Hinduism: its diversity and central ideas

Program / Course 18: World Religions / Lesson 3.1

What you will learn

• Explain why Hinduism is better described as a family of traditions than as one organized religion.
• Describe the main ideas of Brahman, atman, dharma, karma, samsara and moksha.
• Name the main devotional streams and the paths to liberation.
• Describe Hinduism so that a Hindu reader would recognize it and avoid the caricature of many idols.

The big idea

Hinduism is the name given to a very large and varied set of religious traditions that arose in the Indian subcontinent. It has no single founder, creed or central authority. Most Hindus honor the Vedas, hold that the soul passes through many lives under the law of karma, and seek liberation, called moksha. Beyond that, they differ: some worship one personal God under a chosen name, some honor many deities as forms of the one, and some teach an impersonal ultimate reality. The tradition’s own word for it is often Sanatana Dharma, the eternal way.

Key terms

Brahman

The ultimate reality in many Hindu schools, the source and ground of all that exists. Some schools understand it as impersonal, others as a personal God.

Atman

The self or soul. In the non-dual school of Advaita Vedanta, the atman is ultimately identical with Brahman. Other schools hold that the soul is distinct from God.

Dharma

Duty, right order and the way of life suited to a person’s place and stage in life. Also the eternal order that upholds the world.

Karma

Action and its consequences. Deeds shape future experience, including future lives.

Samsara and moksha

Samsara is the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Moksha is liberation from that cycle.

Veda and Upanishads

The Vedas are the oldest sacred texts, composed in Sanskrit hymns and rituals. The Upanishads, which come at their end, explore the self and ultimate reality.

Bhakti

Loving devotion to a personal God, an important path in many Hindu traditions.

Background

The word Hindu was originally used by outsiders for the people living near the Indus River, and the term Hinduism came into English in the nineteenth century. Many Hindus accept the word, and many prefer Sanatana Dharma. The roots of the tradition lie in the Vedic religion of about the second millennium before Christ, and in later developments of philosophy, devotion and ritual. The dates are uncertain and debated by scholars.

Hinduism is thus not a religion with a single church. It includes village worship, temple worship, household shrines, ascetics, philosophers and reform movements. About one billion people are Hindus, most of them in India and Nepal, with large communities elsewhere. A fair description must start by stating how varied it is.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Sources of authority

Most Hindu traditions hold the Vedas to be revealed, in the sense of being heard by ancient seers and not composed by any human being (shruti, what is heard). Later texts count as remembered tradition (smriti): the great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Puranas and the legal treatises. The Bhagavad Gita, a section of the Mahabharata in which Krishna instructs the warrior Arjuna, is probably the most widely loved text.

There is no church or pope. Teachers, called gurus, and lineages of teaching carry authority. Different schools interpret the same texts differently, and some, like certain devotional movements, rely mainly on vernacular songs.

Step 2: Brahman and the gods

The Upanishads teach that behind all appearances is one ultimate reality, Brahman. Schools disagree on what this means. In Advaita Vedanta, taught by the philosopher Shankara around the eighth century, Brahman is without qualities and the individual self is not finally different from it. In the schools of Ramanuja, about the eleventh century, Brahman is a personal God, Vishnu, and souls are real and distinct but dependent on him. In Shaivism the supreme is Shiva, and in Shaktism it is the Goddess.

Hindus honor many deities, such as Vishnu and his incarnations Rama and Krishna, Shiva, Durga and Ganesha. Hindus themselves explain this in different ways: as many forms of the one divine, as manifestations suited to different devotees, or as the supreme God with lesser powers. Image worship is not the worship of stone. Hindus describe the image as a form through which God becomes present to the worshiper.

Step 3: Dharma, karma, samsara

Hindus hold that a person lives many lives. What one does shapes what one becomes, through the law of karma. The soul is reborn into a new body until it attains liberation. Samsara, the cycle, is seen as a condition of suffering and impermanence, from which people seek release.

Dharma is the order that supports the world and the duties of each person: family duties, the duties of a student, a householder, a retiree and a renunciant, and duties of a person’s caste or class according to traditional texts. The caste system is an ancient and controversial part of Hindu society. Reformers, such as B. R. Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi in different ways, challenged its injustice. Modern Hindus differ in how they relate it to the tradition.

Step 4: Paths to liberation

The Bhagavad Gita describes three main paths. Jnana yoga is the way of knowledge, in which one comes to know one’s true self. Bhakti yoga is the way of devotion. Karma yoga is the way of selfless action, doing one’s duty without clinging to its fruits. Raja yoga, the way of meditation, is also practiced. Many Hindus combine the paths.

Moksha is described differently: as realizing identity with Brahman, as eternal loving service of God in his presence, or as release from rebirth. Hindus also pursue three other aims in life: dharma, material welfare (artha) and pleasure (kama), each within proper limits.

Step 5: Worship and life

Worship (puja) includes offering flowers, light and food before an image, at home or in a temple. Festivals include Diwali, the festival of lights, Holi, the spring festival, and Navaratri. Pilgrimage to places such as Varanasi and the Ganges is important. Life cycle rites mark birth, marriage and death. Many Hindus are vegetarian out of the principle of non-violence (ahimsa).

In modern times, reform and revival movements have shaped Hinduism, among them the teachers Ramakrishna and Vivekananda and the devotional movement known as ISKCON. A Hindu nationalist politics has also arisen in India. Many Hindus hold that these political uses are separate from the religion.

1. What does it mean for a religion to have no single founder or central authority?
2. How do Advaita Vedanta and devotional Vaishnavism differ on whether God is personal?
3. How would a Hindu respond to the claim that Hindus worship idols?
4. What does karma teach about moral responsibility, and what does it ask of a person in this life?
5. Which of the three paths, knowledge, devotion or action, is closest to your own idea of religion?
6. How does Christian talk of grace compare with the Hindu idea of liberation?

Examples

Different perspectives

Hindu

Many Hindus would say that all paths lead to the one truth, an idea expressed in a Vedic line often quoted as, truth is one, the wise call it by many names. Others, such as the Vaishnava and Shaiva traditions, hold that their own God is supreme. Hindus differ on whether the tradition is inclusive in this way, and some critics within Hinduism see the claim of equality as too simple.

Catholic

Nostra Aetate states that in Hinduism people contemplate the divine mystery and express it through myths and philosophy, and seek freedom from the anguish of the human condition through asceticism, meditation or loving trust in God. The Church holds that it rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions, and also proclaims Christ as the way.

Orthodox

Orthodox theologians note some parallels, such as the emphasis on ascetic practice and the idea of union with the divine. They also stress differences: the Orthodox hold that God is a Trinity of persons who create the world and that union with God (theosis) preserves the distinction between Creator and creature.

Protestant

Protestants differ. Evangelicals often stress that Christ alone saves and that worship of other deities is idolatry, while engaging Hindus with respect. Others, drawing on figures such as Stanley Jones, who valued friendship with Gandhi, stress dialogue. The nineteenth century missionary encounter included both learning and misunderstanding.

Scholarly

Some scholars argue that Hinduism as a single religion is a modern construction shaped by colonial encounters, and others hold that real continuities run through the traditions. Dates of the Vedic texts and the history of early India are debated.

Why it matters

Hindus are a sixth of the world’s people and many Christians have Hindu neighbors and coworkers. The usual descriptions, many gods and idols, are inaccurate. Learning to describe Hindu ideas in their own terms sets the pattern for the comparison on karma, rebirth and liberation in the final lesson of this module.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. What is the difference between a family of traditions and a single religion, and does it matter for how Christians speak about Hinduism?
2. What might a Christian learn from the Gita’s teaching about acting without clinging to results?
3. How would you explain the Trinity to a Hindu who thinks of God as many forms of one?
4. What do you make of the claim that all paths lead to the same goal?

Independent assignment

A Hindu account of Hinduism

In your notebook, write about 350 words describing Hinduism as a thoughtful Hindu would, stating its diversity first. Read chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita in a translation by a Hindu translator or one that Hindus recognize, and copy one verse. Write 100 words on how a Hindu would answer the charge of idolatry. Fill in the Hinduism column of your comparison grid.

Further study

• Huston Smith, The World’s Religions Read the chapter on Hinduism and note its description of the paths.
• David Bentley Hart, The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss Read selectively for a Christian philosopher’s use of Hindu and other classical accounts of ultimate reality.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Religious Diversity (Pluralism) Read for how philosophers treat claims of different religions about the ultimate.
• Acts 17:23 Paul speaks of an altar to an unknown God.
• Romans 1:20 God’s qualities seen in what has been made.
• Isaiah 44:6 God declares there is no other, a text bearing on the question of many gods.