Hinduism

Hinduism

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Quick Facts

Formed - c. 2000 B.C.E.
Origin - India
Followers - 1,000,000,000
Deity - Polytheistic
Sacred Texts -  Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Epics
Headquarters - None

Hinduism is a collective term applied to the many philosophical and religious traditions native to India. Hinduism has neither a specific moment of origin nor a specific founder. Rather, the tradition understands itself to be timeless, having always existed. Indeed, its collection of sacred texts is known, as a whole, as Sanatana Dharma, "The Eternal Teaching."

It is thus a complex tradition that encompasses numerous interrelated religious doctrines and practices that have some common characteristics but which lack any unified system of beliefs and practices. Hinduism encompasses a number of major sects, as well as countless subsects with local or regional variations. On one level, it is possible to view these sects as distinct religious traditions, with often very specific theologies and ritual traditions; on another level, however, they often understand themselves to be different means to reach a common end.

The Hindu worldview is grounded in the doctrines of samsara (the cycle of rebirth) and karma (the universal law of cause and effect), and fundamentally holds that one's actions (including one's thoughts) directly determine one's life, both one's current life and one's future lives.

Many, but not all, Hindus hold that the cosmos is populated by numerous deities and spiritual beings — gods and goddesses, or devas — who actively influence the world and who interact with humans.

The tradition is typically divided into four major sects: Shaiva (devotees of the god Shiva), Vaishnava (devotees of the god Vishnu), Shakta (devotees of the goddess), and Smarta (those who understand the ultimate form of the divine to be abstract and all encompassing, Brahman).

Quick Fact Details:

• Formed: The exact beginnings of Hinduism are impossible to determine, since they evolved as time and culture impacted the religious ideas of early India.

• Deity: Many Hindus recognize a vast diversity of gods and goddesses; others believe in a Hindu "trinity" (trimurti): Brahman, Vishnu, Shiva; yet others claim an essential monotheism, believing that all the gods are manifestations of one.

Brahman, Vishnu & Shiva

Symbols: There are many symbols of Hinduism, as varied as the faces of God. Each god and goddess (i.e., each facet of the divine) has a symbol or symbols. Here are three important symbols:

Aum or om: This symbol represents the primal sound of the universe. The syllable "aum" or "om" is sometimes chanted in meditation, and the symbol usually appears at the beginning of written sacred texts, prayers, and rituals.

Lotus: This flower, which is rooted in mud but floats on water without becoming muddy, represents the many facets of God and the unfolding of Self-Realization.

Elephant: The elephant represents the solidity and weightiness of the material world.

Terms and Fundamental Precepts:

Brahman: God, the Ultimate Reality, formless, without gender, cannot be described. As the formless enormity of Brahman can be difficult to grasp, other gods and goddesses are offered as aspects of the divine to provide seekers with a more comprehensible path to reach Brahman.

Nonattachment to results: The concept of retaining equanimity regardless of the results of one's actions.

Ahimsa: Nonviolence—to do no harm. This is an ideal of Hindus and a vow of Hindu spiritual leaders.

Nonviolent resistance: The activist expression of ahimsa. A harmful law should not be followed and should be changed, but never by hurting another person.

Four Yogas, or Four Paths to Realization (God): Yoga of Knowledge, Yoga of Devotion, Yoga of Work, and Yoga of Spiritual Contemplation. This precept recognizes that different people will find fulfillment in different approaches to their spiritual quest.

Karma: The concept of behavior having a cumulative effect into the future, including future lifetimes. Living well in one lifetime will have positive results on one's rebirth. Once the weight of all bad karma is removed, the karmic wheel of reincarnation ceases to turn, and the seeker is reunited with Brahman.

Vegetarianism: Most forms of Hinduism include the practice of vegetarianism, for spiritual, ecological, and medical reasons. The primary reason is the practice of ahimsa (nonviolence), which forbids violent actions against animals.

Beginnings

Written by: Jacob N. Kinnard

The term "Hinduism" derives from a Persian word that refers to the Sindhu (or Indus) river in northwest India; "Hindu" was first used in the 14th century by Arabs, Persians, and Afghans to describe the peoples of the region. By the end of the 19th century, "Hinduism" was adopted by the British colonial administration in India to describe the various religious beliefs and practices of the majority of India's population.

It is, however, extremely difficult to say when Hinduism began. The tradition itself maintains that it is a timeless religion that has always existed. Historians generally hold that the origins of what we call Hinduism can be traced to the ancient Indus Valley civilization. This would mean that the religion is over 4,000 years old, although it is a dynamic religious tradition that has continued to develop and evolve.

One way to understand the origins of Hinduism is to divide it into several overlapping historical periods. The first is really a pre-Hindu period, the Indus Valley Civilization, which dates to around 2000 B.C.E., and was located, as the name implies, in the region of the great Indus (or "Sindhu") river, in northwest India. Although relatively little remains of this civilization, fairly extensive archaeological evidence indicates that its religion was centered on various fertility goddesses and the purifying qualities of water. Sometime between 2000 and 1500 B.C.E., a new religion began to emerge in India, the religion of the Vedas.  Some scholars hold that this religion was brought to India by nomadic, horse-riding warriors, a group known as the Aryans, from the steppes of central Asia. This has, in recent years, become a matter of some dispute in India. Regardless of where they came from, the Aryans practiced a sacrifice-based religion that was centered around the purifying and transformative qualities of fire, and that was oriented toward influencing a vast array of powerful gods, called devas.

Many of these gods were personifications of natural elements—wind, fire, water—while others were warrior-like figures. The Vedas, a vast corpus of mythological and ritual texts, describe this divine pantheon, as well as prescribe, sometimes in great detail, the rituals to be performed to keep these gods "happy," and thus insure that they benignly interact with the human realm.