by Ulf Wolf
The first group consists of priests, teachers, scholars, and others who represent knowledge and spirituality. People in this group are called brahmanas, or brahmans.
The second group, called ksatriyas, is represented by kings, warriors, government bureaucrats, and others who represent, and wield, power.
The third group, called vaishyas, is represented by farmers, traders, merchants, and other skilled workers; no unlike the Western middle class.
The fourth group, called shadras, is comprised of unskilled workers.
A faction of society sometimes known as untouchables has at times constituted a subcategory within the shudra class, and is sometimes referred to as a fifth group.
Four Limbs
Hindu thinkers visualized these societal groups as comprising the four limbs of society conceived as a body. It is a hierarchical system, with brahmans seen as the highest category and shudras as the lowest, known as varna.
Over time, especially during the long period of Islamic rule, these classes hardened into what then became known as—and is still known as—the caste system.
Ashrama: Stages of Life
Just as the varna system provides an organizing principle of Hindu society, the ashrama system provides an organizing principle of an individual’s life.
According to the ashrama system, human life is divided into four stages, each succeeding the other, providing a road map for the journey through these stages with a clear sense of purpose for each stage, including old age.
It’s worthy of note that Hindus consider the last stage of life highly meaningful, if not the most meaningful.
Also, ashrama addresses the four goals that constitute a fulfilling life (discussed above): Dharma, artha, kama, and moksha.
The first ashrama stage is the life of a celibate student, a time when an individual acquires the values of Dharma—that is, preparation and training for leading a proper life.
This stage is followed by that of the householder, the time to seek artha and kama by marrying, working, and raising a family as an active member of society. During this second stage, Hindu householders are expected to carry out their responsibilities in accordance with Dharma and to free themselves of debts owed to the gods, the sages, and their ancestors.
At around 50, once these years of enjoyment and responsibility are over, the third stage of life begins. The children are now grown, and the individual gradually begins to give up acquisitions and worldly ties and to instead take up spiritual contemplation in preparation for the next stage.
The fourth and final stage involves renunciation of the world to seek liberation in sublime isolation.
Renunciation
Renunciation allows the individual to free himself or herself from external responsibilities and, instead, to concentrate on an inner search. The life of the true sannyasi (renunciant) focuses on achieving realization of the true and innermost self, the atman, in union with the divine.
Hence, the ashrama system also recognizes a clear division between active participation in life and ascetic withdrawal from life. Although this division has applied to all Hindus, regardless of gender or caste, men of the three higher varnas (brahmans, ksatriyas, and vaishyas) have been more likely to enact it through the ashrama system—primarily, of course, because they are in a societal (and financial) situation to do so.
On the other hand, some Hindus choose to devote their entire lives to the quest for moksha, and become renunciants at an early age, free from the obligations of varna and ashrama.
These are known as sannyasis. A sannyasi who joins a monastic order becomes a swami.
In addition to the duties associated with each stage of life, Hinduism also emphasizes duties belonging to all human beings, especially cultivation of truth and nonviolence. Many Hindus, for example, choose not to eat meat because of their cultivation of nonviolence.
Hindu Rituals: What Do Hindus Do?
The Hindu tradition considers all things created worthy of worship, which means that religious activity in Hinduism takes many forms.
Worship and rituals may be performed by the individual, by the family, by the village, by the community or region; at home or in a temple; and frequently or infrequently. In fact, the prevalence and persistence of Hindu ritual may well provide a unifying factor in a tradition as flexible in doctrine as Hinduism. One could even say that ritual is the glue that holds Hindus and Hinduism together.
Most rites and observances practiced (whether daily or at lesser intervals) have come down from ancient times; others have sprung from the lives and teachings of Hindu saints and sages. While details of rituals may differ from region to region, their meaning and principal practices have remained consistent since their inception.
Guru: Teacher
Spiritual authority in Hinduism flows from enlightened sages called gurus. The guru is someone who, personally, has attained realization and acts as a guide for other human beings.
He or she guides the individual seeker of truth and self-realization to the appropriate deity, practice, or yoga within Hinduism.
Though the disciple’s goal is to transcend the need for a guru through direct experience of the divine and self-awareness, having such a guide is considered critical for traversing the complexities of spiritual practice and self-discovery.
In other words, the guru thus constitutes an important center of spiritual activity in Hinduism.
Sacred Literature
Although Hindu tradition (correctly, in my view) holds that the ultimate reality lies beyond all scriptures, it is equally convinced that the scriptures help people orient their minds and lives towards Brahman.
This attitude has given rise to a body of sacred literature so vast that by one calculation it would take 70 lifetimes of devoted study to read all of it.
The Vedas
At least on paper, the four Vedas constitute the most important body of sacred Hindu literature.
While other sacred literature, especially the Hindu epics, may be more popular with readers, the Vedas, written in the ancient Sanskrit language, are the oldest and most respected scriptures.
These four Vedas are separately titled the Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda, and Atharva-Veda, but collectively they are simply referred to as the Veda.
Each of the Vedas can be further divided into four types of texts, roughly chronological in order: mantra or samhita, brahmana, aranyaka, and upanishad.
The mantra or samhita portion consists mostly of hymns addressed to the various deities.
The brahmana texts gather the authoritative utterances of brahmans (sages and gurus with personal knowledge of Brahman, the ultimate reality) and describe the rituals—chiefly sacrificial offerings—in which the hymns are employed.
The aranyakas, or forest texts, were presumably composed by sages who sought seclusion in the forests.
The Upanishads, the last section (and written somewhat later than the other three), are philosophical (or mystic) texts expounding upon the spiritual content of the Vedas.
Some scholars have suggested that these four categories of texts represent four different stages in the spiritual evolution of the Aryans, the peoples of the Vedas.
During the earliest stage of their religious life, the Aryans may have recited simple hymns of praise for the divinities they felt dwelt around them.
The next stage saw ritual evolve from the early worship and become increasingly elaborate—so elaborate, in fact, that only the priesthood could now perform them.
The third stage saw sages retired to the forests to reflect on the meaning of sacrifice and the person who makes the sacrifice.
This reflection, in turn, spawned philosophical the speculation found in the Upanishads.
Correctly or not, Hindus view the four types of texts as dating from the same general period but serving different purposes. This view holds that the first three texts deal with the realm of action (Dhamma, artha, and kama), while the Upanishads deal with knowledge of the self and moksha.
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The Upanishads are sometimes also called Vedanta (meaning “end of the Vedas”) because they represent the spiritual essence of the prior writings. As such, the Vedanta marks the culmination as well as the conclusion of the Vedas, although the Vedic canon was never formally closed.
Shruti and Smriti: Eternal Truth versus Tradition
Hindu scriptures are normally classified into two types: shruti and smriti.
Shruti, meaning “heard,” can be seen as revelation or eternal truth (the Veda), while smriti, meaning “remembered,” is comparable to tradition.
By differentiating that which is seen as eternally true from that which may only hold true for a specific time and culture, shruti and smriti enable Hindus to reform outdated practices while remaining faithful to Hinduism’s essence.
Should a conflict arise between the two, shruti—in essence the Vedas— always takes precedence over smriti.
The Vedas are, for the Hindu, what the Bible is to the Christian and the Qur’an to the Muslim. However, unlike the revealed texts of Christianity and Islam, whose source is considered to be God speaking through the son or the prophet, the Vedas have no author, for according to Vedanta, shruti is revelation without a revealer.
In fact, the Hindu teachings hold that the universe is without beginning or end, and that the Vedas appear along with creation at the beginning of each cycle of time, and Brahma, who presides over the remanifestation of the universe, recites the Vedas for sages to hear anew. These divinely heard scriptures are then transmitted orally from master to disciple.
This is why the Vedas are also called shruti: they are twice heard. First, divinely by the sages at the beginning of a cycle, and then again by the disciple as the master orally transmits the teaching.
The word smriti, on the other hand, is applied to a vast category of literature in Hinduism that, unlike shruti, is considered to have an author.
One category of smriti is comprised of more than 20 law books that lay down in detail the rules to follow in life, especially the rules that pertain to social order and the four stages of life.
Another category of smriti includes the texts called Puranas, which deal with the lives of the gods and celestial beings. There are 18 Puranas, and they are normally grouped according to which of the three gods of the Hindu trinity they emphasize—Brahma, Vishnu, or Shiva.
The most famous of these is the Bhagavata Purana, which deals with the life of Krishna—an avatar of Vishnu.
The Epics
A third category of smriti is comprised of two texts of legendary history: the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Scholars believe the Ramayana assumed its present form between 300 BCE and 200 CE, while the Mahabharata evolved over a period extending from about 400 BCE to about 400 CE.
Ramayana
The Ramayana is a collection of about 24,000 verses and describes the life of Prince Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu.
According to tradition, Valmiki, the author, made his living by robbing travelers. Then, after an encounter with the sage Narada, Valmiki turned his life around and became a poet and scholar.
Rama and his wife Sita embody virtue and righteousness, and their lives (as recounted in verse by Valmiki) demonstrate Dharma in various spheres of activity. Their life stories contain lessons for Hindus on ideal behavior in various roles, such as son, brother, wife, king, and married couple.
Rama’s reign ushers in a golden age, and the expression Rama-rajya (rule of Rama) describes the best of times in which the divine presence rules on Earth.
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is an epic story of some 100,000 verses attributed to a sage named Vyasa. It is believed to be the longest poem in the world.
Its narrative traces the descendants of two sets of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, whose disputes eventually lead to the Mahabharata war. Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, is central to the story. Like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata addresses many questions related to Dharma, and about how both individuals and societies should act—discourses that have provided inspiration for Hindus in many areas of life.
Bhagavad-Gita
As a central part of the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad-Gita is a text in its own right. On the eve of the Mahabharata war, the hero Arjuna suddenly develops a reluctance to fight. Arjuna’s disinclination leads to a prolonged dialogue with Krishna during which Krishna tries to resolve Arjuna’s moral and metaphysical dilemmas.
The way in which Krishna seeks to guide Arjuna has endeared the text to the Hindus as a guide to their faith.
In the Bhagavad-Gita, Hinduism possesses what is virtually a universal scripture. Since the Gupta period (320 to 550 BCE) it has inspired a stream of commentaries, summaries, and translations, all of which attest to its wide popularity; a process that, to this day, shows no signs of letting up.
It is widely considered that both the Mahabharata and its offspring, the Bhagavad-Gita, both carry meaning on multiple levels. In one interpretation, the Pandavas and Kauravas represent the forces of good and evil that exist within each person, and the contest between them represents the perpetual battle between these tendencies.
The Bhagavad-Gita then centers on the techniques and paths by which the individual can attain realization of the Ultimate Reality with Krishna as the guide.
As part of the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad-Gita technically falls in the category of smriti rather than shruti. However, it enjoys the status of shruti by representing the words of the divinity, incarnated as Krishna and addressed to human beings through Arjuna.
History of Hinduism
Since there are no specific historical events (aside from the creation of the Universe) that spawned Hinduism, it does not attach the same religious significance to history as do Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Some scholars have linked Hinduism’s indifference to its own history to a scientist’s indifference to the history of science.
As an aside, I believe this is a misguided view; what is of value in both cases are not historical events, clearly dated, but idea(s) or practice(s) as such.
The history of Hinduism is a history of its aim to incorporate and assimilate the various developments it encountered or generated, rather than a history of conquests or triumphs over non-believers.
The contrast is apparent between the Biblical injunction to believe in one God who is the only God (and will tolerate no other Gods beside him) and the Vedic perception that “Truth is one, sages call it variously.”
That being said, considerable controversy remains over Hinduism’s historical origins. At one point most scholars believed that it was the arrival of the Aryan people in India about 1500 BCE that spawned the religion.
And it certainly seems that the Aryans did in fact arrive around that time, and that, once settled, they did replace the earlier Harappan culture in the Indus valley with its own; and they are, most likely the people described in the Vedas.
However, although linguistic evidence tends to support the notion of an Aryan migration, most scholars now believe this view awaits confirmation by archaeology, especially since it has now been challenged by the discovery of extensive sites in northwestern and western India—suggesting an advanced existing civilization that could, on its own, have spawned the Vedas.
Did Hinduism as described in the Vedas originate in India or did it arise as a result of migrations from outside? To date there still is no clear-cut answer. What is clear, however, is that the Vedas, and the religion based on them, go back to at least 1200 BCE in India and perhaps much earlier.
Vedic Hinduism
The beginnings of Vedic Hinduism—which in any event dates no later than 1200 BCE—trace back to the Rig-Veda, which contains hymns of praise to various deities called devas.
Agni (deva of fire) and Indra (king of devas and deva of the atmosphere, storms, rain, and battle) were the prominent ones, judging by the number of hymns addressed to them.
Agni was the deity of the domestic hearth as well as of public
ritual. The Rig-Veda calls the deity “smoke-bannered” as it carries the offering made into it toward the gods.
Indra was a martial leader in the Rig-Veda who carried his followers to victory in battle and also battled drought as a rain-god.
A significant part of the Rig-Veda is devoted to soma, a plant whose juice produced ecstatic experiences and was therefore considered sacred.
It is also clear, already in the Rig-Veda, that all devas were but facets of one underlying reality.
By the 4th century BCE Vedic Hinduism had permeated virtually all of India and had, in the process, also assimilated and absorbed various local religious beliefs and practices.
The resulting, assimilated religious mixture is what we refer to as Vedic Hinduism.
Classical Hinduism
Classical Hinduism is deemed to last from the 3rd century BCE to the late 7th century CE. Even as Vedic Hinduism did flourish throughout most of India, there were aspects of its world-view that had come under challenge by the 6th century BCE—both from Upanishadic thinkers and from the rise of new sects including the Jains and the Buddhists.
The Upanishadic thinkers saw themselves as descendants of the Vedic seers, whereas the followers of Buddhism and Jainism—while they retained many concepts from the Vedas—tended to question Vedic absolute authority.
All factions, however, shared one pivotal concern: the release from the eternal birth and rebirth of samsara, and they generally agreed that this release was obtained not by ritual and sacrifice but by meditation and contemplation.
Both Buddhism and Jainism gradually gained strength in India during the centuries just before and just after the beginning of the first millennium.