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HINDUISM
and
Buddhism and Sikhism
Together with a brief History of India
Click Here for a quick Summary
INTRODUCTION
Of all the religions in England, it is the Hindus who are the largest
group whose faith does not owe it's dogma to Moses, like the Jews,
Christians and Muslims. The Moses based, or Western and Middle Eastern
religions are faith and dogmatic rules based religions where a belief
in a single God, together with the adoption of a specific life style,
generally based on the laws of Moses, (10 Commandments) will ensure a
passage to heaven rather than hell at the time of death.
Hinduism differs markedly perhaps it is more a philosophy than a
religion:
- There is no formal creed or dogma,
more an
evolution of ideas which have developed over some 4000 years. In the
past these ideas were never written down as is would have been
considered sacrilegious.
- The concept of God is more like the
pre-Jewish or
pagan concept of a specialist god for each human problem like love,
fertility and the harvesting of crops. However the concept of one
supreme God, Brahman has evolved into Hinduism. Some feel the more
popular and better known gods, Vishnu and Shiva are human
manifestations of this supreme deity.
- The concept of life after death is
very different
from the common western belief. Hindus say that at death your passage
to something else depends on your class or status in this present life.
This is the concept of reincarnation. If you have been bad you will be
immediately reborn as say a dog. If you have been good you may have the
chance of being reborn as a priest. Then if you are a good priest you
could get to heaven. The final move to heaven is seen as a "release"
from an almost never ending cycle of birth and rebirth.
- The concept of meditation, to develop
good
thoughts, existed from the very beginning normally aided by physical
aids like Yoga.
Buddhism was the first main splinter group which arose from a man born
a Hindu. The founder, Gautama, born a rich man some 2500 years ago in
northern India was horrified by the poverty and disease around him and
felt Hinduism couldn't be the answer. His vision of the true way came
to him while sitting under a tree. (As legend would have it)
Sikhism evolved much later some 500 years ago, also in northern India
when the Hindus had had a few hundred years of Muslim rule and the
concept of one God-Allah was around. To the outsider their founder,
Guru Nanak, just picked the best bits of Islam and Hinduism but Sikhs
believe he had a vision of God. Nanak rejected the Hindu class system
even to the extent of saying women were equal to men but retained the
concept of reincarnation. So any Sikh can achieve liberation from the
cycles of reincarnation including women and non priests. The main dogma
is the belief that ridding yourself of human pride and ego is the key.
Early History
The vast majority of Hindus in England come from India. The faith
developed originally around the Indus river valley in present day
Pakistan more than 3500 years ago. Yoga was practiced at this time by
the dark skinned, Indus valley inhabitants. These Dravids, had a
culture of some significance but were overrun by a lighter skinned
pagan Aryan people originally from the Caspian sea area. Their
religions merged. This civilisation prospered and expanded east from
the Indus river flood plains to the nearby equally fertile Ganges river
area in present day northern India. They took their so called "Vedic"
multi god pagan religion with them which is the origin of Hinduism.
About 2500 years ago this early Hinduism, entered a crisis period many
claiming it had lost its way, particularly the pagan practice of animal
sacrifice. So too the various key gods worshiped to improve the
weather, the harvest or the birth of sons. Quite simply the practice of
sacrifice to the gods was not working.
Up to this time principle Hindu doctrines were:
- Reincarnation: That is the life of every living thing on earth is in a
continuous cycle of birth, life and death with the Sole or Spirit being
immediately reborn in a higher or lower form ie a flower, a dog or a
better human depending on the past lifestyle of the individual. The aim
for all was a release from this treadmill, cyclical existence to an
eternal life which could be achieved through good works.
Unfortunately the principle of Reincarnation led to a "Caste Society"
which still exists in India today where humans are classified by their
parent's social/economic position into four groups:
- Priests and intellectuals
- Rulers and warriors
- Wealth creators like farmers, craftsmen and
merchants
- And the so called Untouchables who are given
all the
worst jobs like cleaning the toilets. Generally the Untouchables were
the original dark skinned Dravids of the Indus valley region
- Sacrifice: Life was considered a continuous sacrifice on the basis
that, plants sacrifice themselves to animals for food and likewise
animals sacrifice themselves to humans for food. Humans sacrifice
themselves to their children so that they may have a better life. The
ultimate sacrifice was to the gods who keep the universe stable which
must be regularly and ritually fed with animal and other gifts via the
priesthood.
- Yoga and meditation: The western world is familiar with Yoga though
more as a keep fit pastime than as an aid to spiritual and mental well
being, as it is in the east. It is thought that Yoga was practiced by
the Dravids in the Indus valley plains prior to the arrival of the
Aryans 3500 years ago. Yoga has remained a key part of Hinduism and all
its derivatives to this day. The practice of Yoga is aimed to improve
physical control and posture, meditation or control of the mind and
self discipline, moving towards self denial. The aim is to gain a state
of mental peace free from the physically and mentally stressful world.
Also Hinduism is a mystical religion. That is teachers advise that to
get closer to a god it helps to get control of the mind first, emptying
it of all thought. This will create the mental openness required to
accept a new spirit. Fasting is another path, as in some branches of
the Hinduism, to the astonishment and delight of the conquering English
some 300 years ago, is the study and practice of erotic sex. For
example in Kama Sutra texts.
2500 YEARS AGO
About 2500 years ago there commenced a period which lasted about 200
years when the spiritual leaders agonized over the habits of Hinduism
particularly the rituals of sacrifice which did not seem to be working.
This resulted in the formation of three branches:
- Modern Hinduism was born. The mainstream Vedic
priests
formed a revised doctrine laid down in the Upanishad scriptures. The
leaders were less interested in sacrifices and the cast system and more
interested in the reasons for life, why are we here and why we should
all search for answers. Hinduism developed significant mythical,
psychological and meditational elements in the search for the right
path to Navrada or the release from the treadmill cycle of life.
- Buddhism. In a sense Buddhism is more like a
western
religion in that they have a single human founder Siddhartha Gautama.
(Later called Buddha) Born c. BC 530 into a royal family and thus
initially protected from the horrors of every day life by the castle
walls. When old enough he was allowed outside the walls and was so
shocked by how the "other half" lived that he determined to find a
better path to the goal of release from reincarnation. More like the
religious leaders from the middle east he prescribed some 10 rules for
humans to follow. (See summary section on Buddhism later)
- Jainism. Similar to Buddhism, Jainists had a
human
founder, Mahavira, born c BC 600, into a warrior class but at the age
of 30 became a virtual hermit looking for the route to the release from
reincarnation. After 12 years of austere self-denial he produce his
doctrine as follows: Do not harm animals, practice self denial and
meditation and strive for good conduct. His universe contained heaven
and hell and worked under six principles: Souls, space, time, matter,
right and wrong. Jainism still has some 3 million followers in India.
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