Religion 101 (18 page)

The Ultimate Goal

Hinduism teaches that the ultimate goal of life is to keep from being reborn. It is only by transcending selfishness that one can achieve that destiny. According to the classic text The Bhagavad Gita, the way to the cessation of the cycle of rebirth is to perform all of our actions just because such actions are our dharma, without egotistical concern for their fruits.

Even those who live large lives of outsized pleasure are called upon to follow the duties of dharma. Kings must observe dharma and enforce it among their subjects. A king who follows the injunctions of dharma is called a royal sage, for his rule is based on moral principles. The
Lawbook of Yajnavalkya
states that where there is a conflict between righteousness and material advantage, dharma and
artha
, dharma comes first.

Moksha is last in the Hindu scheme of values, for it ought to be the final and supreme aspiration of man. In a well-lived life, young boys and girls attend to accomplishments like learning; in youth, enjoyment should be the principle aim; in later life, one should pursue the ideals of virtue and spiritual liberation.
Moksha
is this desire to be free of the endless cycle of transmigration that traps the spirit.

Artha

Artha
signifies material prosperity and achieving worldly well-being. The word signifies the whole range of tangible objects that can be possessed, enjoyed, and lost, and which we require in our lives for the upkeep of a household, raising of a family, and discharge of religious duties. Wealth and material well-being is not its own end; rather, it is a means to an enriched life.

Successes in the stage of artha help us support a household and discharge our civic duties. But there are limitations: Success here is private, not cooperative. There is another problem: Wealth, fame, and power do not survive death and are, therefore, ephemeral.

Kama

Kama, the second aim of life, has to do with fun, but more generally, pleasure. In Indian mythology, Kama is the counterpart of Cupid; he is the Hindu god of love. Kama refers to the emotional being of a person, their feelings and desires.

According to Indian philosophy, people who are denied their emotional lives and the fulfillment of pleasurable desires are repressed and live under a continual strain. All of this is ruinous to their sanity and well-being.

Seek Pleasure, Avoid Pain

Hinduism acknowledges that seeking pleasures and avoiding pain is fundamental to human psychology, and therefore pleasure is one of the ends — or goals — of existence. But people do come to the realization that pleasure is not all there is. In fact, the nonstop pursuit of pleasure is rather trivial and ultimately boring; people desire something more lasting.

The principal surviving classic of India’s kama teaching is Vatsayana’s celebrated
Kama Sutra
. The work is more or less a textbook for lovers and courtesans. In an environment of arranged marriages, there were plenty of dull and painful households where a perusal of the
Kama Sutra
would come in handy.

Dharma

The third of the four aims, dharma, includes, in essence, the sum and substance of the religious and moral duties that comprise our righteousness. Indian literature contains rituals and numerous social regulations of the three upper castes — Brahmin (priest), Kshatriya (noble), and Vaishya (merchant and agriculturalist) — meticulously formulated according to the teaching of the Creator himself (in the Vedas).

Dharma is the doctrine of the duties and rights of each group and person in the ideal society, and as such, the law or mirror of all moral action. Ethical life is the means to spiritual freedom, as well as its expression on earth. At this stage, the individual directs his energy toward helping others, but this service is also finite and so will come to an end.

Moksha

What people really want is found in the fourth aim, which is spiritual release. The chief end of humanity is the full development of the individual. The Upanishad tells us that there is nothing higher than people, but people are not mere assemblages of body, life, and mind born of and subject to physical nature.

The natural half-animal being is not a person’s whole or real being; it is but the instrument for the use of spirit that is the truth of their being. It is the ultimate aim, the final good, and as such is set over and above the other three. Artha, kama, and dharma are the pursuits of the world; each implies its own orientation or life philosophy, and to each a special literature is dedicated.

THE VEDAS

The Wisdom of the Hindu Scriptures

Veda
is a Sanskrit word meaning “wisdom” or “knowledge.” These were the oldest scriptures of Hinduism and also the most authoritative of the Hindu sacred texts. In fact, all later texts are considered to be mere commentary on the Vedas. For Hindus, they are the basic source for understanding the universe.

The Vedas developed from a group of sages and
rishis
(in the Vedic sense, a seer or inspired poet), who discovered the truths and realities that lie behind human existence and formulated a set of rules for good living. These rules, known as dharma and anti-dharma (
adharma
), are components of Hinduism. They are eternal truths and applicable to all times. The Vedas are highly developed mythology. These sacred texts are divided into two groups —
sruti
(revealed) and
smriti
(remembered) — and were kept by people through oral tradition, from one generation to the next.

Age of the Vedas

Estimates about the time the Vedas were written vary widely, with some scholars maintaining they were recorded prior to 2000
B.C.
, before the arrival of the Aryans, and were still being developed as late as the sixth century
B.C.
Other estimates contend that the Vedas were composed anywhere from 1500 to 400
B.C.

The four basic collections of Vedas are the Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and Atharayaveda.

The Four Vedas

The earliest written document is the Rigveda, a collection of 1,017 Sanskrit poems addressed to various gods, as well as three other collections (
samhitas
) — the Sama, Yajur, and Atharva Vedas — a collection of hymns used in the ritual services, all written in archaic poetic texts.

The Rigveda, also known as the Veda of Verses, is the first portion of the Vedas and consists of 1,028 hymns covering 10,600 stanzas of praise to the nature gods, particularly Agni — the fire god — and Indra — the warrior god.

The purpose of the Vedas was to teach people their dharma — their conduct and duty in the present life. The Vedas are also used for sacrifices. These hymns are to be intoned with special tunes, and the pronunciations of the words must be accurate, since they are addressed to special gods thanking the deities and asking for material favors.

Gods and Nature

In the Vedic cosmology, the universe is divided into three parts — earth, atmosphere, and heaven — and the gods are assigned to these parts. The gods mentioned in the Rigveda are related to forces of nature: Varuna is related to the heavens; Usha is the goddess of dawn; and Surya is related to the sun. Indra is the most important of all atmospheric gods.

In later years, commentaries on these hymns, called Brahmanas, were written. Still later, in the sixth century
B.C.,
mystical philosophical works were developed that differed from previous Bramanas and Samhitas. These works are called Vedanta Upanishads. The Bhagavad Gita (a later addition to the Upanishads) and the Upanishads themselves form the basis for the sacred scriptures of Hinduism. The Vedas and Upanishads are the foremost scriptures in antiquity, both in authority and importance. Other major scriptures include the
Tantras
, the sectarian
Agamas
, the
Puranas
(legends), and the epics
Mahabharata
and
Ramayana
.

The Yajurveda, the Samaveda, and the Atharvaveda

The Rigveda is the most important, but the other three Vedas are also significant. Each of the Vedic books is subdivided into four parts. Each contains a section of hymns to the gods, which recall the period when statements about the gods were memorized, chanted, and passed on from one generation to another; ritual instructions (Brahmanas), in which worshipers are given instructions about how to perform their sacrifices; the so-called Forest Treatises (Aranyakas), which give instructions to hermits in their religious pursuits; and the Upanishads, composed of philosophical materials.

Again, it is believed that the Vedas were revealed to the sages by God. The other possibility is that the Vedas revealed themselves to the seers or
mantradrasta
of the hymns. The Vedas were compiled by Vyasa Krishma Dwaipayana around the time of the Lord Krishna, around 1500
B.C.
Just as the gospels have four writers, there are four primary seers — Atri, Kanwa, Vashistha, and Vishwamitra.

The Yajurveda

The Yajurveda, known as the Veda of Sacrificial Texts, is a collection of sacrificial rites. Simply put, it is a liturgical collection including the materials to be recited during sacrifices to the gods.

The Yajurveda serves as a practical guidebook for the priests who execute sacrificial acts, simultaneously muttering the prose prayers and the sacrificial formulae (
yajus
). It is similar to ancient Egypt’s
Book of the Dead
.

The Yajurveda inspires humans to walk on the path of karma (deeds), so it is also called Karmaveda. It comprises hymns taken from the Rigveda and adds explanatory notes in prose form. It contains fifty chapters each, which are subdivided into
kandikas
, or paragraphs, numbering 1,975 mantras.

The Samaveda

The third book, the Samaveda, is also known as the Veda of Chants or Book of Songs. It contains the required melodies and chants recited by priests for special sacrifices. It is a collection of spiritual hymns, used as musical notes, which were almost completely drawn from the Rigveda and have no distinctive lessons of their own.

Most of the Samaveda’s mantras are taken from the Rigveda, but the order is modified for chanting. It is divided into two books called
ankas
. It has twenty-one chapters and contains 1,875 mantras. These mantras are addressed to Agni, Indra, and Sama.

The Atharvaveda

The Atharvaveda is the Veda of the Fire Priest, consisting of occult formulas and spells. This Book of Spells, the last of the Vedas, is completely different from the other three Vedas and is next in importance to Rigveda with regard to history and sociology.

Its hymns are of a more diverse character than the Rigveda and are simpler in language. In fact, many scholars do not consider it part of the Vedas at all. This Veda consists of spells and charms prevalent at the time it was written, and it portrays a clearer picture of the Vedic society.

THE UPANISHADS

God Is One with Many Forms

The Upanishads are the fourth section of each of the Vedas. The word
Upanishads
means “sitting near,” as in being near enough to listen to your sage or master. The conversations in the Upanishads took place between gurus and their students as they sat and ruminated over the philosophical implications of the Vedas.

Religion 101 Question

How many Upanishads are there?

There are currently about 200 Upanishads, ranging in length from one to fifty pages. About fourteen, or less than 10 percent, of these are known as principle Upanishads. The earliest likely originated in the ninth century
B.C.

The following are the main ideas expounded in the Upanishads:

• God is one, without a second, absolute and indivisible. God assumes various personal forms to reveal himself to us.
  
• All of the incarnations (manifestations of God on Earth) are actual embodiments of Divinity.
  
• There are no accidents in the cosmic universe; human destiny is governed by the law of cause and effect.
  
• We are born on earth repeatedly to finish the unfinished work of realizing our divinity.
  
• There is a higher state of consciousness that can be achieved in this human birth.
  
• There are many ways to achieve union with God: through the intellect, emotions, actions, and the will.
  

A dominating theme of the Upanishads seems to be the ultimate identity of Brahman (wholeness; unity) and atman (self). However, there are other ways to interpret the relationship between the two principles. One of the Upanishads, Svetasvatara, speaks of Brahman as God, making a distinction between this and the external world. In addition to this theistic interpretation, there is also a tendency toward pantheism, a tendency to think of the natural universe and the individual soul as God.

The Nature of the Upanishads

The Upanishads are more philosophical and mystical in character than the Vedas. In the Upanishads, scholars observe for the first time a concept of a single, supreme God (Brahman) who is knowable by the human self (
atman
).

Another school of thought disagrees, saying that polytheism pervades the earlier Vedic material, with its stress on the proper manner of worshiping many gods. By way of contrast, the Upanishads are monistic; that is, all reality is one, not many. This reality is an impersonal being known as Brahman. All other entities that exist in nature — and even beyond nature — are a manifestation of this omnipresent Brahman. Trees, sky, earth, water, spiritual entities — all things material and immaterial are not diverse, but express a single reality: Brahman.