History
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During Vedic times (from c. 800 to c. 500 BCE), it was widely believed that rituals were critical to maintain the order of the cosmos and that sacred ceremonies helped the universe to keep working smoothly. In a sense, ceremonies were seen as part of a deal between humans and the gods: Humans performed sacrifices and rituals, and the gods would return their favour under the form of protection and prosperity.
Nature, however, remains indifferent to religious rituals, so when events went awry, society blamed the priests’ incompetence. Priests were not willing to admit their helplessness in trying to master nature and would say that the gods ignored poor quality offers. The solution, the priests said, required more royal support. Brahman priests refused to have their privileges cut, so they developed a new literature which specified, sometimes in a very detailed way, how rituals had to be performed, the precise quantity and quality of material to be used, and the exact pronunciation of sacred formulas. This new set of texts, known as the Brahmanas, was attached to the Vedic collection around the 6th century BCE. The priests claimed that if sacrifices were performed exactly as they said, then the gods would be compelled to respond. When these new rituals also proved to be useless, many sectors of Indian society believed that this whole business of ritual and sacrifice had been taken too far.
During the later Vedic period, the priestly class was seriously questioned. The rituals, the sacrifices, the detailed rulebooks on ceremonies and sacrifices, all of these religious elements were being gradually rejected. Some of those who were against the traditional Vedic order decided to engage in the pursuit of spiritual progress, living as ascetic hermits, rejecting ordinary material concerns and giving up family life. Some of their speculations and philosophy were compiled into texts called The Upanishads. A number of practices were linked to this new spiritual approach: meditation, celibacy, and fasting, among others.
Around the 7th century BCE, India saw the growth of a culture of world-renunciation, which was a reaction against the Vedic tradition. This culture is the common origin of many Indian religions considered to be “heretical” by the Indian traditional priestly class. Charvaka, Jainism, and Buddhism, among other movements, originated around this time, encouraged by the gradual decay of the priestly orthodoxy. This would result in the end of the Vedic hegemony, shifting the focus of religious life from external rites and sacrifices to internal spiritual quests in the search for answers.
The authority of the Vedas eventually diminished to give way to a new religious synthesis in India that would dominate Indian society for the centuries to come.
Terms
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- brahman
- ultimate reality
- essence of reality
- atman
- the real self
- the one that is permanent
- individual self or soul
- ultimate reality within human beings
- a spark of the divine Brahman
- atman goes through samsara
- controls moral behavior
- brahman v atman
- Brahman (ultimate reality understood through contemplation of the universe) and Atman (ultimate reality understood through contemplation of the inner self) are in fact one and the same
- Brahman is Atman; all reality is one
- monism
- the doctrine that all reality is ultimately one
- many rivers leading to one ocean
- maya
- illusion
- avidya
- ignorance
- stops spiritual enlightenment or the union of Atman and Brahman
- avidya is kept alive by materialism, education is not the same as ‘knowledge’ ~ Jnana Yoga
- opposite of vidya
- vidya
- primarily means science, learning, philosophy, knowledge, scholarship, any knowledge whether true or false
- samsara
- endless wheel of cyclic time
- moksha
- liberation from wheel
- characterized by infinite being awareness and bliss
- state of perfect understanding of the relationship between atman and brahman
- ultimate goal for Hindus
- brahmin
- one who has achieved enlightenment
- karma
- a measure
- varna
- caste system
Personal Thoughts
- Sadhguru - states that when one reaches Enlightenment:
- realized body is not you - because body is part of the universe
- realized mind is not you - because mind is built through the experiences in life
- Hinduism seems to focus much on individual “salvation” however, I do need to read the Vedic texts if that is so Christianity - the greatest command is to love God and the second is love your neighbour as yourself. “By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” ~ Jesus
Questions
- given definition of moksha, what caused the initial separation?
- who/what defines morality? Who/What sets the standards of right and wrong?
- when one reaches enlightenment, is it destroyed when Shiva destroys all?