Written meditations on the spiritual essence of the universe

Hinduism

© Franz Lemmens/SuperStock

First Encounter

The plane that you have taken to Benares circles in preparation for landing at the Varanasi

airport. Looking down from your window seat, you can see the blue-white Ganges River, quite

wide here. Everything else is a thousand shades of brown. Beyond the coffee-colored city, the

beige fields spread out, seemingly forever.

https://portal.phoenix.edu/content/ebooks/9780078038273-experiencing-the-worlds-religions.-tradition-chal/jcr:content/images/072fig01.jpg

At the small airport, a dignified customs inspector with a turban and a white beard asks, “Why

have you come to India?” Before you can think of an appropriate response, he answers his own

question. “I know,” he says with a smile and a wave of the hand. “You people who come to

Benares are all the same.” He shakes his head from side to side. “You have come for

spirituality.” After pausing briefly, he adds, “Haven’t you!” It sounds more like a statement than

a question. It takes you a second to understand his quick pronunciation of that unexpected

word—spirituality. In a way, he is right. You have come for that. You nod in agreement. He

smiles again, writes something down on his form, and lets you through.

As you take the small black taxi to your hotel, you realize that you have just accepted—willingly

or not—the ancient role that the customs inspector has bestowed upon you. You are now just one

more pilgrim who has come to Mother India for her most famous product: religious insight. You

are now a Seeker.

After unpacking at your hotel, you walk out into the streets. It is dusk. Pedicab drivers ring their

bells to ask if you want a ride, but you want to walk, to see the life of the streets. Little shops sell

tea, and others sell vegetarian foods made of potatoes, wheat, beans, and curried vegetables.

Children play in front of their parents’ stores. Down the street you see a “gent’s tailor” shop, as a

thin cow wanders past, chewing on what looks like a paper bag. Another shop sells books and

notepaper, and others sell saris and bolts of cloth. From somewhere comes a smell like jasmine.

As night falls, the stores are lit by dim bulbs and fluorescent lights, and vendors illuminate their

stalls with bright Coleman lanterns. Because you will be rising long before dawn the next day to

go down to the Ganges, you soon return to your hotel. You fall asleep quickly.

The telephone rings, waking you out of a dream. The man at the front desk notifies you that it is

four a.m. Being somewhat groggy, you have to remind yourself that you are in Benares. You get

up and dress quickly.

At the front of the hotel you wake a driver sleeping in his pedicab. You negotiate the fare, climb

onto the seat, and head off to the main crossing of town, near the river, as the sky begins to

lighten. The pedicab drops you near the ghats (the stairs that descend to the river), which are

https://portal.phoenix.edu/content/ebooks/9780078038273-experiencing-the-worlds-religions.-tradition-chal/jcr:content/images/074fig01.jpg

already full of people, many going down to the river to bathe at dawn. Some are having

sandalwood paste applied to their foreheads as a sign of devotion, and others are carrying brass

jugs to collect Ganges water.

As you descend to the river, boat owners call to you. You decide to join the passengers in the

boat of a man resembling a Victorian patriarch, with a white handlebar mustache. Off you go,

moving slowly upstream. Laughing children jump up and down in the water as men and women

wade waist-deep and face the rising sun to pray. Upstream, professional launderers beat clothes

on the rocks and lay them out on the stones of the riverbank to dry.

The boat turns back downstream, passing the stairs where you first descended to the river. In the

bright morning light you see large umbrellas, under which teachers sit cross-legged, some with

disciples around them. Who, you wonder, are these teachers? The area near the shore is crammed

with people and boats. On a nearby boat, people shout, Ganga Ma ki Jai—“Victory to Mother

Ganges!”

The boat continues downstream. On the shore, smoke rises from small pyres, where bodies

wrapped in red and white cloth are being cremated. The boatman warns, “No photos here,

please.” The boat pulls in to shore downstream of the pyres, and everyone gets off. Walking up

the stairs, you see small groups of people quietly watching the cremations. At the pyres, a man

tends the fires with a bamboo pole, and a dog wanders nearby.

Later, as you make your way back to the center of town, you notice a pedicab with a covered

body tied onto the back. It cycles past women sitting beside the road, selling plastic bracelets and

colored powders. The pedicab must be on its way to the pyres, you think. The blend of opposites

fills your mind; on the banks of the very same river, laundry is washed and bodies are burned; in

the streets, life and death appear side by side—yet no one seems to notice the contrasts. Here, the

two are one.

The Origins of Hinduism

Looking at a map of India (Figure 3.1, p. 76) you can see that this subcontinent, shaped like a

diamond, is isolated. Two sides face the sea, while the north is bounded by the steep Himalaya

Mountains. There are few mountain passes, and the only easy land entry is via the narrow

corridor in the northwest, in the vicinity of the Indus River, where Pakistan now lies. It is the

relative isolation of India that has helped create a culture that is rare and fascinating.

Figure 3.1 India, Bali, and the area of Hindu influence.

India’s climate, except in the mountain regions, is generally warm for most of the year, allowing

people to live outdoors much of the time. Indeed, some people may even claim that the climate

https://portal.phoenix.edu/content/ebooks/9780078038273-experiencing-the-worlds-religions.-tradition-chal/jcr:content/images/076fig10_alt.gif

has helped promote religious values that, at least for some, minimize the importance of material

goods such as clothing, housing, and wealth.

Although hot and dry in many parts, India has many rivers and streams. Most important is the

Ganges, which flows out of the Himalayas and is enlarged by tributaries as it moves east toward

the Bay of Bengal. By the time the Ganges has reached the town of Benares (also known as

Varanasi and Kashi), the river is enormous; in fact, after the summer monsoons, the river

becomes so wide that often one cannot see to the other side. Because the water of the Ganges is

regular and dependable, it has enabled civilization to flourish across much of northern India. It

has also given Indian culture a sense of security, protection, and even care, which has led to the

popular name for the river, Ganga Ma (“Mother Ganges”).

The religious life of India is something like the river Ganges. It has flowed along for thousands

of years, swirling from its own power but also from the power of new streams that have added to

its force. Hinduism, the major religion of India, has been an important part of this flowing

energy. Many influences—early in digenous religion and influences from later immigrants—

have added to its inherent momentum. It has no one identifiable founder, no strong

organizational structure to defend it and spread its influence, nor any creed to define and stabilize

its beliefs; and in a way that seems to defy reason, Hinduism unites the worship of many gods

with a belief in a single divine reality. In fact, the name Hinduism can be misleading. Hinduism

is not a single, unified religion; it is more like a family of beliefs.

But the limitations of Hinduism may also be its strengths. It is like a palace that began as a two-

room cottage. Over the centuries, wings have been built on to it, and now it has countless rooms,

stairs, corridors, statues, fountains, and gardens. There is something here to please and

astonish—and dismay—almost everyone. In fact, its beliefs are so rich and profound that

Hinduism has greatly influenced the larger world, and its influence continues to grow. In this

chapter we will explore the various elements of this religion’s foundation and the stages in which

additions were made to the sprawling house of Hinduism.

The Earliest Stage of Indian Religion

In the early twentieth century, engineers who were building a railroad discovered the ruins of an

ancient culture in the Indus River valley. Today, most of the Indus River lies in Pakistan, but it

traditionally formed the natural border of northwestern India—in fact, the words India and Hindu

derive from Indus. The culture that archeological workers uncovered there flourished before

2000 BCE and is named the Harappa culture, after one of its ancient cities (Timeline 3.1).

TimeLine 3.1

https://portal.phoenix.edu/content/ebooks/9780078038273-experiencing-the-worlds-religions.-tradition-chal/jcr:content/images/077fig01_alt.gif

Timeline of significant events in the history of Hinduism.

Archeologists were amazed by the type of civilization they found. The cities contained regular

streets and solid brick houses. Pots and coins were discovered, as well as evidence that running

water was used for toilets and baths. As one historian remarks, “no other ancient civilization

until that of the Romans had so efficient a system of drains” 1 —a genuine sign of technical

development. This complex culture had also invented a writing system, which scholars are still

working to decipher.