What do you know

about Hinduism?

Mindmap your
knowledge.
 Introduction to Hinduism
• To know some key
facts about the religion
of Hinduism
• To explain core beliefs
of Hinduism
Where do you think Hinduism
started?
Northern
India, on
the banks of
the river
Indus
What do you need
to have a religion?
• A founder (a particular person to
There are many
start it off) Started sometime in the Indus
holy texts of
• A holy book Hinduism, but the river valley in India, but no one
• A leader organising everything Vedas are the really knows exactly when
from the top eg a Pope holiest of all the (maybe 2000-1500BCE)
• Followers who all agree to books.
believe the same thing
All Hindus do believe
in some basic ideas,
they also differ a lot
about which gods they
believe in and who The stories in the Holy books were told
God really is. by God to many holy men over many
years. They passed down the teachings
Although there are they received, which eventually got
priest and religious written down.
teachers in Hinduism,
there is no-one “at the No single person is responsible for
top” like a Bishop or starting the religion. The holy men
Pope, correcting false simply passed on what they had
beliefs.
learnt.
 Check your learning…Does
Hinduism have..
• A founder ?
• A holy book ?
• A leader ?
• Followers who believe the same thing?
 You have 1
A. God is in minute to
everything, - so memorise your
everything is “God” sentence. Don’t
write it down!

B.. One God, many faces.

Hindus believe in many different
gods, but they are all really one god

E. Reincarnation:
after death, you will
be re-born

C. Dharma:
do your duty
D. Karma: what
you do today, will
affect your future
1. Write down the 5 core beliefs.
2. Choose one belief. Explain
what you think it is saying.
**How is one of these beliefs are
similar or different from what
you believe?

Dharma

God is
One, in God is in
many everything
Core
Core
forms Beliefs
Beliefs

Karma Reincar
(what goes
round comes
round)
nation
 What are Hindu core beliefs?

Give an example of
each one of these
beliefs.
What do people want?
What do people want?
• Pleasure
What do people want?*
• Pleasure
• Success: wealth, fame, power
– competitive (& precarious)
– insatiable (potentially)
– centers on the self (lower-case “s”)
– achievements are ephemeral

*based on Huston Smith’s, World Religions

What do people want?
• Pleasure
• Success: wealth, fame, power

Together, we can think of these two as

the “path of desire.”
What do people want?
• Pleasure
• Success: wealth, fame, power
• Duty

What do people really want/desire?

What do people want?
• Pleasure
• Success: wealth, fame, power
• Duty

What do people really want/desire?

1. “being”
2. “knowing”
3. joy
What do people want?
• Pleasure
• Success: wealth, fame, power
• Duty

What do people really want/desire?

1. “being”infinite being
2. “knowing”infinite awareness
3. joyinfinite bliss
What do people want?
• Pleasure
• Success: wealth, fame, power
• Duty
• Liberation (moksh)
– “Liberation from the cycle of existence (samsara) often
identified with a state of knowledge in which the phenomenal
world and its concerns are shut out in favor of a mystical
identification with the ultimate, changeless ground of all
things.”--Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
– “release from the finitude that restricts us from the limitless
being, consciousness, and bliss our hearts desire”--Huston
Smith
 Life’s Limitations
• pain (physical and psychological)
• ignorance
• restricted being
 Stages of Life
• The student
• Householder (pleasure, success, duty)
• “Retirement”
• sannyasin (“the one who neither hates
nor loves anything”)
 Caste System
• Four (plus) castes:
Brahmins (seers)
Kshatriyas (administrators)
Vaishyas (artisans, farmers, craftsmen)
Shudras (unskilled laborers)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
“untouchables” (today: “dalit”)
India’s Caste System
 People
• Individual souls (jivas) enter the world mysteriously
• They begin as the souls of the simplest forms of life and
reincarnate/transmigrate (samsara) into more complex bodies
until they enter human bodies
• Souls in human bodies are engaged in issues of freedom and
responsibility (karma)
• Is this fatalism?
– there is choice
– “natural” causes factor in
– ultimately the soul gets what it wants
• What everyone strives for is Moksha, to be
liberated from the cycle of death and rebirth.
• The Tale of the Magic Kalpataru Tree
 God
• Brahman (etymology: br=breath, brih=to be
great)
– All deities are a part of Brahman, and there is one God, but
there are an infinite gods that make up God.

• God can be thought of as Creator (Brahma),

Preserver (Vishnu), and Destroyer (Shiva)

• But in many Hindu expressions God is

transpersonal: beyond it all

• Using words to describe Brahman is like

ladling the water with a net.
 Hindu Pantheon
Though affirming Brahman as “ultimate reality,” Hinduism
is highly polytheistic.

The Hindu Pantheon is structured around “divine couples”

(male-structure/form::female-energy/matter) who serve
different functions in the universe; in a way, they point to
the various forces in life/the cosmos.

Many deities are depicted with a “vehicle”—an animal with

whom they are often portrayed.

The “Trimurti” is organized around Brahma (creation),

Vishnu (maintenance), Shiva (destruction).
Brahma (creation)
Consort/wife: Saraswati, goddess of knowledge and
speech.

Vehicle: hamsa or swan (seven swans).

Vishnu (maintainer of the universe)
Consort: Lakshmi (good fortune and prosperity)
Vehicle: “Garuda”—eagle/human hybrid
Vishnu appears in many avatars (traditionally ten, the
last, who has not yet appeared, is Kalki, who will come
when he is most needed).

The two most important avatars of Vishnu are Rama

and Krishna.
Shiva (the destroyer)
Consort(s): Kali (et al, Sati, Parvati, Lalita, Durga . . .)
Vehicle: Nandi, the Bull
 Devi (the goddess) is sometimes worshipped as the
supreme manifestation of Brahman. All other gods and
goddesses would then be considered emanations of her.

Devi (Devanagari: दे वी) is the Sanskrit word for Goddess.

Devi is synonymous with Shakti, the female aspect of the

divine, as conceptualized by the Shakta tradition of Hinduism.
She is the female counterpart without whom the male aspect,
which represents consciousness or discrimination, remains
impotent and void. Goddess worship is an integral part of
Hinduism.Devi is, quintessentially, the core form of every
Hindu Goddess. As the female manifestation of the supreme
lord, she is also called Prakriti or Maya, as she balances out the
male aspect of the divine addressed Purusha.
[1]ManifestationsDevi or the divine feminine is an equal
conterpart to the divine masculine, and hence manifests herself
as the Trinity herself - the Creator (Durga or the Divine
Mother), Preserver (Lakshmi, Parvati & Sarswati) and Destroyer

(Mahishasura-Mardini, Kali & Smashanakali ) .

Source: The Goddess Files

• Upanishads - section of Hindu Scripture
Vedas discussed
relationship between
Brahman and Atman
• Mahabharata and
Ramayana - Long epic
poems about a war, a
quest
• Bhagavad Gita – part of
Mahabharata – dialogue
between warrior Arjuna
and Krishna, lays out
essential concepts.
• dialogue btw warrior Arjuna
+ charioteer Krishna - avatar
of Vishnu
Bhagavad Gita
• Part of Mahabharata - about
battle between Pandavas and
100 sons of Dhritarashtra
• In 18 Teachings, Krishna lays
out much of Hindu
philosophy of duty
(dharma), moral choice and
consequence (karma) and
discipline (yoga), as well as
the nature of the divine
essence (Brahman), and it's
relationship to the self
(Atman).
 Samsara – Reincarnation
Coming of age • "When we outgrow a suit
in the universe or find our house to
cramped, we exchange
these for roomier ones that
offer our bodies freer play -
souls do the same."
• From Gita :
"Worn out garments
Are shed by the body.
Worn out bodies
Are shed by the dweller
(soul)."
 Plenary Activity
H use keywords from this lesson
I to write an acrostic poem!
N
D
U