Hinduism FAQ

As promised, here's the first in my series on Hinduism. I absolutely loved the class I audited at Tufts this spring, and I'm excited to share what I've learned on the blog. It's taken me so long to get this started only because (as you well know, dear reader) I have too. Many. Projects.What follows are my most basic burning questions, which our professor Brian Hatcher mostly answered in the first couple of lectures (with the exception of "om," which we came to a little later on).  Is Hinduism a polytheistic religion?The delightfully slippery thing about Hinduism is that it can't really be classified as a polytheistic or a monotheistic religion, nor is it a unified belief system with a "central authority" like the Pope or the Dalai Lama. You can look at a list of basic tenets like this one on the Hinduism Today website, but it isn't accurate from a practical standpoint. Not every Hindu believes in reincarnation, for example, and it's estimated that only 25 to 40% of Hindus are vegetarian, so ahimsa isn't a hardfast principle either.It seems that the underlying tenet of Hinduism, the thing all Hindus would agree on, is the oneness of all creation. Each of us has a soul—atman—which is part of brahman, ultimate reality, the "cosmic soul" if you will. In this sense there is only one "god," though that "god" appears in many avatars; and because we are divine beings, we are all on a spiritual path. What are the Vedas?Amy Lou's husband Finn recently finished his Ph.D. in Sanskrit and Indian Studies (check out this gorgeous video of Indian high school students getting ready for a theatrical competition, which Finn filmed in Kerala in December 2012). They actually moved to Kerala for a year, and when Amy Lou referred to Vedic this or that, I'd have pretty much no idea what she was talking about.Now, however, I can tell you that the Vedas are the very oldest Hindu scriptures, written in Sanskrit and divided into four texts: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda. The Vedas are śruti—"what is heard," or divine revelation—as opposed to smṛti, "what is remembered," wisdom gained through tradition.Each of the four texts is further subdivided into four (or five) types, the fourth being the Upanishads, which cover philosophy and spiritual principles (which is why we Westerners hear about them most often; this is where you learn about the concepts of atman and brahman).Another word I came across from time to time is "Vedanta," which means "the last" or "highest of the Veda." Vedanta originally referred to the Upanishads; now there are six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, of which Vedanta is the most prominent. What does "om" mean, anyway?"Om" (or "aum") is a sacred syllable, a primal sound or "root vibration" linking heaven and earth. It's made up of three sounds, A + U + M, which symbolize earth, heaven, and the space between. Now I understand why we chant "om" at the beginning and end of yoga class—it's the simplest and most powerful mantra there is. 

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What else will I blog about in this series?

The Four Goals of Human Existence

Hinduism and Vegetarianism (you knew that was coming!)

Hinduism and Yoga (ditto!)

Hinduism, the Epics, and the Role of Women

Asceticism

The Concept of Divine Sight

This is going to be great! (If I can just get organized enough to post on a regular basis...)

Boston to NYC, 1704 style

Bright and early (7AM!) I am hopping on a bus to NYC en route to, as Kelly B. says, "the dirty Jerz." I thought it would be fun to contrast a 21st-century four-hour Megabus trip (air conditioning, WiFi, &c., &c.) with this description of the same trip made in colonial times:

In October 1704, Sarah Kemble Knight, aged thirty-eight, set out alone on horseback on a trip from Boston to New York. She picked up companionship along the way, often with the post rider, for New England had a mail service now. She endured shabby inns where village topers often kept her awake at night; meals that varied from the unpalatable to almost decent; rocky, unmarked ways that sometimes led into dead ends; but not once did anyone attempt to rob her or threaten her with bodily harm. It did not disconcert her to wake up one night and find she was sharing the room with two men in a nearby bed. The few times she thought her heart might stop came while crossing a stream in a tippy dugout canoe or on a ride to the next stage during a moonless night "that rendered every object formidable," when "every lifeless trunk with its shatter'd limbs appear'd an armed enemy, and every little stump a ravenous devourer."

(From David Freeman Hawke's Everyday Life in Early America. Professor Hawke does not specify how long Mrs. Knight's journey actually took.)