Hinduism

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Although</div> <div> records of its early history are not available, Hinduism</div> <div> dates back at least three thousand years in</div> <div> the subcontinent of India. However, within Hinduism</div> <div> there is a great diversity of practice and belief</div> <div> so that it is difficult to identify a distinctive</div> <div> essence. Hinduism contains many traditions that</div> <div> share distinctive characteristics such that they are</div> <div> identifiable as members of the same cultural family.</div> <div> Some traditions share more of these characteristics,</div> <div> making them more strongly Hindu. Over the</div> <div> centuries one such characteristic has been the</div> <div> practice of caste distinctions. Another is seeing</div> <div> Hinduism as a religious way of life that in one way</div> <div> or another reaches back to scriptures, the oldest of</div> <div> which is the Veda.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Historical origins</b></div> <div> The term Hindu derives from the Indus River in the</div> <div> northwest part of the Indian subcontinent. Flowing</div> <div> some three thousand kilometers from the Himalayas</div> <div> to the Arabian Sea, the Indus served as a</div> <div> natural boundary for those attempting to enter</div> <div> India through the passes of the Hindu Kush. During</div> <div> the period 1500 to 1000 B.C.E., people known</div> <div> as the Aryans, who may have come through these</div> <div> mountain passes, began to dominant the Indus</div> <div> River area of northwest India. Their view of the</div> <div> world was described in the Veda, spoken and written</div> <div> in the Sanskrit language. In the oldest portion</div> <div> of the Vedas, called the <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>Rg samhita, </I></FONT>there are references</div> <div> to a river called the <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>Sindhu, </I></FONT>which may</div> <div> have been the Indus. By association, the word</div> <div> <I>Sindhu </I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-Light" >seems also to have been used to refer to</FONT></div> <div> the people who lived in the Indus valley. The later</div> <div> term <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>Hindu </I></FONT>seems to have derived from <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>Sindhu.</I></FONT></div> <div> From the earliest historical times, military invasions</div> <div> and trade have flowed through the mountain</div> <div> passes of the northwest, such as the Khyber. Those</div> <div> who invaded India from the Mediterranean area</div> <div> (e.g., the Persian Darius I and Alexander of Macedon)</div> <div> used the term Hindu to refer to those who</div> <div> lived on or beyond the Sindhu River boundary.</div> <div> Over the centuries the term Hindu has increasingly</div> <div> been used to refer to those Indians who share</div> <div> some connection with the Veda as a basis for their</div> <div> way of life. Within the Vedic scriptures are found</div> <div> the overarching concepts of caste, karma, and rebirth</div> <div> that knit together the many diverse Hindu</div> <div> groups. Karma is the idea that each action or</div> <div> thought leaves behind a seed or memory trace that</div> <div> predisposes one to a similar action or thought in</div> <div> the future. These karmic traces, stored up in one’s</div> <div> unconscious, as it were, originated not only in this</div> <div> life but also from previous lives, and cause one to</div> <div> be reborn in a future life. This cycle of birth, death,</div> <div> and rebirth is held to be beginningless (<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>anandi</I></FONT>)</div> <div> and is seemingly endless. However, for those wishing</div> <div> to escape from this cycle of rebirth, the Hindu</div> <div> scriptures offer three general paths or disciplines</div> <div> (<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>Yogas</I></FONT>) by which release may be realized: the</div> <div> paths of knowledge, work, and devotion. In orthodox</div> <div> or Brahmanical Hinduism, the source of</div> <div> these paths, and indeed of all knowledge, including</div> <div> science, is said to be the Vedic scriptures.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Cosmology and the concept of God</b></div> <div> In the Hindu view, the whole of the universe is</div> <div> held to have existed beginninglessly as a series of</div> <div> cycles of creation going backward into time infinitely.</div> <div> Although the Hindu scripture is spoken</div> <div> anew at the start of each cycle of creation, what is</div> <div> spoken is identical with the scripture that had been</div> <div> spoken in all previous cycles. The very idea of an</div> <div> absolute point of beginning for either creation or</div> <div> the scripture is not present in Hindu thought. A</div> <div> close parallel to this Hindu notion of the eternal</div> <div> presence of scripture is found in the Western idea</div> <div> of the Logos, especially as expressed in the Gospel</div> <div> of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the</div> <div> Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1).</div> <div> The <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>rsis </I></FONT>or seers, identified as speakers of particular</div> <div> Vedas, are understood to be channels through</div> <div> which the divine word passes to make itself available</div> <div> to humans at the start of each creation cycle.</div> <div> The same <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>rsis </I></FONT>are said to speak the same Vedas in</div> <div> each cycle of creation, and the very language in</div> <div> which the Vedas are spoken, Sanskrit, is itself held</div> <div> to be divine.</div> <div> This view of the Vedas and Sanskrit as being</div> <div> divine had important implications for the traditional</div> <div> Hindu understanding of all forms of knowledge,</div> <div> including science. The <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>rsi’s </I></FONT>initial mystical vision</div> <div> is of Brahman’s consciousness, God’s</div> <div> omniscient knowledge. This unitary vision is broken</div> <div> down and spoken as the words and sentences</div> <div> of the Veda so that through this revelation people</div> <div> will be enabled to realize release. In addition to</div> <div> this ultimate spiritual goal, the Veda, as the authoritative</div> <div> speaking of divine omniscience, contains in</div> <div> seed form the fundamental knowledge of all the</div> <div> disciplines—the arts, medicine, and science. This is</div> <div> why the Grammarian philosophers of India argue</div> <div> that correct word use (following Sanskrit rules) is</div> <div> essential for science for two reasons. First, it is essential</div> <div> because only when language is spoken and</div> <div> heard correctly will the seeds of scientific ideas inherent</div> <div> in the Veda be able to manifest themselves.</div> <div> Second, correct word use is essential in formulating</div> <div> and communicating scientific knowledge so</div> <div> that it does not become confused but is clearly</div> <div> conveyed.</div> <div> Such thinking lies behind the traditional Hindu</div> <div> notion that all knowledge, including science,</div> <div> comes from and through the Vedas. It is just this</div> <div> kind of thinking that anchors the claim of the modern</div> <div> Hindu reformer Swami Vivekananda</div> <div> (1863–1902) that science and religion are complementary,</div> <div> cross-validating, and are both based on</div> <div> experience of the same Brahman. Just as science is</div> <div> based on the empirical experience of the outer</div> <div> world (whose essence is Brahman) so also religious</div> <div> knowledge arises from the direct experience</div> <div> of the Vedic word; at base both are experiences of</div> <div> the same ultimate reality.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>