or sake there is non-violence or ahimsa which includes not killing any animals not eating meat vegetarians the extreme of that again has it developed it is evolved into Jainism the brahmacari on is non adultery or celibacy the stea means not to steal and not to desire to possess and not to have a craving you know this this is no-cut decimeter then there is hospitai gada which is not corruption don't allow yourself to be corrupted these five are considered the personal virtues of Hinduism those first clock these are the moral standards or delivah in addition to those moral standards there is Shou Shou which is cleanliness sun-ho which means to seek contentment there is Swati ayah which is reading at the scripture that is the Vedas the Upanishads the you know the various scriptures there is tapas which is not a little Japanese bite or I'm sorry I've been Spanish by it means austerity penance perseverance to be sorry for your sins into to live an austere life and there is the regular prayers which is each one Honda to regularly participate the prayers in prayers as you remember our mantras these are the disciplines that they seek to follow now in addition to these disciplines there are a lot of rituals in the Hindu world there are every morning when a the observant Hindu family gets up they will first bathe they will then go to a time using either or an icon on the morphine they will have the mordy in their house of their favorites deva their favorite god and they will say mantras particular mantras related to their evil ward some of the major mantras they will offer these mantras maybe some there may be dancing involve you see the Krishna's mr. Krishna Hari Krishna that's very typical of worship in the vague although the Krishna consciousness movement is not considered very proper Hinduism by most Hindus right is considered a cult even with ever so it's a very different kind of thing but it has brought awareness to some of the principles of Hinduism to the Western pearl that after you have all made an offering in a food or drink of the muffin there is a washing of the idol or the morphine as well and then you will finish with a I should say less something out the first thing that they will do is they will declare a vow before the movie that's before they do anything else that after they take a bath they'll come to the to the idol the birthday and they will say about the vowel will say who they are what today is and why we're coming to this Idol so there won't be any confusion about and one and that's how they start and then they do the mantras they we'll provide them an offering of food drink and then after the food of drink is offered by the way then it will be eaten by the family they don't leave it there same one in fact the highest level of devotion or uh fee or pooja worship is to go to a Hindu temple and to have a priest do this for you because priests are considered purity is a big deal in Louisville and that's why there's a lot of Washington ball okay and there are things that make you imp you are much like the Old Testament Jewish law there are a lot of things bodily fluids it's f where the conversion between fewer and so there's all a big focus on purity well three circuits that are purer than regular people and they are the prayers better and they can say them better and then be the Divas will listen to them better and so going to a temple and having the priests do this and the priest gets part of the offering sometimes it's paid for it then the priest is considered a better way to worship having Hindu before you and then afterwards the priests and the family will share but most observant in the families will do every morning in their house okay there are also a lot of particular life cycle rites of passage and almost every point there over there are sixteen primary rights and passion actually the passage in the Hindu light and eleven of them have to do with children was a big focus on children of the before the birth of a child important before the child first kicks its mother's womb at the birth of a child and the circumcision of a child if they do that at the various things the babies were feeding a solid food the baby's first haircut and on and on you know all kinds of rituals there are also dozens and dozens of festivals in fact today the 28th of August is the festival Oh nom which is a festival and celebration of a mythical king and his victories right so today's a investment almost every day I think it's a good investment sometimes but a lot of celebrations festivals because of the ancient beliefs of use of fire in worship there are often symbols fire symbols for instance when I'm a Hindu couple gets married there they will be in front of a fire that's considered the sacred fire they will turn and walk seven steps away from it and then turn and walk back toward the fire is a simple of returning you know a perhaps longer alive and then returning to the fire which represents we'll feed the fire as a symbol of their commitment to brown something that a lot of people are aware of are the social classes called farness in Hinduism the Hindu Shastras a member shunt resistor is the generic word for all of the Hindu religious writings especially the body I need to identify all people as residing in one of four classes or varnas those of are the Brahmins which are the Vedic teachers meeting meaning the teachers of the Vedas meeting teachers and priests secondly the shut three yes who are the warriors of the Kings the third level is the vise jaws are the farmers and merchants and the fourth level or the shooter ones who are the servants of labourers now within that four broad categories there are many many many further castes it's broken down in the lowest level of the shoe bras are often called the untouchables right they are considered the outcasts of society the lepers almost of society now there have been there's a lot of controversy scholars debate whether this caste system was actually intended in Hindu Scripture or whether the Hindu scripture give these four broad categories which are simply labels they don't necessarily indicate inherent limitations but it just recognizes these different places in the bhagavad-gita says whatever place you are life you should be you know do your best with them you have responsibilities to live up to this turned into probably because of social pressure this idea that people are suppressed that they're held down if they belong to the wrong wrong Mardan or especially for the wrong caste and the British Empire when the control India had to work very very hard to try to get rid of some of them although now some Indian smell is claimed that the as responsible for that as anything else and a lot of modern thinking in India amplitude that is subcontinent in the innovative American towards my friend of mine used to say God's not feathers the sub Gotham India has been kind of rethinking and rewriting of some of the earlier in the screen they believe that much of it has been in colonial Western influence that has even dictated what the industry was and they're beginning to recover some of it these far has still are considered very important because again they are seen as reflecting your karma where you are in life whether you are you know okay warrior virtue of whether your servant is dependent upon how you living to read his life and that's not something all of you can change although Indians would say this would say that you can grow or advance within your particular Varna or caste there's a question as to how far you can go in fact this is so much a part of the culture that someone who has renounced the world who's renounced in among an ascetic is called a buck Nikita which means he is beyond all darkness it doesn't fit in anymore with all the usual expectations of society this picture is these Swami Naga I am a shadow come stuff is very hard to pronounce temple which is in Delhi it's one of the Lord it is they largest on Hindu temples the Hindu temple is considered a house for the gods quite literally I mean we talk about churches being the house of the Lord but we don't actually think he lives here in fact our scriptures are written Jewish and Christian scripture that God doesn't live here the Hindus think he does or they do Brahma does various avatars do there is within that a space where the various more thieves or idols will be placed there is a design of an area where you can either come face-to-face with these various North East and various temples will have certain once they emphasize more than others if they can't have all three under to them you know and they're often will be either you can go face-to-face or they will be created with like a walkway around because if you can't come face-to-face with the ultimate reality even in let's walk around it and so there is this an idea this is where often there are artistic festivals annual festivals of religious rites of passage community celebrations it really is a community center in modern times there have a number of different movements I'm itchin Yoga is bringing some of the Hindu ideas to the west there has also been kama sutra and the tantric sex movement Transcendental Meditation it's considered a variant of Hinduism Ayurvedic health you all want any deal why I obey that beauty products Ayurveda is a Hindi word it literally means a system of gaining health physical health so Ayurvedic divination some Homa Street numerology astrology some of that is it has been Hindu various people like the Sri Chinmoy the a lot of others moderation I eat yummy a lot of those becoming Hindus wouldn't say they're not Hindus but they would sort of scratch their head into what that's a weird gun but it's because Hinduism will accept many kinds of beliefs all right I have just in an hour telling you about the most complicated religion affair and I know it's complex do you have any questions yes well they interestingly enough Hinduism is not does not usually with the exception of the 1990s and 2000 issue when the government very conservative nationalist government took over started encouraging the persecution Christians Hinduism generally would say all of these are manifestations of Brahman the ultimate reality and they would include Jesus in they would include the God of the Old Testament but they would say Brahman is bigger than that and he's not limited that Jesus was not the Son of God as Christians would say but rather was simply an avatar and a manifestation and so when you go into a temple they will recognize that as a place of devotion Buffy or pooja worship or any of the manifestations but they will stick with the Hindu usually the more teen the items or my cards will be on the the gods of Hinduism which primarily again are represented in Vishnu Brahma promised actually creator is not emphasized or Shiva or Debbie chucking those are the ones that are favorites because they represent things people really like and so they emphasize them they would not say that the Christian God or the Jewish God is not real but they would say it's only one among many and that is it and that's why Hinduism Judaism Christianity Islam have fundamentally different ideas about the nature of God according to bathroom no oh the Christian God is a spirit and he is not resident in any one place he is higher than the heaven supporting description so there is no one place where he lives he is present in all places we'll get into that we talk about Judaism Christianity because that's true both Judaism Christianity other questions what they do is every time I see every questions given laughs yes slightly hands yeah she says it seems like a lot of work compared to Christianity some religions are more about orthodoxy which means right belief Christianity is one of those about believing right now some religions including Hinduism the oldest religions are more about orthopraxy which means right action orthodoxy rectally orthopraxy right action in fact Hinduism would say orthodoxy doesn't really matter you can believe almost anything you want if you do the ridership toward Brahmin and whatever whatever version of him you like whatever path toward have you found and if you seek to perfect yourself so that you can through yoga's and for sure so that you ultimately can achieve mulch homages release around reincarnation from transmigration soul from samsara ok so yeah it's a lot work and it's very hard and there's always a sense in which have I done enough or am I going to come back as you know not but there's no guarantee can you get there yes No is there anyone that they can do believe have have reached the the last of their lives that is imperfection no because if they really had reached perfection they wouldn't be here they'd be gone then either we in Iran is the Buddhist term because we hear that word which means nothingness literally they wouldn't they would have been absorbed into the Brahman and not exist is that as an individual hot on an individual soul anywhere they're so long been merged with the problem or else they would have been taken into the highest level they have a view of six levels of celestial levels the top one is where the pent houses were brahmanas and he can take souls there to serve him the next six levels of the celestial realm with sort of dimensions are where the 330 million divas live and then there are certain sort of seven middle levels which are they kind of the earthly levels or dimensions they are protected by demons Nagas you all know Harry Potter you know the serpent that is like the bad guy February's called Nagata Naga is a demon and ISM and the demons protect the treasures that are available and then there are 20 levels of Al where the lower regions where people go for a time until they get reincarnated and you know they're punished in that time over the you reincarnate but if somebody has really reached that level now they believe that there are swabbies or teachers there are various kinds of they don't use the word guru will be we know that we rule the Guru is actually a much more different thing okay the Swami's the teachers the mums the ascetics they believe they have reached a higher level in this life and therefore have different goals but if they're here then that means they're not done yet and they still have to work out or else they wouldn't meet you yes exactly our most ceremonies are paired up there you're exactly right there are hundreds of languages Hindi is the most common and Sanskrit is a language of the religion of Hinduism that's what the writings are in an example would be Hebrew was a dead like no one smoking but the Hebrew Scriptures that Hebrew Bible the time what we call the Old Testament was still written it was a great Hebrew and it was still read in Hebrew so anyone who was an act who is a follower of that religion prior to the late 1940s when Israel was established as a nation and they began to do the impossible they was said it's not possible to revive a dead language that they did Hebrew came back on the dead there are some people who are advocating trying to do that with Sanskrit there are old just over 14,000 people in India who still claim Sanskrit as their first language but only 14,000 the population in India is a few more than that and so what Sanskrit still has the holy language is one that people who are serious about their following and Hinduism will learn enough Sanskrit just like someone who was Jewish with learning Hebrew he taught Hebrew in order Hebrew Scriptures even if that's not the language they speak okay there are some Hindu activities that will you know like family rituals and etc involving children and whatnot that they will use a more local language in my understanding is that's acceptable but Sanskrit is still a religious language and that's the whole all of the holy writings of cargo now like most holy writings it can be translated into other languages and often it is but still Sanskrit is the language not that's not as big a deal as an Indian Islam in Islam the Quran is written in Arabic Arabic is considered to be the language of God that Allah speaks Arabic that it is the holy language and so therefore you cannot legitimately translate the Quran from here with any other language if you read the gravity of English or any other language it's not considered the Quran is considered a commentary other what other religions don't have us a big hang-up with that but still Sanskrit is the basic language of being they can be faith any lab one with one more many best got over question yes I don't know exactly I'm possibly because I should know the answer to that I know I think there's an inclination toward much greater equality because the goddess's Islam or the goddesses of Hinduism are often held out of the main elective the Trimurti the main term the D are all male but they all have concerts and Shakti or Debbie is a female and they are called in highest regard and are considered you know Lakshmi which is the Hindi word for the Sanskrit word for luck much means considered a very favorite and she's very loving and gentle etc and because the fact that they hold up the goddesses I should know the answer that I don't my sense is that they probably a lot of it comes into social needs often religion will sort of set the standard event how they like I say the caste system a lot of scholars will say the caste system is not in the writings it's not I'm not in the trusters the larvas are the big categories but out in fact agem user distress because the horrible precedent thank you all very much

Channel: LakesideInstitute

Views: 257,939

Rating: 4.5936627 out of 5

Keywords: Hinduism (Religion), World religions, Ross Arnold

Id: 2-fwujejseA

Length: 68min 1sec (4081 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 06 2015