Week 3

Hinduism

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Week 3
Week 3 Learning Outcomes:

• Understand challenges faced by indigenous religions today

• Describe the origins of Hindu traditions;
• Develop an understanding of Vedic concepts, including karma, samsara,
moksha, Atman, and Brahman;
• Identify key sacred texts and their significance within Hinduism

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Indigenous Religions Review
Last week, we looked at:

• Animism
• Importance of orality in Indigenous religions
• Important figures: shaman, trickster
• Relationship to specific places
• Cyclical nature of belief system
• Importance of ethics
• Art as a sacred practice

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Week 3
• What are the challenges faced by Indigenous people today?
• Why do they experience these challenges?

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Colonialism
• We also looked at the effect of colonialism on Indigenous people and their
lives

Issues such as:

• forced removal from sacred places
• Inability to practice own religious traditions
• Inability to speak own language

• Even today, Indigenous people are some of the world’s most vulnerable
populations

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

What is Hinduism?

• The name “Hinduism” comes from “Sind,”

the name of the region of the river Sindhu (Indus)

Sind River, By Mehrajmir13 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via
Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASind_River11.jpg

(Narayanan, V. “Hindu Traditions” in Oxtoby et al. 2015, A Concise

Introduction to World Religions, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford UP, p. 282)
Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020
What’s in a name?

The term “Hindu” was given by British colonizers in India

• Members of this faith do not call themselves “Hindu”, and

usually refer instead to their caste or their community

• (Narayanan, V. “Hindu Traditions” in Oxtoby et al. 2015, A Concise Introduction to World Religions, 3rd
ed., Oxford: Oxford UP, p. 282)

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

 Hinduisms

• When referring to this religion, there are a few things to keep

in mind:

• 1) there are so many practices within Hinduism – this is

because of the many different languages and regions of India.
Some Hindu traditions are practiced by some communities,
and not in others

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

 Hinduisms: 2nd point
A second point to keep in mind when thinking of the term: “Hinduism”

• 2) Because of the caste system (which we’ll look at in a few slides), not all
members of a Hindu community will have the same religious practices.

• In other words, some religious practices are dependent upon caste.

• (It’s also worth noting here that outside of India, a person may identify as
Hindu, but within their own community within India, they would likely
identify themselves according to their caste or varna)

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

 Hinduisms: 3rd point
• A third point to keep in mind that in India at least, all citizens who do not
identify with one of the other major religions practiced in India (Islam,
Sikhism, Jainism, or Christianity) is by definition considered Hindu
• This means that a person who doesn’t identify with the other religions, but
doesn’t necessarily practice the Hindu faith, would be considered Hindu

• For these reasons, it makes sense to think of this religion as Hinduisms, as

something multiple, rather than a single group of practices and traditions

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

 Is Hinduism practiced only in India?
• No!

• While the largest number of Hindu faithful are found in India, it is a religion
that has communities all over the world

• Some of those communities can be found in the Caribbean, as a result of

slaves and indentured workers brought to the islands during the period of
colonialism

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

 The history of Hinduism
• Hinduism traces its roots back almost 4000 years to a civilization known as
Harappa

• This civilization flourished in the Indus River valley

• Some features of Hinduism may have originated in the Indus Valley before
1750 BCE

• (remember: BCE stands for “before the common era”)

(Narayanan, V. “Hindu Traditions” in Oxtoby et al. 2015, A Concise Introduction to World

Religions, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford UP, p. 284)

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Harappa Culture

• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHarappa_Rui
ns_-_III.jpg
• By Hassan Nasir (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via
Wikimedia Commons

Harappa Culture – this ancient

culture was characterized by features that
have significance in Hindu practices today
Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020
Common elements shared between Harappa
culture and Hindu practices:

• Rooms with fire altars

• Carvings of what looks like a mother goddess
• Correspondence between sites that were inhabited and sites that
still have significance

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

The Vedas
• The earliest Hindu sacred texts are known as the Vedas
• The term veda in Sanskrit means “Knowledge”

• What is Sanskrit?
• Sanskrit in an ancient language that was spoken in India
• It is the language that forms the basis of the Hindu tradition
• European languages (French, German, Spanish, etc.) can also trace some of
their root words to Sanskrit

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

How many Vedas are there?
• There are 4 collections of Vedas:

• Rig Veda (hymn knowledge),

• Sama Veda (chant knowledge),
• Yajur Veda (ceremonial knowledge),
• Atharva Veda (Knowledge from the teacher, Atharva)

Who wrote them?

• There are 2 schools of thought on the Vedas:
a) that the Vedas have always just existed with God (coeval),
b) Or that they were composed by God

Either way, it is believed that the Vedas are ancient and sacred
Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020
How important are the Vedas?
The Vedas are sacred texts

BUT:

• They are NOT kept in homes in the way a Bible or Qur’an might be
• (however, hymns from the Vedas are recited regularly, and people would
know some of these hymns)
• Not all Hindus are allowed to study the Vedas
• Only those who are of the brahmin caste would study the Vedas

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

What is in the Vedas?
• There are many deities (gods) that people worship today who are not
mentioned in the Vedas, but some deities that are still worshipped today
AND in the Vedas are:

• Indra: warrior god

• Agni: god of fire
• Soma: god of the moon, and the elixir of sleep
• Sarasvati: noble thoughts, speech incarnate, mother of the Vedas

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

What else do the Vedas offer?

• They offer praise to the gods

• Petitions (prayers that ask for guidance, help, favours, etc.)

• Ritual sacrifice

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

 What else is in the Vedas?
• Creation stories are in the Rig Veda (creation stories explain how
the world was created, how humans were created, etc.)

“Hymn to the Supreme Person” also in the Vedas

A story about how the universe was created through the cosmic
sacrifice of the primeval man (Purusha)

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

The Caste System

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

The organization of the caste system
• As you saw on the previous slide, the caste system was a way for society to
organize itself
• Everyone had their own tasks, jobs, and responsibilities depending on their
caste
• So, for instance, if you were part of that Vaisyas caste, you could be a
landowner, a merchant, a skilled worker, etc.
• The caste system was also organized conceptually as a human body, where
the Sudra are the feet, and the Brahmins are the head
• So, the idea is that if one part of the body doesn’t support or protect the
other parts, the whole body will be destroyed

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Significance of the caste system

• This significance of the caste system is that religious practices were also tied
to the various castes, so that depending upon a person’s caste, (or varna, as
it is called), you would or would not have access to particular religious rites,
prayers and/or sacred texts

• For instance, the Vedas are only studied by members of the Brahmin caste

• The other reason the caste system is significant is because it acts as a guide
or structure in relation to ethics
• This has to do with karma, and samsara, which will see in a few slides, so
we’ll come back to this in a moment

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Gods and Goddesses
What is the concept of god within Hinduism? Is there
one god? Or are there many gods?

• There are estimated to be over 330 million gods

within Hindu traditions!
• But each of those gods is also thought to be a
manifestation of some aspect of Brahman, the
Supreme Being
• Brahman is everywhere, yet above and beyond us

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Brahman, gods and goddesses
• All the gods and goddesses within Hinduism are understood as a
manifestation of some aspect of Brahman

• Notice the difference between Brahman (supreme being) and brahmin

(highest order in the caste system)

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Key Vedic Concepts
Key Vedic concepts (concepts that stem from the Vedas):
1. Samsara (and Moksha)
2. Karma
3. Atman
4. Brahman (notice the difference in spelling!)
5. Maya

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Samsara
• Within Hindu tradition, there is a belief in reincarnation
• This system of reincarnation is called Samsara
• Samsara: cycle of death and rebirth
• When a person dies, if they have fulfilled their duties, they return to
earth in either a higher form (e.g. a higher caste) or if they haven’t
fulfilled their duties, they return in a lower form (e.g. a plant, animal, or
insect)

• Remember the caste system? Here’s where samsara comes in. If you
fulfilled all your duties in your caste (your dharma), then you could
move up the caste system in the next life
• So, for instance, if you were born into the kshatriya caste in this life, but
you fulfilled your dharma, you might then be born as a brahmin in the
next life

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Liberation

• Moksha: this term means liberation and refers to when a person is freed (or
liberated) from the cycle of samsara

• Liberation from the cycle means that the person has worked out her/his
karma (see next slide)

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Karma
Karma: this term means action
• Karma (actions) can be good OR bad
• Karma is about cause and effect – the kinds of actions we carry out in
our lifetimes
• The point about karma within Hinduism is to work out your bad karma,
and to generate good karma
• This is usually done by fulfilling your duties within your caste and acting
ethically (see samsara slide)
• Fulfilling your karma make take several (hundred!) lifetimes to work out!

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Atman and Brahman

• The human soul (or spirit) within Hinduism is called Atman

• The soul is unchanging, and so even though a person goes through many
reincarnations, your soul is the same

• Yet the soul shares in the divinity of Brahman, because the relationship
between Atman and Brahman is referred to as “You are that”

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Atman and Brahman (cont’d)
• Concept of Brahman ‘is the lived experience that all things are in some way
holy because they come from the same sacred source. It is also the
experience that all things are in some way ultimately one’ (p. 82)

• Brahman described as: sat (reality itself); chit (pure consciousness); and
ananda (bliss)

• From Molloy, Experiencing the World’s Religions, 6th Ed., McGraw-Hill

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

What does this mean?

• Atman best thought of as ‘deepest self’ (p. 83)

• Idea here is that although we are all individuals, with an individual soul
(jiva), underneath everything, we are all part of God (Brahman)

• So, the relationship between Brahman and Atman is that ‘Brahman refers to
the experience of the sacred within nature and the external universe, while
Atman refers to the experience of the sacred within oneself’ (p. 83)

• This means that all humans are understood to be a part of Brahman, to

share in that divinity, and that the divinity of Brahman is in all of us

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Maya

• Maya is illusion – the distractions of the everyday world.

• But maya is also the material of which the world is made
• Concept of maya speaks to the illusions we perceive around time, materials,
consciousness

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Other important sacred Hindu texts

• Upanishads
• Ramayana
• Maharabharata (including Bhagavad Gita)

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

The Upanishads
• Upanishads are texts that appear towards the end of the Vedas
• Upanishadsis thought to mean ‘sitting near’, as in sitting near the teacher
or master
• The text of the Upanishads is usually in the form of conversations between
a teacher and a student
• Example from teacher to student
• “Speak the truth. Practice virtue. Do not neglect to study every day. Do not neglect
truth, virtue, studying or teaching….Give with faith….This is the secret of the Veda”
(Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.1–6)

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Ramayana

• Another important text, this is the story of Rama

• This is referred to as the Ramayana
• Rama is a prince who is exiled by father
• Sita was his wife. She is captured by Ravana, the demon king of Lanka

• Rama eventually rescues her with the help of Hanuman (the monkey god),
and then returns to become king
• Check out the video in the eCentennial course shell!

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

 Mahabharata
• Mahabharata is considered to be one of the world’s greatest epics

• It tells the story of a war between two families that are cousins: the
Pandavas and Kauravas

• Arjuna is a warrior from the Pandava family, and asks Krishna (an
incarnation of Vishnu) if it is right to take up arms against his own family
• The conversation between Arjuna and Krishna constitutes the
Bhagavad Gita (“divine song” or “song of the Divine One”)
• Importance of devotion to Krishna (personal god), selfless action, the
purpose of incarnation, fight for righteousness – key themes in
Bhagavad Gita

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Bhagavad Gita
• The Bhagavad Gita is a smaller text within the larger Mahabharata

• In the Bhagavad Gita, the god Krishna describes three ways (marga) to
liberate the self from the cycle of birth and death
• Krishna says that we can liberate ourselves through yoga (yoga means
“union” or “yoke”):

1. The way of action (karma yoga)

2. The way of knowledge (jnana yoga)
3. The way of devotion (bhakti yoga)

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Karma yoga

Karma Yoga (action yoga)

• Liberation is achieved through good actions
• These actions have to be unselfish
• There is no reward for good actions – you do them because it is the right
thing to do, and not because you hope to gain something from them
• Doing good actions can hopefully lead to moksha

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Jnana Yoga

Jnana Yoga (knowledge yoga)

• Moksha can be achieved through wisdom and knowledge
• Through meditation, reflection on knowledge and answers about life

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

Bhakti yoga

Bhakti yoga (devotion yoga)

• Moksha can be achieved through practicing acts of devotion (worship)
• This devotion should especially be done in honour of Krishna
• By devoting oneself and prayers to Krishna, sins will be forgiven, and
moksha reached

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020

To conclude
• That’s the end of this week’s lecture.

• Head to the eCentennial course shell to watch the BBC video for this week!

Dr. Renee Sgroi, 2020