pp. 60 - 64 (4)
p. 52 Bits of Wisdom
Escaping the Wheel of Life: The Religious World of Ancient India

Many people in the West associate India with religion. One reason for this is that two of the world's great religions, Buddhism and Hinduism, and several smaller ones, such as Jainism and Sikhism, originated in India. Probably another factor is the otherworldly character that many observers ascribe to Indian religion. To most Westerners, for example, the primary symbols of Indian religion are gurus, ascetics, and the nonviolent ideas of Mahatma Gandhi, the reformer who played a major role in the twentieth-century struggle to free India from British colonial rule.

     Gandhi, gurus, and ascetics are all a legitimate part of Indian religious thought and practice, but it is probably misleading to believe that they are typical or representative of all religious belief in India. In actuality, Indian religion is as complex and concerned with everyday practical matters as is religion in most countries, including those of the West. One historical reason for this complexity is that, like Indian politics and society, Indian religion is a blend of Aryan and Dravidian culture. The clash and subsequent intermingling of those two civilizations gave rise to an extraordinarily complex set of religious beliefs and practices filled with diversity and contrast. Although the differences between the two forms of religion were substantial, a number of religious practices commonly associated with Hinduism, such as the practice of yoga, the presence of sacred animals, and phallic worship, were also present in the belief structure of the Harappan peoples.

Hinduism

Evidence about the earliest religious beliefs of the Aryan peoples comes primarily from sacred texts such as the Vedas, a set of four collections of hymns and religious ceremonies transmitted by memory through the centuries by Aryan priests. Many of these religious ideas were probably common to all of the Indo-European peoples before their separation into different groups at least four thousand years ago. Early Aryan beliefs were based on the common concept of a pantheon of gods and goddesses representing great forces of nature similar to the immortals of Greek mythology. The Aryan ancestor of the Greek father-god Zeus, for example, may have been the deity known in early Aryan tradition as Dyaus.

     As in Greek mythology, however, the parent god Dyaus was a somewhat distant figure who was eventually overshadowed by other, more functional gods possessing more familiar human traits. For a while, the primary Aryan god was the great warrior god Indra. Indra summoned the Aryan tribal peoples to war and was represented in nature by thunder. Later, Indra declined in importance and was replaced by Varuna, lord of justice, who eventually evolved into the modern deity Vishnu. As in Greek mythology, there were gods and goddesses representing various forces of nature or the needs of human beings, such as fire, fertility, wealth, and so forth.

     The concept of sacrifice was a key element in Aryan religious belief in Vedic times. As in many other ancient cultures, the practice may have begun as human sacrifice, but later animals were used as substitutes, although human sacrifice was practiced in some isolated communities down to modern times. The priestly class, or brahmins, played a key role in these ceremonies.

     Another element of Aryan religious belief in ancient times was the idea of asceticism. The concept of self-sacrifice or even self-mutilation as a means of achieving an understanding of underlying reality was alluded to briefly in Vedic hymns (those who took part in the practice were called "silent ones"). But it began to become increasingly common with the writing of the so-called Upanishads (a set of commentaries on the Vedas) in the sixth century B.C.E., when it replaced the concept of sacrifice as a means of placating or communicating with the gods. According to one ancient critic of the practice of sacrifice, for example:

Unsteady, indeed, are these boats in the form of sacrifices, eighteen in number, in which is prescribed only the infe­rior work. The fools who delight in this sacrificial ritual as the highest spiritual good go again and again through the cycle of old age and death.
Abiding in the midst of ignorance, wise only according to their own estimate, thinking themselves to be learned, but really hard-struck, these fools go around in a circle like blind men led by one who is himself blind.
Abiding manifoldly in ignorance they, all the same, like immature children think to themselves: "We have ac­complished our aim." Since the performers of sacrificial ritual do not realize the truth because of passion, therefore, they, the wretched ones, sink down from heaven when the merit which qualified them for the higher world becomes exhausted. . . .
Those who practice penance and faith in the forest, the tranquil ones, the knowers of truth, living the life of wan­dering mendicancy—they depart, freed from passion, through the door of the sun, to where dwells, verily. . . .the imperishable Soul.

Apparently, the original motive for asceticism was to achieve magical powers, but later it was seen as a means of spiritual meditation that would enable the practitioner to reach beyond material reality to a world of truth and bliss beyond earthly joy and sorrow. According to a pas­sage from one of the Upanishads: "The Self who is free from evil, free from old age, free from death, free from grief, free from hunger, free from thirst, whose desire is the Real [satya, or truth], whose intention is the Real— he should be sought after, he should be desired to be comprehended." It is possible that another motive was to permit those with strong religious convictions to communicate directly with metaphysical reality without having to rely on the priestly class at court.

     Asceticism, of course, has been practiced in other reli­gions including Christianity and Islam, but it seems particularly identified with Hinduism, the religion that emerged from early Indian religious tradition. Eventually, asceticism evolved into the modern practice of body training that we know as yoga (union), which is accepted today as a meaningful element of Hindu religious practice.

     Much early Aryan religious belief, as we have seen, was an adaptation of spirit worship into a form of naturalistic polytheism. The overall practical purpose was to protect the tribe from the multitude of threats to its survival. Eventually, however, Indians began to move beyond such common elements of the Indo-European pastoral tradi­tion and engaged in speculation about the nature of the cosmic order. What emerged was a growing belief in the existence of a single monistic force in the universe, a form of ultimate reality called Brahman. Today the early form of Hinduism is sometimes called Brahmanism (see the box above). In the Upanishads, the concept began to emerge as an important element of Indian religious belief. It was the duty of the individual self—called the Atman—to achieve an understanding of this ultimate reality so that after death the self would merge in spiritual form with Brahman. Sometimes Brahman was described in more concrete terms as a creator god—eventually known as Vishnu—but more often in terms of a shadowy ultimate reality. According to one of the Upanishads:

In the beginning, my dear, this world was just being, one only, without a second. Some people, no doubt, say: "In the beginning, verily, this world was just nonbeing, one only, without a second; from that nonbeing, being was produced." But how, indeed, my dear, could it be so? said he. How could being be produced from nonbeing?
On the contrary, my dear, in the beginning this world was being alone, one only, without a second. Being thought to itself: "May I be many, may I procreate." It produced fire. That fire thought to itself: "May I be many, may I procreate." It produced water. Therefore, whenever a person grieves or perspires, then it is from fire [heat] alone that water is produced. That water thought to itself: "May I be many; may I procreate." It produced food. Therefore, whenever it rains, then there is abundant food; it is from water alone that food for eating is produced. . . . That divinity (Being) thought to itself: "Well, having entered into these three divinities [fire, water, and food] by means of this living Self, let me develop names and forms. . . .

REINCARNATION

Another new concept also probably began to appear around the time the Upanishads were written—the idea of reincarnation. This is the idea that the individual soul is reborn in a different form after death and progresses through several existences on the wheel of life until it reaches its final destination in a union with the Great World Soul, known as Brahman. Because life is harsh, this final release is the objective of all living souls.

     A key element in this process is the idea of karma— that one's rebirth in a next life is determined by ones karma (actions) in this life. Hinduism places all living species on a vast scale of existence, including the four classes and the untouchables in human society. The current status of an individual soul, then, is not simply a cosmic accident, but the inevitable result of actions that that soul has committed in a past existence.

     At the top of the scale are the brahmins (the priestly caste), who by definition are closest to ultimate release from the law of reincarnation. The brahmins are followed in descending order by the other castes in human society and the world of the beasts. Within the animal kingdom, an especially high position is reserved for the cow, which even today is revered by Hindus as a sacred beast. Some have speculated that the unique role played by the cow in Hinduism derives from the value of cattle in Aryan pastoral society. But others have pointed out that cattle were a source of both money and food and suggest that the cow's sacred position may have de­scended from the concept of the sacred bull in Dravidian culture.

     The concept of karma is governed by the dharma, or the Law. A law regulating human behavior, the dharma imposes different requirements on different individuals, depending on their status in society. Those high on the social scale, such as brahmins and kshatriyas, are held to a more strict form of behavior than are sudras. The brahmin, for example, is expected to abstain from eating meat, because that would entail the killing of another living being, thus interrupting its karma.

     How the concept of reincarnation originated is not known, although it was apparently not unusual for early peoples to believe that the individual soul would be re­born in a different form in a later life. In any case, in India the concept may have had practical causes as well as consequences. In the first place, it tended to provide reli­gious sanction for the rigid class divisions that had begun to emerge in Indian society after the Aryan conquest, and it provided moral and political justification for the privileges of those on the higher end of the scale.

      At the same time, the concept of reincarnation pro­vided certain compensations for those lower on the lad­der of life. For example, it gave hope to the poor that if they behaved properly in this life, they might improve their condition in the next. It also provided a means for unassimilated groups such as tribal peoples to find a place in Indian society while at the same time permitting them to maintain their distinctive way of life.

     The ultimate goal of achieving "good" karma, as we have seen, was to escape the cycle of existence. Life for most Indians in ancient times, as for many today, was painful, brutish, and short. To the sophisticated, the nature of that release was a spiritual union of the individ­ual soul with the Great World Soul, Brahman, described in the Upanishads as a form of dreamless sleep, free from earthly desires. Such a concept, however, was undoubt­edly too ethereal for the average Indian, who needed a more concrete form of heavenly salvation, a place of beauty and bliss after a life of disease and privation.

     It was probably for this reason that the Hindu reli­gion—in some ways so otherworldly and ascetic—came to be peopled with a multitude of very human gods and goddesses. It has been estimated that the Hindu pan­theon contains more than 33,000 deities. Only a small number are primary ones, however, notably the so-called trinity of gods—Brahman the Creator, Vishnu the Pre­server, and Siva (originally the Vedic god Rudra) the De­stroyer. Although Brahman (sometimes in his concrete form called Brahma) is considered to be the highest god, Vishnu and Siva take precedence in the devotional exer­cises of many Hindus, who can be roughly divided into Vishnuites and Saivites. In addition to the trinity of gods, all of whom have wives with readily identifiable roles and personalities, there are countless minor deities, each again with its own specific function, such as bringing good fortune, arranging a good marriage, or guaranteeing a son in childbirth.

     The rich variety and earthy character of many Hindu deities are repugnant to many Christians and Muslims, to whom God is an all-seeing and transcendent deity. Many Hindus, however, regard the multitude of gods as simply different manifestations of one ultimate reality. The various deities also provide a useful means for ordinary Indi­ans to personify their religious feelings. Even though some individuals among the early Aryans attempted to communicate with the gods through sacrifice or asceticism, most Indians undoubtedly sought to satisfy their own individual religious needs through devotion, which they expressed through ritual ceremonies and offerings at a Hindu temple. Such offerings were not only a way to seek salvation, but also a means of satisfying all the aspi­rations of daily life.

     Over the centuries, then, Hinduism changed radically from its origins in Aryan tribal society and became a reli­gion of the vast majority of the Indian people. Concern with a transcendental union between the individual soul and the World Soul contrasted with practical desires for material wealth and happiness; ascetic self-denial contrasted with an earthy emphasis on the pleasures and val­ues of sexual union between marriage partners. All of these became aspects of Hinduism, the religion of 70 per­cent of the Indian people.

P. 52
Bits of Wisdom from Ancient India

The Mahabharata, the great epic of the early Aryan peoples, includes both moral exhortations for the ruling class and bits of simple wisdom that still touch us today. In this passage, a voice personifying the dharma, or code of behavior, tests the hero's worthiness to become king by posing riddles about the meaning of life. The questions are eternal ones that still have relevance in our own time. The use of riddles as a means of testing mental skills was common to many early societies, including ancient Greece and China.

The Mahabharata

"What is swifter than the wind?" "The mind is swifter than the wind." "What is more numerous than the blades of grass in a meadow?"
"Our thoughts number more than that."
"What is the best of all things that are praised?"
"Skill."
"What is the most valuable possession?"
"Knowledge."
"What is not thought of until it departs?"
"Health."
"What is the best happiness?"
"Contentment."
"What covers all the world?"
"Darkness."
"What keeps a thing from discovering itself?"
"That is also darkness."
"What enemy cannot be overcome?"
"That is anger."
"What is honesty?"
"That is to look and to see every living creature as yourself, bearing your own will to live, and your own fear of death."
"How may peace be false?"
"When it is tyranny."