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Apr-06-2009
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Monotheism and Polytheism
Broadly speaking two classes of religions are monotheism and polytheism. Monotheistic religions originated in Semitic and non-Semitic regions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam are Abrahamic religions of Semitic origin; Zoroastrianism is of non-Semitic Persia origin.
Judaism is original Abrahamic religion. Christianity and Islam are of Abrahamic origin. Both Christians and Muslims have replaced the idols that existed in Abrahamic temples and other places of worship with some other symbols such as a cross or a grave.
Most common symbols in Christian churches include a cross, a statue of Jesus, Mary with baby Jesus, etc and numbers of icons decorate orthodox churches. Many icons are imbedded in the stain glass windows of beautiful churches. The walls of many orthodox Greek and Russian churches are decorated with icons or paintings depicting Jesus, Mary with baby Jesus, various saints, and scenes from biblical times. Sistine chapel, a Catholic church, home of Vatican Rome is known for Michelangelo"s painting on the ceilings, its architecture and frescos depicting the life of Moses and Christ.
The Holy Masjid of Mecca is famous for Kaaba - a black piece of meteorite - and many other Masjids all over globe house buried remains of dead dignitaries. Taj Mahal of India for example is home for its builder Emperor Shahjahan and his beloved Mumtaz.
Hindus are considered polytheist even though they believe in one God or Bhagwan. Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism and Hinduism are based on ancient Vedic teachings of more than 1,500 B.C. Buddhism is credited to Gautam Buddha, Jainism to Mahavir Jain and Sikhism to Guru Nanak; followers of each of three religions do not idol worship.
Unlike Hinduism, which may be viewed as a philosophy or a religion and other religions connected to Vedas, each Abrahamic Semitic and Zoroastrian non-Semitic religion maintains that it was delivered by God through a chosen messenger.
Hindu Religion
Hindus believe in one God. Unlike monotheist practices, Hindus have a choice to worship, perceive and connect to intangible, unmanifested-Supreme God through tangible idols for convenience of establishing relationship to Gad. Unmanifested God means God is not directly perceptible to the sense organs.
Idols come in number of forms; idol worshiping Hindus are called polytheist. What should be understood and appreciated is that all idols individually and collectively represent only one and same God.
The Holy Geeta
The Holy Geeta in 18 chapters offers a synthesis of all Upanishad teachings, an estimated 5,000 years old ancient literature. Yoga is a Hindu meditation technique. The Holy Geeta or the Geeta describes all yogas or paths available for a seeker to choose from and each Hindu is free to select one or more of these paths to seek God. Each of yogas to reach God is equal to any other yoga; there is no one yoga superior to other yogas; they all have equal weight in helping a devotee to reach or connect to God. Three yogas popular with most devotees are gyan yoga or path of knowledge (gyan), karma yoga or path of action (karma) and bhakti yoga or path of devotion (bhakti).
The following introduction to select yogas is adopted from "The Holy Geeta" by Swami Chinmayananda (reprinted July 2001; about 1,200 pages of commentary with original Sanskrit slokas or verses and their English translations). Being an introduction to Hinduism, the discussion is limited to only three yogas: that of knowledge, action and bhakti.
Hinduism emphasizes reliance on a guru or teacher to empower seekers with education, knowledge and techniques available to connect to God. In the Geeta, Lord Krishna is the teacher and confused Arjuna represents the student such as anyone of us.
Parents are not only responsible for giving birth and nurturing child but they are also the first "gurus." According to the modern psychology, first five years of a child are the formative years to lay a solid foundation on which the edifice of life is then build during rest of life. Parents are the primary gurus during the formative period. The deeply embedded tradition of Hindu family values is rooted in the guru-student relationship or deep bonding of child with parents, the gurus.
Cosmic-Man and the Cosmic-Form Divine
The Geeta explains various paths or yogas for a mortal to cognize that the entire universe is one reality, the Self. In a world bound by the space-time continuum cosmic objects and things of the world exist separately from one another. If the concept of space-time is totally blotted out, all objects will immediately come together into a happy embrace and will represent as one congenial homogeneous whole. For the mind of Cosmic-Man, the vision of the world is that of the singularity without the space-time continuum.
Unlike a singularity of the modern sciences or a property called unitarity of the quantum physics, the God is the ultimate singularity and all singularities are beyond or unbound by the space-time continuum of Einstein"s theory of relativity. The laws of relativity don"t apply to what falls or disappears into the black hole created by the collapse of space-time associated with the cosmic universe and they certainly do not apply to God.
In cosmic universe with the space-time continuum any object - an idol - is a prop or a dot relative to size of cosmic universe governed by the laws of modern sciences.
For most of us without a tangible experimental verification, we do not have an intellectual capacity to imagine and understand concept of the black hole - a region of empty space with a point-like singularity at the center - or the big bang theory that scientist tells us was responsible for an explosion of a singularity 13.5 to 14.7 billion years ago giving birth to the cosmic universe that is inter-connected and governed by the laws of gravity.
In chapter XI, verses # 10 - 13 of the Geeta, at the student"s request Krishna, the Lord of yoga gave the student (Arjuna) a glimpse at the vision of the Cosmic-man, etc. Verses # 12 - 13 states, "If the light of a thousand suns suddenly arose in the sky, that splendor might be compared to the radiance of the Supreme Spirit. Arjuna saw in that radiance, the whole Universe with all its infinite parts standing as unity in the body of the God of gods." A panoramic view of the cosmic universe is intellectually painted in four verses. The same cosmic universe came to existence with the big bang according to the modern science about 14 billion years ago.
Keeping in mind the diversity of individual intellectual levels, the poet Vyasa, the author of Mahabharata including the Geeta, illuminates each idea in every chapter at various intellectual levels. For example, remaining 40 of 54 verses in chapter XI amplifies the idea of the cosmic universe and Cosmic-form divine.
Is idol-worship justified?
Yes; the idols serve as props - a tangible form - for meditative minds of yogi and yogin (one engaged in yoga; yogin is female and yogi is male) to focus on to connect to the God. Idols are manifested representation of the God. Most Hindus need an idol to build a mental image to relate to the singularity representing the God.
The God is infinite and intangible; God is all around us all over the universe. God is every where in the cosmic universe dispersed in the space-time continuum.
Idols are a great help to get fixated on a mental image of the God. Practically all of us have a wandering mind and preoccupation with issues related to day-to-day living. Daily living entails a life of sensuality and satisfaction of one"s body-cravings. Reaching out to God requires breaking away from sensuality and body-cravings by redirecting with devotion, Shraddha (reverence, veneration) and concentration (a unity of mind and purpose) focused on God. Idols help seekers with devotion and Shraddha to concentrate on God.
Intellect, Mind and Vasana (Desires)
Hindus recognize brain is center for intellect, mind and desires (vasanas). Each of three terms is defined below and it is followed by some additional observations to facilitate understanding of how Hindu religion helps each person to be empowered with knowledge and education.
Intellect and intelligence refer to mental equipment or qualities. Intellect and mental capacity is the capacity for thinking and acquiring knowledge, esp. of a high or complex order. Intellect is synonym to reason, sense, common sense, brain, etc.
Mind is that part of brain that thinks, feels, and wills, as contrasted with body. Mind is multifaceted. It is a way of thinking and feeling; it is disposition; temper; a state of awareness or remembrance; opinion, view, or sentiments; and inclination or desire. In psychology the mind is totality of conscious and unconscious mental processes and activities.
Vasanas are desires originating through mind as perceived with sense organs.
Hindu religion emphasizes three goals for yogis and yogins.
1. To acquire mental equanimity through purity (Sattwa);
2. To free mind of attachments to avoid agitations or Rajas that attack the intellect with delusions and grief and
3. To seek truth through yoga and Kshema the right cognition of the Real nature of things (Tamas).
Yoga means "to acquire" for purposes of processing and Kshema means "all efforts of preserving the acquired."
Both the mind and intellect are nothing but thoughts. Devotion to God requires for mind and intellect to actually penetrate, delve into, merge, and ultimately dissolve them to become the very idea perfection represented by the God. Fixing thoughts requires thoughts to gush forward in sincerity toward God so that the personality of the devotee ends and acquires the glow and beauty of the Lord-of-his-heart.
Intellectually God is infinite, intangible or unmanifested. Hindus recognize needs of people of different intellectual capacities. Not everyone is intellectually endowed to perceive God that is imperceptible to sense organs.
A manifested or tangible form is directly perceptible to the sense organs and Hindus recognize that some seekers need a tangible from or idol to meditate or stay focused on while engaged in yoga of worship. Others are intellectually equipped to worship, pray, meditate or do yoga of God in the unmanifested or intangible form.
The emphasis in Hindu religion is on personal empowerment to help yogis and yogins sail through life to achieve the ultimate destination of union with God. Hindu religion allows many paths or yogas to penetrate, delve into, merge, and ultimately dissolve a seeker to become the very ideal perfection that God, the object represents.
Like Microsoft"s Word software that offers multiple choices for digital manipulation of computational situations, Hindu religion offers multiple choices to devotees to pick a set of beliefs they are comfortable with within a broad canvas of Hindu yogic scriptures to suit their intellectual and emotional needs to reach out and connect to the God.
Complete knowledge of "the Self" destroys ignorance to reveal the Supreme (Brahman). Mind in pursuit of knowledge invariably is distracted by desires, ego develops and the Self gets wrapped in ignorance in stead of knowledge. Geeta offers guidance, knowledge and instructions on how to avoid falling in vertigos of desires instigated by ego driven entrapments in life.
Yoga
Yuj means to join is the root of the actions called yoga. Yoga is a conscious attempt by anyone to acquire or lift his/her present available personality and attune it to a higher, perfect ideal.
Yoga is used as a primary technique to meditate, to seek God, the perfect ideal. In the West and for non-Hindus, yoga is for physical exercises, such as pranayam, which is yoga for breathing exercises. For Hindus, pranayam yoga is to connect to God through breathing exercises.
Select Hindu Yoga Practices
Yoga of knowledge is the Path-of-Knowledge. Geeta presents in 36 verses (verses 11 to 46, The Holy Geeta, Chapter 2) the logic of thought in Hindu philosophy or the cream of knowledge from Hindu Upanishads.
Ancient Hindus understood that every human is made of perishable body and imperishable Self, soul or atman. The Self-body duality is introduced in scriptures by:
. Describing indestructible self (verse #12), "It is not that at any time (in the past), indeed, was I not, nor was you, nor these rulers of men. Nor, verily, shall we all ever cease to be hereafter" and
. The perishable nature of the body (verse #18), "They have an end, it is said, these bodies of the embodied-self. The Self is Eternal, Indestructible and Incomprehensible. Therefore, fight, O Bharata (Hindu son/daughter)."
The words, "fight, O Hindu son/daughter" is the call for actions in life to be lived to fullest. Emphasis in life is for actions, not inactions associated with defeatist mental state or attitude. The same words, "fight, O Hindu son/daughter" are also a religious call to face, whole-heartedly and sincerely, the situations, in every given field of life, at every given moment of existence. Hindu religion asks for active resistance to evil.
The Hindu concepts of extreme forgiveness and large-hearted tolerance are represented by the principle of "non-violence."
The Self is unmanifested; the death for the born and birth for the dead are certain. Both the beginning and the end of the Self are unmanifest; only the middle with body is manifest. Hindu creed for "the Hindu son/daughter" - the manifest state - is to face every situation in every given field of life, at every given moment of existence.
Hindus are asked (verse # 38) not to lose their equanimity at all time by imploring them to make pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, the same. Sin is unacceptable, so Hindus are asked to engage in the battle of life for the sake of life so as not to sin.
The doctrine of reincarnation was introduced by ancient Hindus (verses # 20 and # 23) as Hindus regard the Self to be immutable. Verse # 20 states, "He (the Self) is not born, nor does He ever die; after having been, He again ceases not to be; unborn, eternal, changeless and ancient, He is not killed when the body is killed." Verse # 23 acknowledges, "Weapons cleave It not, water moistens It not, wind dries It not."
Scientists may recognize in these verses similarities in ancient Hindu thoughts and the modern physics. The current understandings of the cosmic universe are given by the Einstein"s theory of relativity and quantum physics.
A detailed study of Geeta and its precursor Upanishads will introduce concepts we learn through modern sciences and philosophy. Prakruti is Hindu term for material world that is rational, and subject to reason and laws of physics. The Self is the force or energy that pervades entire universe. Ancient Hindu thought incorporates psychology and human behavior. The pranayam yoga is for healthy living and healthcare. It offers ayurvedic medical science to treat illnesses. With philosophy and mathematics it introduces concepts in sciences, engineering, architecture, and astronomy. Astronomy is an old science in India and Hindu scientists were among the first to recognize that the earth revolves around sun, not moon. It emphasizes innovation and creativity, which are the basis for the entrepreneurial spirit; the Hindu teachings encourage entrepreneurship.
Yoga of Action is the Path-of-Action. It prescribes five duties or responsibilities for each person. Each person in the given order is responsible for or duty (dharma) bound to:
1. Take care of (him/her) self first. If you can"t take care of yourself, you can"t discharge the remaining four duties or responsibilities.
2. Take care of your immediate family - parents, wife, children and siblings.
3. Take care of your extended family of relatives, teachers, and all those you learned from as you grew up.
4. Take care of immediate friend circle that helped you grow up. Each of your immediate friends has directly and indirectly contributed to your education as you answered "the call of renaissance."
5. Take care of the rest of the village you grew up in. It takes a village to raise a mature responsible adult ready to face the world, O, Hindu son/daughter.
Taking care of you means to acquire self-perfection through education and answering the "call of the renaissance". Hindus are encouraged to be innovative and creative; education is the foundation for the two activities. Entrepreneurs are innovative and creative and education helps build entrepreneurship.
At the core of our understanding is Hindu philosophy that places emphasis on sustainable self-reliance. For the basic day-to-day living, we need to understand that "no education, no skills, no job, no income and no potential for achieving sustainable self-reliance." It is that simple.
As we satisfy our core needs through sustainable self-sufficiency step-by-step we progress to higher levels of reaching out to God to satisfy spirituality. The reach to God is accessible through many yogic forms. Yoga of action offers a step by step process as our dharma or duties in a responsible progression.
Any religious community - Zoroastrians, Jews and Hindus to name three - that is empowered by education is very powerful and can survive against all odds and political persecutions. The followers of these religions have prevailed for millenniums in spite of persistent attacks from those seeking growth through extraterritorial expansions and also by politically motivated warlords who invoked misinterpretations of their faith.
Yoga of Devotion is the Path-of-Bhakti. It calls for devotee"s total fixation on God characterized as intangible, imperishable, indefinable, all pervading, unthinkable, unchanging, immovable, eternal and infinite. Fixating on intangible God is a hard task, especially for the seekers with a wandering mind.
The higher faculty in man is intellect that posses the ability to rule over and direct his/her mental abilities. Idols are very useful tool for the path of bhakti.
The devotees have to satisfy absolutely necessary three conditions to follow the path of devotion, which appears to be, but is not, a very easy task. The three conditions are:
1. to follow the perfect path,
2. be ever steadfast in worship and
3. Engage mind to totally merge with God.
The path of meditations requires self control or restraining all the senses, being steadfast through equanimity and cultivating intent on the welfare of all beings. God is the summit of perfection. To climb up the summit of perfection one must conserve or curtail dissipation of energy by the wandering mind; for the mind is governed by the sense organs. In the world-of-change each seeker has to discover his/her own balance and equipoise by controlling his/her intellectual evaluations, mental attachments and the physical contacts with the outside world. In dealing with the world the devotees have to tirelessly serve the entire living kingdom. Love for all beings becomes seekers creed. Through meditation the seeker fixes the mind upon the intangible God by being able to control sense organs through equanimity and making his/her nature to serve others (see above for five actionable karmas, duties or responsibilities collectively called dharma).
Mind and intellect are nothing but thoughts. Learning through practice to focus thoughts, both mind and intellect, on intangible God in the presence of a tangible idol requires shraddha (reverence, veneration) and development of art of concentration (a unity of mind and purpose) to focus on God. The practice of fixating on God entails thought penetration and molding our personality to break away from desires (vasanas) instigated by sensuality and body-cravings.
The learning through practice (abhyasa or study) the art of cultivation of equanimity is required for exercising regular self-control while worshipping God. The mind by its very nature tends to run wild from the object of contemplation unless the devotees have cultivated and mastered the art of self control for keeping thoughts balanced through concentration.
Supreme faith in God through shraddha is essential to master the art of self-control to achieve equanimity of mind. Shraddha is not "blind faith." Shraddha (reverence, veneration) is a recognition that the devotee believes in the object he does not know so that he may come to know what he believes in. Shraddha is a faculty to be cultivated.
With a wandering mind the goals keep on drifting and although we constantly struggle, we reach nowhere, wasting time and energy. In Sanskrit, anya means "other" and ananya means "without otherness." The Geeta recommends practicing the ananya yoga in which the goal is ever steady and our mind has no sense of "otherness" about it.
Practicing devotion to God is the abhyasa (study) yoga. Meditation is a tool to create the necessary condition, most favorable for an early blossoming of the greater man in us. Meditation without interference by desires and a wandering mind is hard and hence the Geeta suggests an alternate path - yoga of action - to surrender all your actions in a spirit of dedication to God. Hindu philosophy maintains that actions performed in the spirit of God leads the devotees to attain perfection.
Doing actions in the spirit of God requires renouncing the fruits of all actions. Simply put, it means our acts should be devoid of our ego or they be for the community and free of the sense of a separate, individual existence. The community services obviously have to be guided by a sense of morality and ethics. The Geeta describes in seven verses # 14 - 20 (Chapter XII) the moral rules and ethical codes of behavior for Hindus. Moral rules and ethical codes are Hindu values, not laws. Laws tell you what you can"t do; Hindu morals and ethics tell devotees, man/woman of perfection, what you should do.
Absolute conformity to laws is essential to maintain law and order in a politically dominated society. Hindu moral and ethical values are for man/woman to attain ideal perfection through devotion to the God.
The description of the bhakti yoga is concluded by listing attributes of a real devotee and the moral, ethical and spiritual qualities of the devotee dear to God and incorporated into the values of life, revered by Hindus as the immortal dharma (duty).
The attributes of a real devotee
1. As man/woman of perfection, the devotee will not engage in agitating the world around him/her. The real devotee"s presence in the world is to induce serenity and endless peace in the environment.
2. As man/woman of perfection s/he cannot be agitated by the world around her/him. A perfect person is made of stronger mettle and for such person life is build upon surer foundation. The world around may be chaotic, revolting, boisterous and vengeful but presence of such a devotee induces a dynamic peace in the environment. The real devotee being rooted in the realization of the deeper substratum of life is not attached to the superficial conditions of matter and its playful magic.
3. As man/woman of perfection the devotee is completely freed from inward agitations causes by joy, envy, fear and anxiety. Joy comes with a gain of desired objects; envy of those who have it if the desired object is not gained; greed for more follows if the desires are satisfied; and fear surfaces with anxiety of loosing what we possess. The real devotee has no desires for material gains that cause agitations.
Immortal Dharma
1. A prefect devotee dear to God is free from wants; s/he is pure, alert, unconcerned, untroubled, and renounces all undertakings or commencements.
2. Such a person full of devotion neither rejoices, nor hates, nor grieves, nor desires and renounces good and evil.
3. A person dear to God is free from attachments, is the same to foe and friend, in honor and dishonor, in cold and heat, and in pleasure and pain.
4. For a steady-minded person dear to God censure and praise are equal; such a devotee is silent and content with anything.
5. A devotee dear to God is endowed with faith in the immortal dharma or values of life in pursuit of Supreme God.
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