What are the basic tenets of Hinduism?

[H5N1]

I owned a copy of the Bhagavad Gita years ago
but my memory is sketchy even of that.

[mzteris]

1. here are a couple of links.......

http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/hinduism.html

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hinduism.htm

[H5N1]

2. those are good links, thank you

[demwing]

3. There are two major schools of thought

and then countless divisions within these schools.

Basically, there is one school that has a personal view of God. God is a person, or a personality, from which all other personalities emanate. The other view is that God is impersonal, or devoid of personality, and exists as an energy source.

In both schools, the goal of life is to escape from the cycle of birth and death (reincarnation) through one of a variety of types of yoga systems. One is caught in this cycle by the laws of karma, which operate as a universal system of balance - you get back what you put in.

Those who live for a materialistic life are rewarded with the type of body appropriate to life such a life. Those who li8ve a spiritual life will eventually reduce their karmic debt and gain release from the material body and the cycle of birth and death.

Sin is negative materialism, nothing more.

The main difference between the schools is the goal - either one gains a personal, blissfull, and eternal relationship with the supreme, or one blisfully merges with the supreme and loses all sense of identity.

Thats hundrends of scriptuures and thousands of years nutshelled, to the best of my ability.

[liberalitch]

4. reincarnation too....

My belief in reincarnation is what brought me to vedic faiths....

[H5N1]

6. Thank you

[liberalitch]

5. Re-read the Bhagavad Gita though....

Life is full of choices.... both good and bad....
we choose to go to war or to do nothing, or to negotiate.....
But the choices are not as important as the reason we make them.... and that those reasons are honest.... moral.
The young prince certainly does not WANT to go to war against his own uncle, BUT the uncle has become unjust and greedy and needs to be defeated. War is necessary.... and Adjurna must committ to it and its causes fully or (even if his armies are victorious) he will be defeated.

[H5N1]

7. I will. Last time I read it, it seemed rather boring and involved.

I was seventeen, studying TM.

[demwing]

13. I would recommend the Hare Krishna "Bhagavad Gita As It Is"

because it is is easy to find (they have it in my small town local library and most certainly in the library of your local college). It gives the original Sanskrit, the transliteration, the translation of each word, and an interpretation of each verse. It really makes the entire Gita come together as a whole.

Then read the Maha Bharata, the longer work from which the Gita is taken. You'll understand more about the Gita, about Arjuna's dilemma, and about the importance of the battle of Kurukshetra.

Whether you see the Indian religion through a personalistic or impersonalistic view, the Gita As It Is is a great starting place.

[KittyWampus]

8. Physical Reality Is A Necessary Illusion Which Serves As A Conduit For

the One Self and its Expression.

That's the same tenets behind, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

[KlatooBNikto]

9. I have heard of a belief called the Transmigration of the soul.This

means that when we die, our soul or the energy from the soul, takes up another physical entity.This belief falls in line with the idea of reincarnation.I think this belief is unique to Hinduism.It has even been invoked as a restatement of the idea that the total energy in the universe is conserved.

[KittyWampus]

10. Reincarnation Is In Judaism Christianity Islam As Well. It's Just The Exot

exoteric versions that scrubbed it out... the better to manipulate people by.

[sweetheart]

11. difficult question

As Hinduism is more a culture than a religion, it is especially hard.
One could say that hinduism boils down to yoga, which in sanskrit is
like the "yoke" that joins oxen. This would be the path of unity
between the indiviual and the godhead.

Then the yogas, as in the gita, are basically 4 fold. The yoga of
bhakti (love), and pursuing all of life as a love expression of god,
and seeing all of life as that.

Karma Yoga, that through actions and duty, you can know god by
surrendering self-ego and results of action to the divine play.

Jnana Yoga, the yoga of direct knowledge, where you inquire in this
moment as to what is real, ruthlessly inquiring as a rhetorical way of
life, cutting to the truth that there is only nirvana, even though
it appears to be samsara.

(nirvana is perfect eternal existance without personality or differentiation, like a sea of perfect omnisceint light... often called
"god" in western religion, but not sentient per se. Samsara is the
manifestation of life, the play, "the rat race" of humanity, which
might appear to be separate from nirvana... yet there is a classic
yoga koan suggesting that samsara IS nirvana.. a knowing that comes
from awakening in one's yoga)

Raja yoga, the yoga of meditation. This yoga includes mysticism and
all the "practices" of tantra and occultism. A branch of this,
hatha yoga, is for keeping the body healthy for meditation... and this
has been glorified in western society and given the wrong title
"yoga" when it is just a small bit of a much greater teaching.

So between those yogas, you could say that is hinduism...

But some might describe it as dieties. A hindu diety is an
anthropromorphization, a casting of human festures on something that
is without form.. and a way to access and interact with qualities
of the universe. Given that human beings are more inclined to pray
to a personal feeling, rather than just undifferentiated light.

The dieties are basically Shiva, and much of hinduism is "shiivite".
There is what appears a trinity, (Brahma/Vishnu/Shiva) and the
feminie form (Saraswati/Lakshmi/Kali) of the same trinity.

Brahma/saraswati - is the creator of illusion.. There are very few
temples to brahma, as creating is not a way to end suffering of
illusion... and saraswati is the godess of poetry and art... similarly
"creating"... and though well known, not central

Vishnu/Lakshmi - the preserver of illusion. Great avatars, or
profound reincarnations of awakened souls are called "incarnations of
vishnu", and these include buddha, krishna, Rama and whomever
manifests the energy of vishnu as an enlightened aspect. It is
the aspect of the royal-regal perfect sun-king in the masculine
aspect, and in the feminine, the godess of wealth and success.

Shiva/Kali - the destroyer of illusion. Most hindu temples
are devoted to shiva. He is the god of meditation, and in dispelling
the illusion, all the other gods are dispelled, and all that remains
is direct awakening... a thunderbolt. Kali is symbolized as a black
woman dancing on the dead bodies, representing the destruction of all
the illusions of life, violently, as they will end.

Western visitors to india used the appearance of shiva as a bugbear
and his trident and mythology is misunderstood and related to satan
in some christian thinking... hence why the trident is associated
in the west with the devil.

Well, so outside of all that, then there is a soul who reincarnates
over and over on the wheel of life, and who evolves through the
stages of awakening in any given moment. In earlier times on the
earth, meditation was easier without noise and overpopulation, so that
early practices were very mellow, vegetarian forest dwellers and all..
Now, they say it is the kaliyuga, or the age of darkness and
ignorance, and if you follow the old forest path you'll be mugged and
never realize enlightenment. So the schools teach what is called
"the short path", to attain enlightenment realization in 1 lifetime
(this one). Short path yoga is tantric, and "raja yoga" by definition,
awakening intense energies in the mental body called "kundalini" and
through them entering profound states of awakening by the back door
of power and the left handed path.

As well, hindusim could simply be called all of the culture and
rituals that surround that pantheon, without any depth in to its
religious aspect.

[demwing]

12. More a culture than a religion

thats true, and those whom we call Hindus frequently reject that title for that very reason.

What most "Hindus" follow is called Bhagavat Dharma, the eternal religion. There are many paths on that journey, but the destination is ultimately the same.

"Hindus" often refer to themselves as the followers of a particular diety, or a particulr yoga system. For example, Shaivites worship Shiva, and Bhaktas follow the path of Bhakti Yoga. One can serve Shiva, Krishna, or any other diety, and one can follow with love (bhakta yoga), through the performance of good acts and charity (karma yoga), or by other yoga practices.

Probably the 3 most recognizable "Hindus" sects in America are the followers of Satya Sai Baba (who claims to be an incarnation of Vishnu), the Hare Krishnas (Krishna Bhaktas), and the practitioners of TM, or transcendental meditation, started by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (sort of the Christian Science of Hinduism)..

All "Hindus," but all of a vastly different mindsets.