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HINDUISM – AND ITS ULTIMATE VISION
IF EVER I return to India, I would hope to eschew palace-hotels, chauffeur-driven cars and the luxury trains which shield one from the dirt and poverty of the sub-continent.
I would walk in sack-cloth and ashes (like Christian pilgrims were once supposed to do).
For support I would carry only a stick as thin as Mahatma Gandhi. For necessities such as food and comfort I would carry a bowl of rice (most of it intended as a gift for beggars).
All this, in search of the sublime - which requires eliminating the “I” that appears in every sentence above.
Hinduism proposes that suppression of the ego is the ultimate goal in life for every man and woman. That is what many of its devotees believe. To understand why this is so requires only a superficial knowledge of the basics of the religion. However, to decide whether this is so – whether suppression of the ego is indeed Hinduism’s ultimate achievement in life – and whether it is possible, requires individual interpretation of the thousands-years-old unnumbered tenets of nearly a billion people.
How can Hindusim be defined? How can one take into account all its sects, cults, mythologies and doctrines? All its countless deities with all their unpredictable forms; with a God standing on a dwarf and a Goddess sitting on a corpse? How does one take into account all the palpable changes – some judged by devotees to be good, some bad – that have taken place in the past 2,000 years alone?
The answer is simple. Ask any Hindu in India, wise or poor; rich or foolish, and the reply you are likely to receive from most is: “Hinduism is a way of life.”
The response of an erudite Muslim woman in India could be paraphrased thus: Hinduism embraces the basics of all religions. It changes with the times; with the different eras of knowledge; with the aggregate of all the ages of wisdom.
She adds, “Hinduism has one god (!) and many manifestations suitable to the needs of worshippers of all kinds.”
Dharam Vir Singh, author and lecturer in Jaipur, says Hinduism is not a religion in the narrow sense. It has been constantly enriched by religious consciousness from time immemorial –but no single approach is able to enunciate its basic concept and philosophy. “Its comprehensiveness bypasses the human mind,” he says. Yet he has a clear grasp of its basic forms, structures, ceremonies and philosophies, some of which are summarised here.
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Change is a constant
The fundamental point about Hinduism as a religious and/or philosophical guide to life’s purpose is that – despite its bewildering diversity of sources and beliefs – nearly all of its aspects rely, if indirectly, on the authority of the Vedas, the Epics and the Puranas. It is the interpretation of these aspects, it is claimed, which changes as mankind increases his or her horizons and knowledge of the universe.
The changes include:
- After perhaps a thousand years, the Vedic gods were given human form and reproduced as images.
- Then the intervention of the Brahmins (priests) between the gods and their devotees changed the image of the gods, making them more remote, more awesome. Rituals became more rigid. The order of precedence of the pantheon of gods was altered, as were the functions of some deities.
- In reaction, many devotees later rejected orthodoxy in favour of direct relationships with a god or gods whom they understood and who satisfied their personal needs.
- Relationships between gods and humans changed once more when the heroes of the classic epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, were gradually deified in popular religion.
- Then came the absorption of female deities into the pantheon, at least one of them in human pregnant form.
- Later, about 1600 years ago - after Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva had already been established as the triad at the top of the pantheon - an attempt was made to sort out all the deities, beliefs, myths, legends and forms of devotion. These were formalised within the Puranas (Ancient Texts).
- This stimulated more change – such as Tantrism, which encouraged the cult of equal female partners to important gods such as Shiva (god of fertility).
- Changes in popular religion in India continue in modern times. In the 1960s, for instance, a new goddess, complete with her own mythology and legends, arrived in the pantheon.
Your choice …..
Choose your way of worship
If you prefer joining a congregation to worship in a temple, you can join one of several cults. But the temples are small, because most Hindus prefer individualistic, family or other ways of prayer and devotion. It varies according to need. If you’re rich you might employ a priest to perform ceremonies on special occasions. If you’re very busy, you might pray alone early in the morning and late at night, visiting a large temple on occasions for a festival relevant to your beliefs.
Whatever you choose, Hinduism offers you procedures and practices to lift your spirit – to assist you to distance yourself from your world and your body and to communicate with something beyond yourself.
Dharam Vir Singh lists some of them as:
The bell. It is suspended at the entrance to a temple, for you to ring as you enter. This is done to remind you to shut out external sounds; to concentrate; to allow your mind to turn inward. The tinkling bell also symbolises your presence in front of god.
Lights. They are waved before the deity in acknowledgement of the Light of the Lord and as a mark of respect and reverence.
Incense. A reminder that the Lord is all-pervasive.
Offerings. Sweets, fruit, rice for the Lord (and then distributed to family, to the poor or staff of the temple).
Camphor. The burning of camphor is a reminder that the ego should melt in the same way that the burning essence does - that, once the ego has melted away, the individual soul should become one with the Supreme.
One just might interpret this symbol - this injunction to melt one’s being and concentrate absolutely on the Absolute - as the ultimate message from all the gods. But Hinduism does not intrude on what is between you and the Absolute. It is not compulsory to go to the temple. Bells and whistles are not required. One can, if one wishes, meditate on the Absolute anywhere.
[To explore further Hinduism’s ‘ultimate goal’
SEE ‘Yoga, and other paths to Perfection’]
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