Hindu Matters

Hinduism is a set of beliefs, values and practices deriving authority from the Veda (♪). The Veda are a set of four very ancient books that teach us how to be good human beings. At this stage, I am going to restrict myself to providing only a very high-level overview of Hinduism, so I will not describe any more what the Veda are, what they contain, their sections, particular areas of interest and so on.

In this page I will write about:

• Hindu Beliefs
• Hindu Values
• Hindu Practices, where I will cover
✳ Everyday practices,
✳ The landmarks of life, from conception to death and
✳ Salient festivals.

A. Beliefs

As Hindu, we believe in (a) reincarnation, (b) the law of Karma (♪) and (c) supremacy of the Veda.

There are beliefs. A belief is something that an individual:

1. intellectually accepts as evident, correct and acceptable without the need for "proof" and
2. emotionally finds such acceptance as "happy", "comfortable" and "satisfying".

As said, our beliefs are:–

• Reincarnation – This belief follows from a set of beliefs set out below:
  • Each individual is essentially an individual spark of consciousness. We are alive only so long as we are conscious. When we are asleep, we may not be obvoiusly conscious of external surroundings, but something within us retains the consciousness that we need to keep on breathing, that we need to digest our food, that we need to change our sleeping posture when the body begins to feel discomfort in a particular posture beyond a certain level, and so on. Similarly when one is in a coma or is sedated for surgery, for example – there still remains a consciousness at some deep level within the individual that impels him or her to continue breathing, etc. In the Veda, this individual spark of consciousness is referred to as "Aatmaa" (♪) or "Aatman" (♪).
  • There is a cosmic, all-pervading envelope of consciouness which we may call The Supreme Being, The Almighty, The Infinite, The Omnipresent, Nameless, Formless and Attributeless God, or whatever we like. In the Veda, this cosmic, onmipresent envelope of consciousness is referred to as "Paramaatmaa" (♪), "Paramaatman" (♪) or "Brahman" (♪). And because it is nameless, formless and attributeless, the Veda sometimes refer to it simply as "Tat" (♪), meaning "That".
  • The Aatmaa seeks to untimately, after going through many births and deaths, merge with the Paramaatmaa so that the two become one. This happens through a process that requires the Aatmaa to take on (much like wearing new clothes) new bodies one after another, through a cycle of births and deaths, and gaining a range of knowledge and experiences through each body. This is somewhat like a student progressing from class to class through the education system, gaining more and more knowledge in each subsequent class. When the student completes his or her studies satisfactorily, he or she does not need to go back into the education system any more.
  • The goal of life is to perform the right actions and gain the right experiences to the extent possible that will assist us in breaking out of the cycle of birth and death. Such breaking out of the cysle of birth and death is called "Moksha" (♪). Buddhists call it "Nirvaana" (♪).

• The law of Karma – This belief holds that every action we do (this includes every thought we think) has an effect upon – either beneficial for or injurious to – our progress towards attaining Moksha. If we do a good deed, it earns us brownie points, i.e., we advance along our journey towards Moksha. If we do a bad deed, it sets us back by putting us in a disadvantageous position in one way or another.

  The law of Karma explains why we are all so very different from one another. Some of us are rich, some of us are poor. Some of us are blessed with good health, some of us are plagued by bad health. Some of us are more intelligent than others or more creative than others. We all have different abilities, strengths and weaknesses. And, of course, some of us live long but some of us die early, sometimes even as infants. Why is this so? This is so because each of us are individual Aatmaa, on our own individual journey towards ultimately merging with the Paramaatmaa. To progress along this journey, we go through various lives, picking up diverse experiences. Each of us are at different stages in our respective journeys. Some of us need to experience the life of a rich person while others need to experience the life of a poor person. So, we choose to be born in richness or in poverty, depending upon what we need to experience to move along our path towards Moksha. Once we have gained the experience we set out to gain in this lifetime, we identify what is needed next and we choose our next body and birth circumstances.

  For this reason, it is never, ever, correct to choose to voluntarily end one's own life. Suicide is choosing to avoid gaining the experiences (good or bad) that we need to gain in this life. The result of suicide is that the Aatman which inhabited the body will need to come back and complete the lesson, i.e., complete gaining the required knowledge and experience that was necessary to progress to the next life. But it does not stop there – by doing someting so bad as committing suicide, a big setback occurred and the Aatman will now have to go back into a lower level and restart from way back.

B. Values

Values are codes of conduct to go by. In Hinduism, we have values at two levels:

1. "Action" values
2. "Moral" values

Action values – These tell us what to do in life, i.e., what actions to perform in life. They are four in all and collectively they are called "Purushaartha". They are:–

1. Dharma – Being good, doing good, staying within righteousness. At all times, stay within the bounds of what is good, what is right, what is righteous. This is not negotiable. Of course, what is good, right and righteous depends upon the place where you are performing or going to perform or abstain from performing the contemplated action, the time when you are performing or going to perform or abstain from performing the contemplated action and the people you are dealing with. In this, the moral values will assist you make correct choices.

   This is as good a place as any to introduce a more descriptive name of the religion popularly known as Hinduism - that name is Sanaatana Dharma. "Sanaatana" means eternal. "Dharma" means “the property of being”. For example, it is the property (or nature) of an electric bulb to give light; so we say that the Dharma of the electric bulb is to give light. What should be the property of an apple tree? It should be to bear apples. That is, its Dharma is to bear apples. And so on. In this sense, Hinduism is but a humanistic code of right behaviour (right property) for human beings.

   In this sense, “Hinduism” is a religion without a religion – a religionless religion. We Hindu merely believe in reincarnation and the law of karma on the one hand and a few basic human values on the other, and that is all. Any person who believes in and lives by a belief in reincarnation, the law of Karma and in these values is a Hindu, whether or not he or she practises its outward rituals. Thus a Hindu may or may not believe in the existence of a God: he if free to be agnostic if he likes. A Hindu may or may not go to a temple to worship. As a Hindu, I may go to the temple or I may not. I may pray at home, I may not. I may participate in community Poojaa (communal worship), I may not. I may meditate, I may not. These are not at all factors or acts that Hinduism enjoins under pain of punishment or some horrifying retribution. As said, long as I believe in reincarnation, the law of Karma and some simple, basic principals and values, listed in this section, I am a Hindu.

2. Artha – Acquiring, developing or increasing resources. These include wealth, utility (time utility as well as place utility), health, knowledge, skill, improved environment, peace in society and so on. All of these, in one sense or another, is "wealth". Artha refers to acquiring or puuting in place anything that will enable you to be able to do good actions. So, this Purshaartha tells you to acquire Artha, but at all times to do so strictly within the framework of Dharma, the first Purushaartha.
3. Kaama – Enjoying the resources acquired or developed. If you have acquired personal wealth within the bounds set by Dharma, please do enjoy the fruits the wealth enables you to experience. If you have acquired a skill (within the bounds set by Dharma), enjoy the fruits that the skill now makes available to you. Live life joyfully, within the bounds set by Dharma, using the resources you have gained within the bounds of Dharma. There is no limit or bar to the type of joy or pleasure that you can access using the Artha you have gained, so long as the Artha has been gained within the bounds set by Dharma and the joy or pleasure is experienced within the bounds set by Dharma.
4. Moksha – Attaining liberation from the cycle of birth and death. If you have lived this life within the Dharma framework and have enjoyed the fruits of Artha, you are one step closer to Moksha – there is one birth-death life less that your Aatma has to go through in the journey towards Moksha. That's great!

Moral values – These values are sometimes referred to as Yama: some scholars say there are five Yama, others say there are ten, yet others say there are eight. On a comparison of various views, the following emerge in consensus:–

1. Satyam – As a Hindu, I believe that I should speak the truth. Here, truth must be tempered with kindness and compassion when needed. If the truth causes harm, when it may sometimes do, it is better not to say it. For example, it is sometimes better not to reveal to a terminally ill patient the terminal nature of his or her illness. This depends upon a variety of circumstances including the personality of the patient. Individual circumstances, and no general rule, must decide which truth must be tempered in which manner. Our great Texts are full of many discussions, illustrations, stories, etc., on this very point. It is said, “Satyam Brooyat, Priam Brooyat”, i.e. the truth and the pleasant truth should be spoken.
2. Ahimsaa – This means non-violence. A Hindu believes in non-violence. But this does not mean non-violence towards enemies who try to inflict violence upon us. We say "Vishasya Vishamaushadham", meaning the medicine for poison is poison. If an enemy attacks us with violence, we need to be violent – more violent – against the enemy. Violence, such as in self-defence, war or punishment is often needed to ensure peace. We have a term – Dharma Yuddha" meaning "righteous war", i.e., war to protect our existence, our property, our peace and so on.

   Nor does Ahimsaa mean vegetarianism, for there does not appear to be any reason for destroying plant life if animal life is not to be sacrificed, too. One reason a vegetarian gives for not eating meat is that meat comes from violence – “Himsaa” (violence); then, if taking life is cruel, why eat at all? After all, even plants have life and also feel pain as well as pleasure. In India, cows are milked by first using their calves to begin the flow of milk from the udder. As soon as the first few drops of milk begin to emerge, the milkman forcibly drags the calf away and collects the milk to sell to the “pure” vegetarian (for some reason, the vegetarian often likes to refer to himself or herself as “pure”): is such snatching away of from the mouth of an innocent and helpless creature, all for the "pure" vegetarian person’s selfish consumption, not Himsaa?

   No, the meaning of Ahimsaa is not vegetarianism. Rather, Ahimsaa means not doing violence beyond that bare minimum without which we ourselves cannot survive. As a Hindu, at least I do not cause untold suffering to an animal by slowly bleeding it to death in the name of religion. Muslims have been known to make very small incisions in the windpipes of large animals like camels and leave them to die a slow, hours-long and agonizing death.

   Non-violence towards human beings is too well-known a concept to merit discussion in a small article such as this one.

3. Aasteyam – This means not taking that which does not belong to one. “Stena” means “stealing” (notice the phonetic similarity between the two words – an example among many hundreds of similar sounding words across Sanskrit and many languages, indicating the widespread dissemination of Sanskrit culture all over, rather than Sanskrit borrowing from other cultures). As a Hindu, I will not steal or appropriate to myself that which is not rightly mine. Greed and selfishness have no place in the scheme of things of a practising Hindu.
4. Dayaa – This means compassion or kindness. A Hindu has compassion and sympathy for all living creatures. Hinduism is a “religion” of love, kindness, mercy, selflessness and rendering assistance to the needy even at great cost to oneself.
5. Kshaanti – This value combines the virtues of patience, forgiveness, tolerance and withstanding suffering. As a Hindu, I have an inclusive outlook, believing in a live and let live policy. I am not a fundamentalist or a bigot. Religious persecution is rarely found in the history of Hinduism. When Chaarvak propounded his anti-Vedic and materialist theories, no order (or the equivalent of the Muslim Fatwa) was passed by any religious head baying for his life. On the contrary, the merit of his scholarly approach to his theory was recognised (though the theory itself was not accepted) by the very people against whose ideology he wrote. Indeed, those very people called him Maharshi Chaarvak, according to him the respect of a Maharshi (akin to a high ranking university professor). Such is the catholicity and tolerance of Hinduism.
6. Aarjavam – This refers to simplicity, straightforwardness and absence of deceit. A Hindu is one who believes in openness and transparency and is one who is free from hypocrisy. Kayena Manasa Vacha (by body, mind and speech – this last includes deed) he is one and only one person. The Shantipaatha (the opening, which is also the concluding, verse of certain sections of the Veda) of the Rgveda begins thus: “May my speech (this includes deed) be established in (meaning be in conformity with) my mind and may my mind be established in my speech...”. This was a prayer written eight, ten, twelve or twenty-six millennia ago (scholars differ in dating this work), showing the refinement of the Hindu mind even at an age so ancient. Which other culture had such height of thought (and elegance of the expression of the thought) so long ago?
7. Maadhuryam – Meaning sweetness. A Hindu believes in possessing sweetness of disposition and a pleasing and pleasant personality. He or she is not rude or impolite and comes across as a balanced and likeable person.
8. Damah – This is self-control, i.e., the control of passions. A Hindu does not allow his or her baser impulses to the get the better of him or her. He or she does not surrender to the demands of his or her sense organs to perverse limits.
9. Daana – This means to give, to teach, to distribute, to share, to purify and to protect. A Hindu is ever ready with these attributes. A Hindu gives till it hurts.
10. Akalkataa – This means being free of sin. In Hinduism, the word “sin” is not used in the same way as it is used in a religion like Christianity. In Hinduism, sin is not an action. It is the reaction to an action. The abovementioned nine values prevent a person from committing a bad deed (a “sin” in the Christian sense of the word). This value of Akalkataa prevents one from reacting negatively to perceived evil. It does not mean being proactive in remedying the wrong. It merely means not being judgemental and condemning somebody without a full appreciation of the facts and circumstances. It means not adopting a superior, virtuous “holier-than-thou” mental attitude. In one of our Texts, a story is told of a righteous vegetarian Braahmin who would leave home every morning on his daily work. His rounds would take him along a certain narrow lane in which there was a butcher’s shop. As the Braahmin would pass the shop, he would say to himself, “My God, my God, what a sinner this butcher is. He kills many innocent animals every day”. When both died, the butcher went to heaven and the Braahmin went to hell. The butcher had not sinned (because he had not thought about his actions in any negative way but was merely engaged in his Dharma) but the Brahmin had sinned, by his reaction to the butcher’s actions.

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C. Practices

Hindu have a mind-boggling variety of practices or rituals, on account of the extremely diverse nature of the people who call themselves Hindu. In spite of the massive diversity of the Hindu people, there are a few sets of core practices that are accepted and followed by all. I will deal here with only a few of those core practices.

I will group the core practices into a few convenient groups. These groups are only samples or examples and are by no means exhaustive. I have created them merely to try and make a very complex subject somewhat simple to follow. They are:

• Everyday practices to be performed.
• Practices connected with the landmarks of life.
• Practices connected with festivals.

Everyday practices – These are known as "Niyama", loosely meaning rules. There are five of them:

• Shaucha – This means maintaining hygiene, i.e., cleanliness. This has two parts, outer cleanliness and inner cleanliness. Outer cleanliness comprises actions such as washing, bathing, gargling, eating healthy, leading a healthy lifestyle, and so on. Inner cleanliness comprises getting rid of negative thoughts and emotions like jealousy, arrogance, hatred, malice, bad thoughts and so on by associating with good company, studying good books etc.
• Shantosha – This is the practice of remaining satisfied with what one has got or acquired by appropriate effort and avoiding greed and covetousness.
• Tapa – This is the practice of withstanding extremes of emotion. For example, not to get too elated by success or praise nor to get too dejected by failure or insult.
• Svaadhyaaya – This is the practice of proper study, such as studying our Texts like the Veda and the large body of literature stemming from the Veda, as also practices like prayer, meditation, Mantra chanting and so on.
• Iishvarpranidhaana – This is the practice of dedicating every success, object or goal attained to the Almighty, with devotion and humility. This Niyama is considered to be the most important of the five Niyama.

Landmarks of life – Because we Hindu are such a very diverse people, our practices, i.e., the rituals we perform and the way in which we perform them, are very diverse too. Here is a list, which is not exhaustive. Nor have I described here the details of the practices. I just want you to be aware that these are the practices (called Samskaara or Sanskaara) that a Hindu individual (or his or her family members, when he or she is incapable) commonly observes or practices through his or her lifetime:

1. Punsavana (♪) – Performed on the third month after conception, which is about the time when the mother begins to feel the the baby's movements in her womb. This ritual is performed to secure and nurture the womb, i.e., prevent a miscarriage.
2. Seemaantonnayana (♪) – Performed after the sixth month of pregnancy, this ritual involves offering prayers to Ganesha, Soorya, Vishnu, Shiva and Durgaa for the well-being of the mother and the child. The word Seemaantonnayana means "parting the hair"; the father combs the mother's hair, maintaining an aesthetic parting of the hair in the middle as is customary with Hindu women, in a symbolic gesture of love and care of his wife, the mother-to-be, to ensure that she is satisfied, rested and ready to deliver a healthy child.
3. Jaatakarma (♪) – Giving birth to the child. This includes Naabhichhedana (cutting the umbilical cord), followed immediately by Aayushkarana (wishing a long life to the child). The child is welcomed with prayers for the child's good health, longevity, intelligence, prosperity, happiness and so on.
4. Naamakarana (♪) – Naming the child, usually after eight, ten, twelve or twenty-one days from birth. Traditionally, the child's name is selected by the seniormost member of the family and is based upon astrological considerations. Specific prayers are offered and family and friends participate in the event, with food and gifts. It is also traditional to choose auspicious (e.g. names of deities, virtues, stars etc.), meaningful and pleasant names that are not capable of being transformed (or abbreviated) into unwanted or evil words.
5. Bahirnishkramana (♪) – Traditionally, a child is kept indoors for the first three months. On the fourth month, he or she is taken outdoors for the first time, into the sunshine, where he or she first sees and is introduced to the sun. We worship the Sun as the Giver of Light, Heat and Life, from which follow health, knowledge and prosperity. This is an important ritual, accompanied with prayers, chanting of sections of the Veda and so on.
6. Annapraasana (♪) – This is the child being weaned into solid food, at about the sixth month of life, when the first teeth begin to show. The child is fed rice, Ghee (clarified butter) and honey in a paste, accompanied with prayers where family and friends come together, with food and gifts.
7. Choodaakarana (♪) – Tonsuring the head. Done, with prayers, around the first birthday, as a symbolic introduction of the child to a life of hygeine, cleanliness and purity.
8. Karnavedha (♪) – Piercing the ear. Performed on both boys and girls generally within the first birthday, with prayers, this ritual is symbolic not only of ornamentation and blending into society but also reminding the child of the importance of hearing or listening to the Veda and gathering knowledge therefrom. I believe this dropped out of vogue for boys because of Muslim attacks and European colonisation, when it became "uncool" for boys to wear earrings. Traditionally, in earlier Hindu society, boys wore "Kundala", which were boys' earrings, quite different in design from those of girls.
9. Vidyaarambha (♪) – This is the start of learning to write and read. Usually performed at about five years of age, with prayers, the child is taught how to hold a writing implement and is assisted to write – first "Om", followed by a Mantra to Ganesha (such as Om Ganeshaaya Namah) and the first letter of the alphabet.
10. Upanayana (♪) – This is an important ritual leading to the start of formal school study. In earlier times every Hindu, boy as well as girl, went through this ritual. After Muslim invasions, when Muslims began to kidnap Hindu girls and women, Hindu were forced to stop sending girls to school and Upanayana for girls fell out of practice. After Europeans came on the scene and their missionaries began manufacturing and peddling (with hefty bribes) lies about Hinduism and its practices, Upanayana unfortunately began to be viewed as an evil Brahminical practice and non-Brahmins began to avoid this important ritual. The subsequent craze for European missionary schools, where Upanayana was not a requirement for admission, downgraded this practice greately.
11. Vedaarambha (♪) – This is the start of the study of the Veda. This could be a one, two, three, four or five year course of study, depending upon the merit and desire of the student. Most often, this took place in a Gurukula – a boarding school at the home of the Teacher. This period was marked with several rituals throught the academic year. Due to a raft of anti-Hindu, anti-Sanskrt and anti-Veda policies of the government, both before and after the independence of India in 1947 from British rule, there are very few Gurukula today. Fortunately, they are not yet entirely extinct, though christians and muslims strive very hard to kill them off.
12. Samaavartana (♪) – This is leaving school at the end of study, akin to the graduation of today. The student takes a symbolic bath and then seeks the blessings of the Teacher, who blesses as well as delivers the parting advice to the student – at all times to be truthful, remain within the bounds of Dharma, care for health and well-being, seek to be prosperous and keep continuing with studies.
13. Vivaaha (♪) – Marriage, usually after a significant time after Samaavartana.
14. Vaanaprastha (♪) – Retirement.
15. Antyeshti (♪) – Death. The body is cremated, for which there are special rituals. There are other special rituals up to the tenth day, a Shraadha on the tenth day and another ritual on the twelvth day, when family and friends gather in a feast, symbolically announcing to the world that while the deceased has gone, the succedssor has taken his or her place and life will go on.

Festivals – As you doubtless know, we Hindu have many festivals throughout most parts of the year. Generally, our festivals celebrate specific events in our long history. Very often, it is the case that a particular day in our calendar year marks the anniversaries of different events that occurred in our history on that day but in diffferent years of periods in our history. As a result, on the same day, some of our communities celebrate one of those events that occurred on that day but other communities celebrate another event that occurred on that day but in an earlier or a later time. That is why we see different Hindu communities observing, for example, Divaali (short for Deepaavalee and often popularly known as Diwali) in different ways.

Here, I need to introduce another "belief" we Hindu hold, and hold dear to our hearts. I have not included this belief under the section on beliefs above on this page because that section deals with core beliefs without subscribing to which one is not Hindu. In contrast, the belief I will state here, though widely accepted by possibly 99% of Hindu, is "optional". This is the belief that the Supreme Being, in spite of being nameless, formless and attributeless, can have, or can assume as needed, name, form and attributes and, when required, comes to this world (incatnates as an "Avataara", meaning "incarnation") in different forms, with specific names and attributes, to restore Dharma or righteousness.

When we think of Paramaatmaa or the Supreme Infinite Entity as nameless, formless and attributeless, and acknowledge or worship It (or, as the Veda call it, "Tat" or "That"), we are following the "Nirguna" or "attributeless" ("Guna = "attribute", and the "Ni" prefix negates it, the "r" being a grammatical tool used to join the two words) approach to Hinduism. On the other hand, when we think of Paramaatmaa or the Supreme Infinite Entity as having name, form and attributes, and acknowledge or worship It (or, as the Veda call it, "Tat" or "That") through the name, form and attributes, we are following the "Saguna" or "with attributes" (the "Sa" prefix denotes "with") approach to Hinduism. All Hindu with the Saguna approach accept the Nirguna approach as well, without exception, because they simply use the name, form and attributes as a convenient focus for their minds to dwell upon the Nameless, Formless and Attributeless "That". However, a Hindu practising the Nirguna approach to the exclusion of the Saguna approach does not disown the Saguna approach; he or she merely feels that he or she does not need the mind-focussing technique of a Saguna image for his or her spiritual practice.

Our festivals are aligned with and flow from the Saguna approach to Hinduism. And in addition, we also have several regional festivals celebrating local and more recent history, for example, the Boita Jaatraa ("Boat Festival") of the province of Odisha, where they celebrate the day when, in olden times, merchantmen set sail from the coasts of Odisha to the Far East for trade and commerce.

This website is not the place to detail Hindu festivals and describe them one by one, so I will leave this at that, merely highlighting that our Festivals are celebrations of our history. Diwali, Holi, Navaraatri, and many more festivals are all such celebrations – of which we Hindu should be proud, for it is our identity, it is who we are. I will leave it to you to do your own research via the internet on the import of individual festivals. For example, here is an You Tube clip explaining one of our important festivals, Diwali: Deepaavalee Talk.

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