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Let me begin by praying to Lord Ganesha for his blessings, so He may guide me, and give me the Intellect in my endeavor. May He bless us all! I also offer the following prayer from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:
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Mrityor-ma Amritam Gamaya; Om Shantih, Shantih, Shantih.
(Oh God) Lead me from UNREAL TO REAL; from DARKNESS TO LIGHT;
from DEATH TO IMMORTALITY... PEACE, PEACE, PEACE.
I decided to undertake writing about our religion because it needs to be simplified. A philosophy as old as ours, has been continually enriched by numerous scholars, saints etc., but that has also rendered it enormously complex, difficult to understand, and even harder to explain. We all have experienced a tremendous lot of curious questions (and some queasiness trying to answer them) from our children, friends, co-workers et al. And then there is the question as to how, in today’s world are we going to pass on this rich and wonderful legacy of ours to the generations to come. We hope to make that a little easier through a series of short write-ups, of which this is the first. What better place to do this than our Mandir Website?
I see my role as nothing better than a ‘Facilitator’. I have done some reading, spoken to a number of my friend’s in the know, done some thinking, and have the desire to write. There is a lot more that I need to read, and understand. I will make all the effort necessary, as well as consult with many of you, with the only desire to bring you the facts accurately, and free of any unjust criticism. I would also appreciate anyone contributing to this effort by writing on any specific aspect. Our prime focus will be on the next generation, and brevity and clarity.
Hinduism is, even today, a way of living in personal life, and in the society. Perhaps the oldest of our scriptures the “ManuSmriti” which is believed by many to have been written some 10000 years ago describes in detail both of these aspects and many of those customs are followed even today. (As our sages and scholars neither signed nor dated their works, one always runs into a difficulty when trying to understand the chronology of various works. This does not affect their value, and we are better-off not to get hung on this point.) We will deal with the scriptures in some detail in later write-ups. It should be noted that the word “Hindu” was first used by the Persians only about 2200 years ago to describe the people living on the east side of the river Sindhu (Indus).
There were numerous kingdoms, and back then none of the religions known today had evolved. Naturally the society defined certain code of ethics for both – private and public life. Calamities have always been part of life, as also the desire to be rich and free of all sources of grief. Somewhere along the line came the concept of worshipping the powers behind each. It is believed that back then there were no deities, and that, deities with humanoid appearances were introduced some time later.
So what is the Hindu concept of God? We have only ONE God. Our scriptures are unequivocal about that. We have two terms in use - Eashwar, and ParamEashwar or Parameshwar. The word Eashwar implies the numerous deities; Parameshwar means the one and only, the Supreme, who has created this universe and everything in it, and established its ‘modus operandi’. This is somewhat analogous to the Democratic political systems of today – The President, helped by many Secretaries who manage various portfolios. The Bhagwad Geeta states that I (Parameshwar) am the Ultimate recipient of worship offered to all Gods.
The Supreme, is described in our scriptures as having no visible form, yet visible in many forms; who is free of any ‘desires’ but endows all its creation with them. Anyone worshipping any deity, in fact, is worshipping the Supreme. Nowhere in our scriptures does it say the Hindu God or Hindus only. The entire concept is universal in its scope and appeal.
There are differing views in how we perceive God, and creation – i.e. Advaita (total oneness), Wishishta Advaita (Oneness with qualifications), Dwaita (Duality), and Dwaitadvaita (simultaneous unity and duality). The most common belief today is Advaita, which was explained and popularized by Adi (first) Shankaracharya (788 – 820 AD). Quite simply, it says that God exists in all his creation, and the two are different in perception only.
The Advaita view presents some very noble considerations, some of which are:
Respect for all Life (Human or otherwise)
Divinity in all creation
Respect for environment
Avoidance of wanton killing
Assumption that all beings intend well
How do we worship Him? Considered alone, and in isolation, worship is performed by offerings, performing Poojas, singing Bhajans and/or Aartis, Jups, performing Yagnas etc. However, there is another way in which one can worship and that says MaanavSeva is MaadhavSeva.
This touches on other aspects, and I will save it for future write-ups.
Arvind Dandekar
March 16, 2005