An Overview of Sanatana Dharma
Table of Contents
1. Introduction to Sanatana Dharma
2. Vedic Knowledge
2.1. Texts and treatises
2.2. Overview of Scriptures
2.3. Vedas
2.4. Vedangas
2.5. Upangas
2.6. Upavedas
2.7. Darsanas
2.8. Smritis
2.9. Agamas
3. Vedic Religion
3.1. Schools of Spiritual Philosophy (Vedanta)
3.2. Paths to Salvation
3.3. Shanmatas (Religions)
4. Core Concepts
4.1. Principle of Transcendence
4.2. Worship
4.3. Devata
4.4. Mantra
4.5. Yajna
4.6. Consciousness Studies
4.7. Hindu View of Patriotism
5. Individual and Social Life
5.1. Dharma
5.2. Karma
5.3. Purushartha
5.4. Women
5.5. Other Institutions
6. Popular Religion
6.1. Temples
Appendix I – Collectivism
1. Introduction to Sanatana Dharma
Sanatana Dharma is a comprehensive system of life, consisting of religion, spiritual
philosophy and knowledge system, social and political setup.
Goals
Simply put, the goal of Sanatana Dharma is Moksha, liberation. It aims at mukti for every
individual, and all the methods it prescribes are towards that goal. Fulfillment of the
purposes of life is the mean to it. However, phenomenal world is diverse, and hence there
are diverse means to fulfilling the purpose of life.
Premises
According to Sanatana dharma, each being is potentially divine. Realization is about
unveiling the divinity. God, who created the universe, is not different from it – He exists
unmanifest, but entire creation is also a part of Him. He exists essentially, in each particle
and phenomenon of creation.
Each being, through its cycles of birth and death, is evolving towards the same goal,
according to Sanatana Dharma. So the equality and inequality are apparent, and not
essential. These differences are because of the diversity in methods, and differences in
the stages and phases through which each being is going at any point of time.
Windows
However, there are multiple windows to Truth that describe the eternal, its relation to the
universe and the concept of liberation. These are called Darsanas. They are six and listed
as Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa and Uttara Mimamsa. They differ
in whether there is a “creator-God” different from the eternal, what causes binding and
what causes liberation etc, but they all have common stand on things like there is eternal
(Purusha), who is actually liberated, but appears to be bound by the play of Nature
(Prakriti). They are also common in that their goal is liberation. They all advocate
righteousness and devotion as means to liberation, though they suggest different methods.
They are also common in that they take Veda as the authority.
Schools
There are also multiple schools that describe the relation of individual and universal soul,
the concept and nature of liberation. These are called schools of spiritual philosophy or
Vedanta and they are Advaita, Dwaita, Visistadwaita etc.
Darsanas and schools of Vedanta are often grouped together, for they address some
common subjects. They also commonly believe in the concepts like karma and rebirth.
Religion
Hinduism is actually a set of religions, all believing in common authority – the Veda.
Sanatana Dharma can be broadly called Vedic religion. Each religion has a theology.
However they are all not separate theologies, but different interpretations of theologies
present in the texts – Veda and the Puranas. They also take relevant sets/portions of
rituals, codes prescribed in sruti and in smritis, and from Agamas.
Smarta is the “religion”, where any of the major deities is worshipped and there is no
specific leaning to any of them. Literally “smarta” means following “smritis”. Then there
are six major religions, Saiva, Vaishnava, Sakta, Ganapatya, Saura and Kaumara, which
treat deities Siva, Vishnu, Sakti-the mother Goddess, Ganapathi, Surya and Kumara
Swamy as supreme Godhead respectively.
Purposes
There are four goals of life to fulfill which one should work – Dharma, Artha, Kama and
Moksha. That is, Righteousness, generation of wealth/production, fulfillment of desires
and salvation. The first three are means to the last.
Paths
There are three paths to salvation. One is of devotion (bhakti) where an individual
through devotion for God, attains moksha. This is prescribed for the heart-being. Worship
is his method. Devotion means, bliss and love goals.
The second is of knowledge (jnana), where one sublimates his lower being through
gaining knowledge. This is for the intellect-being. Study/thought is his method. Curiosity
is his means, Truth goal.
The third is of works (karma), where one through fulfillment of responsibilities as an
individual and then serving fellow beings, attains moksha. This is for the social being.
Service is his method. Selflessness is his means, infinity and permanence goal.
Thus truth-beauty-permanence, the three aspects of eternal are the goals of these three
paths. They are inter-mixing and overlapping paths, with each of them leading to and
merging in the others.
Scriptures
The root of Sanatana Dharma is the Veda. The Veda is said to be classified before the
beginning of Kali Yuga (about 3100 BC according to traditional version), by Vyasa, into
four – Rig, Yajus, Sama and Atharva. Each Veda has three portions, Samhita (hymns to
gods), Brahmana (ritual portion), Aranyaka (philosophy portion).
There are two major streams of literature, which developed from the Veda and base their
authority on it. One of them is the smriti literature, where entire literature is classified
into 18 abodes or mahasthanas. They are the four Vedas, six Vedangas (sastras to
understand the Veda, literally the parts of Veda), four Upangas (consisting of dharma viz
codes of conduct etc and logic) and four Upavedas (arts and sciences). Then there are six
darsanas or windows to truth. The second stream is the Agama literature, consisting of
Mantra, Yantra and Tantra.
However these are not mutually exclusive streams, and there are many aspects like
underlying spiritual philosophy, mantras, some procedures for rituals that are common.
Veda
|
|____ Vedic and Smriti literature
|
|____ Vedangas (six)
|
|____ Upangas (4)
|
|____ Upavedas (4)
|
|____ Darsanas (6)
|
|____ Agama literature
|____ Tantra
Scope and Definition
What classifies one as belonging to or outside the fold of Sanatana Dharma, is not as
straight forward as answering what classifies one as belonging to or outside the fold of
any particular community.
Sanatana Dharma, as it means, is the eternal law – hence anyone by definition is included
in it. It does not classify people as followers and non-followers, believers and nonbelievers and so on. Thus by definition, it is universal and all-inclusive. This is because it
talks of the natural and universal order or law, and not of the universe as seen by any
particular seer.
However, when seen in a social context there do exist many classifications. The people
belonging to the civilization of Bharata share a common cultural and social base; they
differ in philosophy and few social aspects. The first such division is Vedic-Unvedic.
Accepting the authority of Veda is the primary criterion, for defining a person as
belonging to Veda mata. And this covers all the branches, such as srauta, smarta, Tantric
and so on. However, there are further classifications in this: There are schools that hold
Atharva vedins as unvedic. There are schools that hold some Tantras as unvedic. And so
on. However, with all the philosophical and religious differences, they all share one
cultural-social base.
The schools that do not hold Veda as a primary authority are called Unvedic. Bauddha
and Jaina, though they believe in salvation (having their own versions of Nirvana and
Kaivalya respectively) are thus called Unvedic. They do not however call the Veda as
false knowledge. Bauddha and Jaina also share the same civilizational and philosophical
base, and the worldview as Vedic religion. Hence they are very much parts of the
Bharatiya Civilization.
However it should not be understood in the sense that Veda is to be taken as an
“authority”. Veda is taken as a Pramana or a source and reference for validation of
knowledge. And a school that does not accept Veda as pramana, implies that it does not
believe in statements other than those that could be validated through other means of
knowledge. There are acceptable pramanas under each school, like pratyaksha, anumana,
upamana and so on which could be translated as (perception, logic, comparison, etc.).
And the knowledge that could not be validated by these, according to Vedic religion, is to
be taken as valid, if it finds validation in the Veda. The reasoning given for this by the
followers of Vedic religion is that Veda is knowledge of the eternal and contains that
knowledge which cannot be validated. So “something that cannot be validated can exist
and still be accepted as true” is the premise. And this pramana was not listed first; in fact
it was listed after pratyaksha and so on, to imply that you do not need the pramana of
Veda for something that can be validated through direct means. According to Unvedic
darsanas like Bauddha, only the knowledge that could be validated by pratyaksha and
anumana is to be taken as valid. Thus, the difference is purely at a philosophical level,
and not really at a religious level. Therefore we could see there are a lot of similarities in
the religious practices of all these schools, such as Tantric and other methods. However,
high level philosophical differences had social implications, such as accepting the Vedic
social order or Varna-Ashrama dharma. Still, they all shared the same culturalcivilizational base. However, it was easy to assimilate them in the social order – for they
did not create a new social order, and they were not different socio-cultural systems.
Thus the Vedic-unvedic became a slightly different classification, Astika - Nastika. There
are two criteria that make one an Astika or having astikya: believing in Veda’s pramanya,
and following varna-ashrama dharma. The belief in Veda translating as Astikya borrows
sense from the above explanation, of “something that cannot be validated can exist and
still be accepted as true”.
Accepting God or Iswara, has never been a criterion in classifying something as Astika or
Vedic or Hindu for that matter. Owing to the differences in approach and diversity in
worldviews, accepting the existence of God has always been a matter of choice and one’s
philosophy. Diversity in attribution of supremacy to God, religious practices,
philosophical traits, none of these matter in classifying something as Vedic-Unvedic.
However, Carvaka differs greatly from all other systems including Bauddha and Jaina –
they accept pratyaksha (sense-perception) as the only pramana. Every other school, Vedic
or Unvedic accepts at least two pramanas. And they do not accept akasha as a mahabhuta
or a primordial element, which all other schools accept. Akasha is the element which is
both the origin of all the other elements and listed as an element (in its unmanifest form).
This causes all other differences such as treating body as self, not accepting rebirth and so
on. In this, Carvaka comes very close to the western materialistic thought pattern. For this
reason, not only did Carvaka have a different philosophical but also an entirely different
social style emanating from an entirely alien worldview which is incompatible with all
the other schools.
However, all other Bharatiya peoples, including tribal, should be called as sharing the
same philosophical base. Either by their practices, or by their goals, their origin lies in the
same.
Any philosophy that came from outside, or developed independently in Bharata and came
in contact with Sanatana Dharma, has been assimilated in its comprehensive, all-inclusive
system.
However, the ones that are not assimilated are the exclusivist ideologies like Abrahamic
religions. In a way, they are as philosophically and socially incompatible with Sanatana
Dharma as Carvaka was at one time.
So any other school is, technically speaking, belonging to or related to Sanatana Dharma.
One one hand there are schools like Shanmatas that are part of it, and on the other hand
there are schools like Bauddha that have origin in it but are outgrowths from it.
Knowledge System
Hindu knowledge is a continuum, with knowledge of all kinds – religion, philosophy,
sciences and arts share one base. The most integrated and well developed structure of
knowledge can be found in this system.
In philosophy, truth is seen as multidimensional space, with facts as points in the space.
Any domain or area of study is a matrix of such points, which is a set of interrelated facts
consistent with each other. Any interdisciplinary study is an overlap/intersection of such
sets. However, any such overlap will lose out many points while taking those that are
relevant. Also as we keep specializing more the granularity of facts keeps growing. Any
general fact can be presented as a set of specific facts, some of which are always ignored
mostly because of relevance though occasionally by error. Thus, as facts become more
and more specific their completeness comes down, as they no more accurately apply to
the bigger domain but only to a part of it. This is one of the “dangers of specialization”.
The best way to avoid this is to have one single matrix at the highest level from which all
the disciplines evolve, and share a base.
This is exactly what is done in the traditional Indian knowledge system. This is the
knowledge of the impersonal, universal and eternal, the highest form of truth. This is the
base from which all other forms of knowledge, religious or scientific evolve. Thus
religious and scientific knowledge share the same philosophical base or worldview, and
are therefore non-contradicting. In fact they enhance each other and are complementary.
The various layers of knowledge that appeal to various levels and aspects of human
consciousness - emotional, intellectual, psychic etc, come from the same origin and
convey the similar ideas, thus affecting an integrated and comprehensive system for
man’s evolution.
Spirit of Sastras
Sastra is a study of the phenomena of universe through specific means for a specific
purpose.
Different kinds of knowledge can be differentiated based on the nature of facts, and the
valid modes of explanations in those. For instance in modern science there are four valid
explanations: deductive, probabilistic, teleological and genetic. Last two are valid in life
sciences, and not in physical sciences. For instance if we say ice floats on water because
of anomalous expansion, we can explain it as "anomalous expansion of water between -4
to 4 degrees is the reason", as well as "because of this water is covered with ice in lakes
in frozen conditions and this is how water-animals survive. So this is a way of nature to
help those beings". The first is valid in physics, and the second being teleological, is valid
in life sciences. Such reasoning is often also allowed in philosophy, following theories
like nature's intelligence.
For this reason Philosophy and science are two compartments in modern knowledge
system. But traditionally, knowledge is seen as one single continuum. For instance if we
look at the smritis - Vedangas, Upavedas and Upangas; Upavedas are exclusively arts and
sciences. Of these, gandharvaveda is purely art, dhanurveda is both art and science, and
Ayurveda is a science. And specifically Ayurveda goes by all four explanations including
genetic and teleological, but Rasa Sastra does not go by the latter ones. So we recognise
that there are different types of knowledge and they differ in the explanations. But the
differential factor is we realize that irrespective of explanations, facts and concepts have
to be borrowed across these subjects.
So the sciences are grouped under a different class, but they are in the same hierarchy of
knowledge so we realize that it is the purpose of the branch of knowledge that
differentiates but not the knowledge as such.
If we find a statement in a philosophical text like an Upanishad or a darsana, we are not
likely to find its scientific explanation (as relevantly considered valid in a particular
branch of science) in that place. Just the way we do not find a mathematical, formalistic
explanation for Purnamadah in Isa Upanishad. But since we know that our philosophical
texts are not detached from and in fact form both basis and purpose for scientific texts,
we are likely to find its scientific application wherever it is relevant. The application of
the philosophical concept is the use of zero and infinity in mathematics, which no other
civilization could do.
Similarly, application of the philosophical concept of holism helped a medicinal theory
like Ayurveda.
Application of the philosophical concept of happiness and principle of transcendence
helped an economic theory that says "desires are like burning fire, the way is to transcend
them and not to multiply or fulfill them" in contrast to a modern economic theory that
says "only growth of economy comes through desires and their multiplication". This has
huge social implications, and determines how content, moral and happy the people of a
society would be.
At the same time, scientific explanations are found in appropriate places. The
explanations used in various subjects depend on the nature and purpose of the knowledge.
Zero is not defined or explained in mathematical texts the same way it is in a
philosophical text. Eclipses are not explained in a Purana the same way they are
explained in an astronomical text. They are explained in relevant ways, with necessary
deductions. Ex. Purana says Rahu and Ketu swallow Sun and Moon, while Aryabhatiya
says eclipses are caused by the shadows of earh and moon. It may be probably said that
Aryabhatiya is too recent a text, but we can find the foundation of the logic in much older
Jyotisha which says Rahu and Ketu are chaya grahas (shadows) and do not have behavior
of their own.
Sastra- Art and Science
However, the word sastra is representative of both art and science forms. Some sastras
are sciences, while some are art-forms. However the art-forms too, are called sastras,
both because their origin is based on sastra and because their pursuit is a well laid path.
There is no clear line between art and science. In fact as said the pursuit of science is an
art and the pursuit of art is a science. Independent of subject, the pursuit of science and
art involve creativity. Though there are differences in the acceptable methods and
approaches in each sastra, and though there are differences in the states and levels of
consciousness that validate truth, both science and art aim at Truth. Truth is for
experimental verification in science and for experiential verification in art. However it is
human consciousness that perceives the truth, and the laws of science and art are relative
to man’s experience of the world and not the world “as it is”. This understanding is the
basis of sastras, both sciences and arts.
Each art form is a study in consciousness, apart from aesthetics. Natya sastra is a study in
mudras and abhinaya. Sangeeta is a study in nada and swara. Sculpture is a study in
Iconometry and abhinaya. But all these, are studies not only in themselves, they are
studies in how each of these lead to happiness. There are two primary aspects in art forms
– experience of the artist, and its expression. A performance or a piece of art is an
expression of the artist’s experience. And pursuit of art is the means to the experience, as
it is founded in a profound study of the way abhinaya or nada are to be pursued in order
to attain to the highest experience. Thus any traditional art-form is a comprehensive
pursuit of happiness.
Thus, truth and beauty are the aspects that science and art are aiming at. However in the
Hindu philosophy truth and beauty are two indivisible aspects of The Permanent – the
divine. Thus science and art are simply two approaches, with the same goal, described in
two different ways. There is beauty in truth and there is truth in beauty. This is the
outlook that makes sciences and art-forms run into each other, aiding each other and
advancing each other.
Sabda
Sabda (sound) is a concept where we can clearly observe the evolution of various sastras
from one base. Sabda is the tanmatra of akasa (the sky). In the five elements Akasa
represents brahman. Thus Sabda is eternal. The study of eternal word is mantra sastra.
Mantra is word. It has multiple aspects, and the study of each aspect evolved as a sastra.
The two aspects of word are – sabda (sound-form) and pada (verbal form). The former
has two aspects, dhvani (sound) and swara (tone). The latter has four aspects, akshara
(alphabet, syllables and their arrangement), artha (meaning – semantics.), vyakarana
(syntax, order and arrangement of words) and chandas (arrangement of syllables). Each
of these aspects is a sastra. The sound-energy root is beeja. Its study is mantra. Swara has
two aspects again, their study being Siksha (phoenetics) and Nada (Sangeeta-music). The
word aspect is another study. It has alphabet. Arrangement of alphabet/syllables is
Chandas. Arrangement of alphabet into words and the study of meaning of word is
Nirukta. Grammar of the language formed with words is Vyakarana.
Brahman
|
|
Sabda – Akasa
|
|____ Dhvani
|
|____
|
|
|
|____
|
|
|____ Pada
|____
|____
|____
|____
Dhvani (vibration)
|____ Beeja (Mantra – Energy)
Swara
|____ Swara (Siksha)
|____ Nada (Sangeeta)
Akshara (Alphabet/syllable)
Artha (Nirukta)
Vyakarana
Chandas
Individual and Social Life
There are a set of institutions that drive individual and social life in Sanatana Dharma.
They are:
Dharma – determinant of righteousness or right action
Ashrama – four stages of life through which individual attains fulfillment and serves
goals of life
Vivaha Vyavastha – marriage, the basic building block of society
Varna – an abstraction based on various functions performed by men in the society.
Jati – an autonomous endogamous cultural unit.
2. Vedic Knowledge
2.1 Texts and Treatises
2.2 Overview of Scriptures
There are 18 mahasthanas in the vedic knowledge system. Mahasthana is an abode of
knowledge. They are the four Vedas, four Upavedas, six Vedangas and six Upangas.
Apart from these we have six Vedic Darshanas.
2.3 Vedas
Veda is the highest authority in Hindu knowledge system and the authority of all other
scriptures are based on the authority of the Veda. Vedas are four – Rig, Yajur, Sama and
Atharva. Rigveda contains prayers to Gods (Riks are the mantras). Yajurveda has
methods to use Riks for sacrifices (Yajus-Yajna). Sama Veda introduces musical notes.
Atharva Veda gives ways to make life successful, and contains methods to fulfill what
can be called material aspirations.
Each Veda has three sections - Samhita, Brahmana and Aranyaka. Samhita has prayers or
Suktas. Brahmana has sacrificial methods. Aranyaka has Mantras and methods that are
practiced in the forests (that is, not for grhasthas). Upanishads normally appear in the last
part of Aranyaka and deal with spiritual philosophy. Some Upanishads are exceptions
and appear in Samhita and Brahmana too. Thus Upanishad, as it appears in the last part of
the Veda, is called Vedanta. There are 108 Upanishads and 10 of them are famous. Since
Upanishads mostly philosophical they are found in prose. But there are Upanishads like
Taittireeya and Ganapathi Atharva seersha that have svara.
These four sections are mapped to the four Ashramas. A brahmacari is supposed to study
the Samhita. Grhastha is supposed to follow the Brahmana. Vanaprasthi is supposed to
follow Aranyaka. Sanyasi is supposed to contemplate on the Upanishads.
The Rigveda samhita (1.164.46) itself indicates that Truth is one – “ekam sad vipra
bahudha vadanti agnim yamam matariswanam ahuh” (meaning Truth is one, but the
learned refer to it in different names like agni, yama, matariswan). But the concept that
there is a single Parabrahman and that all Gods are Its forms, is more clearly visible
towards the Vedanta (Upanishads). Its implications can be seen in later sections,
especially when we discuss Darshanas and Puranas.
Veda literally means knowledge. Traditionally the following features are attributed to the
Veda:
1.
Veda is anantha (infinite). Only an infinitesimal portion of it is revealed to
humans.
This can be understood in the sense that knowledge is infinite. However, Veda is the
knowledge of Brahman, the True, Absolute and the Infinite. And the essence of Veda is
said to be understood if one knows the infinite, i.e., opens up to the infinite Self.
Realizing the infinite through any single mantra/sukta of the Veda is equivalent to
understanding the essence of any other mantra and the entire Veda. Thus it is said know
the One (Brahman) by which everything else is known.
2.
Veda is anadi, having no beginning or end. It said to exist eternally; it is called the
breath of Paramatma. This is a poetic expression, this does not literally mean paramatma
has a breath but just the way breath exists with a person's life similarly veda exists with
God/creation. While the modern view is that Rigveda is the oldest, it is only in
compilation that it is possibly older. Rigveda itself mentions Yajurveda and Samaveda.
For instance Purusha sukta (RV 10.90) says "Tasmaat yagnaat sarva hutaH, RucaHsamaani jagnire, chandaagmsi jagnire tasmaat, yajus tasmaadajaayata".
3.
Veda is apourusheya, not authored by humans. The seers are said to reveal veda
mantras to the world, they are called drastas.
Rigveda (Samhita 1.164.45) says “catvari vak parimita padani tani vidur brahmana ye
minishinah, guha trini nihita neengayanti turiyam vaco manushya vadanti”, meaning vak
exists in four forms and the learned know of them. Three are hidden and the fourth is
what men speak. Vak (literally word, but meaning veda mantra here) is said to exist in
four forms - para, pasyanti, madhyama and vaikhari. Para is the eternal form of vak.
Pasyanti is when a seer envisions the mantra. Madhyama is when it descends into mind
plane. Vaikhari is the expression. Thus the Veda mantras exist eternally, they are only
revealed to the world by the seers.
Though there are four Vedas, there are alternate recitations in each Veda. These are
called "pathantaram"s. Based on these, various branches exist in each Veda, each of them
is called a Veda sakha.
There are various methods of chanting the Veda, like ghana and jata.
Rigveda: The mantras in Rigveda are called Riks. Rigveda has 10 mandalas, 1028 suktas
and 10170 riks in the whole. Each sukta is a collection of riks on a devata and each
mandala has many suktas. The samhita portion of Rigveda contains suktas alone and all
suktas are addressed to devatas like Agni, Vayu, Vishnu, Rudra, Mitra, Varuna, Pushan,
Aryaman.
The major Upanishads found in Rigveda sakhas are Aitareya and Kaushitaki.
Yajurveda: As the name suggests, Yajurveda deals with Yajna, sacrifice. It applies riks
and gives procedures and mantras for sacrifices.
There are two major sakhas in the Yajurveda, Sukla and Krishna. Krishna Yajurveda
sakha is also called Taittireeya sakha. Samhita of Sukla Yajurveda is called Vajasaneya
samhita and that of Krishna Yajurveda is called Taittireeya samhita. Brahmana of Sukla
Yajurveda is called the Satapatha brahmana. In the Krishna Yajurveda, there is an
overlap between samhita and brahmana portions and lays down the procedures for
sacrifices. This can be understood in the light that brahmana is the sacrificial code and
Yajurveda combines this with riks. Many sacrifices like Darsapurnamasa, Vajapeya,
Somayaga, and Aswamedha are found in Yajurveda.
There is a special place for lord Rudra in the Krishna Yajurveda, and Rudra suktam is
found in the middle of Taittireeya Samhita. It has 7 kandas and the fourth kanda has 9
chapters. Namakam is the 5th chapter and while Chamakam 7th chapter of the fourth
kanda. This is because Rudra is the presiding deity of Yajnas and Yajurveda deals with
Yajnas.
The major Upanishads found in Yajurveda are Brihadaranyaka, Maitri, Isa, Taittiriya,
Svetasvatara and Katha.
Samaveda: Samaveda puts the riks in musical notes. The musical notes in samaveda are
said to be the origin of traditional musical octet.
Major Upanishads found in Samaveda are Kena and Chandogya.
Atharvaveda: Atharvaveda, apart from hymns to gods, gives many ways to make life
successful. While Gayatri mantra is said to be the essence of the three Vedas (Rig, Yajur
and Sama), there is a different Gayatri mantra for Atharvaveda. And it requires that a
second Upanayana is done for the pupil before he is initiated to learning Atharvaveda.
(Another brahmopadesam of Atharva Gayatri is done here).
Atharvaveda contains prayers to Gods not mentioned in the other three Vedas, like
Pratyangira. Atharvaveda also uses many Riks. For instance, the Manyu sukta of Rigveda
appears as two chapters “sena nireekshana” and “sena samyojana” in the Atharvaveda.
Major Upanishads in Atharvaveda are Mandukya, Mudaka and Prasna.
2.4 Vedangas
Understanding Vedangas is a pre-requisite to understanding the Veda. There are six
Vedangas.
Nirukta: Nirukta is the science of etymologies. It explains the word-roots and derivation
of meanings of words in different contexts. Text: Yaska’s Nirukta.
Vyakarana: Vyakarana is Grammar. Panini’s Astadhyayi is the authority on Sanskrit
Grammar. It was not written in Sanskrit but Panini used a meta-language called Upadesa
to define the grammar of Sanskrit in about 8000 sutras/rules. Text: Panini’s Vyakarana.
Siksha: Siksha deals with phoenetics, the pronounciation and accent. It explains how
each syllable should be pronounced in which context and the psychic effects of those.
There are two variations to plain pronunciation, called Udatta and Anudatta. Altering the
pronunciation alters the meaning of what is being chanted and the results of chanting.
Text: Panini’s Siksha.
Chandas: Chandas is the science of metres. Syllables are classified into two categories,
Guru and Laghu. A string of Guru-Laghu sequence of a particular length is called a
metre. There are various metres in which the Vedic mantras are composed, such as
Gayatri, Anusthup, Trishtup and Jagati. The chandas of a mantra determines its usage,
such as its purpose and context. But it acts more as an error-correcting mechanism. Since
the Veda is an oral tradition, any aberration in the chandas because of error in text or the
swara, can be easily identified and corrected. Text: Pingala’s Chandassastra.
Jyotisha: Jyotisha is the science of shining objects – astronomy. Text: Vedanga Jyotisha
of Lagadha.
Kalpa: Kalpa speaks of the ritual portion, how and when sacrifice is to be conducted.
Texts: Kalpa Sutras, consisting of Sulba Sutras and Srauta Sutras. Sulba Sutras contain
the geometry of altars along with mathematical deductions for the geometry. Srauta
Sutras contain guidelines for conducting sacrifices.
2.5 Upavedas
Upavedas are four and they are Dhanurveda, Gandharvaveda, Ayurveda and Arthasastra.
Dhanurveda is the science of warfare. Gandharvaveda is the study if aesthetics and it
speaks of all art-forms like music, dance, poetry, sculpture, and erotica. Ayurveda is the
science of health and life. Arthasastra deals with public administration, governance,
economy, polity and judiciary. All these sciences/arts are discussed not just from their
technical perspective (though that is primarily done); these are seen as means to
transcendence.
2.6 Upangas
There are four Upangas, Nyaya, Mimamsa, Itihasa-Puranas and Dharma sastras.
Nyaya is also a darshana and speaks of the “law of nature”. It also contains predicate
logic. This can be discussed more elaborately as a darshana.
Mimamsa too, is a darshana and has two parts – Purva Mimamsa and Uttara Mimamsa.
Purva Mimamsa speaks of the philosophy of rituals and Uttara Mimamsa is spiritual
philosophy. There is another text called Sankarsha kanda, which is also called the
Madhya Mimamsa and Upasana Kanda, which speaks of Gods and mentions the essential
one-ness of all God-forms. This can be seen as a ramp from Purva Mimamsa to Uttara
Mimamsa. Mimamsa can be discussed more elaborately as a darshana.
Itihasa-Puranas: There are 18 Maha Puranas and 18 Upa Puranas. Mahabharata is the
Itihasa. The eighteen Maha Puranas are Matsya, Markandeya, Bhagavata, Bhavishya,
Brahmanda, Brahma, Brahma Vaivarta, Vishnu Dharmottara, Varaha, Vamana, Siva,
Skanda, Narada, Garuda, Padma, Kurma, Linga and Agni Puranas.
Purana is said to speak of five subjects (Panca Lakshana): the creation and dissolution of
Universe, evolution and the cycle of time, Theology, history of Kings (human history).
Alternately, these speak of three levels of allegories – terrestrial, astronomical and
spiritual. They also speak of the different incarnations of the Supreme Godhead – 51
avataras, then 21 important ones from them, then 10 primary avatars out of them that we
call as dashavataras and 2 as complete incarnations (purnavataras). Rama and Krishna are
said to be purnavataras. The remaining are said to be amshavataras (partial manifestation)
in different degrees.
Dharma Sastras: Dharma sastras include smritis and the four sutras - Dharma sutras,
Grhya Sutras, Sulba Sutras and Srauta Sutras. The sutras are laid down for each Vedic
sakha/branch. Dharma sutras contain the guidelines to live a Dharmic life. Grhya sutras
contain specific guidelines to Grhasthas. Srauta sutras contain guidelines for performing
rituals. Sulba sutras contain the mathematical principles for construction of various altars.
Smritis including metrical codes like Manusmriti, and Puranas are also called Dharma
sastras.
Vedic Religion
Mantra is central to Vedic religion. Mantra is said to be the sound-form (vak-rupa) of the
God-form. Yajna is central to Vedic philosophy. All life performed as a Yajna (sacrifice
– making an offering to derive something greater) is the means to Moksha. Each action,
education, earning, eating, sleeping, procreation, war, worship, is a Yajna. Doing each of
these as an offering through which transcendence is sought, guarantees liberation. There
are different approaches like Tatva Chintana, Upasana, Yajna and so on where aspects
like Mantra or Rituals or devotion become more important or less important for each of
those paths.
2.7 Darsanas
There are six Vedic Darsanas, or windows to Truth. They are Nyaya, Vaiseshika,
Sankhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa and Uttara Mimamsa. Uttara Mimamsa is also called
Vedanta Darsana.
All the six darsanas have these elements in common: They hold that Atman is different
from manas, buddhi and prakriti. Atman is eternal and free, and liberation is not mixing it
or mistaking it for others. They differ in the technicalities like how binding comes and
the methods and meaning of liberation. They commonly hold Veda as the highest
authority on Truth. They are not unanimous in accepting the existence and nature of
Iswara.
Pramana is a source of knowledge, as well as a reference for validation of knowledge.
What make all these darsanas Vedic, is that they hold Veda as a pramana. The other
pramanas are pratyaksha, anumana, upamana, ardhapatti, anupalabdi. All the six
pramanas are accepted by both Mimamsa Darsanas. Nyaya accepts four of them,
Vaiseshika two, Sankhya three, Yoga three. Prathyaksha and Sabda are the two common
pramanas for all these darsanas.
There are three different approaches that these darsanas follow: arambha vada, parinama
vada and vivarta vada. Roughly, Arambha vada holds that universe is created. Parinama
vada holds that universe is not created or destroyed but it only transforms. Particularly, it
is transformation of the manifesting form of the immutable God. Vivarta vada holds that
Universe as it appears is but because of the observer and it appears so, because of Maya,
the play of veil. What it actually is, is Brahman and once that is realized the illusion is no
more there (meaning it puts an end to the sense-perception of universe and not an end to
the universe as such).
However, Vedanta darsana is further interpreted according to the lights of seers. And they
have become different darsanas over time. The famous ones are Advaita Vedanta,
Visistadvaita and Dvaita. There are many other “darsanas”, such as Dvaitadvaita,
Bhedabheda, Suddhadvaita, Nakuleesa Pasupata, Pratyabhijnana and so on. Advaita
Vedanta holds six pramanas and is purely a Vedanta (having spiritual philosophy)
darsana. It holds vivarta vada. Dvaita and Visistadvaita accept three pramanas,
pratyaksha, anumana and sabda (Sruti). Visistadvaita holds parinama vada. Dvaita in
particular is called Tatva-vada, which deals with the Tatvas of the universe. There are
Saiva schools such as Saiva, which also hold dvaita or dualism.
Bauddha and Jaina accept two pramanas, pratyaksha and anumana. Carvaka accepts
pratyaksha alone. This is the reason that they are not counted as Vedic darsanas.
Sayana Madhavacarya, created a compilation of sixteen darsanas. They are as follows:
1. Gautama Darsana (Nyaya)
2. Kanada Darsana (Vaiseshika)
3. Kapila Darsana (Sankhya)
4. Patanjala (Yoga darsana)
5. Jaimini darsana (Purva Mimamsa)
6. Sankara Darsana (Advaita Vedanta)
7. Ramanuja Darsana (Visistadvaita)
8. Purna Prajna Darsana (Dvaita of Madhvacarya)
9. Panineeya Darsana (Vyakarana)
10. Nakuleesa Pasupata
11. Saiva Darsana
12. Rasesvara Darsana
13. Pratyabhijnana Darsana
14. Bauddha Darsana
15. Arhata Darsana (Jaina)
16. Carvaka/Nastika Darsana
Of these, Pasupata of Nakuleesa, Saiva, Rasesvara and Pratyabhijnana are Saiva
Darsanas. Purna Prajna and Ramanuja darsanas are Vaishnava Darsanas. There are other
Vaishnava darsanas too, such as the Suddhadvaita of Vallabhacarya (which is also called
Pushti marga), Bhedabheda (Gaudiya Vaishnava), Dvaitadvaita of Nimbarkacarya. These
philosophies are closely knit with religious practices and theology. The others are more
of spiritual philosophies knit with specific sastras and world-views. We can see that
Vyakarana of Panini, which is essentially a Vedanga, is also acknowledged as a Darsana.
This is because Vyakarana is the science of purifying word and word is the one that gets
us to understanding the world.
Spiritual philosophy means Vedantic worldview. It essentially deals with individual soul
(jiva), supreme Godhead (para) and nature (prakriti); explains the nature of those, their
relation. It also defines what liberation means and what the state of bondage is, along
with what causes liberation. Uttara Mimamsa and Advaita Vedanta are examples of
Vedantic worldviews.
However, many schools have developed along with spiritual philosophy, elaborate
methods and practices that help individual’s liberation. Yoga is a good example for this.
Some spiritual philosophies have not developed separately but closely related to theology
and religious practices, the way Visistadvaita developed hand in hand with Sri
Vaishnava. They are almost inseparable. Same holds with Saiva Darsanas like Pasupata
and Saiva. Worship of deity, theology of the deity, paths to salvation, how God manifests
in phenomenal world, are contained in these in addition to Vedantic worldview.
Darsanas like Vaiseshika or Vyakarana for instance, are spiritual philosophies knit with
sastras. It contains a worldview, how the sastra explains the phenomenal world, along
with definition of how jiva is bound in the phenomenal world and what causes liberation.
While Vaiseshika enumerates the world in terms of viseshas or attributes, vyakarana
being sabda sastra sees the world as a manifestation of sound-energy and gives ways to
refine words to make the sacrifice (yajna) of life fruitful.
The Six Vedic Darshanas
There are six Darshanas (windows to Truth) that treat Veda as authority. They are called
aastika darshanas. They are Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa and
Uttara Mimamsa. There are six nastika darshanas that do not accept the Veda as authority
and are called nastika darsanas.
The astika darsanas can be grouped into three pairs – Nyaya-Vaiseshika, Sankhya-Yoga,
Purvottara Mimamsa. Nyaya and Vaiseshika are called arambha vada. Sankhya and Yoga
are called parinama vada. Purva and Uttara Mimamsa discuss philosophy of Veda. Purva
Mimamsa discusses the philosophy of karma kanda and Uttara Mimamsa discusses the
spiritual philosophy (esp. Upanishads). Nyaya, Yoga and Uttara Mimamsa say that there
is an Isvara the Lord of All souls. The other three are Nireeswara vaadas. They talk of
Atman, but not of Paramatman. Nireeswara vaada is not necessarily nastika vaada and
these darsanas do lay equal amount of stress on Dharma and that is the reason they are
called aastika darsanas and not because they accept a Parabrahman different from
individual atman. They differ in their basic tenets like Isvara.
All these darsanas hold that atman is different from manas(mind), buddhi (intellect) and
prakruti (nature) and that binding is because of the contact of these with the Purusha.
Once the contact is rid, that is liberation. They differ in which of these causes binding,
what causes creation and whether creation is an appearance or true in a given state. They
also differ in whether atman is same as Brahman or not. Differentiating these and
understanding the uniformity of these is very important both in understanding Hinduism
as well as differentiating Hindu from non-Hindu ideology. Here is a brief note of each
darsana.
Vaiseshika
Text – Vaiseshika darsana; Author – Kanada; Bhashya kaara - Prasasta Pada; Vartika
kaara – Jagadidh Bhattacary.
It has 10 chapters, 20 ahnikas, 370 sutras. It accepts 2 pramanas (criteria for verifiability)
and 7 padarthas. Vaiseshika is one of the earliest darsanas hypothesised. According to it,
atma-manas contact causes the nine Gunas – buddhi, sukha, dukha, iccha, dvesha,
prayatna, dharma, adharma, sanskara. This is the samsara for atman. Realising this and
separating mind from atman so that the Gunas get dissolved and do not arise again, is
Moksha. This is possible through satkarma, sravana, manana and so on. According to
Vaiseshika darsana, Guna-nasha forever is moksha.
Nyaya
Text – Nyaya darsana; Author – Gotama; Bhashya kaara – Vatsayana; Vartika kaara –
Udyota kaara. It has 5 chapters, 10 ahnikas and 528 sutras. It accepts 4 pramanas and 16
padarthas.
According to Nyaya, midhya jnana (nascience) causes sansara and tatva jnana (gnosis)
brings liberation. Destroying misery (dukha) forever is Moksha. Jiva is different from
Isvara. Isvara is a nominal (nimitta karana) cause for creation, the substantial cause of
creation is paramaanus (upadana karana). Jivas are multiple because of multiple bodies
(sareera). But Iswara is one. Iswara created the Veda.
It is called Nyaya because it is constituted of five “laws” – Pratijna, Hetu, Udaharana,
Upanaya, Nigamana. Nyaya includes formal logic and modes of scientific debate. It
explains the logical constructs like antecedent and laws of implying. It expounds various
modes of scientific debate and methods for debate, like tarka, vitanda, chala, jalpa and so
on.
Sankhya
Text – Sankhya darsana, Sankhya karikas; Author – Narayana avatara Kapila gave 25
sutras and Vaiswanara avatara Kapila gave 6 chapters. Disciple line of the latter Kapila –
Asuri, Panca Sikhacarya, Iswara Krishna. Iswara Krishna wrote the Sankhya Karikas
with 70 aryavrittas. Bhashya to these are given by Gauda pada. Vartika is given by
Vijnana Bhikshu. It accepts 3 pramanas and 25 tatvas (principles).
Sankhya too, is an old school. It says that binding is bevause of mistaking Prakruti for
Purusha. Realising their difference is liberation. As such, binding and liberation are for
the Prakruti and not Purusha. They appear on the Purusha because of contact with
Prakruti. Nyaya recognizes Iswara. The world is true. Purusha is asanga and chidrupa, not
touched by creation or action. He is Jnana rupa, but not Jnanasraya. That is, Purusha is
himself knowledge and not seen as a result of knowledge. In liberated state Purusha is
neither jada nor ananda rupa. Multiple Purushas exist. There is no single Iswara, and
Prakruti Herself does creation. Sukha, dukha and moha are because of the three gunas
(satva, rajas, tamas).
Yoga
Text – Yoga sutras; Author – Patanjali; Bhashya – Badarayana; Vartika – Vijnana
Bhikshu. It has 4 padas and 194 sutras. It accepts 3 pramanas and 25 tatvas.
According to Yoga, mistaking buddhi for Purusha causes binding. Realising their
difference is liberation. Purusha is asanga and chidrupa. Buddhi satva has three qualities
(satva-rajas-tamo gunas) and it attracts Purusha. Atman separated from buddhi and its
qualities is Moksha. Yoga of eight limbs (yama, niyama, asana, pratyahara, pranayama,
dharana, dhyana, Samadhi) gets one to Samadhi state. By the grace of Iswara too one gets
to Samadhi state. One can realize the buddhi–atman difference in that state. Avidya is
binding and jnana is Kaivalya (liberation). Binding and liberation are for buddhi and not
for atman, they only appear over the atman. Iswara is one.
Purva Mimamsa
Text – Purva Mimamsa darsana; Author – Jaimini; Bhashya – Sabara Swamy; Vartika –
Kumarila Bhatt. It has 16 chapters in the adhikarana way. It accepts 6 pramanas. Purva
Mimamsa is also called Karma-Mimamsa.
Dharma develops by performing Vedic rituals. By refraining from prohibited deeds and
actions inspired by desires, one can be cleansed from sins. It leads to a state beyond
dharma and adharma. After experiencing the result of past karma, body (sareera) dies. If
the state beyond dharma and adharma is attained by then, the atman does not assume
sareera any more. Thus liberation from sareera forever is Moksha. Moksha is a result of
nivritti dharma. One can get to swarga (heaven) by pravritti. Atman is different from
those like sareera and indriyas (sense organs). There is no Iswara separate from atman.
Atman is jnanasraya but not jnanarupa. That is, atman can be known through jnana but is
not jnana itself. Veda is accepted as pramana in Purva Mimamsa. Atma-manas contact
causes the nine Gunas (spoken of by Vaiseshika). In liberated state when atman liberates
from contact with manas, gunas get dissolved. Atman is jada rupa in that state.
Uttara Mimamsa
Text – Brahma sutras; Author – Vyasa; Bhashya – Adi Sankara; Vartika – Narayana
Saraswati. It has 4 chapters, 16 padas and 555 sutras. It accepts 6 pramanas (pratyaksha,
anumana, upamana, agama, ardhapatti, anupalabdi) and 25 tatvas.
According to Uttara Mimamsa, binding is lack of discrimination between atman and nonatman. From knowledge of atman and its true nature, ignorance is dissolved.
Experiencing it as nirguna (without qualities), advaya (one without second), and
Brahman is Moksha. Jiva-Iswara difference is because of nascience. Once that goes, the
natural unity of Jiva-Para realizes. Until the unity is realized, Jagat (world/universe) is
true. Jagat appears over Brahman. Once that is realized, the world is an illusion (mithya)
and only Brahman remains. Brahman is the undifferentiated (abhinna), nominal (nimitta)
and substantial (upadana) cause for creation. Thus, Uttara Mimamsa holds the indefinable
nature of Brahman. Purushas are not multiple. There is one Iswara and Prakruti does not
create by Herself – She does it for and inspired by Iswara.
2.8 Smritis
Vedic literature is primarily of two types, sruti and smriti. The Veda is called sruti and is
the highest authority. Other texts are called smritis, and they derive authority from the
sruti. Sruti is apaurusheya, and smritis are the words of seers.
Smritis could be broadly classified as
1. Vedangas – subjects required to understand various aspects of the Veda
2. Upavedas – arts and sciences
3. Upangas – understanding of dharma and debating it
4. Darsanas – windows to truth
5. The other sastras
These are not mutually exclusive classes. For instance, Nyaya and Mimamsa are
Darsanas as well as Upangas. Dharma sutras are included in Vedanga Kalpa as well as
Dharma Sastras (Upanga).
Types of Smritis
Based on the nature of knowledge, the smriti literature is of two types: one that expounds
sastra and one that outlines codes of conduct. While texts like Manusmriti and Puranas
contain both types of knowledge, there are specific texts for specific purposes. Texts like
Paniniya Astadhyayi (Vyakarana), Gautama Sutras (Nyaya), Tarka Samgraha (tarka)
expound specific sastras. Dharma Sutras and similar literature expound codes of conduct,
judiciary etc.
Sutra and Metrical forms
Based on the method of organizing the text, the smriti literature is of two forms: sutra and
metrical. Sutra method is a concise way of stating information, where entire text is
arranged in a sequence of rules. A rule below borrows context from the above ones,
unless stated otherwise. Thus, the size of text reduces considerably because every sutra is
not an independent statement and a lot of text common to sutras is thus eliminated. For
instance texts like Astadhyayi, Dharma Sutras follow the sutra method.
The non-sutra texts are more descriptive, so each statement is unambiguous in its
meaning. These are in sloka (poetry) or prose form, but most of the texts are in sloka
form. Examples are Manusmriti and Itihasa Puranas.
Further, a set of sutras slokas or names are referenced with the first word of a beginning
sutra and last word of ending sutra along with the count of sutras. This way pointers to
huge amount of information is linked to with small text.
Examples:
1. The alphabet is referred to as “a adi ksha anta”, meaning beginning with “a” and
ending with “ksha”.
2. The entire procedure for constructing a temple is referred to as “karshanadi
pratisthantam”, beginning with karshana and ending with pratistha.
3. The 16 step procedure for worship is called “dhayavahadi shodashopacara”, that
is the sixteen steps beginning with dhyana and avahana.
4. The sloka to refer to all the 18 puranas goes:
“ma dwayam bha dwayam caiva bra trayam va catustayam
ana pa ku ska linga antam…”
Meaning the names of two puranas start with ma (matsya and markandeya), two
with bha (bhavishya, bhagavata), three with bra (brahmanda, brahma, brahma
vaivarta), four with va (vamana, varaha, Vishnu, vayu), one each with a (agni), na
(narada), pa (padma), ku (kurma), ska (skanda) and linga.
Goal of Smriti
The smritis aim at outlining and giving a picture of how to live life in a way to fulfill the
purpose of life, thus make life meaningful. They also aim at reflecting Vedic worldview
in daily life. The functions smritis prescribe regulate life closest to natural laws as seen in
the Veda.
Spirit of Dharma Sastras
Dharma Sastra is a guideline that outlines ideal practices. Smriti keeps in mind that real
life is not however ideal, and recommends what is best. There is always a deviation from
smriti, and the goal is to be as close to it as possible. Common man is always between the
two extremes – questioning the smriti and following each principle without fail. What
smriti attempts is to direct common man towards giving his best try to follow the smriti.
In case of a deviation, smriti also advocates ways how one can correct himself and fall
back in line.
This is why, while we find smriti saying what is not to be done, it also says how to deal in
cases of things happening otherwise. For instance, having said one should not have
extramarital relation, it says what should be legally done in cases of such relation and
offspring of such relations (such as property, inheritance). Having said a Brahmin should
not drink, it explains how a drunkard should be dealt with in various situations. This
shows that while outlining what is best, smriti takes into consideration all combinations
in which things can happen (which are in agreement or disagreement with smriti), and
explains how to deal with all those situations. Thus smriti is thoroughly founded in life
and society and is not an out of the world text. Also, because of the flexibility it thus
offers, it applies to all times with the fewest modifications. In fact it should be said that
the modifications needed to make smriti suit any kind of times are much smaller than the
level of deviation from it otherwise existent in the society (which is deviation for those
times itself).
Further, smriti seeks to present with clarity the rights and wrongs of a situation along
with dos and don’ts. While describing the actions of most righteous (as in case of Itihasa
Puranas) it demonstrates how one can realize ideals in life. It also clarifies the dilemmas
and confusions man faces in various life situations and explains what its stand is and
why.
Thus smriti is a comprehensive guide to life that defines goals of life, gives methods to
achieve them, clarifies where there are confusions, and explains how to stick to those
goals and how to correct oneself if one is going wrong in the path. It also outlines social
design such as various stages of life, functions of man and woman, various
classes/sections of the society, polity, administration, judiciary and polity.
2.9 Agamas
Agama is from the root “gam” which means to come. Sruti, the eternal word, is of two
forms – Nigama (Veda) and Agama. Origin of portions of Agamas could be traced to the
Vedic literature, and are regarded by those like Vyasa. Veda is said to be Prabhusammitam (The Kinglike Authority), and Agama could be called Aptavakya (dear one’s
word). Narada Pancaratra, a Vaishnava Agama, could be traced back to the Santi Parva of
Mahabharata. Agamas extensively contain samputikaranas and many of the mantras used
could be found in the Veda.
Agamas, like the Veda, have come down through Guru-Sishya parampara, as an oral
tradition.
Agamas are regarded Vedic, and Agamas regard themselves Vedic. Many mantras in the
Agamas are found in the Veda. We find many Vedic mantras put into various
combinations (samputikaranas) in these Tantras. Example: Vana Durga chapters in Rudra
Yamala Tantra use the mantras of Durga Sukta for most of the sequences. Durga Sukta is
found in Taittiriya Aranyaka, which again is a collection of Riks scattered in different
places in the Samhita. Many of the procedures for rituals too, acould be directly found in
Kalpa Sutras. Example: Mantras of rituals for Pratistha in Vaikhanasa Agamas could be
traced directly to Vaikhanasa Kalpasutras.
Contents of Agamas
Agamas are said to contain Tantra, Mantra and Yantra.
Mantra is the word-form of energy. It is the means/basis for both Yantra and Tantra.
Yantra: Yantra is basically a contrivance, charged with the power of a mantra. It could
be a geometric shape as in case of devata yantra or just any instrument as in case of an
astra. It is the tool. The nature of Yantra depends on its purpose sought to be served.
Each devata is said to have a Yantra, a specific geometric shape that represents the nature
of energy of the devata. For temporary purposes and worshipping, it could be drawn on
clean floor with turmeric or some other powder, or for installations it could be carved on
metal plates. The Yantra is worshipped and charged with corresponding mantra. It is
treated to be devata, and is worshipped the way devata is worshipped. More specifically,
Yantra represents the entire vicinity, including the deity’s consorts, associated persons,
powers etc. So the worship is an elaborate ritual consisting of propitiation of each of
those.
There are variations in the Yantra of a devata, when used for different purposes.
Tantra: Tantra is a procedure, which puts mantra to specific use. It is the method as well
as philosophy (Tatva-Mantra samanvaya). It elaborates procedures that a sadhaka should
follow, and the results of each practice. Thus Tantra is the superset and is therefore
synonymous to Agama.
There are three divisions in Tantra, dakshina vama and madhyama. They are said to be
the satwic, rajasic and tamasic forms of Tantra respectively. Dakshinacara prescribes
practices of mind. Vamacara involves physical codes and practices to vitalize energy
centers in the body. The panca makaras, matsya, mamsa, maithuna, madya and mudra are
also practiced in some vamacara Tantras.
Thus mantra, Yantra and Tantra are not exclusive; they are interconnected. Mantra is the
energy. Yantras are geometric shapes that define the workings of various kinds of
energies. Tantra deals with the philosophy and methods. However, both Yantra and
Tantra use Mantras. Tantra involves methods and practices through which the practitioner
uses the energy to serve a purpose, while Yantra uses tools/shapes that are charged by the
power of mantra.
Thus, Agamas are procedures for serving various purposes, along with means and
methods.
Agamas expound a variety of subjects and could be called the guides to a huge range of
Hindu practices. They contain
 Manuals for worship
 Methods for salvation, Yoga
 Devata, Yantra
 Prayogas using various mantras
 Temple Building, Town planning
 Iconometry
 Domestic practices and civil codes
 Social/Public festivals
 Holy Places
 Elements of Universe, Creation and Dissolution
 Philosophies (Tatvas)
 Worlds
 Austerities
and many other interrelated subjects.
Each Agamas contains four parts or padas into which these subjects are classified 1. Jnana – Knowledge
2. Yoga – Meditation methods etc
3. Kriya – Rituals
4. Carya – Moral codes etc
Agamas are primarily used by three religions – Vaishnava, Saiva and Sakta.
Vaishnava Agamas
The Vaishnava Agamas regard Vishnu as the supreme Godhead. They are said to have
come from the mouth of Vishnu Himself. There are hundreds of Vaishnava Agamas.
Boradly they could be classified as Panacratra and Vaikhanasa. Pancaratra, as the name
suggests, involve a five-fold ritual schedule. There are about 200-225 Pancaratra texts.
Vaikhanasa agamas are taught by Vikhana to his disciples like Marichi and Bhrigu.
A few Vaishnava Agamas: Isvara, Ahirbudhnya, Narada, Hayasirsha, Paushkara, Satvata,
Jnanamrita sara.
Saiva Agamas
Saiva Agamas hold Siva as the supreme Godhead. There are 28 Saiva Agamas and they
could be classified into two classes: 10 Siva bheda and 18 Rudra bheda Agamas. Further,
the 28 are classified into four classes: Kapala, Kalamukha, Pasupata, Saiva. The last kind
(Saiva) is further classified into two subclasses – Kasmira Saiva and Siddhanta Saiva.
Kasmira Saiva is in vogue in the North and Siddhanta Saiva in South India. Each Saiva
Agama has supplements/additional fragments called Upa-Agamas.
A few Saiva Agamas to mention: Kamika, Vira, Parameswara, Swayambhuva.
Sakta Agamas
Sakta Agamas hold Sakti as the supreme Godhead. These Tantras are of two kinds, Vama
and Dakshina. There are said to be 64 Sakta Agamas, but the number could be much
more. Many of these are in the form of Siva-Sakti conversations.
A few Sakta Agamas to mention: Kularnava, Rudra Yamala, Brahma Yamala, Vishnu
Yamala, Maha Nirvana.
Tantras and Vedas
Certain Tantric practices, esp. extreme side of vamavara Tantra however, are in direct
contradiction to some of the Vedic literature (Kalpa Sutras, esp. Grihya and Dharma
Sutras, as well as smritis like Manusmriti).
However, it is not the mantras that differentiate. The methods used the practices that
supplement, the spirit in which they are practiced and the purpose of those practices
determines whether a Tantric practice is in accordance with the smritis. Some Tantras are
just Vedic. Some have elements and practices that are not supported by the Vedic
literature, but are not against Vedic spirit. Some contain practices that are not condemned
by Veda but are not practiced in a way that following Vedic literature (esp. Vedanga
kalpa) prescribes. Some contain practices that not in accordance with smritis, in varying
degrees.
For example, vamacara Tantras prescribe five makaras, which are five practices like
eating meat and sexual union. While smritis do not prohibit these per se, what
differentiates vamacara Tantras from smriti-prescribed practices and make them
“unvedic”, is the purpose and context of those practices. The Vedic literature gives
utmost importance to brahmacarya. Sexual union is allowed only for a grhastha and that
too, the primary purpose is said to be begetting children. Even a grhastha is advised to
abstain on specified days (nindyas and parvas) and is said to derive the merit of
brahmacarya by that (Manu 3.50, 2.176-181, 6.26). Prajanana (procreation) is to be seen
as a yajna. By contrast in vamacara Tantra, sexual union is a method, is an element of
spiritual practice/sadhana. Procreation is not the purpose here. So sexual union, as done
in vamacara Tantra is against the spirit of smritis. It is the same with other practices.
Meat is to be taken only as the fruit of yajna, according to Vedic prescriptions, while they
are methods/elements of sadhana in vamacara Tantra. Alcohol is not prescribed by
smritis either (Manu 3.159). Thus, it is not necessarily a practice; it is its context and
purpose that differentiates.
This said, it should be noted that extreme practices in Tantra such as sitting with corpses,
are really not the core of Tantra. Tantra is basically philosophy of spiritual practice, and
does not have a negative connotation as such. This is evident from the fact that the word
Tantra is used in many places like Sankhya Karikas (70), Sankarsha Kanda, a supplement
to Karma Mimamsa (1.1.3) and also by men like Adi Sankara (he calls Sankhya a
Tantra). In all these places, Tantra is used as a general word for method/philosophy rather
than as something undesirable. The bulk of Tantra deals with varied subjects, and
contains sublime spiritual philosophy that is found in all other literature/schools of
Hinduism. It also contains many spiritual practices like japa, homa, arcana, encapsulated
into various sets of procedures. Entire science of temple, its practices, construction, rules
are from these, and are in no contradiction to the Vedic spirit. In fact, the practices that
were ill-suited to times were improvised with alternate forms of worship in these texts.
Present day Hinduism
In the present form of Hinduism, we should say that there are no elements in the
mainstream and temple worship that are far from Vedic. There was a time when many
unvedic practices were prevalent and it was really tough to differentiate, but great
reformers like Adi Sankara have reformed the system and expelled many practices from
the mainstream Hinduism that are either totally unvedic in spirit or are not condemned by
the Veda but do not suit the times. Men like him toured Bharata varsha and pacified Sakti
worshipped in almost every famous temple that was there, and made those places for
Vedic forms of worship. Many practices like Kapalika and tamasic forms of Sakta were
prevalent and many of them were marginalized by Adi Sankara. There were also many
practices that were not strictly prohibited by the Veda, such as jantu bali in the temples.
These too, were eliminated to suit the spirit of changing times. At the same time, Tantra
as such was not downplayed – for Sankara himself had great knowledge of Tantra. Only
the undesirable practices were removed. They do exist today, but are found mostly
outside the mainstream. The temple practices especially, are refined and reformed to a
great extent and do not contain any of the extreme practices.
3. Vedic Religion
3.1 Schools of Spiritual Philosophy (Vedanta)
The curriculum for Vedanta or Spiritual philosophy is called Prasthana Trayi, it consists
of BhagavadGita, Upanishads, and Brahma Sutras. Bhagavad Gita is the compendium on
spiritual philosophies by Sri Krishna. Upanishads are found in Aranyaka portion of the
Veda. Of the 108 Upanishads, ten important ones are studied. Brahma sutras are given by
Badarayana.
There are three major schools of Spiritual Philosophy (Vedanta) in Hinduism. They are
Advaita, Dwaita and Visistadwaita. All the three accept the authority of texts and sources
of knowledge. They are different interpretations of the Vedantic texts. The cause and
method of creation, the relation between jiva and Iswara, the role of Prakriti are seen
differently by these schools. The major proponents of these schools (Sankara in case of
Advaita, Ramanuja in case of Visistadvaita and Madhva in case of Dvaita) have written
commentaries on the prasthana trayi.
However, though these are the major ones, there are many other schools like Gaudiya
Vaishnava (Bhedabheda), Vallabha Sampradaya (Shuddhadvaita) and Nimbarka
Sampradaya (Dvaitadvaita).
There are three major concepts (vaadas) that explain the cause of universe: Arambha,
Parinama and Vivarta. In Arambha vada universe is seen as eternal. In Parinama vada
Brahman is said to create/become the Universe. In Vivarta Vada Brahman is said to be
without change but only appear as the Universe, through the play of maya.
In the six darsanas, Nyaya and Vaiseshika are Arambha vada. Sankhya and Yoga hold
Parinama Vada. Mimamsa, esp. Uttara Mimamsa is said to contain Vivarta Vada. The
dwaitic schools of Vedanta too, hold Parinama vada. According to them God becomes or
creates the Universe just the way a spider creates its web from its body. In Vivarta Vada
the Universe is not created or destroyed – it only appears as it is, by the play of Maya.
Realizing Brahman puts an end to the apparent.
The cause of creation or any phenomenon (karana) is said to be of two kinds – nimitta
(nominal) and upadana (substantial). If we take the famous example of making a pot, the
potter is said to be the nominal cause, and mud which is the substance of pot is said to be
the substantial cause.
Advaita
Advaita is the oldest school. Adi Sankara is the latest best exponent of the Advaita
philosophy. There are some schools that differentiate Advaita as Sankara and SankaraPurva (the one that existed before Sankara) advaita.
Advaitins accept all the six pramanas, pratyaksha, anumana, upamana, arthapatti, sabda
and anupalabdi.
Advaita is found as an independent school of spiritual philosophy, not closely related to
any of the religions. Many flavors of religions including Saiva, Sakta, Tantra (though all
these are not mutually exclusive), are advaitic in nature.
Brahman – Jiva – Maya
Advaita, especially Sankara Advaita completely stands by Vivarta Vada. Universe is
empirically true – vyavaharika satya. But it is not what it appears to be. It appears so,
because of the veil caused by Maya. This is of two types, veiling (covering the Truth) and
projection (appearing to be True). These are called avarana and vikshepa. Maya is neither
real nor unreal, it is inexplicable. It is not real because it ceases to exist when Brahman is
realized. It is not unreal in the empirical sense. Maya is the cause of “creation”. Brahman
is the nominal cause (nimitta karana) for creation, Maya does creation. The substantial
cause (upadana karana) for creation too, is Brahman. The only difference the pot-potter
example has from creation is that the substance of creation is same as that of the potter.
Thus Brahman is not only nimitta and upadana but also abhinna (undifferentiated) karana
for creation.
Jivatma, the individual soul, is nothing but Brahman. It is untouched, unmanifest, neither
conscious nor unconscious, beyond qualities (nirguna), and advaya (the one without the
second). It is only witness of action and experiences, but not the one that experiences.
Avidya (nascience) caused by Maya is cause for binding. This is the reason for atma
appearing as non-atma. Differentiating atma from non-atma and thus realizing atma, is
liberation.
Moksha
Moksha is realizing oneself to be atma and atma to be Brahman. The Jiva is already
liberated in its true nature – thus realizing the true nature of oneself (jiva) is liberation.
Thus, one can be liberated even though one is wearing a body. This is called jivanmukti
(getting liberated even while “living” in a body). Videha mukti is achieved eventually,
after jiva leaves the body.
Visistadvaita
Visistadvaita is qualified non-dualism. Though the school existed much earlier,
Ramanujacarya was the best proponent of the school. Hence it came to be known as
Ramanuja darsana. Specifically, his commentary on Brahma Sutras is called Sri Bhashya.
Visistadvaita is closely related to Sri Vaishnava, hence it is seen more as a philosophy of
religion rather than an independent spiritual philosophy that is followed by any religion.
Visistadvaita as the term indicates is Advaita that accepts viseshas. Visistadvaitins accept
basic advaita or non-duality of jiva and para. In the liberated state jiva is para. Jiva has
viseshas of consciousness in unliberated state, unlike in Advaita where jiva is just a
witness even in unliberated state (in fact liberation is not for the jivatma, it is for the
entity jiva consisting of sukshma sarira etc, which is bound by Prakriti or Maya).
Visistadvaitins accept three pramanas or sources for knowledge – pratyaksha, anumana,
sabda.
There are three Tatvas (Tatva-traya) – Isvara, Jiva and Prakriti. Isvara or Brahman is the
only independent reality. Jiva and Prakriti are realities dependent on Brahman.
Isvara
Both nirguna brahman and Isvara are accepted and worshipped. Entire world is the play
or lila of Isvara. And Isvara hence could be worshipped as sakara. This can also be
understood in the light that Visistadvaita is religion + philosophy. Both upasana and
Vedanta are closely knit.
The eternal is said to be five-fold, and worshipped in these five forms:
Para – The eternal being. This is Sri Maha Vishnu in times of non-creation in Vaikuntha,
sleeping in the coils of infinity.
Vyuha – The one with four aspects, Sankarshana, Vasudeva, Pradyumna and Aniruddha
(Vishnu Sahasranama praises Him as caturvyuha, or having four vyuhas).
Antaryamin – The One (as soul) that pervades all creation.
Vibhava – The glorious incarnations of God, such as Sri Rama and Sri Krishna.
Arca – The forms of worship, such as incarnations, idols. Example of Arca-avatara is
Venkateswara.
Jiva
Jiva (individual soul) is said to be anu (indivisible), avyakta (unmanifest), acintya
(unthinkable), nirvikara (having no distortion or transformation) and jnanasraya (the
abode of knowledge). Jiva is an indivisible part of Isvara.
There are three types of Jivas, bound, liberated and eternal. Any Jiva prior to liberation or
moksha is said to be bound. Post liberation the Jiva is mukta, and merges in Isvara. There
are eternal jives too, that are not bound but exist – such as devatas, consorts, servants,
vehicles of Vishnu (Garuda, Java-Vijaya etc).
Prakriti
Prakriti is the cause of manifestation. It causes the three consciousness qualities, satva,
rajas and tamas. There are two forms of satva, suddha satva and misra satva. Suddha
satva is one that is not touched by rajas and tamas – this is the one that manifests in
Vaikuntha, creating the “eternal” beings like Garuda and Ananta. This is said to be nitya
vibhuti. The phenomenal world is caused by misra satva, a combination of all the three
qualities. This is said to be lila vibhuti.
Moksha
Visistadvaita does not accept the jivanmukti concept of Advaita. According to
Visistadvaita, liberation is possible only after the jiva leaves the body. There are different
types in this. One is reaching Isvara after death. Another is reaching higher worlds (like
swarga) after death, and moving to still higher worlds and ultimately reaching Isvara
sannidhya. This is called krama (gradual, stepwise) mukti.
There are four kinds of Isvara sannidhya, in ascending order of evolution:
Salokya – Living in the world of Isvara (ex. Vaikuntha)
Sameepya – Living close to Isvara
Sarupya – Looking just like Isvara
Sayujya – Becoming one with Isvara
Moksha sadhana
There are three concepts in path to liberation, Tatva, hita and purushartha. Tatvas are
three as discussed. Hita is fivefold, swa-swarupa (knowing the nature of self), paraswarupa (knowing the nature of the eternal), purushartha swarupa (fulfillment of
purposes or goals of life – dharma, Artha, kama and moksha), upaya swarupa (means
methods or paths to moksha) and virodhi swarupa (obstacles in attainment of moksha).
There are five avarodhas (virodhi) or obstacles in the path of evolution: Obstacles in
realizing self, in realizing God, in liberation, in following means to realization and in
attainment of goals
Moksha Upaya is fivefold:
Karma – this includes karma kanda, panca maha yajnas, dhyana, japa etc.
Jnana – This includes vairagya, dhyana, nididhyasana etc found in jnana marga.
Bhakti – This includes devotion and worship. There are seven aids for bhakti, viveka
(discrimination and purity), vimoka (detachment), abhyasa (practice), kriya (works,
specifically the panca maha yajnas), kalyana (truthfulness, peace of mind, gentleness etc),
anavasada (untouched by sorrow or disappointment), anuddharsha (untouched by
excitement).
Prapatti (or saranagati) – Prapatti is consecration and surrender. This includes surrender
of ego, doing things only to please God and abstaining from all that action that on the
contrary (take one towards worldliness), having faith and attributing one’s own
caretaking to Isvara.
Acaryabhimana – Having faith in, respecting and following teachers’ words.
Dvaita
Dvaita vada or the school of dualism is popularized by Madhvacarya, also called Ananda
Tirtha Swami. His darsana is also called Purna prajna darsana, Tatva vada, Bheda vada,
Bimba-pratibimba vada. This school too, is closely related to Vaishnava mata and Maha
Vishnu is held to be the supreme Godhead.
Dvaitins accept three pramanas– pratyaksha, anumana, sabda.
There are three Tatvas, Jiva, Isvara and Prakriti. Isvara is the only independent
(swatantra) reality. Jiva and Prakriti are realities dependent (paratantra) on Isvara.
Dependent and independent are the two categories dvaita expounds. Everything other
than Isvara - time, matter or action, is dependent on Isvara. Isvara is sentient and jiva is
sentient. Prakriti is insentient. Jiva is sentient by the grace of Isvara.
Dvaita holds that jiva and para are not one and the same, and that they are different.
Universe is real, and runs by the grace of Isvara. What makes jiva and prakriti function is
also Isvara.
There are five differences between Tatvas:
1. Isvara and jiva
2. Isvara and Prakriti
3. Prakriti and jiva
4. Jiva and another jiva
5. One element of prakriti and another
Understanding these differences is the qualifying knowledge for mukti.
Dvaita holds multiplicity of jivas. Jivas are multiple, and of three types – the ones that are
born, the ones in various worlds above earth, and the liberated. The jivas are of different
levels and capabilities and fall in a hierarchy that ranges from manushya to Isvara. The
gradation is given by Madhvacarya, starting from Vishnu in the top, followed by Sri
Lakshmi, then Brahma and so on till manushyas. Thus Dvaita is closely knit with
theology, along from Tatva and Vedanta.
Vyasa Tirtha, a follower of Madhvacarya condensed Madhva Darsana as:
(i) Vishnu is supreme
(ii) The universe is real and not illusory
(iii) The five differences are real
(iv) The leagues of jivas are subordinates of Vishnu
(v) Jivas are different and of different levels
(vi) Mukti is the experience of one’s own innate bliss
(vii) Mukti is achieved through wisdom and devotion to the Supreme
(viii) There are three pramanas - pratyaksha, anumana and agama (sabda)
(ix) Vishnu is the supreme and primary entity described in Veda.
Moksha
There is liberation for jiva, but even liberation does not unite the jiva with Isvara. It
elevates jiva to higher worlds and ends the miseries. In liberated state jiva experiences
existential bliss, and is free from bondage as well as misery. However, the jiva exists
separate from Isvara even in liberated state. Jiva is immutable, and is bound by misery
because of false identification. By realizing the five tatvic differences one gains wisdom
and eventually mukti, by the grace of Isvara.
3.2 Paths to Salvation
There are three paths to salvation; they are called bhakti, jnana and karma yogas. All aim
at the same goal, realization. Man is limited by upadhis (say body or mind), which are
limitations as well as his means in evolution. The three paths prescribe different methods
(though overlapping) to address different faculties and use the upadhis in different ways,
depending on the nature of the seeker, to make him transcend the upadhis themselves.
Bhakti
One is of devotion (bhakti) where an individual through devotion for God, attains
moksha. This is prescribed for the heart-being. Worship is his method. Devotion means,
bliss and love goals.
Realizing God and becoming one with Him is liberation.
There are two stages or forms of bhakti, gauna and mukhya. The former involves the
three consciousness qualities, the latter is beyond them. Apara and Para bhakti too, is a
similar classification. In the path of evolution the devotee treats devata as having all the
noble qualities, a form, and worships with devotion. As inward looking develops
(antarmukha), he transcends forms and objects. Alongside, he also transcends desires and
attachments. The devotion then takes a para or mukhya form, where he is no more
worshipping but actually merging in the infinite. This is the same end that a bhakta, jnani
and karma yogi arrives at.
There are five forms of Bhakti, in the Vaishnava pantheon – santa, dasya, sakhya,
vatsalya, madhura. The first is a calm devotion for God and it mainly aims at detachment
from worldliness. The remaining four involve emotional attachment with God. Dasya is
serving God. Sakhya is treating God as a friend. Vatsalya is treating God as a child and
madhura is treating God as husband. Each one basically aims at a total surrender, and
really there is no distinction in the true nature of devotion.
There are nine acts of devotion, described in Bhagavata: Sravana (hearing of God’s lilas
and glory), Kirtana (praising God’s glory and his lilas), Smarana (remembering God
throughout), Padasevana (service in general), Arcana (worshiping), Vandana (bowing),
Dasya (serving like a servant), Sakhya (befriending God) and Atmanivedana (making
total surrender).
Thus bhakti uses mind as the upadhi, directs it towards sublimation of its lower
tendencies, through love and devotion.
Jnana
The second is of knowledge (jnana), where one sublimates his lower being through
gaining knowledge. This is for the intellect-being. Study/thought is his method. Curiosity
is his means, Truth goal.
Knowledge of the True and Absolute is liberation.
There are three means in jnana marga, sravana, manana and nidhidhyasana. The first one
is listening to a teacher/learned person (about the True, Brahman). The next is manana, to
remember and reflect on the teaching, its meaning and idea. The third is to meditate on
the Truth spoken of. This eventually leads to discovery of Truth.
Intellection is the method of jnana marga. Differentiating True from untrue and making
out the True is the way it is done. Tatva (natural philosophy) and Vedanta (spiritual
philosophy) are the subjects to be studied. In general, the Hindu theory is that any sastra
when studied leads to tatvic understanding.
There are four requirements for this. The first is Viveka or discrimination between True
and untrue. This comes with learning. The second is Vairagya or dispassion or being
passive or growing over worldliness. This comes with renunciation of desires. Unlike in
Bhakti yoga where desires are directed towards God and hence sublimated without
suppression, a level of renunciation is necessary in the sadhaka, in this path. Then
concentration and surrender to the purpose, through jijnasa (curiosity) is needed. These
qualities are summarized as the third requirement, named shad-sampatti or six
“possessions”. They are sama (peace of mind), dama (restraint), uparati (being passive to
wordliness), titiksha (endurance and perseverance), sraddha (having single-pointed goal,
faith and sincerity), samadhana (being equal to the duals and unwavering). Mumukshutva
or totally surrendered to realization of Truth or desiring liberation is the fourth
requirement.
The stages in evolution are:
1. Being virtuous, thus purifying thought
2. Inquiry into self, thus turning the mind inwards
3. Becoming a mind-being
4. Becoming an intellect-being
5. Total detachment and becoming a blissful being
6. Realization
7. Liberation
In this, it can be seen that the sadhaka climbs the ladder of seven urdhva lokas and moves
into the inner kosas. (More can be seen in the overview on consciousness.)
Karma
The third is of works (karma), where one through fulfillment of responsibilities as an
individual and then serving fellow beings, attains moksha. This is for the social being.
Service is his method. Selflessness is his means, universality, infinity and permanence
goals.
Dispassionate, self-less action is the feature of this path. One should do action that causes
well-being of people, without seeking results for oneself. The fruit of action should be
surrendered to divine. Bhagavad Gita says “karmanyeva adhikaraste, maa phaleshu
kadacana” – meaning one is the master of his actions, but not the master of the fruit of his
actions.
Cause-effect of action is the theory that drives this path. One is supposed to do that action
which not only brings down karma sesha but also does not add to it. Selfless and
detached action is of that kind.
Thus truth-beauty-permanence, the three aspects of eternal are the goals of these three
paths. They are inter-mixing and overlapping paths, with each of them leading to and
merging in the others.
3.3 Shanmatas (Vedic Religions)
Broadly, the religious practices in Sanatana Dharma could be classified into two – Smarta
and Tantric. They are not mutually exclusive, and are closely related. Literally smarta
means following smritis. This means the smritis associated with the Veda, such as the
Vedangas and Dharmasastras. Specifically by smarta one means following dharma
sastras. Smarta is a frame of practices, and not a religion. Tantra is part of the Agamic
literature, that developed parallel to the Smarta literature.
There are six major religions or theistic schools, called Shanmatas. They are Saiva,
Vaishnava, Sakta, Saura, Ganapatya and Kaumara. They regard Siva, Vishnu, Sakti,
Surya, Ganapati and Kumaraswamy as the supreme-godhead respectively. These are not
purely theological, and include many other things along with theology, such as spiritual
philosophy and methods of sadhana. Statistically, Saiva, Sakta and Vaishnava are the
major religions and followed all over the country. The other three are practiced more in
specific regions. It also depends on the region which religion is followed more, because
of many factors like the branch of Veda popular in the region. For instance the followers
of Krishna Yajurveda are usually Siva worshippers, since Sri Rudram is in the middle of
Taittiriya Samhita. And the region where Krishna Yajurveda followers are more, have
more smarta-Saivas. While there are many religions or worshipers of many different
devatas, Adi Sankara classified these into six major schools.
Each of these religions takes elements from theology, spiritual philosophy, smriti, Tantra.
Besides, there are schools in the worship of each devata/religion that take elements from
different Tantras, different spiritual philosophies and different smritis. For instance
Vaishnava itself has different codes, like Vaikhanasa and Pancaratra. Some flavors of
these religions are tightly bound with some spiritual philosophies and some with methods
of sadhana. Thus each religion in fact has a wide range and different levels of practices.
Besides, some flavors of these religions attach more importance with some of the paths,
like bhakti, jnana and karma. A flavor of religion that attaches more importance to jnana
is more bound with a spiritual philosophy. A flavor of religion that attaches more
importance to bhakti is more bound to the methods of sadhana and so on.
There were brief conflicts between the followers of these religions; mostly they were
debates. Each religion/school made commendable contributions to Hinduism, and even
their debates against each other were enriching to the traditions. They were very rarely
destructive and hate-driven. Most of them are at the philosophical level, and all the
schools have commonly agreed bases such as the authority of Veda, prasthana trayi,
whose interpretations were diverse. Even worship in the schools has many common
aspects.
Smarta: Usually a smriti following person that does not practice any of the specific
religions is called a smarta. This is a broad fold under which any of the religion naturally
falls (though with some exceptions as can be seen). Smartas take elements mostly from
srauta, and practices from Agamas that are in accordance with smritis. The shanmatas
take from Agamas in varying degrees. For instance flavors of sakta take even those
elements that are in contradiction to smriti, such as the vamacara Tantra. Though
different spiritual philosophies are followed, smartas mostly are advaitins. The worship
of smartas usually consists of five devatas (pancayatana) – Siva, Vishnu, Ganapati, Surya
and Sakti. This is popularized by Adi Sankara.
Vaishnava: Vishnu is treated as the Supreme Godhead. He is said to be the sthiti-karaka,
the eternal and the cause of all states of existence and the pervader. Vishnu is a Vedic
deity. Vaishnavas are almost purely smartas, and the agamas they regard are Vaikhanasa
and Pancaratras. The Vaishnava concept of bhakti is most famous. They describe five
kinds of devotee-God relations, or five forms of devotion to God. They are santa, dasya,
sakhya, vatsalya and madhura. In order, they are calm devotion, being a servant to God,
being a friend of God, treating God as a child and treating God as husband. Though these
in varying degrees are practiced by all religions they are explicitly categorized by the
Vaishnavas. There are also five different forms in which the Godhead manifests
according to Vaishnavas - Para, Arca, Vibhava, Vyuha and Antaryami.
The two famous Vedantic philosophies Visistadwaita and Dwaita, propounded by
Ramanujacarya and Madhvacarya, are followed by the Vaishnavas. The followers of
Ramanujacarya are Sri Vaishnavas and the followers of Madhvacarya are Madhvas.
There are many different schools in Vishnu-worship or Vaishnava:
Smarta (Bhagavata mata)
Sri Vaishnava (followers of Ramanujacarya - Visistadvaitins)
Sad-Vaishnava (followers of Madhvacarya - Dvaita)
Gaudiya Vaishnava (Bhedabheda)
Vallabha Sampradaya (Shuddhadvaita)
Nimbarka Sampradaya (Dvaitadvaita)
Saiva: Siva is treated as the Supreme Godhead. He is said to be the eternal, and the first
cause of existence. Siva is a Vedic deity. There are many forms of Siva-worship, in
smarta as well as Tantra. The smartas who are worshippers of Siva are usually advaitins.
There are dvaita versions of Saiva too. There are many sects in Saiva, such as Bhairavas,
Kapalikas, Veera Saivas. These are worship modes and worships of different forms of
Siva and not different spiritual philosophies. The Saiva Agamas are twenty eight in
number. There are two kinds of Saiva Agamas, Kashmira and Siddhanta. The former are
followed in north and latter in south India.
Sakta: Sakti, the Mother-Godess is treated as the Supreme Godhead. She is said to be the
primal rhythmic energy, and the cause of all manifestation and action. Sakti could be
found in multiple forms in the Veda, like Durga, Gauri, Saraswati, Dakshina, Bharati and
Sri. There are both smarta and Tantric forms of Sakti-worship. The Sakti worshippers are
usually advaitins.
There are ten forms in which Sakti is worshipped, Ganga, Bhavani, Gayatri Kali, Laksmi,
Sarasvati, Rajarajesvari, Bala, Syamala and Lalita.
There are ten forms knowledge of Sakti or Mahavidyas, namely Kali, Tara, Chinnamasta,
Bhuvaneshwari, Bagala, Dhumavati, Kamala, Matangi, Sodasi and Bhairavi. They
include the philosophy, methods of worship with mantra, Yantra and Tantra.
The worship and knowledge of Sakti, is called Sri Vidya. There are schools like
Pancadasi and Sodasi, which expound the philosophy of Sri Vidya. While Pancadasi is
purely smarta, sodasi being a Mahavidya includes Tantric part too. The Sri Chakra or Sri
Yantra is the one used in Sri Vidya. The devata is called Tripurasundari again called with
names like Lalita and Bala.
Sakti is worshipped in three major forms, as a child or maiden (Bala), as the consort of
Siva (Parvati/Uma) and as Kali. Because of this, many schools worship Siva and Sakti
together.
Saura: Surya is treated as the Supreme Godhead. He is said to be the giver of life, and
the soul of all beings. Surya/Aditya/Savitr is a Vedic deity. Saura is a comparatively less
practiced religion, but was more in practice a few centuries ago. There are few famous
temples of Surya, like the ones in Konark (Orissa) and Arasavalli (Andhra Pradesh).
Though Saura as an exclusive religion is not very famous, worship of Surya (as Savitr
devata) is done by every practicing Brahmin in his Sandhya vandana thrice a day. Savitri
is the sakti associated. She is said to be in three forms, Gayatri, Savitri and Saraswati (in
the three parts of the day).
Ganapatya: Ganapathi is treated as the Supreme Godhead. He is the leader of all the
forces or the pramadha ganas. In addition, Ganapati is the deity of obstacles and is to be
worshipped before beginning any major work. He is said to reside and rule the muladhara
or the base of energy centers. This is in fact the reason why He should be worshipped
first, before any other deity. Thus, Ganapati is also said to be all the four forms of vak or
word (para-pasyanti-madhyama-vaikhari). Ganapati is found as Brahmanaspati in the
Veda.
Though worshiped all over, exclusive Ganapati worship is found more in Maharasthra
and Karnataka. There are variedly eight, sixteen and thirty two forms in which Ganapati
is worshipped.
Besides, there are many Tantric forms of worship of Ganapati, like Lakshmiganapati,
Pingalaganapati, Uchchishtaganapati and Urdhvaganapati.
Kaumara: Kaumara is the schoold that worships Kumaraswamy. There are two Vedic
forms Agni and Sarpa, which are precursors of Kumaraswamy/Subrahmanya. He is
worshipped more in south India esp. Tamilnadu.
Religion
Vaishnava
PradhanaDevata Spiritual Philosophies
Vishnu
Dwaita, Visistadwaita
Agamas
Vaikhanasa, Pancaratra
Saiva
Sakta
Saura
Ganapatya
Kaumara
Siva
Sakti
Surya
Ganapathi
Kumaraswamy
Advaita
Advaita
-
Kashmira, Siddhanata Saiva
Sakta Tantras
Ganapatya Tantras
-
4. Core Concepts
4.1 Principle of Transcendence – Indian View of Life
Is there an Indian view of life? Let us explore if one such thing exists, if yes what are its
features and how it can be seen in various facets of life.
Education
Education aims at self-mastery and not just knowledge. As Swami Vivekananda defines,
Education is the manifestation of divinity already present in man. It is not how many
texts one has mastered, it is how well one has internalized a single text that matters.
Traditionally children are taught at early stages to by heart. This is to train Chitta, the
memory. A well trained Chitta forms the basis for self-mastery, not just good education.
This does not mean that analytical faculties are not trained. But memory is trained ahead
of them so that it forms a basis for other faculties.
How does better memory help better analysis? Analysis in itself is a processing of facts to
derive inferences. Thus, considering more relevant facts results in a better analysis. And a
person with better trained memory can consider more facts for his analysis. Thus, training
memory ahead of training analytical faculties is beneficial. Explicitly training memory as
a part of primary education is very essential.
Another important aspect of education is imparting moral education. The seeds of
morality along with trained memory are going to stay with the student for life. Mythology
and stories of great personalities inspire children and help them mould their character in
their footsteps.
Indians are far ahead of others in Consciousness studies. How to master one’s own
mental faculties, senses and body, is a very important aspect in leading a successful life.
But if that training comes implicitly along with a good education, that is the best way it
can happen, since it is practically not possible to train one in consciousness studies at a
young age. To train those faculties while they are young and let them master those by the
time they grow up, is exactly what the traditional system aims at.
Economics
The first paragraph we find in any economics text would be something like this: "Man
has desires. To fulfill them he earns money. His desires multiply, so do his earnings, thus
grows economics." But the traditional Indian principle says: "Desire is like a burning fire.
The more clarified butter you pour into it to fulfill them, the greater they flame. Therefore
the way is not to fulfill them; the way is to transcend them".
It also says, "idam evahi pandityam, caturyam idam evahi, idam evahi subuddhitvam,
adaya alpataro vyayah" - meaning all wisdom lies in spending less than what one earns.
This is the basis for conservative economics. But one is never discouraged from earning.
In fact, earning is prescribed for many sections of society. But one is encouraged to spend
not more than what is required to live modestly and use the remaining for the benefit of
society. In such a society where everyone is ready to help each other, there is no scope or
fear of poverty.
This does not mean that such an arrangement encourages parasites. Such a system only
encourages people to work for the betterment of themselves as well as others. Ours is a
society that does not know what centralized social security is. Social security exists,
totally at a private level. The west is doing its best to privatize social security, as its fears
of bankruptcy due to social securities from Governments are going higher every year.
We know how volunteer organizations work - there are some people who work for the
cause and the funds they get to support those volunteers are from the society - private
contributions. That is, people work for society and society supports those individuals.
Thus, such arrangements do not inherently encourage unemployment the way publicized
social security systems do.
Science and Philosophy of Life
Does Science depend on our view of life? Is there a Hindu view of this? Let us proceed
by considering some instances to see whether Science is independent of our view of life
or otherwise.
1. Creation of zero: Discovery of zero is one of the most important happenings in the
history of Science or Human knowledge in general. Mathematics and many branches of
Science would not be in their present form without zero. It is not just a numeric zero we
speak of, but the numeric zero was the original idea which in later times inspired the
_expression of nothingness in areas like group theory. The importance of zero in modern
Science can never be exaggerated. Formalist and reductionist approaches which are
widely used by Science largely depend on zero conceptually.
Zero is nothingness, an airy nothing. Creation of zero necessarily shows an attempt to
conceptualise and concretise nothingness. But is an idea to concretise nothingness an
arbitrary idea or an indication of merely one's genius or scientific temper? Is expressing
nothingness a purpose in itself or is it a means to something else? Simplifying the
_expression of big numbers is a smaller purpose served by zero. Its actual purpose is seen
when infinity is expressed. Perhaps we cannot express infinity or generate infinity
without zero. It is not by generating big numbers and multiplying them that we arrive at
infinity, but it is rather dividing numbers, however small, by zero that we can arrive at
infinity.
This is not just interesting logic, but it is rather the quintessence of Indian Philosophy. It
says: "It is not by looking out, working to fulfill desires that one gets satisfaction but it is
by looking in and identifying oneself with the Self that one gets to the state of
immortality." Our Economic theory says: "Man's desire is like burning fire. The more
clarified butter you add to it (the more you fulfill your desires), the bigger the fire
burns(desires grow but never diminish). The way to satisfaction is not fulfillment of
desire but transcending desire." Our philosophy of life says: "It is not by enmity that we
can defeat enmity, but it is by love that we can defeat it." Similar was the idea that
violence cannot win violence, only non-violence can. It is evident from the past that India
lived this Philosophy by continuously creating, even creating in response to all the
destruction by the invaders. It is not possible to discover zero without such philosophical
background.
Therefore this idea is existent in all aspects of life, in different forms. It is not limited to
Mathematics. The Upanishads say: "Atman=Brahman", i.e., the individual self is the
same as the Universal Self. Therefore reaching to one is reaching to the other. This is the
origin of the idea of expressing infinity using nothingness.
The concept of Brahman, the zero and the infinite, pervades all forms of Indian
knowledge, Indian view of life and Indian worldview. This in context of Mathematics
became zero and infinity, in context of Medicine became Prana, in context of economics
became another corresponding rule and so on.
2. Medicine: Indian medicine speaks of 'Prana', another instance of the same concept of
Brahman. This resulted in a positive approach to medicine. The English medicine
proceeds by studying abnormalities in the body and fixing them. Ayurveda proceeds by
studying how a perfectly healthy body is and how differently it behaves under certain
conditions.
In fact the whole western Philosophy is so. It gives innumerable names to abnormalities
and concentrates on them. Here in India there was no concept of a Lunatic asylum, since
the case of mental imbalance was almost ruled out. The social organization was so
fashioned behind an ideal society that it went for balance rather than fixing imbalances.
According to English medicine the remedy (the medicine) enters the body and fights the
disease. According to Ayurveda the medicine revitalises Prana so that body itself fights
the disease. This is the fundamental difference. Both medicine and disease being
outsiders to the body, when two outsiders fight in the body a side-effect is natural. This is
the drawback of the English medicine. But ours is another instance of the Philosophy
stated above, that it is revitalization that cures the disease but not a battle with the
disease.
The principle of Homeopathy is that a disease characterised by a symptom complex can
be cured effectively by the drug (in extreme dilution), which produces in a healthy
individual a similar symptom complex (similia similibus curanter, meaning let likes cure
likes). It comes close to Ayurveda in its holistic approach, its conception of 'Prana' and its
very principle. The west could not accept homeo as a 'scientific' school of medicine,
because of its philosophical discomfort with such principle rather than because of a
'really scientific' reason.
3. That plants have a nervous system, that even they can breathe and smell and have
life, was unknown to the west a century ago, till J. C. Bose proved it. His idea was
initially criticised as radical and he was advised to change his views in certain respects
when he suggested that plants have life, in his paper. The western world took a shock
when J. C. Bose could prove in the Royal society by 'scientific' methods that plants have
life.
The importance of this apparently elementary fact can be understood, since without the
knowledge of this fact many branches of life sciences we see today would not be there in
their present form. How lifeless are life sciences without acknowledging life in plants?
The world kept using plants for millions of years and yet it took unpardonably long for
modern man to realise that they are living beings.
It can be easily known from our scriptures that our ancestors had the knowledge
millennia ago that plants have life. They had also the knowledge that plants can smell &
listen, absorb water through their roots, prepare their food themselves.
Is this just a theory of science or does it have any philosophical implication? It looks to
us like a matter of commonsense that if plants grow in age and size, take birth and wear
out they must be having life. But why could the western man not see life in them? Is the
problem in his science or his very approach to life?
It is certainly a matter of one's approach to life that determines these. The Indians see the
same divine in all qualitative manifestation. They see that every part of the Universe has
consciousness, whether it is rock or man. They possess therefore no prejudice that some
have additional greatness as compared to others. Hence it is not difficult for them to
believe that even plants have life. That they have verified this scientifically is a different
thing. But they did not have the sense of superiority which stands as an obstacle to seeing
many ground realities. They worship plants not as nature worshipping barbarians, but as
highly civilised people who can see divinity all over, in every part of the universe. It is
such approach that led their ecological sense, which is today a very big buzzword. In fact
the ecosense of Indians can be seen from the moment they wake up in the morning when
they ask mother Earth to forgive them for having touched her with their feet.
Unfortunately we cannot see as much of science in such practices as much we see a
religious superstition since we are trained to look at them the wrong way.
The western man, on the other hand, has always believed that man is superior to other
elements of nature. It is therefore difficult for him to 'grant' any greatness to any other
being. This sense of superiority is visible at different levels of collectivity. It is the same
sense of superiority that made him pollute nature and exterminate many species of
animals around him. It is the same attitude that shows out in their prejudice that
westerners are superior to other human races. It is this sense of superiority that led them
to destroy great civilizations all over the world. It is the same complex at a different level
of collectivity that resulted in two world wars.
It is not true that it was proved only a century ago that plants have life. But the way
Indians verified it was not only scientific, but also spiritual. Here comes the first hiccup
for the westerner, for he cannot see spiritualism as a scientific means to reality.
The examples considered above fall among the most significant discoveries, which
changed the course of modern science.
We have seen how the same root idea that inspires a scientific theory affects other aspects
of human life, socio-political, economic, philosophical and spiritual. It is visible from the
above examples that the Science discovered by a civilization reflects its worldview, its
approach to life and its value system, but is not unaffected by them or disjoint from them.
Consciousnss Studies
Hindus realized long back that all knowledge is ultimately subject to verification only by
human consciousness and faculties. Thus the study of observer (human consciousness)
forms an important part of both truth and its criteria. We see that scientists of late have
arrived at this. A famous Physicist said "All science is nature's answer to man's question
about what nature is, it is not what nature actually is". Entire theory of relativity is about
acknowleding the observer and truth's relativity with reference to observer.
Spirituality
Spirituality is not just a matter of meditation practises/yoga, though they are means to the
same. Spirituality is an outlook to life that recognises a principle of transcendence in
every aspect of life. The above, i.e., Economics, Science, Education, are few examples of
how recognizing the principle of transcendence affects and redirects the entire philosophy
and pursuit.
While science, religion, economics, education, all these have a place in th Hindu system,
all these are put in the right perspective. As a result, we donot see any of these
overwhelming the others. That is, technology has its due place, but it doesnot supercede
any other aspect of life, say religion. Such a balanced view is unique to Hinduism. If we
look at the west, they suffered from fanatic religions and grew over those with rational
thinking. But as a result the void created by the absence of a true spiritual culture is still
not filled in. And that is why we see that Eastern spiritual cultures are now being received
there. Also, the discoveries in sciences in the past century have marked a new era,
recognising the continuity of truth and also the limitations of the human observer who
perceives these only in discrete quanta. Those like Erwin Schrodinger who made these
discoveries, have observed that these discoveries come very close to the Vedantic view of
life. We also see that be it the olden times or present, the most significant discoveries that
changed the course of the history of mankind, directly or indirectly, knowingly or
unknowingly, acknowledge this principle of transcendence.
Conclusion
Thus what marks the Hindu approach is the recognition of the Principle of
Transcendence.
4.2 Worship – Murti Puja
Murti Puja (idol worship) is one of the core concepts of Hinduism. This unique concept
of Hinduism is misunderstood both within and outside Hinduism.
Murti - Devata
An idol is a symbol, representing a God-form. When a person worships an idol, he is
worshipping the deity in the idol. Murti usually is a concrete shape, having features
attributed to the deity. These are usually the physical attributes of the deity as described
by the theology for the deity. The idol has as many hands/legs/heads as spoken of in
theology. Features like wearing snakes/garlands/having moon as adornment, the weapons
they hold, are also reflected in the idol.
But devata as such does not have a specific form or quality; these are not the physical
attributes of devata. Devata being pure consciousness, these are the attributes that reflect
the nature of that consciousness. For instance, when we speak of lord Siva, He is
featureless. He is the eternal. But He is said to have two wives, wearing a snake, traveling
on an ox, having matted and dusted hair. What are these features of the featureless? What
are the wives of the One without the second? All these features, if seen properly, reflect
only His featurelessness. His hair is the infinite space, vyoma (vyomakesa). The snake he
wears is the awakened consciousness. He is the eternal and is associated with two
attributes – energy and consciousness. These are His two wives (Sakti and Ganga). The
universe is said to be the play of primal rhythmic energy and Her union with the eternal is
said to be the dissolution or liberation as the context may be. The vehicle of this union is
Nandi, the ox. This is the upward movement or ascent man. He is digambara, the one
with directions as his clothes – this in the trivial sense is nudity, but in profound sense
only indicates His infiniteness. Thus, none of these are qualities in the sense a person has
qualities, but are the attributes that describe the featureless the best.
Experience - Darsana
“Seeing” is a metaphorical expression of experiencing. By saying one “sees” devata, we
are saying that the person elevated to the state of experiencing god-consciousness.
Then, what does one mean when he “sees” God in this form? What does he mean when
he says he saw Rudra or Durga? Does it mean he really saw the devata in human form?
How is this possible? The answer has two parts:
Yes devata does descend into a form for the sake of the devotee. When worshipped with
sincerity, in any particular form, one sees divinity in the particular form as one may
desire. As such, divinity is pure consciousness and it does not have a form. Just like
water. But one can collect it in the vessel he wants. This vessel is of two kinds – the
human vessel and the god-vessel. As long as person exists, he has to experience the
impersonal in either of these ways. The impersonal exists eternally, but experiencing
comes only when we talk of a seeker. And so long as the seeker is there, there is a vessel
needed. The vessel is called upadhi.
1. Just invoke pure consciousness and experience the formless. You are the vessel
here. This is like collecting water in a vessel.
2. Invoke it in the form you want. This is like freezing water into an ice-block of
your desired shape. You can behold water; see it, and its form. The ice-block is
the devata. The reason this kind of practice can be institutionalized is that this is
not specific to any human vessel – this is impersonal and a “concrete form” of the
impersonal that is created for the well-being of entire mankind.
There is no difference in the level of divinity one sees or in the nature of divinity one
sees. The only difference is in the way one seeks to attain divinity. These are different
approaches that need to be practiced based on the approach of the devotee. There are
definite advantages in both. But the former is a secret practice that is possible only in few
cases while the latter is possible at a more popular level. The reasons are:
1. Ego always comes in while saying I am the pure consciousness or its vessel. This
is not the case when we try to invoke it as if we are not the same. But it should be
understood that though one tries to invoke divinity instead of feeling oneness with
it, he can only behold it only when he attains that oneness. Seeing is becoming.
2. Mind has the limitation of working even while it thinks it does not work.
Concentrating on the formless is not possible unless one transcends the very state
of concentration. So it is tough to get to the real state of experiencing the formless
unless guided very carefully.
3. Treating the formless as having forms and quality-less in terms of qualities allows
one to soon discover the nature of those qualities. This way thinking of God and
worshipping can be made understandable and practicable for everyone.
4. The state of having a form always by one’s side, is a great psychological
advantage. One can easily start feeling “yes there is this (impersonal) person who
is more interested in my welfare than me, who is capable of everything that I am
not, who has infinite patience, power, mercy, and love for me and everyone else”.
One slowly decreases bothering about himself because he is already taken care of
and starts caring more about the “person” than himself. This is how one slowly
identifies with the impersonal and impersonalizes himself.
5. In fact, if seen properly, what is he better way to say “I am that” (aham
brahmasmi) and “That is me”, than treating devata as having a form, life and
qualities like human? Treating god like oneself is nothing but feeling oneness
with God. By admiring the qualities attributed to devata, one only grows over his
own limitations of human qualities and invokes those qualities he worships the
devata as having, in himself.
What we call as seeing, is not seeing a physical form with biological eyes. The one, who
sees, certainly sees a form but not a physical form that every one can see. It is visible to
him alone as a taijasika rupa. The form talks to him and reveals to him many secrets of
the path he is following, and showers on him many other boons. But this is only another
way of saying that the devotee acquired all those through his sadhana. So, by disowning
the capability as an individual and attributing it to the One, one can easily grow over ego.
This is precisely the reason why duality of individual-God (dwaita of jivatmaparamatma) is so successful (ex. Bhakti marga).
But devata as such cannot be limited to an idol. Then what are we doing by worshipping
an idol as devata? We are only invoking the formless infinite in the small idol as small as
our thumb. It does get invoked there – wherever we want and in whichever thing we
want. We need not bother whether we can compress the infinite into the idol – we cannot
and we don’t have to. But of the size of the thumb is the Man that is ruling us from within
(Purusha). This is the reason why idol is usually prescribed to be of that size (for personal
worship). However, the consciousness/energy that one beholds through the worship is
only of the order that his own consciousness permits, and not of the size of the idol. One
only identifies the idol with the Purusha within – he actually experiences it.
Theory of Puja
Puja or worship is a token of affection towards divinity. It is the ritualistic expression of
devotion. The divine is the closest and the most private relative of man, and puja is a way
to express one’s gratitude to God, because all that he is is because of God. God causes
our existence, and our evolution. It is not an expectation of God that we express anything
to Him, for it does not matter to Him. But it is a necessity of man to realize his own
insignificance in the cosmic game, as that is the way he can grow over all his miseries
into infinite bliss.
Just the way a parent nurtures the child irrespective of whether the child says “thanks” or
kisses the parent; God still takes care of our evolution. But just the way a child spending
good amount of time in the parent’s lap every day never starves for anything, the devotee
who sits in the lap of the divine consciousness never starves for anything. The parent is
already there to take care of us, so there is no need to starve for anything as such. But all
the difference is between knowing that the parent is there. The child who thinks he is not
getting something he wants, and a child who thinks he gets everything from the parent,
do not differ in their success – the parent causes their success in either case. They differ
however, only in the quality of their happiness, their confidence, their craving for desires.
One, who rests his desires on God alone, has nothing to desire – because he knows he
already has everything.
Yes it is true that one can worship god desiring something – but when it is like the kid
appeasing the mother with kisses wanting something, it is equally blissful. But one does
not experience the bliss in that love – his attention is in the thing he is asking for and not
the beauty of mother’s love. It is still there however. And evolution in life is to slowly
move one’s attention from the object of desire to the experience of love. Then one
automatically realizes the insignificance of desire. He realizes that the happiness in the
object of desire is infinitesimal before the happiness in mother’s love. And he then seeks
to sit in the mother’s lap and does not seek anything else. This is what happens when one
keeps worshipping – sakama becomes nishkama over time. One does not have to
suppress desires, but one has to worship with sincerity even though seeking something.
This guarantees his evolution.
Textual References
Brahmana portion of the Veda (Aranyaka also to some extent) contains mantras for
worshipping. There are many ways to worship, like arcana, homa, japa. The mantras that
praise the devata are found mostly in the Samhita portion of the Veda. The mantras used
in the sequence of various steps in the worship come from Brahmana. The procedures for
various kinds of worship are found in the Kalpa Sutras (esp. Srauta Sutras). For different
purposes, mantras are put into different sequences, and used in different combinations
with different procedures. Each of these is called a samputikarana.
The Procedure
The major steps in worshipping are meditating on the devata, then invoking devata and
praying. In case of arcana, devata is invoked in an idol. In case of homa, Agni is invoked
and is asked to carry oblations to all the devatas. In case of japa/yoga devata is invoked in
the body of devotee himself. This is called dharana in yoga and nyasa in japa/upasana
terminology. These categories are not mutually exclusive – nyasa can be done during
arcana and so on. There are differences in the way it is done, but in all the cases the
sadhaka invokes devata in him, directly or indirectly.
There are a few common steps for all modes of worship. They are:
Sankalpa
Sankalpa is the first step in worship. Before beginning worship the devotee mentions the
place, date and time and declares that he is beginning worship. The devata being
worshipped, the mode of worship and purpose of worship are also mentioned. After
avahana, the mantra used for worship, its rishi and chandas are also mentioned before
nyasa is done.
Tarpana
The devata is “satisfied” before worship. Tarpana comes from trupti and tarpana means
satisfying. It is outwardly symbolized by leaving water, but the devata is satisfied by
offering rahasya tarpana through yogic practice.
There are different means of giving a tarpana, for different purposes. In case of devatas it
is through water or milk or any other sweet fluid. In case of pitris it is water with black
sesame (tila+udaka).
Puja
The devata is then invoked, worshipped in any of the ways. One is said to attain to
Samadhi and become one with the devata in that state, during worship.
Phala
The result/merit of worship performed is offered after worship. It is offered according to
the result sought during sankalpa. It could be loka kalyana or any specific desire or
simply left to the devata.
Here is a brief of methods of worship.
Arcana
Arcana involves 16 upacaras to the devata, dhyana, avahana… and visarjana. These are
preceeded by vigraha sodhana and prana pratistha. Vigraha sodhana is finding and
purifying the idol to make it fit for worship. Then the idol is charged with god-ness. This
is called prana pratistha.
During prana pratistha, the idol is said to be given life, eyes and other organs. Without
this, devata cannot be invoked in the idol. Through this, we are invoking the cosmic
consciousness that enables all our vision, into the idol. In other words, we are charging
the idol with the devata-ness. This is the step before inviting the devata (avahana). As the
idol is given life and senses, we meditate on the form of devata we are invoking (dhyana).
Then we invoke the devata in that form (avahana). Then the devata is worshipped in
many ways, and is offered all that a human is offered.
It should be understood that prana pratistha is different from avahana. Prana pratistha is
done to the idol while avahana is done by and for the devotee. Prana pratistha is charging
the idol with god-ness while avahana is invoking the god-ness. Prana pratistha charges
the idol with the devata, but it does not invoke it.
There are cases where devata resides imminently in certain idols (like salagramas or
swayambhuva lingas) and they do not need prana pratistha. However, avahana is needed
in all cases including these, since invoking the devata in the idol is to be done every time
the devotee is seeking to worship devata in that idol.
Having said this, when one worships with sincerity and attains divinity steps like prana
pratistha and avahana happen by themselves even when they are not done explicitly. That
does not undermine the significance of these steps but only stresses the importance of
devotion.
Devata is offered all that a man is offered. The “upacaras” or services or treatment that
are done to a human guest, like inviting, giving water and other drinks, clothes, food,
entertainment that he likes are all done to the devata.
After that, the devata is “worshipped”. This involves chanting mantra or stotra, and
making offerings to the devata. This could be flowers or kunkum or abhisheka. Each
devata is worshipped in a specific way. For instance Devi is worshipped with pushpa,
kunkuma and haridra (turmeric). She is said to love to be praised (stotra priya). Vishnu is
offered flowers, garlands, scents, He is said to like adornments (alankara priya). Siva is
said to like abhisheka (continuously pouring water/milk/sweet liquids/rice/bhasma etc
over the Siva linga) (abhisheka priya).
Devatas are said to like to be called with different names (ex. Lalita Devi is praised as
nama parayana preeta). By taking the different names of a devata, one realizes the
multifaceted and infinite nature of the devata.
The upacaras are done again after this and the worship then concludes.
Japa
Japa is chanting of mantra. The procedure for japa involves sankalpa, nyasa, dhyana and
mantra japa.
Homa
Homa is worshipping through fire (agni karya). In Homa, Agni is invoked. Agni is said to
be the face of all devatas (deva mukha). All the oblations (havis) are offered to Him.
After offering oblations to Agni, oblations to all other devatas are offered through Agni –
Agni is said to carry those to devatas. Havis is said to be the food of devatas by obtaining
which they cause man’s well-being.
Agni being the carrier of oblations, his consort symbolizes offering. Agni is said to have
two wives, Svaha and Swadha. Svaha is the word to be said while oblations are poured
into fire. Svaha is offering to devatas and Swadha is the offering to pitris or departed
fathers.
For a homa, an altar is built. Then fire is invoked in that. Then the articles are purified
and fire is worshipped. Then other devatas are worshipped.
Nityakarma
One is supposed to perform eight rituals everyday, they are called nityakarmas. These are
eight ways of worship. The list varies for varnas and each varna has the nitya karmaastaka prescribed separately. Broadly they are taking bath, various forms of worship,
serving occupation and treating guests. For a srotriya, they are snana, sandhyavandana,
japa, homa, devatarcana, vaisadeva, atithya and veda patha.
4.3 Devata
Devata or deity is a multifaceted concept in Sanatana Dharma. There are very many
different aspects of devata. Apart from object of worship, devata is a symbol representing
different things in different forms of knowledge.
Commonly we see that devatas are described as having consorts, weapons and vehicles.
And they have number of heads, hands and feet. They are also associated with different
sets of numbers. All these have different meanings in different senses, when we talk of
different aspects of the devata. Some of the symbols become more important or less
important based on the aspect we are talking of.
Then there are different likes and dislikes for each devata. Not having a form and
qualities in the human sense, likes and dislikes do not apply to devata the way they apply
to humans. They represent methods that make the devata easily reachable or in other
words, they are the means to realize the devata.
Broadly, the different aspects of devata are:
Belonging to a level of consciousness - transcendental: Devata represents a faculty of
higher consciousness. Consorts represent the associate consciousness powers of devata
that are inseparable from devata. Weapons and vehicles represent powers, instruments
and methods that enables one to reach the devata. Kapali epithet of Siva (Kapalini of
Sakti too) is a good example of this, which means that He wears kapalas or in other
words resides in the kapalas of the devotees.
Different forms of devata are said to reside in or rule different worlds. Though devatas
pervade all the worlds, we usually apply the word devata in the seven urdhva lokas,
especially from swarga loka and above.
What is symbolically narrated in general by allegories of gods killing demons is the story
of transcendence. There are demons and gods. Demons do evil acts, hurt noble people;
gods slay them and protect the noble. In Sanatana dharma, there is nothing that is noble
or evil. Everything, good or bad, is seen as a part of evolution of man. Only evil is
ignorance of man or nascience that will be transcended by gnosis. Devata killing an
Asura, is also a psychological suggestion. It symbolises the growth of man over his inner
enemies such as hatred and lust that emanate from ignorance, and his march towards
truth. Gods are the nobler facets of human nature that are manifestations of knowledge
and realisation. They help man elevate himself to higher states of consciousness by
slaying demons. Man himself, by his will power, reaches to those states is another
version of the same statement. Arjuna fighting gods and later knowing that gods were
testing him, then taking astras from them, pleading Lord Shiva to get the Pashupata,
Bhima defeating the Airawata of Indra are accounts of their divine romance and their
quest for truth. Their consequent physical victory is an account of how dharma was
established. These stories narrate a moral action followed and inspired by a spiritual
realisation. In fact the great Mahabharata war followed a great discource on cosmic
mechanism and its spiritual principle, Bhagavad Gita.
Part of Virat Purusha, a cosmic conception: Devata is infinite and universal. Devata is
depicted as a part of the Unviersal Being or Virat Purusha. Also, in the worship of each
devata the devata is equated to the Virat Purusha Himself. It is said that the word "deva"
applies up to Paramatma, that is each devata is not only a part of but also represents the
whole of the Eternal. This is to say, the absolute/eternal could be realized through
worship of any devata.
Devata is both universal and personal. Devata is said to grow when man worships. This is
the personal aspect. The growth of devata in man is the development and fulfillment of
man's being, material, emotional, intellectual and spiritual.
Sri Krishna says "devan bhavayatanena te deva bhavayantu vah
parasparam bhavayantah sreyah param avapsyatha [Bg. 3.11]". Gods grow when men
worship and please them. They in turn bring about man's wellbeing. Thus they mutually
help each other.
Representative of a power of nature: The sound-form of each devata's energy is
represented by Mantra. Mantras are of many types like stri and purusha mantras. They
have waking and sleeping times. Each mantra devata represents a "nadi" and the active
and inactive times of those are represented by this.
There are also different ragas in Sangita, which are said to please different devatas (Ex.
Sivaranjani, Shanmukha priya).
Yogic: Devata is a yogic symbol too. The various weapons and associate symbols of
devata represent methods, clues and instruments to awaken higher levels of
consciousness hidden in man. The heads, hands, legs of devata that are in different
numbers, are also such suggestions. Vajrayudha of Indra, Bowl and Gada in the hands of
Gayatri, the great Serpant that Vishnu sleeps on and Siva wears as adornment, Garuda
and Mayura the vehicles of Vishnu and Kumaraswamy that are enemies of snakes,
Vrshabha the vehicle of Union of Siva and Sakti, Kumaraswamy having Six heads, are all
examples. They are all clues to yoga, that the sushumna marga in the spine could be used
to awaken the hidden consciousness and union with the divine.
Astronomical: Alternately, Devata is an astronomical suggestion. Each devata represents
a star, or a constellation.
The consorts, vehicles, symbols on flag, can also be seen in this light. The star closest to
another star is depicted as an adornment or consort. A star while rising is followed by
another, the latter is said to be the vehicle. While setting the direction changes and the
latter gets ahead of the former - in this case the latter becomes symbol on the formers
flagstaff. For instance, Mithuna (Gemini) is Parvati-Parameswara Mithuna. When Gemini
rises after sunset, Vrshabha (Taurus) rises just ahead of it. Then Parvati-Parameswara
become Vrshabha Dhvaja, with Taurus as the symbol on their flag. Before sunrise when
Gemini sets, the positions are reversed and it appears above Taurus. Then Siva-Parvati
are Vrshabha vaahana, Taurus becomes their vehicle. Durga as Simha vahana (Virgo over
Leo), Kumara Swamy as Mayura vahana, Ganesha as Mushika Vahana, Manmatha as
Makara Dhwaja are examples.
A devata killing an asura is an astronomical symbolism too. If a character A is said to kill
a character B, it means that the star symbolised by B sets at the time at which the star
symbolised by A rises. If it is an indirect killing then it means that these stars are not
diametrically opposite but there is a small time difference between the rise of A and set of
B. In general, enmity is to be seen as diametrically oppositeness. At the time of the set of
B, the star nearest to A is said to have helped A in killing B. Indra killing Vritra, Rama
killing Ravana, Arjuna hitting Bhishma with the help of Sikhandi, enmity between
Garuda and Sarpa, are examples.
4.4 Mantra
Beeja:
Beeja is a sound-seed that represents energy. Beejas are found in the pre-Vedic times too.
In Vedic Period we see the Beejas encapsulated into mantras. Each god-form is identified
with a particular energy form, represented by a beeja.
Mantra:
Mantra is a central concept of Hinduism. Mantra is defined as “Mananaat trayate iti
mantram”, meaning the word that protects when recalled repeatedly.
Each mantra has a rishi, chandas and devata. Rishi is the seer that revealed the mantra.
Chandas is the meter of the mantra. Devata is the diety being prayed to in the mantra.
Mantra is said to be the sound-form of a god-form. Each god has a mula-mantra
consisting of or equivalent to the energy generated by the beejas of that god-form.
The entire universe is the play of Primal Rhythmic Energy and in its essential form
matter is also energy. Vibrations comprise the universe. Vibrations produce sound and
the kind of energy generated and its effects depend on the nature of vibrations.
By the repeated chant of a mantra the energy represented by it can be invoked and
directed towards specific purposes. For this reason scriptures prescribe that the eligibility
of a person should be adjudged before inducting (upadesa) into such practice
(Anusthana). It should be learnt from a preceptor (guru) and practiced the way it is
taught, for improper practice can be harmful to the individual as well as surroundings.
Japa:
The repeated chanting of a mantra is called japa. There are three modes in which japa is
done:
1. Chanting the mantra loudly in a rhythm
2. Not chanting aloud but it in a low voice or simply recalling the mantra with lip
movement. This is called Upamsu japa.
3. Recalling the mantra within, without making any voice, lip movement or
movement of tongue. This is called Antarjapa. This is the state best
recommended.
Mantra-Anusthana:
Mantra-Anusthana is an encapsulation of mantra japa into the astanga yoga. The steps
like yama, niyama, pratyahara are general rules. A few of them are: Each devata is said
to have specific timings in the day when the devata wakes/sleeps. Japa is prescribed in
the time the mantra adhidevata (deity of the mantra) wakes. One should do japa facing
different directions when seeking different results. Asana is the posture in which japa is
done. Pranayama is the breath regulation done before japa. Dharana is done through
karanyasa and anganyasa, this is invoking devata in the body. Dhyana sloka is chanted
after that, this is concentrating on the form of devata. Then japa is started. One is said to
get to Samadhi state with japa.
Mantra Siddhi:
The state where the energy represented by a god-form can be invoked is called mantra
siddhi. Every devata is said to be mantra-baddha, that is, the devata is obliged to fulfill
the purpose why the devata is invoked.
Sukta
Sukta (hymn) is a collection of mantras on a specific diety (god-form).
Samputikarana
A samputikarana is a sequence of mantras used for specific purposes combined with
specific procedures.
4.5 Yajna
Yajna is the central concept of Vedic religion. Yajna means sacrifice. It involves making
an offering for a specific purpose.
The Theory of Yajna
Agni (the God of Fire) is called the face of all Gods and is the central deity for Yajna.
Oblations are offered in the fire and Agni is said to carry those (havis) to the Gods. Havis
is the food for Gods. Gods grow on havis and bring the well-being of men (through rains
and so on). Thus Gods grow on man’s offerings and man’s elevation is brought by the
Gods.
“devan bhavayatanena
te deva bhavayantu vah
parasparam bhavayantah
sreyah param avapsyatha
[Bg. 3.11] ”
All life is said to be a yajna. Every action, when made as an offering to the God, is a
yajna. Worshipping, eating food, fighting war, creating wealth, contributing to human
knowledge, running family, each of these is a yajna. Doing these as offerings to derive
something greater, makes these actions yajnas. When these actions are not done for
material gain but with a selfless motive, that is the highest form of yajna. Sacrifice brings
transcendence. Transcendence through sacrifice is the meaning of life in the Vedic
religion.
There are two directions of movement in life, pravritti and nivritti. Pravritti is
accumulating and indulging. Nivritti is clearing debts and transcending. In pravritti,
Yajna brings material possessions, righteousness and heavenly bliss. This helps man
fulfill his aspirations as well as contribute to social living. Man gradually grows over
desires and becomes more impersonal. This is how he enters nivritti phase. During
nivritti, yajna is done without any desire, merely as a duty. This helps in clearing past
karma, but this greatly helps the well-being of surroundings (loka kalyana). This is the
way realized soul performs yajna. In nivritti, yajna brings eternal bliss. Brahmandavalli
of the Taittireeya Upanishad (chapter 8) expounds the gradation of happiness experienced
by men, manes, gods, lord of gods, teacher of the gods, creator of gods and the creator of
the universe in the ascending order, increasing hundred fold for each level. At each level,
the bliss is equated to that of a veda-wise person (srotriya) who overcame his desire
(kama hatasya). In pravritti one experiences the bliss of gods. In nivritti one grows over
desires and experiences the bliss of Brahman. In nivritti, yajna brings liberation.
Texts
Purva Mimamsa deals extensively with the philosophy of yajna. This is also called
Karma Mimamsa. Jaimini gave the Purva Mimamsa darsana with 12 chapters. It is
primarily an inquiry into the Brahmana portion of the Veda. It deals with various
sacrifices, their purposes and methods.
It has a four chapter supplement called sankarsha kanda, by Jaimini. It is also called
Madhyama Mimamsa, Madhyama Kanda, Devata Kanda and Upasana Kanda. It deals
with purpose of mantras, the nature and essence of devatas, purpose of worshipping
devatas.
Yajna in Daily life – The Panca MahaYajnas
A Grhastha is supposed to do five yajnas every day. These are called panca mahayajnas.
These are offerings to Gods, Rishis, Pitris (departed fathers), creatures and men. They are
called deva yajna, rishi yajna, pitru yajna, bhuta yajna and manushya yajna respectively.
Apastamba Dharma Sutras mention these (1.13).
Man has four debts, to gods, pitris, rishis and fellow-men. These are called deva runa,
rishi runa, pitru runa and manushya runa. By doing the above yajnas, man repays those
debts and fulfills his purposes in life.
By praying to gods and offering oblations to them, and through sacrifices one clears his
debts to gods. This is called deva yajna.
By gaining Vedic knowledge, by teaching, sharing and passing it on to subsequent
generations one clears his debts towards the seers. This is called rishi yajna.
By offering oblations to pitris, and by continuing the race by begetting progeny, raising
them properly, by getting good name for the lineage, one clears his debts towards the
pitris. This is called pitru yajna.
By showing compassion towards fellow men, by treating the guests well, by helping
those in need, by excusing those by which one has been wronged, by doing actions that
are beneficial to men, one clears his debts towards his fellow men. This is called
manushya yajna.
Bhuta yajna is showing compassion towards living beings in general. This includes
abstaining from inflicting violence and killing, living as a part of nature without harming
it.
4.6 Consciousness Studies
What makes the Hindu knowledge system unique is the study of consciousness. We have
the most comprehensive science of consciousness. After realizing that phenomenal world
is relativistic, the next stage is realizing that the truth in phenomenal world is determined
by state of consciousness of the observer. There begins the study of consciousness. Thus
the study of consciousness is an advanced stage in man’s pursuit of Truth.
Hindu science of consciousness deals with consciousness at all the levels, human, suprahuman and sub-human. It expounds the various levels of consciousness, states of
consciousness, the nature of consciousness at each level, the nature of Truth at each level
of consciousness and methods to attain those levels.
Terminology:
Lokas (planes of consciousness)
The various planes of consciousness are called lokas or worlds. There are fourteen
worlds, seven adho lokas (lower) and seven urdhva lokas (higher). Earth (physical
consciousness) is at the bottom of urdhva lokas. The worlds below it are subconscious.
The seven urdhva lokas are bhuh, bhuvah, suvah, mahah, janah, tapah and satyam. These
can be grouped into three, human-the interconnect-superhuman. Bhuh-bhuvah-suvah is
the matter-life-mind triplet. Bhuh is earth or physical consciousness. Bhuvah is vital
consciousness. Suvah is the world of mind. Mahah is the world of pure idea, thus it is
also called vijnana loka. This is the plane where man begins transcending from personal
to impersonal consciousness. The principle of manifestation can be understood through
mahat, a higher function of intellect. Janah is the world of bliss, ananda. Tapah is the
world of penance, chit. Satya loka is the world of Truth. The three higher worlds are satchit-ananda, the famous triplet of Truth-Permanence-Beauty or Existence-ConsciousnessBliss.
We find the mention of three worlds in the samhita, Bhuh, Bhuvah and Suvah (RV
Samhita 1.34.8). Indra is the lord of the swar/suvah world. But we find the explicit
mention of the seven worlds in Taittireeya Aranyaka (10.35.1).
Kosas (sheaths of consciousness)
In parallel, a man is said to live in five sheaths of consciousness. These also called the
panca kosas. The outermost is Annamaya Purusha, the physical man living in Annamaya
kosa. Within it, sustaining it and sustained by it is Pranamaya Purusha, the vital man.
Within it is Manomaya Purusha, the mental man or man living as a pure mind-being.
Within it is Vijnanamaya Purusha, the man living in the world of pure idea. Within it is
Anandamaya Purusha, the blissful-being. Within these five sheaths or kosas is said to live
the eternal being, the Primal Purusha. By training himself to looking inwards and
transcending the outer sheaths of consciousness one can realize the eternal being.
Bhrigu valli of the Taittireeya Upanishad expounds the five kosas. Bhrigu seeks the
knowledge of Brahman from his teacher and father Varuna. Varuna asks Bhrigu to know
the Brahman through penance. Bhrigu knows Anna to be Brahman and comes back. He is
again sent to know Brahman through penance. Bhrigu goes repeatedly to know Brahman
through penance and he successively discovers anna, prana, manas, vijnana and ananda to
be Brahman respectively. That is, he discovers all these sheaths. Finally he realizes that
ananda (Bliss) is Brahman. In this sheath (anandamaya kosa) lies the sat-chit-ananda
(Brahman).
Lalita Sahasranama of the Brahmanda Purana praises the Godess as “panca kosantara
sthita”, the one who resides within the five kosas. The sahasranama is also called Yoga
sahasra, the compendium of entire yoga and the study of consciousness.
Avasthas (states of consciousness)
The Mandukya Upanishad in Atharva Veda expounds the states or avasthas of
consciousness. There are four states in which man perceives the world, jagrut (waking),
swapna (dream), sushupti (dreamless sleep) and turiya (the fourth state).
In the waking state, the being called Vaisvanara, is outwardly cognitive and perceives
gross objects. In the dream state, the being called Taijasa, is inwardly cognitive and
perceives subtle objects. In dreamless sleep, the being called Prajna, is blissful, opening
up to Soul-consciousness. The being in this state is and perceives the causal world.
Turiya, is neither inwardly nor outwardly cognitive nor non-cognitive. It pervades all
states of consciousness and not any one of them. It is neither a combination of those nor
void of those. All the other states and all phenomena dissolve in it. It is Brahman, the
Absolute.
Lalita sahasranama praises the Godess as “supta prajnaatmika turya sarvavastha
vivarjita”, the one that is all the three states and the one beyond the states.
Faculties of Mind
There are four faculties of mind - mind-proper (Manas), intellect (Buddhi), ego
(Ahankara) and memory (Chitta). Manas is the base of all mental cognition. All
emotions, thoughts and impressions originate and manifest here. Buddhi is intellect.
Discrimination, discerning and judgement are the functions of Buddhi. Ahankara is the
sense of “I” or ego, which is the source of all action at mind-life-matter. Chitta is the
impression of past experiences or memory.
Faculties of Soul-Consciousness
There are four faculties of Truth-Consciousness (Atma Chaitanya) too – intuition,
inspiration, discrimination and revelation. Inspiration is the source, intuition is the means,
discrimination is the judge and revelation is the destination in the seeking of Truth. The
Veda treats these faculties as god-forms. Sarama is intuition, Saraswati is inspiration,
Dakshina is discrimination and Ila is revelation. The Veda contains allegories to suggest
these, like Sarama searching and finding the herds of revelation/dawn (Rigveda samhita
5.45.7).
Levels of concentration
There are five levels of concentration, dispersed, restless, concentrated, stopping of
mental activity and the experience of absolute. These are called Kshipta, Mudha,
Vikshipta, Ekagra and Niruddha respectively.
An untrained mind is dispersed, with no specific object of thinking. It becomes restless
when it is being trained to think on a specific object. Slowly it begins to concentrate on
an object. This is the state of concentration. Beyond this when trained to concentrate on
the formless, and sometimes also due to purification of mind in concentrated state, one
will be able to stop mental activity and open up to soul-consciousness. This state is called
chittavritti nirodha. In this state however outward objects exist, while the being is fully
trained in inward-looking. This is the Praajna state described by the Mandukya
Upanishad.
Beyond this state one can experience the absolute or Brahman. All the other states and
phenomena are dissolved in this state and one experiences the one without the second.
This state is called Nirvikalpa or Turiya-avastha.
Consciousness qualities
There are three qualities or gunas, Satwa, Rajas and Tamas. Tamas is darkness, inertia.
Rajas is inspiration, the force of action, creation. Satwa is knowledge, nobility,
sustenance. The phenomenal world is said to be the play of these three qualities. The
fourth, the one beyond the three qualities is called Trigunaateeta or the absolute.
Lalita sahasranama praises Godess as “trigunatmika” as well as “nistraigunya”, the one
having the three qualities and also the one beyond qualities.
4.7 Hindu View of Patriotism
It is a uniqueness of Hindus to treat land as mother and a goddess. Right from Vedic
days, Hindus have always treated this land as the Bharata varsha.
Earth is the mother of all the living beings. Our elders describe that earth is the mother of
all, and that we are all her infant children that feed on her breast – all vegetation is the
milk that she feeds us. The Veda (Bhu sukta) praises earth as a goddess. Puranas describe
the goddess earth (Bhudevi) as the consort of Lord Vishnu.
Earth is one of the five primordial elements (panca maha bhutas). It is the element with
all the attributes sabda, rasa, rupa, gandha and sparsa. Evolution is described to be
beginning from akasa from which vayu comes and so on, and earth is the final stage in
that manifestation. Thus, earth is the fullest manifestation of maya in creation and it
contains all the other elements.
If seen as a loka or plane of consciousness, earth is the physical plane. It is the base of
life. It is at the bottom of the urdhva lokas and is the basis from which all the higher
planes can be achieved. For man to get to highest planes of consciousness, physical plane
is the “earth”.
In our daily life, treating earth as mother begins when we wake up. Hindus wake up
remembering her as “samudra vasane devi parvata stana mandale” and apologise for
touching her with feet by saying “pada sparsa kshamasvame”. Such outlook implies and
inspires respect for nature and surroundings. And people with such outlook live like
undifferentiated parts of creation and not as those who have come to conquer/rule it. It is
because such outlook is wanting today, that we see many problems in society like
ecological imbalance and man trying to exploit other men. Having this outlook and trying
to live it everyday, is the solution to these problems.
It is not just land, but state/society is also praised as mother-goddess by the Veda. The
mother says “aham rastrii” in the third mantra of Vaagaambhrini sukta (mandala 10,
sukta 25 of Rigveda). She further says she causes wellbeing and prosperity of the
peoples, all actions of men and gods are inspired by her, and she is the purpose of those
actions.
Hindus have the concept of state and society right from remote past. The concept of
nation is not prevalent in the world a few centuries ago, except in Bharat. But the sense
was not political/ military in nature – it was cultural and spiritual.
Actions of every individual affect the society and every change in the society affects
individuals. The actions that are inspired by this awareness are beneficial to individuals
as well as the society. If that awareness is lacking, then individual interests alone inspire
people’s actions and individuals’ vision becomes narrow. Then, though their actions are
apparently beneficial in the short run, on a long run and at a society level their
consequences can be harmful. The actions of people treating society as a goddess do not
suffer from such shortcomings.
Treating that society has life like a person, that the collective intellectual life of its
individuals is the intellect of the society, that their collective actions and their fruits as
those of the society, is an advanced stage in the universalization of an individual’s
consciousness. Like an individual’s a society also has a lifecycle. National consciousness
includes and supersedes consciousness of individual, family, community and region. A
person, who can achieve it, is as good as having universal consciousness. Growing over it
is the last stage in universalization. Simply ignoring the boundaries of a nation is not
universalizing. Nor is respecting those boundaries and having patriotism narrowmindedness. Universalizing means that the person treats identifies himself as the nation
and vice-versa. One who identifies himself as his family does all his actions for and
inspired by the family and not him as an individual. He is the family and family is he.
There is no other identity for him. As he universalizes further, he lives as and works for
his community or region. At higher stages he becomes his nation himself. Growing
further and identifying himself with the universe, is the final stage in the path. There he
achieves complete universal consciousness.
If this is interpreted in the terminology of sadhana, an individual treats the society as a
goddess, worships Her, and becomes one with Her. In the terminology of karma yoga, the
individual gets salvation in the described way above.
5. Individual and Social Life
5.1 Dharma
Dharma is a wide concept which can be roughly translated as righteousness, inclusive of
inclination and initiative towards righteous action.
Hindu Dharma, has at its basis the varna and ashrama.
Dharma is outlined in the Smritis, specifically the Dharma Sastras. Kalpa Sutras, a
Vedanga, contain Dharma Sutras, Srauta Sutras, Grihya Sutras and Sulba Sutras. Of
these, Dharma Sutras outline Dharma. Because of the critical importance of grhastha
ashrama to the society, Grihya sutras (to be followed by Grhastha) are separately
mentioned. These Sutras are specific to the adherents of each Veda Shakha. There are
many other metrical codes written, for instance by Manu, Parashara and Vasistha, that
serve the same purpose. Apart from these, the Itihasa and Puranas detail the nature of
Dharma and illustrate through stories of what is Dharma in various life situations.
Sutras are guidelines and not impositions. It is a guide to persons desiring to go by a
particular path as to what benefits and what retards them in the path. The “prayaschitta”
for deviation also, only applies for someone wanting to go by a specific path.
Smritis, for instance the Manusmriti are more of a record of what is/was, rather than a
prescription. It is a statement of what kind of social setup existed and what are the norms
followed. Parashara smriti, being more recent, is said to be applicable to kaliyuga.
So the following are the texts needed to understanding Dharma:
1. Sutras (Dharma, Grihya)
2. Smritis
a. Metrical codes like Manusmriti
b. Itihasa Puranas
There are three sources of knowledge of Dharma (Manusmriti 2.6-16):
1. Through scriptures
2. Through elders
3. By observing the behavior of noble men in different situations
The concepts involved in understanding Dharma:
1. Varna Dharma
2. Ashrama Dharma
3. Karma Concept
These are overlapping and not exclusive concepts.
Also, there are different kinds of Dharma for an individual, based on the different roles
he plays as an individual (vyakti), in a family (kutumba), as a professional (varna), in a
society (samaja) and in exceptional/abnormal situations (apaddharma).
Varna
Varna is a fundamental concept underlying the Hindu society. In fact, it is not a social
arrangement or segregation; it is rather a statement of how any society is arranged. It does
not say society should be classified into classes, it says what classes or kinds of people
exist in any society.
There are four varnas, based on the functions people perform in any society.
Brahma
One belonging to this varna is called a Brahmana. His function is to learn, share and
preserve the eternal knowledge of the race (in our case, the Veda). It is often mistaken
that Brahmana is the one with spiritual realization – his function is scholarship more than
realization. Realization is a result of following one’s Varna dharma (simply put, doing
properly what one does, and a Brahmana may also attain realization). And in Sanatana
Dharma, every person is bound to get spiritual realization and liberation, if he properly
does what he does. This is irrespective of his Varna. This is a unique feature of
Hinduism.
There are specializations in this varna, such as those taking to priesthood, those taking to
just learning and teaching the Veda, those taking to learning and teaching specific
Darsanas or Vedangas, etc.
Knowledge is classified into many kinds, to serve many purposes. Of this the study of
Veda, is done only by a dwija (Brahamana/ Kshatriya/ Vaisya). This is for the purpose to
be served by the Veda for the society, and also because of the training required to pursue
the study. Most of the times there is no compulsion on who should do the study, but there
is a compulsion on what is the prerequisite to such study. Veda being swara specific and
also based on mantra sastra, pursuing it needs special training from childhood and also
needs an extremely disciplined lifestyle throughout. This is the reason that most people
do not show interest to take this up. But the knowledge is not denied to any class, though
this particular mode of learning is – the Vedic wisdom is available through texts like the
Puranas and other smritis. Through these, the vedic word is not known – its
essence/meaning is known.
The smritis and sastras can be studied by person of any varna, based on the purpose and
on the occupation. They could also be studied irrespective of occupation, provided one
has the interest and has the academic qualification.
Because of the function that he does, a Brahmana is said to be of satwik nature.
Kshatra
Kshatriya is the one who belongs to Kshatra varna. This is the martial class and forms the
military defense and administration of the society. A kshatriya’s functions are to rule and
protect the society. They also learn all forms of knowledge.
Because of the knowledge gained a khatriya is of satwik nature, and because of the
martial aspect he is of rajasic nature. Thus he is satwik-rajasic.
Vaisya
Vaisya is the productive class of the society, and his primary functions are trading and
business. Making the society prosperous is their primary function. A Vaisya generates
wealth, and distributes it for the social well-being.
Since artha is the predominant purushartha for a Vaisya, he is usually of rajasic-tamasic
nature.
Sudra
Sudra is the service/artisan class and covers most of the occupations, like engineering,
agriculture, mining, metal work etc.
Based on these temperaments and functions, the smritis outline dharma for each of these
varnas, their duty towards their profession and their role in the society.
Varna and Social Health
How healthy the society is, depends on how well the people belonging to these four
varnas are performing their functions. The society is healthy, prosperous, strong and free,
if all the four varnas prosper in their respective functions.
If Vaisya varna is suffering or weak, the society will be financially weak, and may lose
financial independence as a society. If Kshatra varna weakens, the society will be
militarily and politically weak, and will lose political independence. If the Sudra varna
weakens, it will lose its existence as a society. If the Brahma varna weakens, the society
will lose its synthetic (rejuvenating ability) strength, its spiritual identity and intellectual
independence.
Weakness of any of the section can be used by the enemies to get hold of the entire
society. Also, each varna controls certain aspects in the society. The society will lose its
independence and control in those aspects, if that varna weakens.
Depending on the kind of control an enemy wants to gain on another society, he tries to
weaken those aspects in the enemy society so he can start establishing his control.
Examples:
The Islamic aggressors have targeted and weakened the Kshatra Varna, since the control
they wanted was more physical. The British have targeted the Brahma varna more,
because they wanted a total control over the society and wanted our society to serve their
needs – so they wanted to demolish the intellectual class. That is the reason we lost
intellectual synthesis and independence along with political independence.
Though it is not very relevant to talk of foreign attacks here, it explains how the strength
and weakness of different varnas affects the society. Therefore we should understand that
for the society to be strong, each of these varnas should be strong, and each of these must
fulfill what their functions are, for the society to be peaceful, independent and
prosperous.
Also within the society, the development will be skewed if any of the varna performs its
functions improperly and another varna performs its functions better. This results in a
handicap in the development over time. For instance, if Brahma varna does not prosper
and Sudra varna prospers, the society lacks direction in its evolution. If vice versa
happens, the immediate wealth is also lost. There should be a fine balance and mutual
respect among these varnas in order that the society really prospers.
History has ample proof to say that the society tried to restore balance when it is lost,
through people of other varnas taking to those professions that were suffering. For
instance non-Kshatriyas took to fighting when the Kshatra varna was weakened by
Islamic invasions. This is just one example, there were occasions when each of varnas
was weakened and others strengthened them. For a more detailed explanation refer
Appendix “Collectivism”.
Social Mobility
In the Hindu society there are many jatis (kula/caste). Jati is an endogamous cultural unit.
A set of jatis are grouped to each Varna. So mobility is of multiple types Mobility could
be at individual, group or jati level.
For an individual:
1. Change of Varna: An individual with his merit, he can move to another Varna.
This depends on the merit of the individual, the eligibility to pursue the function
of a Varna, the teacher he seeks and so on.
Examples:
Many rishis born as non-dvijas, Sudras like Vidura taking up ministries…
Many persons with study or yoga becoming teachers today
Many brahmins losing their varna because of not practicing their varna
dharma
2. Change of jati: Through inter-jati marriage an individual can move from one jati
to another. This has some regulations. In a patriarchy, a woman moves to the jati
of her husband. In matriarchy, it is the other way round. There are very few
matriarchic societies in India, like in Kerala. This however does not change the
varna/function of the individual.
Examples: All inter-jati marriages.
For a group: An entire group of individuals could move to another Varna, because of the
role they play in a social situation.
Examples: Many non-Kshatriya jatis becoming Kshatriya jatis as they took up military
defense during Muslim invasions.
Ashramas
Ashrama dharma is fundamental to the Hindu society. It divides man’s life into four
stages and specifies what one should do in each of the stages. Historically, it was only
few Brahmanas who were found to make it through all the four ashramas. Kshatriyas of
yore, used to make it to vanaprastha. Vanaprastha was even more a rare case in Vaisyas.
Brahmacarya
In this stage, one does academic learning. He should go to a guru and learn what is
prescribed for him. After some basic education he would move to some specialization
based on his interest and performance. This is a stage of learning and celibacy (Rules in
Manusmriti 2.173-249). Upanayana or initiation should happen at 5-16 years of age
(Manu 2.36-40). Upon completion of study, one should take up grhastha ashrama (Manu
3.1-4).
Grhastha
Grhastha ashrama is the center stage; it is the phase where a person contributes most to
the society. For this reason, the Kalpa Sutras devote an entire book Grihya Sutras, for the
householder. He sustains the society, financially and otherwise (Manu 6.89-90). Unless in
exceptional cases, one is not permitted to bypass this ashrama.
One is supposed to base his pursuits on Dharma, and fulfill his desires. This is a stage of
fulfillment. Both purusharthas Artha and Kama are to be served here, based on Dharma,
the first purushartha. This ensures the fourth, which is Moksha.
Grhastha should perform five sacrifices every day (panca maha yajnas), to please gods,
rishis, departed fathers, fellow men, and other living creatures. One is said to be indebted
to all these. One’s debts towards his departed fathers are cleared at the end of this
ashrama. One is also prescribed eight activities a day, which can be classified into
worshipping and pursuing profession/occupation (Manusmriti chapters 3-5).
Having lived half his life, one should take up vanaprastha ashrama (Manu 5.169).
Vanaprastha
At this stage one gives his property to his heirs or donates it, goes into seclusion, and
does penance. One becomes inward looking. He still contributes with his experience,
through advising and teaching. Having fulfilled his desires in the previous ashrama, one
is expected to win over senses and sensuous pleasures. Thus his work is also more
dispassionate and detached, as he does not seek any specific result from the work. It will
be for the benefit of society alone. Though one is supposed to celibate, he is not required
to renounce or live alone. One can take his wife or live with any other person. One is also
permitted to earn his livelihood though not to save/accumulate. But unless there is a
specific need, he does not enter the city – usually people needing a vanaprasthi’s advice
go to him instead of him visiting people.
One still has debts towards rishis and gods at this stage, and does teaching as well as
performs sacrifices to propitiate the devatas. His primary debt towards pitris is cleared as
he obtains progeny and raises them in grhastha ashrama, though he continues giving
oblations to pitris during vanaprastha (Manu 6.1-32).
Sanyasa
In this stage one renounces the world and detaches from his social and family relations.
One should not earn in this stage, or have any material possession of his own. Whatever
few attachments he has with his relations or social ambitions are also given up. Man does
all work purely for moksha at this stage. Technically, a sanyasi has no debts, and lives
only as long as his karmaphala remains (Manu 6.33 - 86).
In general, Brahmacarya and Grhastha ashramas are seen as Pravritti dharma.
Vanaprastha and Sanyasa are nivritti dharma for man.
5.2 Karma and Rebirth
Karma is another fundamental concept in Hinduism. This has multiple levels of
applicability, but approximately it can be defined as the natural order of action and its
fruit.
As you sow, so you reap is the gist of the theory. Each action has a fruit and it depends on
many factors: sincerity in action, the purpose of action, the means chosen, and
righteousness of action (Dharma). One reaps the fruit if one’s actions. Apart from the
direct result of action or its effect on the surroundings, each action creates an impression
on its doer. These impressions accumulate and constitute the karma of the individual.
Any action done in the present is aided and affected by the impressions of previous
actions. Thus Dharma forms basis for Karma, and many principles are consequent of the
Karma theory, like
1. Don’t hurt anyone
2. Do unto others only what you want to be done unto yourself
3. Do those actions that bring happiness to oneself and does good to others
4. Do not speak harsh
5. Wish only good for others
6. Do not hesitate to take up cudgels to protect dharma, even if it means to incur
personal sin
7. …
When men are thus good and cooperative to each other, social well-being is caused. If for
some reason it is disturbed, it would be restored sooner or later, either because men
realize the order going bad or because nature intervenes to restore the order.
Rebirth
There is rebirth (punarjanma) according to Sanatana dharma. The being or atman,
assumes three bodies – gross (sthula), subtle (sukshma) and causal (karana). With these
three one experiences gross, subtle and causal objects as explained in the Mandukya
Upanishad. Only the gross body is left during death and subtle body is with atman
throughout and assumes new gross body in the next life. The sukshma sareera carries the
impressions of the experiences of previous lives and acts as an accumulator in the
evolution. The accumulated backlog of impressions from previous lives is called
prarabdha.
Individual Karma
In the cycle of its evolution, the jiva has two movements – pravritti and nivritti. During
pravritti impressions/samskaras are accumulated. One is recommended to do noble
actions so as to reap their sweet fruits. During nivritti, one tries to get rid of prarabdha
and exhaust karma by experiencing its fruits (karma phala) so as to break the cycle of life
and death. One is recommended to perform actions without attachment, so that its fruit or
impression does not add to the baggage of one’s own karma. When one performs
detached actions, he only performs action as long as his previous karma phala is not
nullified. One performs the highest kind of action at this stage, and such action always
results in the benefit of surroundings (loka kalyana).
Moksha is through total karma nivritti and transcending the action-fruit cycle. This is
possible if one realizes and discriminates between atman and non-atman (body, mind
etc). One can get beyond the ambit of karma by experiencing the One beyond qualities
(beyond trigunas – satwa, rajas, tamas).
Akarma is a state where an action is not bound by karma/phala. This is the kind of action
performed by a liberated person. Akarma is not inaction, but sterilized action.
Freewill
Fate and freewill both are significant in one’s actions. While many factors like daivabala
(destiny or God-will), prarabdha (one’s own previous actions) affect the fruit of action, it
is human effort (purushakara) that predominates action. Man is said to be the master of
his actions (destiny), though not wholly the owner of the fruits of the actions.
God is said to be the witness of all action (karma sakshi). One way, it is true that God is
the one who inspires and drives all action, and bears its fruit. But He does it through the
instruments. Man is that instrument. In the microcosm, daiva is said to follow purusha
prayatna, and in the macrocosm it is the other way round.
Group Karma
When a group of individuals do actions that affect each other, it results in group karma.
This could be a collectivity or persons closely attached to each other. In the latter case the
group is called a group soul (yaksha). In the former, the persons do not get combined as a
group soul but reap the fruit of collective action. This kind of karma drives the lifecycle
of a society.
Textual References
The Veda Samhita does not directly indicate or explain the karma concept. In fact, karma
is simply equated to yajna in the Veda. This is because in the Vedic sense all life and all
action is Yajna, and thus karma = yajna. The Veda refers to karma in this sense,
throughout.
Example: The Mother Godess Durga is praised as the controller and giver of the fruits of
action, “karmaphaleshu justam” (Durga Suktam, Taittiriya Aranyaka).
Karma is another fundamental concept in Hinduism. This has multiple levels of
applicability, but approximately it can be defined as the natural order of action and its
fruit.
Each action has a fruit and it depends on many factors: sincerity in action, the purpose of
action, the means chosen, and righteousness of action (Dharma). One reaps the fruit if
one’s actions. Apart from the direct result of action or its effect on the surroundings, each
action creates an impression on its doer. These impressions accumulate and constitute the
karma of the individual. Any action done in the present is aided and affected by the
impressions of previous actions. Thus Dharma forms basis for Karma, and many
principles are consequent of the Karma theory, like
8. Don’t hurt anyone
9. Do unto others only what you want to be done unto yourself
10. Do those actions that bring happiness to oneself and does good to others
11. Do not speak harsh
12. Wish only good for others
13. …
When men are thus good and cooperative to each other, social well-being is caused. If for
some reason it is disturbed, it would be restored sooner or later, either because men
realize the order going bad or because nature intervenes to restore the order.
Rebirth
There is rebirth (punarjanma) according to Sanatana dharma. The being or atman,
assumes three bodies – gross (sthula), subtle (sukshma) and causal (karana). With these
three one experiences gross, subtle and causal objects as said in the Mandukya
Upanishad. Only the gross body is left during death and subtle body is with atman
throughout and assumes new gross body in the next life. The sukshma sareera carries the
impressions of the experiences of previous lives and acts as an accumulator in the
evolution. The accumulated backlog of impressions from previous lives is called
prarabdha.
Individual Karma
In the cycle of its evolution, the jiva has two movements – pravritti and nivritti. During
pravritti impressions/samskaras are accumulated. One is recommended to do noble
actions so as to reap their sweet fruits. During nivritti, one tries to get rid of prarabdha
and complete experiencing his karma phala so as to break the cycle of life and death. One
is recommended to perform actions without attachment, so that its fruit or impression
does not add to the baggage of one’s karma. When one performs detached actions, he
only performs action as long as his previous karma phala is not nullified. One performs
the highest kind of action at this stage, and such action always results in the benefit of
surroundings (loka kalyana).
Moksha is through total karma nivritti and transcending the action-fruit cycle. This is
possible if one realizes and discriminates between atman and non-atman (body, mind
etc). One can get beyond the judiciary of karma by experiencing the One beyond qualities
(beyond trigunas – satwa, rajas, tamas).
Akarma is a state where an action is not bound by karma/phala. This is the kind of action
performed by a liberated person.
Freewill
Fate and freewill both are significant in one’s actions. While many factors like daivabala
(destiny or God-will), prarabdha (one’s own previous actions) affect the fruit of action, it
is human effort (purushakara) that drives action. Man is said to be the owner of his
actions, though not totally the owner of the fruits of the actions.
God is said to be the witness of all action (karma sakshi). One way, it is true that God is
the one who inspires and drives all action, and bears its fruit. But He does it through the
instruments. In the microcosm, daiva is said to follow purusha prayatna, and in the
macrocosm it is the other way round.
Group Karma
When a group of individuals do actions that affect each other, it results in group karma.
This could be a collectivity or persons closely attached to each other. In the latter case the
group is called a group soul (yaksha). In the former, the persons do not get combined as a
group soul but reap the fruit of collective action. This kind of karma drives the lifecycle
of a society.
Textual References
The Veda Samhita does not directly indicate or explain the karma concept. In fact, karma
is simply equated to yajna in the Veda. This is because in the Vedic sense all life and all
action is Yajna, and thus karma = yajna. The Veda refers to karma in this sense,
throughout.
The Mother Godess Durga is praised as the controller and giver of the fruits of action,
“karmaphaleshu justam” (Durga Suktam, Taittiriya Aranyaka).
5.3 Purusharthas – Goals of Life
In Vedic worldview, there are four Purusharthas or goals of human life – righteousness
(dharma), generation of wealth (artha), fulfillment of one’s desires (kama), and liberation
(moksha). A person having fulfilled all these is said to have lived a complete life.
Dharma
Dharma is the basis, and it is both the driving force and determinant of all action. It can
be translated as right action, including propensity to choose right action, and initiative to
do it. Dharma is not just doing duty, though doing one’s duty/fulfilling responsibilities is
a part of one’s dharma.
Dharma can alternately be defined as natural order, and it is righteousness. Morality is a
superficial definition to dharma, since morality is mostly at mind level. However it is
included. It is the course of action chosen by the self, and is defined and explained by
seers who have realized the true nature of self (jiva). Thus “Atma Nirdesa” is the ultimate
source/authority of dharma. But since common man is in the path to realizing self rather
than driven by self directly, the dharma sastras given by seers stand as advises for him.
Dharma is said to be eternal, and the right is defined as “ritam”. Righteousness is the
dynamic or applied aspect of Truth – True-Righteous is as Satyam-Ritam.
Apart from doing one’s dharma, one’s thoughts should be dharmic too. One should train
oneself to do things according to dharma, while simultaneously training one’s mind to
have the “right” emotions and thoughts.
Thus dharma is the first goal of life. All other goals of life are to be pursued based on
dharma. In fact, having followed one’s dharma consciously, one automatically fulfills all
other goals. Dharma applies to all four ashramas and four varnas, and it is defined
separately for each Varna and ashrama. There is a samanya dharma, (general code)
visesha dharma (special code) and apaddharma (emergency). Also, a person has different
dharmas at different capacities in which he operates – as an individual (vyakti), as a
member of family, community and society (samisti). This purushartha when fulfilled
ensures proper order, peace, happiness in the society and the individual.
Artha
Artha is the second Purushartha. This translates as generation of wealth. Although it
appears that generation of wealth and production is the job of vysya and sudra varnas, it
is not just for them. Any form of material wealth/prosperity is artha. It is primarily the
function of vysya and sudra, but others are not prohibited from earning/generation of
wealth. Though there are differences in the professions prescribed for different varnas,
each grhastha irrespective of his varna should support his family as well as offer
sustenance to the society. Grhastha is the basis of society, and brahmacaris and sanyasis
and many other sections of people depend on grhastha. This is possible through earning
wealth, artha. Thus artha is an important purushartha, a goal of life. Sharing, distributing
the wealth is necessary along with earning. This Purushartha ensures sustenance and
prosperity of society. In a prosperous society, one should not need to think of survival in
future. Grhastha spends/distributes part of his wealth for the benefit of others. And as he
takes to next ashramas, the society supports him. Even a suffering grhastha gets support.
Thus survival should never be a problem. Thus accumulating is not the idea, support,
help and circulation of wealth is the idea. However earning should be done through
righteous means. One should not covet others’ wealth. Under exceptional conditions like
distress unrighteous means can also be used for supporting family.
Kama
Fulfilling one’s own desires through righteous means is the next goal of life. The desire
could be sensuous or emotional or otherwise. Fulfillment/satisfaction/happiness of the
individual is always the implicit purpose. However, this is not seen as the only goal, and
the other goals are the ones that differentiate man from other animals.
It is the default tendency of every person to try and fulfill his desires. Subjecting these to
dharmic means and their fulfillment is a way to sublimate desires. Also it is said that one
can gain the maximum fruit and fulfill his desires the best, when it is based on dharma. It
is in this context that the definition of dharma as natural order makes good sense to us.
However, kama as desire is a general definition, and the specific definition is sexual
desire/sensuous pleasure. Fulfilling sexual desire, begetting progeny and extending the
race is a prescribed goal. This fulfillment too, should be dharmic – both in the sense that
it should be legitimate and in the sense that it should follow the natural order. The highest
level of contentment in sexual life is said to come through commitment to one partner,
since this not only gives sensuous but emotional security and happiness. Only grhastha is
permitted to this, and it is the duty of a grhastha. It is independent of varna.
Moksha
Liberation is the ultimate goal of life. Though there is an explicit way to this, following
one’s varna and ashrama dharma and basing artha and kama on dharma is said to ensure
moksha. Moksha is irrespective of varna.
However, there are many factors that determine what goals the person shall fulfill in a
life, such as experiences in previous lives, karma. Someone aims at moksha directly
through sanyasa, as he would have fulfilled the other purusharthas in his previous lives.
Most should go through all the ashramas, fulfilling each goal which is the way it is
usually aimed and prescribed.
5.4 Women
Principle of Duality
The status, treatment and role of woman in any society come from the worldview of its
philosophy/civilization. In the Hindu worldview, phenomenal world is dualistic. There
are two principles in the creation of universe itself. There are male and female principles
underlying our entire philosophy, seen as the essence and the manifestation, root and the
spreading. These two principles are inseparable and complementary. Essentially both are
same, but they are two aspects of the reality. Thus if principle of existence is seen as
male, then principle of creation, pervasion is the female principle (the Siva-Sakti
symbolism). They are inseparable like seed and the tree, word and its meaning, energy
and its potential to work. These two qualities are represented by two colors, white and
black. The former symbolizes pure existence, the latter pervasiveness. In fact the entire
universe is a play of the duals – consciousness and energy. And at different levels duality
governs the entire creation – eternal-phenomenal, manifest-un manifest, mass-energy,
life-non life, male-female.
Man and Woman
The male and female principles in the human society too, i.e., man and woman, are
complementary aspects. The underlying principle is not equality; it is essential oneness
and natural diversity consequent of manifestation.
Nature is two-fold: spiritually, psychologically and biologically. And the understanding
of this fact underlies the design of individual, family and social functions of man and
woman.
Man being the representative of the essential principle of existence, his spiritual
realization/fulfillment comes through detaching from the apparent and realizing the
deeper reality. Woman being the representative of manifestation, her fulfillment comes
through fulfillment of natural functions.
Thus man is prescribed four ashramas, where he learns and celibates first, then stabilizes
and fulfills his family and social responsibilities, and then through penance and
renunciation he realizes the spiritual root. If there is any lapse in this, he should identify
and correct himself – for this he has explicit expiation rites. There is no self-correcting
mechanism.
A woman’s roles go by her natural tendencies – her family role etc. She being nature
herself, her ways are the natural. She has a self-correcting mechanism in the form of her
natural cycle. And what she does, is natural/dharmic. If what she does is abnormal, it is
seen consequent of an abnormality in the surroundings (say behavior of people around
her or things like that) to which her abnormal action is an indicator/reaction/correction.
This is the reason smritis do not specific prescriptions or expiation rites for women. This
is the status accorded to women.
Thus it is not because woman is not considered important that the smritis mention less
about her. It is because she does not need a lot of prescription to get salvation. She is
given very few instructions, such as regarding her husband prior to anything else. That
guarantees her salvation. It is not the case with man; he needs specific conditioning of his
mind, and needs to follow specific paths to salvation. And errors can detract him, so there
are explicit corrective actions for him.
However, woman does all that the man does, say following ashrama dharma or doing
yajnas, in a different way.
Manusmriti 2.67 says that marriage is the Upanayana for the woman, serving her husband
is like serving guru and learning at gurukula, household work is like the two yajnas done
in the morning and the evening.
It is also because of the temperament that it is often said woman does not have freedom
and man has. Freewill in action and consequent responsibility of the action, both are in
man’s natural way – not in a woman’s natural way. Also, man is said to be responsible
and pay for the actions of his wife. Thus if seen properly, all those things that apparently
cause discomfort for a woman or are seen as her limitations, such as natural surrender,
physical weakness and biological limitations, are her strengths in her spiritual path. And
all the apparent strengths of a man are his weaknesses/things that bring him down in his
spiritual path.
Thus we can see that getting over ego is given a lot of importance in the Hindu system.
Either it is through a direct surrender to the divine or in terms of respecting and obeying
elders, humility and attributing one’s success to what caused the success, such as
guidance from elders or disowning the credit calling the success as god given. The
arrangement also ensures that many natural tendencies of mind that affect one’s
downward movements, such as jealousy, hatred, anger are kept in check. Manusmriti for
instance (2.118-139) instructs who is respectable and in what ways one should express
humility and respect towards elders.
In a society that puts spiritual cause above material, priority is attached to practices that
cause spiritual elevation. And a society that puts material above spiritual, aims at
minimizing material discomforts. And Hindu society aims at the former. Thus the goal of
human life is the same for man and woman, but the methods prescribed suit their natural
tendencies.
Spirituality
Spiritual practices like yoga are said to be easier for woman than for man. One reason for
this is that unlike man who dwells into the philosophy of things than things in
themselves, woman by nature is more oriented towards “things in themselves”. It is often
said that man has more aptitude in the theory of (intellectual) things (sastra vishaya) and
woman has more aptitude in worldly knowledge and experiential things. As a result
woman is by default tuned to first hand experience, whether it is spiritual or otherwise.
And naturally spiritual experience too, is an easier bet for the woman.
Another reason is the natural sense of surrender, which allows her to a total surrender to
the divine. Man has a bigger obstacle of ego. This does not mean a woman does not have
any ego – but it is easier for her in the wake of the fact that she is more oriented towards
surrender than man. And since ego is one of the biggest obstacles in spiritual realization,
the path and the goal are comparatively easier for woman than man.
Functions of a woman
The functions specified for a woman, follow from the above philosophy. The following
are prescribed for a woman, through which she is deriving the fruit of having done every
noble action, and ultimately salvation (Manusmriti 5.147-168).
1. Single point devotion to husband
2. Efficiency and capability in managing the house and finance. In the house, she is
in the center stage.
A woman can get salvation even if she does not have children, if she leads her life in a
proper way. She is directly responsible in molding the offspring, continuing the lineage.
However, the biggest role of a woman is that of a mother. In every relation that she has
wife, mother, sister, daughter…, at some stage she naturally assumes the role of a mother.
Woman is called jaaya, because her husband is taking birth in her womb in the form of
offspring.
Don’ts
Certain qualities/habits are discouraged for a woman (Manu 9.80-83). These include
1. Drinking.
2. Of cruel nature.
3. Going against her husband’s interests. Because he is her primary relation always.
4. Hurting or being rude to servants. Because she is the one managing and
instructing them all.
5. Being spendthrift. Because she is the one controlling the entire finance of house.
It can be noted that these directly go against what is prescribed for her.
Woman and her husband
Husband is the primary and most intimate relative of a woman. In theory and for all
practical purposes they are one after marriage. Any person dealing with either of them is
as good as dealing with “the one”.
Woman is divine helpmate of the man, in all his rituals. It should be understood that
every activity in life is a yajna in the Vedic sense, and thus man and woman partner each
other in all that they do. It actually suffices if it is said that one is the other’s partner,
since partnership is always mutual. A man is not permitted to do a homa alone
(Apastamba Dharma Sutras 2.15.18). The wife gives the fire with which a homa should
start. Any ritual at the household level and higher, should be done by the couple together.
In all the yajnas other than individual japa/devatarcana, wife and husband both have
complementary roles. The wife should offer bali to the bhutas (primordial elements) in
the evening, and man in the morning (Manu 3.121), this way Vaisvadeva should done by
the couple everyday. In case one is absent, the daily rituals should be done by the one
who is home, and special rituals cannot be done.
Keeping his wife happy is the primary responsibility of a man (Manusmriti 3.45). The
house where husband and wife keep each other happy will prosper (Manu 3.60). And a
devoted woman will acquire all the good qualities of her husband (Manu 9.1-103).
Single pointed devotion is mandatory between man and woman (Manu 4.134, 5.151).
And unless there is a good reason they are supposed to be together, and there is expiation
if they separate even for a small duration, when the reason is not good enough
(Apastamba Dharma Sutras 1.28.19, 20).
There is no separation between wife and husband, and it is not allowed to treat them as
separate (Apastamba Dharma Sutras 2.14.16-20). All the property they own belongs to
the couple, and there is no distribution between husband and wife. The wife and husband,
have the right to spend/lend/give the wealth, but only with each other’s consent. In the
absence of either, the other has entire responsibility and right over the wealth (Apastamba
Dharma Sutras 2.29.3).
Remarriage is not recommended for a woman, while it is for a man. This should be
understood in the light of two points:
1. This rule applies more in a patriarchy. In case of matriarchy, kshetra is primary
and beeja is secondary (man is called the beeja and woman, kshetra). However
Manu holds that both are equally important.
2. Grhastha ashrama is exactly for one fourths of one’s life, and remarriage is
specifically for begetting children. In case of a woman widowed without children,
she is permitted to beget children, though without marrying again.
Debts
A woman is not indebted to anyone except her husband. Her husband and son are
indebted to her. Her father is responsible to raise her well and get her married. Her
husband is responsible to keep her happy then on. Her son is responsible after his father’s
vanaprastha (Apastamba Dharma Sutras 2.28.9).
Treatment of Woman
A woman’s safety and happiness are given high importance. Women are the source of
happiness, in the sense that a happy woman keeps her surroundings always happy and
prosperous. Manu insists on this in many ways. (3.56) - where women are respected
devatas will be happy. Where women are not respected, no the ritual or worship will be
of any use. (3.57) - If women are unhappy, the clan of those who cause it will be
destroyed. If women are happy, the house and clan will prosper. (3.58) – If a woman is
insulted, the entire clan (of those causing the insult to her) will be destroyed. (3.59) –
Those who want to be happy, should keep women happy, respect her and treat her well.
(3.62) – If woman is happy, the entire clan will be happy. If she is not, the entire clan will
suffer.
(Manu 5.147-168, 9.1-103) Woman is not recommended to live alone; she should live
with her parents in childhood, with her husband after marriage and with her children in
case she is widowed. And she is to be treated well, by her father, husband children and
protected in all situations. She gets her due from them. Ideally, she should never need to
do many things like supporting the family. However if she happens to live alone because
not proper arrangements are not made for her (by husband etc.) she should make her
earning/living through some specified ways that keep her safe.
However it is worth noting that a man is alone in three ashramas – brahmacarya, sanyasa
and vanaprastha (this is optional though). Grhastha and in some cases vanaprastha are the
only ashramas where wife and husband are together. Before and after that they are not.
Still, woman is not left alone while man is. This is because woman is the primary
sustainer of society. The fulfillment and detachment/renunciation approaches that are
mentioned earlier, explain this. Most of the times man does his duty detached. As a
reason, he is not a sustaining element of society in all phases of his life. He is not the one
who keeps people intact. It is the woman who keeps people intact, in the form of a
family. This is the reason it is said that there is no beauty in a house that does not have a
woman. For this reason, woman is to be given importance. But for the same reason she
should not be alone – in fact she will not be alone by her nature. And for the same reason
her freedom is also constrained. And if it should said that woman is not given freedom, it
is because she is precious rather than anything else. You tend to protect what is precious
to you, though it means discomfort to who you are protecting.
However, it should be noted that this does not mean dependency or lack of freedom in the
sense it is normally understood. Dependency, if it should be called, is two-way, as man
depends on woman and vice versa. In a more positive sense this is the complementariness
– mutual reinforcement through diversity of functions. What is ignored in understanding
of this arrangement is the element of trust that each one satisfies his/her responsibility
and the other has to bother about his/her. It becomes a dependency, when the sense of
mutual reinforcement goes and one becomes atomic.
The Hindu system that does not aim at atomizing individuals puts diverse responsibilities
on each individual, and the entire system functions well if each individual performs
his/her functions. These functions will be defined according to the natural tendencies of
persons in each position. However, there will always be exceptions – but a society will
not be designed for exceptions. And saying that design should not be there because of
exceptions, is defeating the entire purpose of society. However, exceptions should have a
way out of the system. They always have.
Smriti is a guideline, which only recommends. And having said what is not to be done,
smriti also treats that people exist in the society that do not go by the practices, and
includes them. In fact society has all kinds of practices – what is best is recommended by
smriti, and ideal and deviant cases are always small in number. Therefore smriti covers
all cases while highlighting what is best. This is the spirit in which smriti should be read.
Thus, for instance, having said what kind of marriage is ideal (between same Varna), it
covers all combinations of varnas. Having said woman should not be left to live alone, it
says what she should do if she is alone. Having said one should not have extramarital
relation, it says what should be legally done in cases of such relation and offspring of
such relations (such as property, inheritance). In fact this is the purpose of smriti,
showing what is good and in what way.
Knowledge
While the professions ordained by the Varna dharma do not apply to woman because her
functions are otherwise, knowledge of any form is not denied. Of late with social changes
women are kept outside the fold of Vedic study, but study of Veda was not denied for
women. Rishikas like Apala are among Vedic seers, not just scholars. But then it was not
a prescribed profession for women – it is optional. Knowledge of sastras on the other
hand has always been available to women. However, this was not done by gurukula
system. A woman is supposed to do the learning from her father/elders at home, or any
other learned person visiting her place. She can also author/ engage in technical debates.
But all this is more optional than to be done as a necessity, unlike for man whether there
is a minimal prescribed study based on Varna.
Diversity- man/woman
Thinking like a man and doing things like a man, is not the way a woman can be
individualistic or independent. It is by retaining her woman ness, and in a setup that
respects woman ness and gives scope for living it, that we can say woman is respected or
treated on par with man. Treating on par with man is not reducing woman to a man. So
where her functions are designed according to her natural tendencies, is the system that
really respects women. Not the one that simply says she is free to do anything and
implicitly forces her to live like a man and generously offer her the freedom of doing
anything a man does.
Social Practices
Woman not working or any other thing is not a scriptural instruction, but an arrangement
made for social convenience and to suit social conditions and times.
Often, it is the importance she is given and a consequent expectation, that makes us feel
she is ill-treated.
5.5 Institutions
Hindu society could be seen as a collection of institutions. Collectivities evolve at each
stage of human life. Traditionally woman is always a part of a jati. Man however, does
not always belong to the same collectivity. In the four ashramas there are different
collectivities he belongs to. During brahmacarya there is no established group he belongs
to, except his gurukula. Gurukula is the vyavastha for brahmacaris. In grhastha ashrama
he belongs to the varna he pursues and the jati he is born in. In vanaprastha there is no
collectivity. During sanyasa he is very much alone, but there is a system/framework
within which his activities are facilitated.
Family is the basic unit of the society. Marriage is the arrangement that enables this. Jati
is the cultural unit that binds families. Varna is an abstraction that diversifies and
arranges jatis in the society.
Guru-sishya parampara is really the corner stone of the society, which enables keeping
religious/philosophical pursuits of a person separate from the remaining social system.
Absence of this is the reason why religions in the west have penetrated into socioeconomic-political system and have not really remained religions.
Broadly, these are the institutions that form the foundation of Hindu society:
1. Family (kutumba)
2. Caste (jati)
3. Vivaha (marriage – very much covered in the above two)
4. Varna (an abstraction over jati)
5. Gurukula vyavastha (vaguely education system)
6. Guru-Sishya parampara (master – disciple system)
7. Sanyasi Vyavastha
8. Finance
9. Public administration
10. Governance
11. Polity
12. Judiciary (8-12 are necessarily interrelated and not separate systems
5.5.1 Guru-Sishya Parampara
Guru-Sishya Parampara is the teacher-disciple institution. Being a civilization that
respects experiential knowledge, we hold high respect for the teacher of such knowledge.
It is separated from the socio-political structure and spans across social/political divisions
since such knowledge is beyond those divisions. This is the institution that kept religion
and theological practices and beliefs from occupying place in governance, and also kept
the administrative structure from interfering with the institution of knowledge.
Knowledge
Knowledge is of two kinds, deductive and experiential. While the student gets initial
guidance and understanding of the subject from the teacher to understand the premises
and continue study with his discrimination, experiential knowledge is supposed to be
pursued in a different way. Here there is needed an unwavering faith in the teacher, and a
determination to follow his word on the path, irrespective of how it sounds to his
discriminatory logic. This is a primary difference in the pursuit of sastras and spiritual
practice.
Lineage of Gurus
Like any other institution Guru-Sishya parampara is also said to have come from the
eternal. Every Guru-Sishya tradition claims its origin in the eternal. In every tradition the
lineage of teachers is given a salutation. For instance here is the salutation sloka of
advaitins:
"sadasiva samarambham sankaracarya madhyamam
asmad acarya paryantam vande guru paramparam"
Meaning: salutation to the lineage starting with lord Sadasiva, with Adi Sankara in the
middle and continuing up to my immediate teacher.
Here is another one:
"narayana samarambham vyasa sankara madhyamam
asmad acarya paryantam vande guru paramparaam"
Meaning: salutation to the lineage starting with lord narayana, with Vyasa and Adi
Sankara in the middle and continuing up to my immediate teacher.
Siva/Vishnu are said to be the first teachers. Veda Vyasa is said to be the first human
teacher, who is an incarnation of Vishnu himself. This is the reason his birth day is
celebrated in remembrance of Gurus (Vyasa Purnima is called Guru Purnima).
Usually, first guru in any lineage sets the goals and broadly gives paths to achieve those.
(Lakshya Nirdesa) The subsequent ones define paths that suit the times, in a way that
they lead to the goals set by the first teacher and are not in conflict with the philosophy of
the tradition (Marga Nirdesa).
Guru, the teacher
Teacher is accorded highest respect, and is equated to God. The famous verse goes thus:
"gururbrahma gururvishnuH gurudevo maheswaraH
guru sakshat parabrahma tasmai sri gurave namaH"
Meaning: Guru is Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesha, in fact guru is Prabrahma himself, the
Brahman, the Absolute. Salutations to such guru.
Guru is treated with such high respect, because it is believed that he imparts that
knowledge which cannot otherwise be gained through merely reading books. In spiritual
disciplines this applies more, and here is how the importance of teacher is explained:
"dhyana mulam gurormurtiH
puja mulam guroH padam
mantra mulam gurorvakyam
moksha mulam guroH kripa"
Meaning: Guru's murti/idol/body is the object of meditation, his feet the objects of
worship, his words the objects of chanting. All this is because in his grace lies the source
of liberation.
Guru is said to be worthy of such respect and unwavering trust of the disciple, since he
takes the responsibility for molding the disciple into what he should be. The disciple that
follows Guru's word with faith, is supposed to be assured of reaching the goals
(sometimes irrespective of the personal merit of the teacher).
Upadesa
The Guru accepts disciples that he deems fit for the education that he is imparting. There
is scriptural guidance for such qualification, but the final decision on this is of the Guru
and no one else. Knowledge is usually not subject to social divisions, but pursuing a
subject as a prerequisite for a career is subject to social convention and eligibility of the
student. However, the social convention is also only a factor and not the decisive force.
The Guru in case he is convinced of the genuineness and qualification of the student,
does accept the student with necessary initiation (in some cases by change of the student's
Varna as needed in the case). This is how Karna became the student of Drona, who does
not otherwise teach anyone who is not from the Royal clan. However the teacher decides
what is the amount of wisdom he should impart based on the aptitude, maturity and
righteousness of the disciple. This is why, Karna was accepted as a disciple by Drona
even though he is not the son of a king because of his aptitude; he was not given
Brahmastra because he is filled with negative impulses like hatred. Though there is
curriculum defined for any study, the Guru defines what the curriculum is for the
qualification and interest of each disciple. And for what the disciple is not eligible, there
cannot be any force on the Guru to impart such knowledge. Thus it is not just a matter of
curiosity but a matter of social interest where knowledge never goes into the hands of
men that can misuse it. And it is the responsibility of every Guru to ensure that no student
is deprived of knowledge where he is eligible and no student gains knowledge that he
either does not qualify for or he is not mature enough to handle.
Gurudakshina
After acquiring knowledge from the Guru, the disciple is supposed to repay him for the
teaching. The Guru's "fees" is called guru dakshina. It is usually offered by the student,
then the teacher asks what he wants as his fees and the student pays it. However the
student owes to a guru much more than fees. Gurudakshina only gives adhikara on the
vidya, that is the student only becomes eligible to use the knowledge he learnt by paying
the fees. That does not absolve him of the debt to the Guru. For that to happen he should
do two things throughout his life: putting the knowledge to good use and getting good
name for the teacher; and imparting and spreading the knowledge by teaching it to
subsequent generations of students.
Examples
" There are many Guru-Sishya paramparas in Sanatana Dharma, which have come
down uninterrupted over millennia. All the Vidyas and literature like Vedas, Vedangas,
Darsanas and Dharma sastras have come down as Guru-Sishya paramparas. The various
flavors of similar knowledge, for instance different branches of Veda have come down as
Guru-Sishya paramparas.
" Various schools of spiritual philosophy such as Advaita and Dvaita, have come down
as Guru-Sishya paramparas.
" All the religions in Bharatiya Civilization, whether the Vedic ones such as Vishnava
and Saiva, and also outgrowths like Buddhism, have come down as Guru-Sishya
paramparas. Besides, various variants of the religions developed in the same framework
of Guru-Sishya parampara. The different schools of practices like Tantra, Smarta are
Guru-Sishya paramparas.
" Sanyasa too contains Guru-Sishya paramparas.
" The learning of various sastras and vidyas, religious or secular, such as administration
and engineering, has many diverse schools that are Guru-Sishya paramparas.
Thus entire knowledge and religious structure in Hinduism stands on Guru-Sishya
parampara. This is the institution that caused uninterrupted flow of knowledge over
generations, its growth and spreading
5.5.2 Gurukula Vyavastha - Schooling System
Gurukula Vyavastha translates as schooling system.
Selection of students and eligibility
There is scriptural guidance for determining the eligibility of a student. However the
immediate and final decision on this is of the guru, as he could determine the eligibility
considering changing times and situational needs along with the student's attitude and
aptitude.
The selection for different vidyas will be based on aptitude and attitude of the student,
along with his Varna. There could be exceptions where the guru may decide to disqualify
a student in spite of his Varna or aptitude, for other reasons like the attitude/intentions of
the student. And there could be occasions when a student will be accepted for a study that
his varna does not otherwise qualify for.
Study - instruction
Except on specific days, instruction will typically happen after daily ritual in the early
morning till afternoon.
For dwija students the curriculum includes veda and associate texts like vedangas and
upangas. Besides, each class will have a different curriculum - kshatriyas will pursue
things like neeti sastra, dhanurveda etc while brahmanas will continue to study the veda.
Sudra students will pursue varied subjects like engineering and architecture.
Study - life in gurukula
As the name itself indicates, gurukula means extended family of the guru. Guru is the
owner of the family. Students should raise food through alms and by collecting
wood/eatables etc from forests. They should surrender it before the gurupatni (guru's
wife) and she distributes whatever all the students collected amongst all the students after
guru's share. Usually the needs like wood for household fire are also got by the students.
Fees
Guru should not take any money from the students. The guru dakshina will be paid in the
end by the student, and it will be what the guru asks for.
References
The dharma sastras, especially the Dharma Sutras of Kalpa (like Apastamba and
Baudhayana) and metrical codes like Manusmriti lay down the outline of Gurukula
Vyavastha, how a guru should be, how a disciple should be, how instruction should be
and so on.
5.5.3 Sanyasi Vyavastha
Sanyasa ashrama is one of the four stages of man's life. However a sanyasi is technically
outside the social fold. He is outside social divisions or categories, and its rules. He does
not have any social bond as such, though he can raise his meal through accepting alms
and by attending people's houses as a guest. A sanyasi is not supposed to stay long in any
single place, he should be continuously moving so that he is not attached to any person or
place. This is why a sanyasi is in fact called parivrajaka, one that roams and is never
settled in a place. The single point goal of a sanyasi is liberation, and nothing else. He
should have no desires, temptations, ambitions, other than liberation.
However there are places where a sanyasi can live, such as mathas (monasteries). A
sanyasi should be moving and should not be living in the monastery throughout the year,
and can be returning to it every year.
There are many traditions of monasteries in Hinduism. Broadly they agree upon
renunciation, detachment concepts but are diverse in practices. The different schools have
different traditions and different monasteries. For instance Sanyasis following Sri
Vaishnava (like Sri Jeeyar) follow different practices than those following advaita-smarta
like Kanchi Acaryas.
It is not necessary for a sanyasi to be affiliated to any of the monasteries. Ideally he could
just be alone, a parivrajaka, with no fixed home.
Sanyasi and Society
Sanyasi has a peculiar kind of relation with the society. He can be dependent on it for his
food, though not settled with one set of people. He can also teach them what he knows.
However he shall not accept any assets from anyone for himself and can only do it to
donate it or putting it to use for the benefit of the society (like doing yajna or giving it for
building a monastery/temple/school etc). He can accept as disciples only sanyasis. He can
however teach grhasthas (or brahmacaris or vanapratshis) though not take them with him.
Sankara Mathas
Adi Sankara gave a small set of five poems called Yati pancaka, to explain how a Sanyasi
should be. He gave two documents, for intra and inter-monastery (ashrama/math)
activities. The first is to prescribe the way sanyasis should live in a monastery, their
hierarchy and seniority, how they should treat each other, how the monastery should be
organized etc. The second is about the way different monasteries should deal with each
other. He laid down the dasanami sampradaya, where a sanyasi can be taking one of the
ten suffixes to his name. They are bharati, sarasvati, sagara, tirtha, puri, asrama, giri,
parvata, aranya and vana.
He established four mathas called Amnaya mathas in our sides of the country, at Puri
(East), Sringeri (South), Dvaraka (West) and Jyotirmatha (North). They are associated
with Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda respectively. The dasanami
sanyasins do not really have to belong to any particular matha and are arranged in to
number of mathas apart from the Amnaya mathas. However the names are distributed
within the Amnaya mathas as: vana and aranya with Puri, bharati, puri and sarasvati with
Sringeri, tirtha and asrama with Dvaraka; sagara, parvata and giri with Jyotirmath.
6. Popular Religion
6.1 Temples
(i) Construction
Temple is one of the foundations on which Hinduism survives. The theory of temple, its
construction, running it, its rituals are taken from Agamas. Vaishnava temples follow
Vaishnava Agamas and so on. Although there are portions of Agamas that are unvedic,
temples at least in their present form, are based on the Vedic portion of Agamas only.
A Temple can be likened to a human body, with the God placed where Jiva resides in
man, which is heart. Agamas extensively discuss the entire procedure for temples,
including
 Routines for worship and prescriptions for worship of God in His various forms
 Selection of site for Temple
 Materials for construction
 Iconometry, along with sizes and proportions of idols and various parts of temple
 Architectural details, designs, qualities expected in sculptor and director of the
temple project, their roles etc
 Social aspects, such as the soil for town building, town plan
Aspects of Temple Construction
There are many aspects involved in constructing a temple. Acarya, director for the temple
construction and silpi (sculptor) play major role in the construction of a temple. Though
not as much as silpi, acarya is expected to know silpa sastra. Temple construction begins
with search of a proper site. Soil and location are examined by acarya and silpi. This is
called Bhupariksha.
This is followed by nagara/grama nirmana. Here, the layout of town, its size, breadth of
different types of streets, locations and sizes of facilities like water tanks are determined
based on the size of town. There are different names for different sizes of towns, like
grama, kheta, kharvata, durga, nagara. Then the location of temple (brahma sthana) in the
town is decided. Temple is usually in the center of village so that every villager has
access to it. The entire arrangement is called grama vinyasa.
Then the size of temple is determined. For this, size of the image of main deity is to be
known, since the size of a temple is always a fixed multiple of the size of image of main
deity. Then wood/metal/stone is selected for the image. The icon has three parts, main
icon (vigraha), pedestal (peetha) and platform (adhisthana or upa peetha). The tests to
determine quality of stone are prescribed by the Agamas. There are three kinds of stone,
male female and neuter. When hit with an iron rod if the stone produces good sound and
spark, it is male and should be used for the main icon. If it produces sound but not spark
it is female and should be used for pedestal. If it produces neither, it is neuter and should
be used for platform. There are various standards for the relative proportions of image,
gopura, prakara etc. and also the relative proportions of various parts of the vigraha. The
units for measuring vigraha are tala, angula and yava. Tala is a multiple of angula and
angula is a multiple of yava. More than the specific size of each unit, the multiplicity and
relative sizes are important. The proportions of Head-Trunk-Arms-Legs of images are
specified. The finer specifications like nose, nail, ears and their shapes are also
mentioned. Generally the standard is to use dasatala (ten talas) for the height of image of
male deity, navatala (nine talas) for His consort and astatala (eight talas) for bhakta.
Duties of temple administration are also specified in the Agamas – organizing festivals,
encourage art forms and conduct shows to encourage artists, create accommodation for
pilgrims from other towns, run hospitals, regularly conducting religious discourses etc.
Town planning, engineering, architecture, fine arts, civics, and many other subjects are
dealt in the agamas, which relate to the various interests of people and involve them in
different capacities and also direct their work towards a higher goal.
Steps in Temple Construction
The procedure for building a temple is extensively discussed, and it could be expressed in
short as “Karshanadi Pratisthantam”, meaning beginning with “Karshana” and ending
with “Pratistha”. The details of steps involved vary from one Agama to another, but
broadly these are the steps in temple construction:
1. Bhu pariksha: Examining and choosing location and soil for temple and town.
The land should be fertile and soil suitable.
2. Sila pariksha: Examining and choosing material (metal/stone/wood) for image
3. Karshana: Corn or some other crop is grown in the place first and is fed to cows.
Then the location is fit for town/temple construction.
4. Vastu puja: Ritual to propitiate vastu devata.
5. Salyoddhara: Undesired things like bones are dug out.
6. Adyestaka: Laying down the first stone
7. Nirmana: Then foundation is laid and land is purified by sprinkling water. A pit is
dug, water mixed with navaratnas, navadhanyas, navakhanijas is then put in and
pit is filled. Then the temple is constructed.
8. Murdhestaka sthapana: Placing the top stone over the prakara, gopura etc. This
again involves creating cavities filled with gems minerals seeds etc. and then the
pinnacles are placed.
9. Garbhanyasa: A pot made of five metals (pancaloha kalasa sthapana) is installed
at the place of main deity.
10. Sthapana: Then the main deity is installed.
11. Pratistha: The main deity is then charged with life/god-ness.
Before the temple is opened for daily worship, there are some preparatory rituals to be
done, like:
 Anujna: the priest takes permission from devotees and lord Ganesha to
begin rituals
 Mrit samgrahana: Collecting mud
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Ankurarpana: Sowing seeds in pots of mud collected and waiting till they
germinate
Rakshabandhana: The priest binds a holy thread of vow on his hand to
take up the assignment.
Punyahavacana: Purifying ritual for the place and invoking good omens
Grama santi: Worship for the good of village and to remove subtle
undesired elements
Pravesa bali: Propitiation of various gods at different places in the temple,
rakshoghna puja (to destroy asuric elements) and of specific gods like
Kshetra palaka (devata ruling the town)
Vastu Santi: Pacifying puja for vastu (this happens twice and this is the
second time)
Yagasala: Building the stage for homas, along with vedika.
Kalasasthapana: Installing kalasam
Samskara: Purifying the yaga sala
Kalasa puja, yagarambha: Woshipping the kalasa as god and propitiating
deities through fire
Nayanonmeelana, Pratimadhivasa: Opening eyes of the god-image,
installing it and giving it life
Then specific worship is done to deity, as prescribed. For instance in the case of Siva, this
is followed by astabandhana and kumbhabhisheka.
Rituals
There are four kinds of rituals conducted in a temple: nitya (daily), naimittika
(occasional), kamya (desirous or optional) and prayaschitta (expiation).
Appendix I – Collectivism
Contents
Collectivity - The Theory
Section1 – Need for Collectivity
Section 2 – Completeness and Collectivity
Section 3 – Levels of Collectivity
Section 4 – Benefits of Collectivity
Section 5 – Problems and Pitfalls in Managing Collectivities
Understanding Contemporary Societies
Section 6 – The Hindu Society
Section 7 – Hindus in US
Collectivity – The Theory
Section 1 – Need for Collectivity
Forming groups, feeling belongingness to them, representing those groups in the society,
trying to protect the interests of those groups, creating a group level capital be it
monetary or human resource, how good or bad is this? Let us examine both sides of the
coin.
Let us take the case of an individual in a society. He is given the right to live there. How
can he survive there?
1. Apart from salary and house, he needs a social circle to move. He can say the entire
society is his, but obviously he does not “move” with it. He needs some friends/relatives
to move. He searches for them and creates a circle for himself.
2. He confides in that circle, moves in it. He depends on the circle for what he cannot do
as an individual – social dependence. This can be of different types and levels, right from
having company to visit a restaurant to having somebody to take him to the doctor if he
has an urgent medical problem. These can be bad examples but there will be many other
needs. So he creates a circle where help can be given and taken. This help can be human
or monetary. In case of monetary help he tries to raise a fund within the circle that can be
used in case of need for an individual or family within the circle.
3. Then there are aesthetic needs for which he needs like-minded people around him.
Having similar interests or working for a similar cause as his, resonating to the
wavelength of his thought, these are higher needs for the individual. He creates a circle
for such interests.
4. There is another kind of need, which is compatibility of culture level. He needs his
circle to be of a similar culture-level as his. Not his habits but his entire civilizational
trait, including likes-dislikes of customs, attire, and language level, knowledge level,
value-set, character level, personality and philosophical traits. Each person wants to move
with those persons who match him in these. Different aspects can be matching with
different people, and the person chooses to limit his interaction with others to those
aspects he has match with. This is human tendency.
There are other needs for collectivity to a person, but we can start with this initial set. In
fact all this need not be listed even to a layman, because everyone acknowledges these
implicitly and takes for granted “man is a social being he needs a group to move with”.
But our purpose is not concluding this; we want to go a bit further into the matter. We
want to find out what kinds of needs of a man are addressed by what kind of groups.
Section 2 – Completeness and Collectivity
But before that we need to address another important aspect, what causes a man to attach
more importance or less importance with collectivities. What makes man more dependent
or less dependent on collectivities? For this we need to see what man seeks in life. He
seeks happiness. Then the question is what brings happiness. It is completeness that
brings happiness. There is a vast landscape of incompleteness in man. The more
successful he is in fulfilling it and achieving completeness, the happier he is. There are
different ways to achieve completeness. Most wise people say that having a goal and
working for it throughout one’s life is the way to achieve this completeness. It is
aimlessness that causes incompleteness to grow and it is goal that fills in that
incompleteness.
Having said this, it is really rare to find in a society someone who has such goal and
spends his life for it. Most people have aims, ambitions, passions, fancies, principles,
dreams, visions, but a goal of the kind that offers such a fulfillment is rare to find in men.
There are many constructs man creates to offer completeness – the biggest of them is
God. A definition for God/Divinity is “the belief that offers completeness to man”. This
is not a qualitative definition for God but a teleological definition. At higher levels it is
not a belief but a living presence with which he needs no other circle or society to offer
him anything except his basic physical needs (sometimes not even that). The more a man
gets absorbed into it, the more complete he gets and the less is the need for him to seek,
create or move within circles. This way, aloofness is brought about by a kind of
completeness in man.
But there is dichotomy in aloofness – one who has not begun the journey for
completeness and still has to feel the need for circles and create them and the one who
has journeyed through it and finally grew above it by achieving completeness from
within.
Thus during his journey he creates and sustains many levels of collectivities – this phase
is called pravritti. In pravritti marga man synthesizes and sustains the society. Then he
locates the space within him where he can attain completeness – then he starts nivritti.
That is, he withdraws into himself.
There are many other ways man can achieve completeness – art forms, research, social
activity – in short any kind of synthesis. Synthesis brings completeness. In traditional
language one transcends annamaya, pranamaya and manomaya kosas with synthetic
activity and lives in vijnanamaya kosa. He then moves further in, to anandamaya kosa
and within that to achieve total completeness. But in this stage of transcendence he does
things that do not relate to the subject of his synthetic activity. For instance, a scientist
stops speaking about laws of science and starts dwelling in philosophy. An artist no more
thinks of skill but only expresses his deepest experiences. A social activist no more
represents his community or cause or principle but becomes instrument in the universal
cause. In this stage he does continue to synthesize but it is entirely different both in
content and quality from what he does earlier. This is the highest form of synthesis and
offers the highest fulfillment for man’s life.
The dependence a man has with collectivity begins as he steps into pravritti, grows with
it, and starts coming down when he starts nivritti. As he completes nivritti he has nothing
to do with any kind of collectivity – family, community, society or nation.
Section 3 – Levels of Collectivity
Having seen how man’s life cycle maps with need of collectivity, we can now examine
what levels of collectivities he embraces in what stages of his life and for what needs.
As an individual, his pravritti begins with birth and continues as he accumulates material
possessions and relations. As he begins to retire from all these and ceases to feel
ownership over these, his nivritti begins. As his nivritti completes, his lifecycle ends.
The basic unit of collectivity for a man is his family that offers him most of what needs.
It is this unit to which he owes most directly. His existence, survival, living is because of
his family till he achieves the ability to do all these himself. Then he will be responsible
for the survival of his family. And there will be someone else (the next generation is
ready to take it up) to do that. His dependency on his family is the highest when he does
not even realize that there is something called family. And as he becomes self-sufficient,
his need for family decreases and family’s need for him increases. Then his nivritti starts.
And when the next generation takes it up and his need is fulfilled, his nivritti completes
and vanaprastha begins (his role in family ends).
Almost when man’s nivritti in family begins, he starts behaving like an individual in his
society. Before that he is not responsible for his actions in the society and he does not
face its consequences directly as the family faces the consequences of many if not most
of his actions. But from then on he has to face the consequences of his actions and the
actions of every one in the family. Then he starts building an image of the family in the
society and creates a new interface with the society. He tries to consolidate his position in
the society by representing different levels of collectivity – he is known through his
contacts, his community and his region apart from his personal qualities. He realizes that
his community’s strength becomes his strength if he uses his belongingness to the
community. Similarly the strengths of his region religion, nation are his strengths. And
the weaknesses of those are his weaknesses. There is a tendency in him to disown those
collectivities when it comes to weaknesses and own it when it comes to strengths. In
stronger individuals this manifests as a reformative tendency to own the collectivity as it
is and then work to overcome the weakness. Before he starts contributing to the society
but still depends on it he is in pravritti alone. When he starts repaying while still
depending on it he is in both pravritti and nivritti, but his nivritti starts. When he starts
giving it without taking from it (or taking the bare minimum) he is in nivritti alone. In the
highest stage of evolution discussed earlier man will be in this stage.
Coming to his needs discussed in the first section, man learns about his culture from his
family and his community. It is his community with its set of unique cultural traits such
as customs, protocol of interactions and code of conduct that is his cultural unit. He
depends on it for his own culture. His own stature and how well he carries his culture on
(that is, how well he sustains it), is what he gives back to it. Many means of fulfilling his
aesthetic needs are also learnt from his cultural unit. The same person can both personally
and impersonally relate himself to his cultural unit. At a community level where he
resonates with individuals’ needs and contributes to those he is personally related. At a
deeper level (such as cultural and aesthetic) he is more impersonally related to his
cultural unit. The bigger the level of collectivity he represents or seeks to work for, the
higher is the chance for him to transcend the outer kosas and dwell in inner kosas. The
more impersonal he gets in his work the higher this chance is.
Even within the community a person usually relates himself more to those persons who
resonate with his wavelength of thought or belong to his economic stature or conform to
customs to the same extent as himself. And if he finds someone outside his cultural unit
that matches to some of these, his circle will include those persons. Such circle will not
usually overlap with his cultural unit. This way the person is simultaneously a member of
different collectivities – such as his place of work, his friend circle, his cultural unit, his
family, his region, the circle he participates in for his aesthetic needs or the circle where
he tries to achieve the goal of his life, and so on. Depending on his stage of evolution and
how complete or incomplete he is, he relates more to some of these collectivities and less
to others.
For instance, a person with his basic and aesthetic needs already satisfied is not found in
a circle meant for fun alone. The kind of completeness he achieves is far more than what
a friend circle meant for fun can offer. If he has friends they are not for any specific
reason. For such a person a friend means simply a known person who shares good and
bad mostly for the sake of sharing than helping. We only find circles where his
aspirations are collectively achieved.
The Macro View
All this is discussed mostly in the micro perspective, i.e., from the individual’s
perspective. The belongingness of a person to a nation or a civilization should be seen
from the macro perspective. Just the way the individual is benefited by the collectivity,
collectivity is sustained and affected by the individuals. In a healthy society the
individuals contribute according to the pravritti and nivritti dharmas at all these levels of
collectivity. Such a society will be self-reformative and hence long living. It will have a
nice balance between subjective and non-subjective. That is, balance between the choices
of individuals and the needs of society. The society sees problems if this balance is lost
for some reason, be it coming in contact with other societies or loss of gelling between
different layers of collectivities. In a healthy society these different levels of collectivities
have a proper context in the individuals’ lives. And it has a mechanism to rediscover this
balance when it is disturbed.
Section 4 – Benefits of Collectivity
The needs of collectivity and reasons why collectivities are sustained is already under
discussion. Apart from these, there are many other benefits that collectivities offer.
1. It offers a much needed buffer for individuals and families. When a person falls sick in
a family, others contribute to compensate for his work or contribution. Similarly when an
individual or a family suffers, the bigger collectivity say community or region takes up
supporting them in a healthy society. This buffer can be monetary or human help or
something else.
2. It offers confidence to the individuals in the group. The strength of the group is the
confidence of its members.
3. Collectivities give the scope to handle events or problems of scale beyond individuals.
What an individual or family cannot face or achieve, can be done by smaller and
effortless contributions by them. It can be something like handling a group of rowdies to
running a Vedic school.
4. Collectivities give the scope for survival in alien conditions. Individuals or families
cannot retain their cultural identity unless they live in groups. For example many Gnostic
and Pagan traditions vanished in the west because they lived as spiritual traditions but not
as social and cultural units. By contrast Hindus are surviving in the west because they
live as social and cultural units in the west.
Section 5 – Problems and Pitfalls in Managing Collectivities
What problems do collectivities pose? The first is a clash of collectivities. This is of two
forms, a conflict between groups and a friction between two levels of collectivities
because of not striking a balance between those. An example for the former is something
like two jatis rallying for power. While the strength generated by the two groups is useful
to both groups and the society overall, the strength used by these groups against each
other damages the groups and the society. The tradeoff between short and long term
interests of the groups has to be made here.
There are rivalries that arise between groups because of the nature of their very purpose.
These can be avoided by a good design of the society. When the society is designed in a
way that opposite purposes are complementary instead of conflicting, this can be avoided.
Another kind of rivalry is one that arises between groups in course of time not necessarily
because of their purposes conflict but because of temporal reasons. As long as the
individual groups have the strength to withstand these and endure the situation, these are
merely ups and downs that are natural to the society. But when the groups and society in
general is not strong enough to endure these, it poses threat to the very social design. The
society then chooses to dissolve those groups to come out of this crisis. A more synthetic
society chooses to create or appeal to another level of collectivity above these groups, so
that the higher level of collectivity appeals more before which the conflict between
smaller level of collectivities appears small and eventually fades out. An example to this
is appealing to religion in context of caste conflicts in Hinduism.
The second kind of clash is a friction between different levels of collectivities. In the
micro perspective, smaller levels of collectivity appeal more to individuals than bigger
levels of collectivities. Individual choice prevails over family, family over community
and community over society. In the macro perspective, higher levels of collectivities are
needed by the society for their longer life. These two tendencies in the society pose a
challenge – how to organize a society in a way that this friction decreases. This depends
on many factors like how the individuals are trained by the society’s culture and what the
society’s outlook to life is, how good the experience of the society with life. These
determine how such an arrangement can be made. A well experienced society makes an
arrangement where different levels of collectivities preexist in a way that it does not need
creation of collectivities temporally. And if collectivities have to be made temporally it
ensures that they would only be needed in situations of crisis and that they go the moment
their need is over. This requires a long lasting arrangement of individual, family,
community hierarchy. A society where individuals or families are the basic units does not
satisfy community level needs. And communities if created temporally will overlap, clash
over time since their arrangement is made only in view of the current individual needs.
And if there is an arrangement where communities preexist, individuals will not need to
create temporary and ad hoc arrangements for communal needs. But to make such a
social arrangement the society needs long and enlightening experience with life. It mot
only needs to create communities that do not clash with each other, but needs to place
them in the society in a way that a the personal choice of life of individuals is least
affected and at the same time the individual in his normal life contributes knowingly or
unknowingly towards sustaining the arrangement. Also, a community offers only a base
for the individual and an excelling individual always transcends the limitation of his
environment and the society gives scope for it. An experienced society creates such an
arrangement itself.
The advantage of such arrangement is that it offers scope for survival of small
communities in the midst of big ones, without extinction. In a “free” society that has no
such arrangement, there is no concept of cultural units and therefore uniqueness of some
unit is not possible to be retained over time. This is how very small communities manage
to survive in the Hindu society and succeed in retaining their uniqueness. This is the
arrangement that offers diversity in a society.
If one has such arrangement it is necessarily by birth that a person belongs to some unit,
since whatever preexists accommodates the individuals from birth. It is not possible to
have a communal setup that does not apply from birth and comes up from air somehow.
Therefore, social mobility is an important factor without which these units do not live
long. Mobility between communities exists only at an individual level, such as through
marital relations. To ensure mobility of communities or parts of communities, the society
needs a higher level arrangement over these communities, which is an abstraction. This
way the community as a whole transforms itself into a higher/lower cultural unit.
Another aspect needed for such an arrangement to live long is that it creates scope for
individuals in each of these abstractions and communities to achieve the completeness
discussed above. That is possible if there is a prescribed method of synthesis for
individuals of these units that does not suits the functions of the individual, his situation
in the society and his cultural background. This does not enforce the method on the
individual since it applies only on the abstraction and not on the community, and also
since this is only a guideline and not a duty. But since practically social pressure and
environment of upbringing does influence this, the individual does not usually get to
transcend this limitation unless he has wider exposure or has exceptional merit. Also,
there is always a difference between occupational and aesthetic pursuit. This arrangement
sometimes needs individuals to keep them disjoint since having a specific occupational
pursuit is not always a matter of choice for individuals in the society. But the individual
always reserves both scope and right to pursue his interests in the other form. Secondly,
choice of occupational pursuit is not a community decision most of the times – there is a
situation-peer/family pressure-social convention always acting on each individual that
determines it in the presence or absence of community. And this is a forced personal
choice influenced under all these pressures, especially when the society is undergoing a
transformation. (A small example is that most people opting for software jobs do not do it
for any reason other than the money in it and lack of prospects in other lines of career.
The technical challenge or the completeness it offers is next to nothing. It is certainly the
individual’s decision, but forced by convention and social situation. And most of the
times the community decisions on this are wiser, since it helps create a lobby to pursue
those.).
In such an arrangement if there is a disturbance that causes these units to clash, be it due
to resource crisis in the society or an external factor, the society should be able to appeal
to a higher level of collectivity that binds these communal units. That is the
culture/civilizational uniqueness of the society it retains beyond the diversity of customs
of the units. It can also be a geographic unit such as nation, but that does not appeal as
much as the cultural unit does. The first reason is, nation is a very new concept which did
not exist a few hundreds of years ago. Next reason is that culture is something a person’s
every day activity reflects. Regional appeal may work only in case of a political/military
aggression on the society, but in case of communal conflicts it is the cultural unity that
appeals.
But more importantly, what should be remembered is that it is after all humans that live
the system and however meticulous the system is its benefits are determined by
1. How worse can the society be without the system, and how better the system is given
the same human tendencies?
2. How elevated can a person be because of the system, that is, whether the system
accommodates for the highest reaches of human nature?
3. What is the normal stature of human expected by the system and where does it aim to
take it to? How successful it is in doing so?
And since human nature is not a straight line but moves in a cycle like seasons, the
system also sees its lifecycle of highs and lows. Also, the system is not responsible for
human weaknesses. A system ideally aims at an arrangement where the society does not
collapse because of those weaknesses, but the weaknesses cannot be removed by the
arrangement. The downward tendencies can only be de-prioritized by the system but they
keep showing up. Therefore it is not arrangement but men that ultimately have to fight
with those tendencies and the arrangement can only help their thinking in that direction.
And many factors like contact with other societies and philosophical development play a
role in the extent to which it succeeds.
Understanding Contemporary Societies
Section 6 – The Hindu Society
The previous section deals with how an experienced society organizes itself. Most of it
applies directly to the Hindu society. It has all the equipment needed – experience,
outlook, cultural background and knowledge system to arrange itself the best way. And it
has the equipment to create an arrangement that has all the aspects discussed above.
Jati is the cultural unit in our society. Varna is the abstraction that directs (upward)
mobility for these units. As long as the varna controlled jati, the system came down quite
well without much friction between jatis. But as jatis started behaving as uncontrolled
units by themselves, the society started seeing problems.
The first challenge to varna came from Buddhism. Buddhism did not offer a social
model; in fact it does not apply to societies. But more people started taking to Buddhism
who did not take to sanyasa but remained in their social fold without living their tradition.
Since Buddhism neither offered an alternate model nor followed the then existing social
setup the society suffered loss. Instead of “eliminating the classification” they only
succeeded in creating subsections in all the existing sections that did not follow the rules
of those bigger sections. Thus they only succeeded in creating pockets that do not comply
with the varna system. Buddhism however did not succeed in countering jati. Jatis
remained the units, but the control of varna over jati is what they succeeded in harming.
This not only failed in improving social situation but harmed it. As a result, conflicts
between jatis did arise and varna system was not strong enough to resolve those. The
lesson is that attacking varna before addressing jati will only harm the society.
The next biggest harm is done by the British and the Christian missionaries by maligning
varna. They created an opinion that some varnas dominated the others and some are
oppressed in the society because of varna vyavastha. As an example they showed the
feudal setup. But the reality on ground is that it is not varnas that oppressed – varna in
itself is the controlling level that prevents friction and not the physical power that can be
used to oppress. It is the imbalance created in power and money due to continuous
external attacks and the disturbance caused in our society that gave strength to certain
jatis and weakened the others. We can see how some groups high in the varna hierarchy
got into miserable conditions during the Muslim attacks and are today called scheduled
tribes.
What the British did is they mapped this jati rivalry over the varna system and made
Indians believe that that is because of the varna hierarchy. All the problems in the society
across sections are due to the varna, this is what they wanted us to believe. Destroying
our faith and confidence in anything Hindu and making us feel inferior about our
tradition is what the British wanted us to do in order to have their dominance on us. And
most of us are the victims of this misinformation. What we study in our text books today
after 60 years of political independence is the same. Education system, law and order,
administration, there is virtually nothing really Indian about what we have today and this
is because of the inferiority we have about our own system. The lack of aggression we
see today in Indians in front of the world is greatly because of this, be it cricketing or
diplomacy.
Post-independence is the next and current phase where we see that the theory of caste
oppression of British is being used and misused to encourage caste rivalry and hatred and
thereby gain political mileage. Today it is no more an anguish or displeasure due to social
situation, today it is a competition for power between units. Start a movement, appeal to
the age-old varna and smriti that is not being followed, conduct a hate campaign over
those who stand for them, get a “modern” and an “equality” brand (gain equality through
hate campaigns!) yourself. Use jargons and buzz-words, no body knows what they really
mean – they sound big and good. Attack those who do not have strength and can be
attacked and brand them as the representatives of the chauvinistic, hegemonic and
oppressive system – these two moves will get you credibility. Use that to get some
numbers and be able to have some influence in governance. That gets you power. This is
typically what happens today. This has nothing to do either with varna – this is simply a
rally for power. And in fact it is a campaign against varna.
The work that is done silently at the ground level to overcome the influence of the hatecampaigns to achieve some smoothness between the units, with the knowledge of both
tradition and of these attacks, is almost unnoticed. Not only because it is not done by
many – but rather because credibility to such work is harmful to has power mongering
that live on hatred and social friction. Their existence is what gets them a rallying point.
But all this said, there is a positive side of the coin. Jati today offers a social capital. The
buffer that an individual/family cannot afford comes from the community. Communities
work as communities to generate huge amount of human and monetary resources. Some
of this certainly goes into the power rallying or jati-rivalry, but a great amount of social
capital is constructively used too. We see people of same communities coming up in
groups, generating wealth, contributing a great deal to the economy and social strength.
The wisdom of society lies in recognizing this, using it properly and minimizing its
misuse (hate, rivalry or whatever).
Jati is a cultural unit and jatis are the representatives of Hindu culture. These are the ones
that preserved a culture so diverse in customs, approaches and occupations. In fact the jati
system offers survival to small cultural units and allow them retain their cultural
uniqueness over a long period of time.
Another whip used to beat Hinduism is untouchability. There are two aspects in this. One
– people using it against Hinduism. Two – Hindus confused about it. While most people
think varna/jati is directly related to untouchability, truth is that its solution lies in
handling it independent of varna. Irrespective of the level of casteism and caste-hatred,
we do not see untouchability in urban areas as much. It has more to do with something
other than varna system. Keeping aside its historic evolution we have to accept that it is
fast going down. We also have to admit that it is almost gone in places where its
relevance is gone. The rest lies in transforming those places where it still exists. One part
of it is raising the living conditions. Second part of it is making the people there aware of
its obsoleteness. Also, those who know about Hinduism and its history agree that many
practices in Hinduism come and go in time – they are temporal. And Hinduism has the
ability to create and shun practices that suit times. We do not get to see most of the
mediaeval practices today. Most people lack this proportion and tend to overreact.
Another important thing needed in understanding our society is that it is a huge, complex
and old society and it does not take up or shun anything in haste. The timescale for
changes in such a society is much larger than the lifespan of a man and this is why most
people think that Hinduism is too slow in reforming itself. In fact it is very fast in doing
that. Movements needed come in no time looking at its size and complexity, though it
may appear too long for people. Realizing this and still working to discard obsolete
practices is entirely different from using those to malign and harm the society.
Other forms of collectivity exist in Hinduism too. There have been many movements that
mobilized huge masses and lasted for long. Any bhakti movement typically sees a lot of
success in the Hindu society. Religion is the heart of India, and any appeal to religion
gets a huge response. The scale and success of Kumbh mela or Ratha yatra in Puri stand
for this. Those movements last real long. Permanence is the primary requirement and
Hindus tend towards those setups and movements that aim at it. That is the reason why
institutions like family, caste, religious sampradayas come down for millennia.
Section 7 – Hindus in the US
The Hindus in the US organize themselves as communities. It is geography that
determines these units, but there are many other aspects like culture that determine these.
In places where there are few thousands of Hindus they form a few communal units. In
places where the Hindu population is dense and big, they organize themselves in multiple
units and such grouping involves more factors like language, caste, customs and
economy. As the unit is small, these do not factor much and as units grow in size all these
start coming into the picture.
These units behave like cultural units and like pockets of Indian culture within the US.
Their interface with the native US community (say native for the sake of convenience,
this means the Whites and not the Red Indians) is not much and is limited to minimum
most of the times. The fact that the American society is loosely bound and individuals are
atomized, allows the Indians to live like communal units within the US without much
interference or assimilative pressure from the American society itself. This way they
retain their cultural uniqueness.
We may ask “how culturally Indian are the Indians settled in US? Third/fourth generation
Indians in US are as good as Americans anyways”. But we have to acknowledge that
their ties with the Indian units there are stronger than the more recent Indians settled
there. And the social units do survive there. Also, the cultural aspects that are not directly
related to geography and local life are retained by the Indians there because of their
collective living. Secondly, the social need and incompleteness can be seen more by older
settlers say beyond 4 generations than recent ones because of their experience, hence
their greater participation in such units. Thus, while the recent ones still have the cultural
string towards these units, the older ones have a need string. Also since their influence on
the American society is greater, these groups depend more on them for a base.