Traditional India - 1-29-07

1-29-07 Vedas Brahma Shiva Vishnu Atma/n Samsara Karma Moksha Maya

Yoga Asrama Varna Brahmachari Kashatriya Vyasa Sudra Chandel

Hinduism 

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The Aryans have everything but start to wonder why they are there. Thinks about their lives. In the process of this, comes the birth of the Vedas (1500 bc) o A lot of literature The Vedas was written in poetic form on EVERYTHING! o Priestly matters, cooking, astronomy, children, sex, marriage, education, ect… o Written by hundreds of scholars o Out of the Vedas, Hinduism is born. Hinduism is very contradictory – many authors at different times. Rules to understanding Hinduism o Start with a clean slate. Do not compare to other religions o There is no founder  Around 900-1100 bc Hinduism emerged  Everything connected with nature and had divine meaning • Led to having a god/goddess for everything o Varuna: god of the sky o Lakshmi: goddess of wealth o Indira: god of war o Ganesh: god of wisdom (elephant face) 3 major gods emerge: trinity (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva) o Brahma: creator (most important)  The father; does not interfere with everyday life o Vishnu: the preserver; bringer of good; right arm o Shiva: the destroyer; bringer of bad; left arm o Vishnu and Shiva are always watching you, recording all good and bad you do. “reps of Brahma” o Do not think of Vishnu and Shiva and good god and bad god.

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o Each temple is dedicated to one god but there is always a tiny section for Shiva just in case. o Shiva (the bull) is present in the Dravidian culture (only god to do that) 3 Metaphysical Doctrines of Hinduism o Samsara: belief in reincarnation. Born many times, each life cycle you are being tested o Karma: sum total of all past actions of all life cycles o Moksha: end of life cycles. Must have great karma (ultimate goal for a Hindu) Brahma is the only one that possesses the universal soul—Atmu/n (soul) o He is constantly letting out tiny bits of his soul to create new souls that will be born again and again.  If your soul has passed all the tests during your life cycles, your Atmu will reunite with Brahma and you will have reached Moksha o Maya: illusion. We do not know how many life cycles a person has or will have. o Yoga: spiritual exercise, meditate, mental and physical exercise. A good way to improve karma 4 Stages of Asrama o 1-25: responsibility of parents. Obedience to parents. o 26-50: an adult. Have a career and family. Payback time—do for your kids what you parents did for you o 51-75: make up for all your wrong doings o 75-100: prepare to leave this life cycle. Some would give up their families and retreat to a mountain and meditate (hermit).