This is an experiment: a thread with required reading, Huston Smith’s book The World’s Religions (known in earlier editions as The Religions of Man). If you really can’t find Smith’s book, we’ll accept The Complete Idiot’s Guide to World Religions as a substitute. It’s not very good, though.
For the background to this thread, see https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=349.
Now discussing: Hinduism.
For each religion, I think it would be helpful for someone who has read the chapter to set out a little basic information:
Who founded the religion?
How has it been passed down to the present day?
What is its big idea or main message? (We can get into details later.)
What does it say about other religions?
To get things rolling, I’ll do that for Hinduism. (It’s the hardest chapter in the book, very abstract, in case you had problems with it.)
FOUNDER: Nobody who can be identified. Apparently, Hindus believe their religion has been around forever.
HOW TRANSMITTED: Through various ancient books about gods, heroes, and philosophy, and by schools and teachers.
BIG IDEA: Smith says it’s You can have what you want. That means whatever you want: wealth, power, beauty, pleasure, holiness. According to Smith, Hindus think there’s a place for all of those, and their religion makes room for them all.
OTHER RELIGIONS: “Many paths to the same summit,” Smith says. Hinduism has many gods of its own and thinks a few more are just fine.
There are plenty of details, but I’ll let someone else supply them. Anyone?
*runs to library*
*does third post dance*
yay! three posts in one day!
anyways…
i read my chapter,
but what are “Primal Religions”?
if that doesn’t include the Church of the FSM, i will be outraged.
thank you for making this thread!
um, don’t hindus believe there’s and eternal force-ish thing inside all of us (namaste is a greeting to acknowledge this) and so they believe in no gods and on god and infinite gods all at once?
Hinduism sounds really, really cool.
Otzi (5),
Wait, there’s more.
Cotton (4),
Read the chapter, and then you tell me.
BL (3),
No, I don’t think Huston Smith covers the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
oh
so this is a thread about Huston Smith?
No, but we’re reading his book about world religions. I think it will help to give the discussion some structure. Once we’ve talked about the main religions the book covers (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, at least), we can move on to others that aren’t in the book, if people are curious about them.
The different ways to reach God in Hinduism:
There are differents types of people, therefore, there are different methods of becoming one with Brahman. Some people are more reflective, more emotional, more active or more experimental.
A method to reach God is called a yoga and a person practicing that method is a yogi.
The different methods Smith listed were:
The way to God through Knowledge
The way to God through Work
The way to God through Psychophysical Exercises (such as science and philosophy)
Hinduism does not say you should dedicate yourself to one method, but rather balance them all out according to what suits you.
I liked this idea because it seemed to make a lot of sense, and it was realistic. The problem with religion can sometimes be that (when it is imposed upon people at least) it becomes a meaningless ritual which is only followed for social reasons.
But this seems to tie religion very closely to daily life.
I found the non-illustrated one this time. Will read on the way to the Army Depot this morning.
In response to the [second-to?] last paragraph of post 9, I shall quote Anne Rice…though it probably belongs on the quotes thread…
“Do they believe this religion,” he asked. “Or is it habit alone?” That’s Ramses talking, by the way.
Hinduism is also accepting of other religions… “They are all paths to the same summit”
It is…..due to other activities, and an euphoric mood, I’ve only gotten about halfway through the chapter….that book is great.
It’s so calm, almost laid-back [for the lack of more appropriate terms]. Hinduism is very logical. I like how it doesn’t disapprove of other methods to “the summit.” It’s just so accepting of the…erm…human condition.
11- in Life of Pi, Pi describes Hindus as “Hairless Christians”, Muslims as “Bearded Hindus”, and Christians as “Hat-wearing Muslims”.
also about my earlier comment, there’s atman inside all of us which seeks to return to Brahman, right? so we’re all connected because of it, yeah?
(I need to find the book again, but I don’t know if I’ll have time to read it before school starts. If not I’ll just remain, as I am at the moment, an interested lurker.)
Cotton (13),
Yes, Hindus think everybody has an Atman–a piece of God, infinite and perfect, like a little nuclear reactor buried deep inside, but connected to God and to all the other Atmans. Usually it’s all crudded over with “distractions, false assumptions, and self-regarding instincts that comprise our surface selves”–like a lamp covered with dust and dirt, Smith says. Hinduism shows different ways for people to tunnel down to the Atman and become one with God.
One interesting thing, to me, was that Hinduism recognizes that not everybody wants to do that. Some people are more interested in becoming rich and famous, or in enjoying themselves–and according to Smith, Hindus think that’s fine. Holiness may be the best thing to work toward, and the only thing that lasts, but people are different and want different things at different stages of their lives. Eventually they’ll get tired of second-best things and seek Atman. But that may not happen until they are old–or it may not happen during this lifetime. (Hindus believe in reincarnation. If you don’t get around to doing something this time around, maybe you’ll manage it in your next life.)
When they do get around to it, as Skipper Nancy (9) pointed out, Hinduism offers several ways to proceed. (She left out one: the way to God through love, by devotion to a symbol of God or a god, or chanting a holy name over and over again, or idealizing some part-god-part-human hero like Krishna.)
We studied Hinduism for a little while…it sounds really interesting.
Is anyone here Hindu? (or is it Hindi?)
It’s Hindu, and Shriya is. I think Hindi is a language, isn’t it?
That’s right. I hope Shriya shows up soon and takes part in this discussion.
“Hindu” just means “Indian.” In his book, Smith often writes “India” instead of “Hinduism” (“India says,” “what India has to teach us,” etc.).
Oh, that’s right! Thanks.
dus the fact that my dads a minster mean I can blog here?
Take a look at MBers’ Religions, which is more free-form and has no “admission requirement.” It may be what you want.
Oh yeah, I thought that I was missing one…
Actually, I liked the section on The Way to God through Love. I like the story about the man who learns to repeat God’s name constantly, so the joy that worship brings him is never absent. I mean, it seemed really inconveniant, but at the same time, a perfect picture of what true faith and belief is.
Just to keep everyone oriented, I’d like to stick with Hinduism for a little while longer to give others a chance to catch up. Then we’ll move on to Buddhism (so you can start reading up on that now). After that, I think a logical order of religions to cover will be Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and maybe “other.” Does that make sense to everyone?
So….after we finish discussing the religions in the book we can move onto other religions??!?
Yes, indeed. But you can do that now over on the “MBers’ Religions” thread.
23-coolio! i think its VERY interesting that hinduism recognizes that there will be people who aren’t devout hindus because it’s so different from the concept of hell and a punishment for people who are bad
never having read the book, met a hindu, or studied hinduism, i just have one question i wonder if any one can answer-
how much of this idealogy actually transfers to real life?
15- I cannot believe the GAPA used the word “Crud”
(27) I think that it depends on the person, as it does with all religions. Some follow these ideas quite faithfully, while for others, the religion is more a name than a way of life. Sort of like a Christian who goes to Church but doesn’t necessarlily think a lot about God, or a Jew who holds a Seder (I hope I spleled that right) every year because it’s what they’ve been brought up to do, but not necesarliy because of their own religious feelings. I hope that wasn’t to irrelevant- I’m not exactly sure what you were asking.
i got the book!
Great! Welcome aboard.
I’m not sure what sort of record Hindus have for religious tolerance (note to self: ask Larry G. when he comes back from vacation), but I get the impression that polytheistic religions in general tend to be tolerant. After all, if you’re worshipping five or six or a dozen gods already, it probably won’t upset you too much if your neighbors worship different ones; you’re more likely to assume that their gods are just your gods with different names. That’s what the Greeks and Romans thought about the Germans and Egyptians. As far as I know, none of them went in for religious wars. (They found other reasons to fight their neighbors.)
Of course, India is so big that the ancient Hindus didn’t have many neighbors…
um,robert, hindu say that thing about the same peak,right? so
i think there fine
My best friend is hindu.
How do we know when we’re done discussing a religion?
The discussion will be progressive–that is, once we move on to Buddhism, we can still discuss Hinduism, too. I think we’ll be ready to do that after someone lists the main Hindu gods and holidays. Any volunteers?
Also, who wants to post the summary for Buddhism? (See comment 1, above.)
31: Hindus view different religions as “Paths to the same summit” and also, Hinduism is not polytheistic. The different Devas (Shiva, etc.) are manifestations of one supreme God.
It is polytheistic, in a way. I think it’s kinda of like Christianity, where you can argue both ways. Except that Christianity leans more towards monotheism and Hinduism more towards polytheism.
The word Ötzi used, deva is Sanskrit for a divine being. In fact, it’s from the same root as “divine.” Sanskrit, English, and Latin (from which we took “divine”) are all Indo-European languages and share many similar-sounding words. “Devil” is related to deva, too: one culture’s gods are another culture’s demons.
The Hindu “trinity” consists of Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the preserver; and Shiva, the destroyer. Krishna and Rama are incarnations of Vishnu. Shakti, also known as Kali and Parvati and by several other names, hangs out with Shiva. I suspect that many of these deities and demi-deities started out as regional gods and later merged into one big team (and even into different incarnations or aspects of one god). That sort of thing has happened in other parts of the world, too.
Now, shall we continue discussing Hinduism, or move on to Buddhism? Votes?
buddisum
How about Spelling Nazism? That’s always fun.
Buddhism.
Definitely.
Righto. On to Buddhism!
Shriya is back. Welcome, Shriya. Care to add a Hindu’s-eye view of Hinduism?
Yes! Shriya! Care to comment??