Hindu Tradition

Overview

Hindu Dharma is the world's oldest living tradition dating back to more than 2000 BCE.

As its name suggests, Hindu Dharma developed and flourishes mainly in India.

It's a vast and profound tradition that has no known founder or seminal event.

It is not based on the words of any inspired man or woman but on the eternal laws of nature.

Hindu Population

"It is practiced by more then 1 billion people.

It is estimated that 1 in 6 persons on earth is a Hindu.

"It is the 3rd largest faith/tradition, next only to Christianity and Islam.

80% of all Indians are Hindu.

There are more than 100 million Hindus living outside India today and more than 3 million in North America

Concept of God according to Hindu Dharma

Hindus believe in One Supreme Being

Brahman both in its formless and manifest aspects

God is meant not only to be worshiped but to be understood.

Images of deities are temporarily brought to life, so the divine can be worshiped in them.

There is no Devil in Hindu Dharma.

Ignorance of one's spiritual nature is the cause of evil

Hindu Worship

That Hindus "worship idols" is the single most common misconception of Hindu tradition.

Hindus worship deities or murtis which are images (tools) that help to connect to God

They fully understand that the Divine itself is much greater than the physical image in the temple

Temples and Pujas

Temples are the community places of worship

Worship is called puja

Most Hindus have an altar in their homes in which they perform a puja

Great Americans who were influenced

Ralph Waldo Emerson

T.S Eliot

Walt Whitman

The Epics & Puranas (Smrits)

The Ramayana is the story of the perfect Hindu man and woman.

The Mahabharata is the story of the battle between light and darkness

The Puranas are the layperson's Vedas

The Bhagavad-Gita

The Bhagavad-Gita is the most popular scripture in Hindu Dharma.

It is a synthesis of various strands of Indian religious thought, including the Vedic concept of dharma

Gandhi on the Bhagavad-Gita

"When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-Gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day."

Henry David Thoreau on
The Bhagavad-Gita

"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny and trivial."

Purusharthas:
The Four Human Pursuits

Artha is material success, in all of its forms.
"Kama is pleasure.
"Dharma means good conduct and correct action.
"Moksha means liberation. This is achieved by gaining the ultimate knowledge that the individual is not separate from Ishvara (god).

Varnashrama:
The Caste System

The caste system (varnashrama) in India is and has been in the recent past a tool of oppression and abuse.
However, the modern caste system does not follow (though it is descended from the system of varnashrama originally laid out in the Vedas.
This original vision was not inegalitarian, nor was it prescriptive. Rather, it was and is a description of roles that individuals play in society.
According to the Vedas, these roles should ideally be determined by talent and self-determination rather than by birth and are all necessary and deserving of respect.

The Four Castes

Brahmins: the intellectual, the teacher or the priest: people with a high level of education and wisdom, who were fit to guide and teach others.

Kshatriyas: one involved in either governance or military activities, either a ruler or a warrior.

Vaishyas were merchants or entrepreneurs, anyone involved in trade or running a business.

.Shudras: artisans, craftspeople, field laborers, cooks, servants-anything that involved manual labor.

Karma and Reincarnation

Hindus believe in reincarnation and karma
Only a portion of our total karma manifests in any one lifetime
Our present thoughts and actions effect the course of our destiny
Hindus use methods like meditation and pilgrimage to clean up their bad karma
Our karma leads us to heavenly or hellish after-deaths
Heaven and hell are temporary; sooner or later we are reborn

Om

Om, as a word and a symbol, represents everything in the entire universe

Om is considered auspicious and is chanted at the beginning of all hymns, prayers and rituals

Ahmisa: Non-Injury and its relation to vegetarianism

Vegetarianism is simply an extension of the Hindu concept of ahimsa, or non-injury.

Ahimsa is an important Hindu principle and its application involves seeking to cause as little injury to all beings as possible. This is the main reason most Hindus do not eat beef and most other meat.