Unity in
Diversity -
This concept of unity is as old as
India itself. Wise men devised many ways of
re-emphasizing it, in epics and teachings
and by the pilgrimages they enjoined upon
us. India is a sub continent with immense
variation in geography, climate, manner of
life, language and taste. There is no pure
unalloyed India. He can be a Dravidian, an
Aryan, an Australoid or a Mongoloid. His
hair may be fair or dark, straight or curly,
the skin very fair or wheat coloured, beige,
brown or ebony. India is also home to scores
of cults and religions, including all the
major religions of the world. For India has
always accepted races, tribes, ways of
thoughts and life, without demanding from
them conformity which would negate
individuality, yet stamping on them the
unmistakable mark of Indianness. Yet the
ideals in life, the goal to be reached, the
spiritual yearnings and ethical principles
bring together these apparently diverse
people into one integrated nation that makes
up 'Bharat'.
Hinduism
That all religions could not only
coexist but also flourish in India has a lot
to do with the eclectic nature of Hinduism.
Although as a religion, Hinduism is
considered among the oldest, its oldest
source, the Rigveda (one of the four Vedas),
can be traced only up to the 2nd millennium
BC. The religion, unlike many of the modern
religions, has no identifiable beginning.
Hinduism is not an 'ism'. It is considered
more a way of life than a religion. There is
no founder, no prophet, no book and no
dogma. It has no central authority,
organizational hierarchy or organization. It
includes a variety of elements. It is a
complex religion with many spiritual,
social, literary and artistic aspects. It is
an amalgamation of diverse doctrines, cults,
and ways of life. Almost 80% of India's
population are Hindu.
India is widely
believed to be the land of spirituality, whose
native philosophy detects the presence of the
supreme divinity in the flower as well as in the
thorn, in stone and in rust, in everything
animate and inanimate. Just as Indians see
spirituality in diverse forms, they also
practice diverse forms of spirituality. It has
many gods - the conventional strength of the
pantheon is 330 million. And this pantheon's
elasticity is put to good use even today as
revered social leaders and sages make the
transition from exalted human beings to deities
to be venerated. This polytheism also lends
Hinduism enormous flexibility in terms of modes
of worship, rituals and so on. A characteristic
feature of Hinduism is the division of society
into a hierarchy of castes.
 Like
India herself, Hinduism is incapable of
confinement or description in words. It is a
philosophy, all embracing, all accepting,
tolerant of other thoughts, giving vast freedom
of choice in worship. The manner of it and even
whether there need be any at all - is God a
being or the divinity in man or the force or
quintessence of all that is. Dharma or the
ethical mode of life has dominated Indian
thought. Philosophy has deepened and widened the
people's outlook and helped an affectionate
approach towards not only fellow beings but
towards all nature, especially animals, birds,
trees and rivers. The much-discussed myriad of
gods and goddesses are but different images of
the formless, all pervasive 'energy' of this
universe and many others beyond it.
Most Hindus
believe in reincarnation. All human beings and
other living creatures are reborn as a result of
their past actions in other lives. Higher beings
come on the earth by a voluntary action in order
to face a special situation. In the sacred book
the Bhagvad Gita, Lord Krishna says, "To protect
the righteous, to destroy the wicked and to
establish the kingdom of God, I am born from age
to age".
Through the ages,
within the Hindu fold, sages have broken away
from any kind of crystallization. Some founded
sects and even new religions, offering greater
liberty to those who felt or were made to feel,
fettered and suffocated. One must admit that
large numbers think of religion in terms of
idols and Indian practice has not always lived
up to the precepts laid down. At different
stages, large segments of our society have
surrendered to intolerance and insolence.
Customs or rites still persist which may have
had some significance in an earlier age but are
now anachronistic or even actually obstruct
progress. A case in point is the caste system.
The Caste System
Early societies
all had their hierarchies. Caste of one kind or
another has been known in all old lands. In
India caste became a set feature of life. People
were divided into four groups: Brahmins (priests
and scholars), Kshatriyas, (kings and warriors),
Vaishyas (traders and landowners) and Shudras
(the workers and lowly people). In the early
beginnings there was caste flexibility. Inter
marriage between the Aryans and the indigenous
people appear to have been common. The children
of these marriages gave rise to mixed castes.
Another factor
responsible for the proliferation and
crystallization of the caste structure was the
establishment of craft guilds. Initially there
was fluidity that made possible the absorption
of people within their structure. This was
common as late as the 6th and 7th centuries. An
inscription of this period at Mandasaur in
Rajasthan records silk-weavers who had migrated
from Gujarat taking up professions ranging from
soldiering to astrology. In early Tamil
literature there is no evidence of caste.
By the late
medieval period the caste structure had
hardened, the lowness or highness being
determined by the functions in which the group
was engaged. What is worse, a large segment of
the population was placed beyond the pale of
these varnas (as castes were called) and
sentenced to untouchability. The Hindu mind,
which discovered the zero, also invented a
system by which the human being was reduced to a
zero. Indescribable injustice has been visited
upon the so-called untouchables through the
centuries. The only extenuating plea that can be
made for India is that in other lands such
groups would have been killed off but here they
were not extirpated.
The Four Stages Of Life
Indian ethics
laid down four main ends to man's life - Dharma,
Artha, Kama and Moksha. Dharma is a difficult
word to translate. It means that which sustains
or upholds, a way of life resting on right
action, respect for others and being true to
one's self-nature. Artha was the earning of
wealth by a right and honest vocation. Kama was
the fulfillment of lawful desire or pleasure and
Moksha was liberation from rebirth by the
perception of the ultimate reality.
In answer to
man's need to learn, to enjoy, to understand and
finally to become detached, Hinduism offers four
stages or ashrams in man's existence that allow
him to accomplish his life in harmony with
Dharma (the law of universal harmony) at all
levels. These four stages are essential for a
full and meaningful life. Brahmacharya covers
the beginning of adolescence and includes the
practice of celibacy, the study and knowledge of
the sacred teachings transmitted by a Guru.
Grihastha, when man married, had children and
undertook the responsibilities inherent in the
life of a householder. Vanasprastha, the first
step towards moving away from the life of the
householder and preparing the mind and body for
withdrawal from all worldly pursuits and for the
involvement in social and religious action.
Sanyasa, the final stage when man put on the
saffron robe, abandoning home, family, wealth
and society, and entered the forest to meditate
and seek liberation, before his ultimate
departure from the earth.
Religious Life & The
Sacred Texts
The religious
ethos of India was given flexibility, tolerance
and strength by the absence of a single
religious doctrine, based on a 'bible' or sacred
dogma; by the multiplicity of forms and faiths
that collectively formed India's religious
beliefs and the Vedic and break-away traditions
of our sages and seers. It was an inclusive
attitude, drawing the alien heretical belief
within a total ambience, extending and absorbing
while representing the beliefs of other
religions. Heresy was unknown and religious
persecution was minimal.
From the earliest
times the Indian has envisaged a continuum
between God and Nature and Man. The gods were
human, but godhead was inherent not only in man
but also in all animals and in all creations
animate and inanimate. In words of the Bhagvad
Gita, a section of the epic Mahabharata, 'All
gods lead to God as all rivers lead to the Sea'.
And again it was said 'Truth is one, the wise
perceive it in many ways'. This recognition of
the possible limitation of one's own viewpoint,
this hospitality to the opinion of others, this
refusal to condemn mankind to a single
interpretation of Reality, this high reverence
for the quintessence of Truth as distinct from
phenomenal forms demonstrates a marvelous
maturity of thought. This is the source of much
that is most distinctive in our civilization and
also the secret of our endurance.
The first
millennium BC was a period of abounding creative
activity. The sacred worship of the Upanishads
where the sublime thinking of centuries
coalesced and found expression treads beyond
priestly dogma and belief. Anti-theology and
anti-ritual, the Upanishads established a new
relationship between man and the Brahman, the
all-transcending principle. After the Upanishads
came our great epics - the Ramayana and
Mahabharata. Their influence on the masses has
not diminished over the centuries. They continue
to enthrall grown up and child alike. In fact we
can say that the heroes of these classics have
blended with the lives of our people. Typical of
India is their method of reaching out
simultaneously to different levels of mental
development, from intellectual to illiterate.
Their stories have been a kind of Open
University, quickening our people's senses of
right and wrong and endowing them with examples
with whom they can identify themselves and exalt
their moral sense. Through a backdrop of heroic
tradition and ethical living these classics give
harmony to a society which was graded in castes
and had many divisions and discords.
Of the two epics,
the Ramayana is the much more popular,
presumably because it is easier to understand.
The epic centres around the hero Rama but there
are many subsidiary stories each with its own
moral and significance. The Mahabharata is the
treatise on the science of society. It is a
monumental work, a compilation of not only
tradition and legend but also of the political
and social institutions of that time. The
Mahabharata makes a very definite attempt to
stress the fundamental unity of India. What is
important about it is not the story that
concerns a feud between the Kaurava and Pandava
princes for the sovereignty of the country but
the sheer abounding wealth of knowledge and the
fullness of life, no less than the moral and
ethical percepts. In the Mahabharata is a gem of
a poem, the 'Bhagvad Gita' or the Song of God.
The wisdom of the doctrine of the Vedas,
Brahmanas and the Upanishads come together in
this teaching. It is the most important and the
best known of all Hindu scriptures. It comprises
a dialogue between Krishna the Lord and Arjuna,
one of the five Pandava brothers, of whom he is
the friend and charioteer. The Bhagvad Gita
expounds the nature and attributes of God. Its
teaching is universal and deep. It is a general
spiritual philosophy as applied to a specific
crisis and relating to the application of ethics
and spirituality to the problems of man. In
simple language Krishna explains the
imponderable truths that are the basis of Indian
religious thought.
Through the
centuries Indian religion has grown richly and
deeply psychological, and has attempted to
provide different forms and methods appropriate
to different categories of people. There is the
Spiritual Man for whom Indian religion provides
an utter freedom from all dogma, ceremony and
creed. It offers him numerous paths of direct
experience of the spiritual verities. There is
the Intellectual Man to whom is offered
different systems of knowledge, countless
philosophies and unending literature of
commentaries and of commentaries on
commentaries. Then there is the Vital Man, the
man of emotion, passion and action for whom
there is a vast literature of stories, Kathas, a
plethora of accounts and practices, as in the
Puranas and Tantras, which will stimulate his
imagination and experience and connect them to
the deeper truths of the spirit. And finally
there is the Physical Man for whom Indian
religion is a system of outer symbols and
rituals, of festivals and other such occasions,
which even in his daily routine, bring him into
contact with the deeper truths that, govern the
cosmos. It is in this light that the complexity
of Indian religious life can rightly be
understood.
The Hindu
pantheon is prolific; some estimates put the
total number of deities at 36 crore (330
million). No beliefs or forms of worship are
rejected by Hinduism. All are regarded as a
manifestation of Brahman, the One and ultimate
reality, and the particular object of veneration
and supplication is often a matter of personal
choice or tradition at a local or caste level.
Brahman is often described as having three
facets, the trimurti: Brahma (The Creator),
Vishnu (The Preserver) and Shiva (The Destroyer,
also known as Mahesh). Within the Shaivite
(followers of Shiva) cult, Shakti, the goddess
as mother and creator is worshipped as a force
in her own right and has many of her own
manifestations.
Cults of Nature & Sacred
Animals
The cults of
Nature and ceremonies of temples have their own
superficial and profound significance, although
many of them are discouraged by those who feel
able to pursue the deeper and higher disciplines
of emotions, action and knowledge. In India the
river is considered as a loving mother
dispensing bounty, fertility and prosperity. The
cult of rivers is especially important. The sea
in the Indian cosmology is the reservoir of all.
Bathing in the sea is considered the most
purifying since all the sacred rivers run to the
sea.
The love of trees
is so strong especially among Indian women that
they are regarded as companions. The kalpvriksha
or tree of blessing is deeply rooted in Indian
belief. Some plants also have strong spiritual
significance. The Banyan tree (Ficus
benghalensis) is so sacred that only in times of
dire need people would pick its leaves or
otherwise interfere with it. It symbolizes the
Trimurti (trinity) and a pilgrimage to a sacred
banyan is equal to 12 years of sacrifice. Its
ashes are said to have the power to eradicate
sin. Mango trees (Mangifera indica) are symbolic
of love; Shiva is believed to have married
Parvati under a mango tree and so mango leaves
are often used to decorate marriage pandals
(marquees).
Animals,
particularly snakes and cows have been
worshipped since ancient times in India. The cow
represents fertility and nurturing, benign
aspects of the mother goddess and is a symbol of
Mother India. In the State of Tamil Nadu, on the
third day of the Pongal (harvest) festival,
sacred cows are washed, decorated and painted
before being fed a mix of rice, sugar, dal
(lentil) and milk, a dish that ensures
prosperity and abundance for the following year.
The bull is more aggressive but its association
with Lord Shiva as his mount Nandi, accords it
enormous respect. Snakes, especially cobras, are
also sacred and associated with fertility and
welfare. Naga (snake) stones protect humans from
snakes and are shrines to fertility.
Folk & Tribal Religion
Folk deities are
frequently viewed as being more accessible to
the ordinary person and more competent for
dealing with everyday village life. Deities
identified with mountains or forests may be
represented simply by a pile of stones or tree
branches, which devotees add to as they pass by.
Others may have simple shrines erected in their
honour to which devotees bring offerings of
flowers, rice and fruit. Some are little known
beyond a village. Others such as the goddesses
of pestilence like Mariyamma in South India are
widely recognized. In South India folk deities
are frequently female. A notable exception is
Ayannar or Ayappan (ostensibly he is vegetarian
and therefore ritually superior), who is
worshipped in Tamil Nadu as a protective deity
and for whom votive offerings, in the form of
terra cotta horses are made in times of need.
Tribal religions
have so merged with Hinduism and other
mainstream religions that few are now clearly
identifiable. But in the Nilgiri hills of South
India, the Toda people still cling to their own
beliefs even though they have adopted some Hindu
and Christian customs over the years. The
vegetarian Toda venerate the buffalo upon which
they depend for milk, butter and ghee. This
relationship extends into the afterlife. When a
Toda dies, a buffalo is killed to accompany them
into the next world where it will continue to
provide milk and its by-products for sustenance
and ritual purposes.
Religious Tolerance
Polytheistic
eclecticism lends Hinduism a capacity to
co-exist with other religions that goes beyond
tolerance. Religious tolerance is an Indian
concept, coined by cultures that accept the idea
of a single, true god. Monotheistic religions
see other religions as false. These deviant
religions can either be transformed or
converted, to the true faith or they can be
tolerated. Hinduism, in contrast, accepts
plurality of gods and plurality of the ways of
spiritual fulfillment. At a theological level,
therefore, Hinduism does not recognize any
religion as being deviant; all represent valid
ways of attaining man's goal of spiritual
fulfillment. This perspective has informed the
attitude of Indian society and Indian rulers to
non-Hindu faiths that have travelled to this
land from different parts of the world. Judaism,
Christianity and Islam made their way to India
across the Arabian sea, aboard the sailing ships
that ferried timber, spices, gold and perfumes
between the Malabar coast and the Levant.
A small Jewish
settlement in Kochi, Kara, has earned for India
the distinction of being the only country in the
world where the Jews have not been persecuted.
Legend has it that St Thomas; one of Christ's
original 12 disciples travelled to Kerala and
converted a section of the local population to
Christianity. Whatever the veracity of this
claim, it is a historical fact that Christianity
reached Kerala before it reached Europe and that
the liturgy of several Christian denominations
in Kerala continues to be in the ancient
languages of the Middle East. Nor was Islam
borne to India at the point of the sword, as
many people believe.
The western coast
has been home to Muslim settlements since the
7th century. True, subsequent invasions by
Muslim rulers and the experience of colonialism
have helped these religions spread in other
parts of the country. This does not negate the
fact that the original response of Indian rulers
and society at large to the advent of external
religions was hospitable rather than hostile. In
fact, the only religion known to have invited
active Hindu antagonism is Buddhism, with its
streak of agnosticism and subversion of the
caste hierarchy.
Hinduism, while
receptive to theological diversity, punishes
infringements of caste divides with ferocity,
even today in rural India. It has been observed
that certain recent attempts to mobilise Hindus
politically on the basis of hostility towards
other religions have met with only limited
success because such attempts go against the
traditional culture of Hinduism. Unity in
diversity continues to the only viable
collective imperative for many splendour India.
Yet in its
philosophical groundwork, Hindu society does not
aim at exclusiveness. From this has risen
India's unrivalled capacity to accept and
assimilate. It is also true that religious
people respect and accept the saints and great
souls of their religions. Hindus, Muslims,
Christians, Sikhs will go with equal fervour to
obtain the blessings of a Shankaracharya or a
famous Muslim diviner. You will often see a
church, a mosque, a temple or a gurudwara all on
the same road or in the same vicinity.
Temples
In India there
are as many temples as gods who conceived the
world. But for the Indian the temple is not the
only place of worship of the divinity. Even if
the sanctuaries disappeared the religious life
would not change an iota. The temples of the
Hindus are at the same time the entire universe
and their own bodies. In the Hindu concept of
existence (Sanatan Dharma) there is no
separation between sacred and profane activity.
The temple is the centre of the cosmos as well
as of man. Believers come to render homage to
one of the major figures of the Indian pantheon
or to seek protection of the god of their
choice. The two main rites are individual
worship (puja) and ritual sacrifices (yagna).
The rites are a most complex and painstaking
art. There are a number of symbolic gestures in
all the rites. The idea of worshipping images is
to venerate the invisible through what is
visible.
There is a saying
that if the measurement of the temple is
perfect, then there will be perfection in the
universe. For Hindus, the square is the perfect
shape and complex rules govern the location,
design and building of each temple, based on
numerology, astrology, astronomy and religious
law. These are so complicated and important that
it is customary for each temple to harbour its
own particular set of calculations as though
they were religious texts.
Essentially a
temple is a map of the universe. At the centre
there is an unadorned space, the garbha griha
(inner shrine or sanctum sanctorum), which is
symbolic of the 'womb-cave' from which the
universe emerged. This provides a residence for
the deity to which the temple is dedicated.
Above the shrine rises a superstructure known as
shikara in North India and vimana in South
India, which is representative of Mount Meru,
the cosmic mountain that supports the heavens.
Caves and mountain are linked by an axis that
rises vertically from the shrine's icon to the
finial atop the towering spire. As a temple
provides a shelter for the deity, it is sacred.
Devotees acknowledge this by performing a
parikrama (clockwise circumambulating) of it, a
ritual that finds architectural expression in
the passageways that track around the main
shrine. Some temples also have mandapams or
halls connected to the sanctum by vestibules.
These halls also contain spires.
Visitors please note •
dress conservatively, remove your shoes before
entering. Please do not attempt to enter the
inner shrine room if you are not a Hindu.
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