i finally finished the chapter on Hinduism! man, i got distracted from that for awhile. ok, here we go.
Hinduism is that religion from India with all the Gods, including the one that has a head of an elephant. finally heard the story behind that, just a lot of unnecessary decapitations if you ask me. anyways, it's a very old religion and has gone through many changes over the years. Stephen Prothero called it the least dogmatic and the most diverse. i like the sound of it so far.
some Hindus say there is really just one god, some say there are many gods but one supreme god, some say there are many gods and they are all equal, and some say there are no gods. there is shared scripture in The Vedas, a shared sacred symbol called Om, and a sacred center Varanasi in North India. there is no founder and no current leader. they have no shared creed or mechanism for excommunication. i have to say, i like the idea of no leader. too much power in one person's hands in not a good thing.
the problem with the human condition as identified in Hinduism is something called samsara. this is the vicious cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Hindus see reincarnation as a problem: "this world is a vale of tears, and whatever happiness we might cobble together here is transitory and impermanent. Even heaven... was created and will be destroyed, as will whatever gods reside there. The Hindu goal, therefore, is not to escape from this world to some heavenly paradise, but to escape from heaven and earth altogether." the Hindus call this goal moksha.
i'm not sure how i feel about that idea. it feels like a better goal than i have heard in other religions, but i don't think it would be my goal. i like this world. it's beautiful. and the happiness is only really noticed in comparison to sorrow. it is the hard times that make the good times so special. we human beings have a tendency to get bored when everything is going well and create problems for ourselves. if we had the opportunity to always be happy, wouldn't we just screw it up? plus the things i live for the most are the people i love. what if your loved ones don't go with you when you escape? wouldn't you miss them? wouldn't you want to all leave together?
there are three other goals in Hinduism: 1) kama - sensual pleasure, 2) artha - wealth and power, and 3) dharma - duty. but moksha is the ultimate goal. there are three different yogas (disciplines to getting moksha): 1) karma yoga - discipline of action (ritual actions), 2) jnana yoga - discipline of wisdom written down in the philosophical scripture the Upanishads, and 3) bhakti yoga - discipline of devotion - all you need is heartfelt devotion to the god of your choosing.
Hinduism is big on rituals and storytelling. the two main books of Hindu stories include the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. the first one is incredibly long (much longer than the Bible) and includes the famous Bhagavad Gita. the stories in both are very dramatic and entertaining. both have been turned into cartoons, miniseries, and comic books in the modern age as a way of getting the stories out to the younger generations. i kinda wish i could see them.
the explanation behind reincarnation is the idea of karma which refers to moral action and consequences. consequences flow from actions without any supernatural intervention. no one is judging you and deciding your fate. it's just cause and effect. and when you die you die with a combination of good karma and bad karma. so when you die there are good actions awaiting reward and bad actions awaiting punishment. so you are born into another body and the cycle continues. another idea i like, just kinda makes sense to me.
in Hinduism there is something called maya which is a veil of illusion that we look at ourselves and the world through. it keeps us from seeing that human beings are not different from divinity, we are one. "The essence of the human being is the same as the essence of divinity. ...The individual soul is divine. The essence of each of us is uncreated, deathless, and immortal." to know this is to achieve moksha. but it's not enough to believe, you must experience it. (sounds like a job for hallucinatory drugs)
this idea behind what the soul is and it's connection to the divine and God, i really like. i think i have always felt that way. but i'm not sure i can get on board with the goal of moksha. doesn't seem like something i wanna work towards. but then maybe i'm just not ready.
one thing i wanna look up more about is this one goddess he mentions in the book. her name is Durga and she rides a tiger or a lion while carrying many (up to 18) weapons and is fierce for righteousness. she slays the buffalo daemon of chaos. that just sounds awesome! i also wanna learn more about Gandhi because he barely mentions him in the book.
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