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Nov-20-2009
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Synopsis: Part II of the Introduction to Hinduism introduces:
1. The place of Gita in Hindu scriptures.
2. Gita provides to seeker of God various actions known as yogas or paths for virtuous living.
3. The concept of the relevance of the idol worship for seekers of union with God is explained.
4. Gita presents religious concepts in scientific and logical language.
5. The scope of Gita incorporates introduction to psychology by presenting knowledge of centers for intellect, mind, and desires (vasanas) as well as operating field for three gunas (qualities or modes of human behavior).
6. In the process of empowering Hindus with knowledge the Gita identifies importance of self-realization to virtuous (dharmic) quality of life.
7. For Hindus God is very ideal of perfection. Hindu religion offers multiple choices or knowledge for personal empowerment to seek moksha or the union with all pervasive God identified as Absolute or Supreme Brahman.
Gita is considered the book or Bible and Koran of Hinduism. Vyasa in 6th century BC formulated Gita in Sanskrit; it was passed down for generation by memory and then written. It is the first document offering the theory for the Advaita Vedanta developed by Adi Shankaracharya (788-820) and he used Advaita arguments to defeat Buddhism in India.
According to Mahadev Desai1, in Gita Vyasa collated scattered and heterogeneous materials found in Vedas and Upanishads. Using intuitions and discriminatory evaluations of available materials Vyasa innovated to present a new philosophy for a way of life. There is bhakti (Part III), there is yajna (Part I notes), there is Cosmic-Man (Part IV), there are yogas2 (Part III), there is Sankhya (Part V), and there are gods too, everywhere in Gita. Guna theory of Sankhya system is also described (Part V).
I quote Mahadev Desai: "Gita is a highly poetic echo of the Upanishads. The Gita performs the unique function of making what was an esoteric doctrine a living reality for the unlettered, the lowly and the lost, and presents the highest form of practical religion to enable each and all to realize his or her purpose in life. Above all, it blazons forth in an unmistakable manner the truth that life is worth living and teaches how it may be worth living. It is a unique synthesis and reconciliation of the two doctrines, which were in those days held to be contemporary - sannayasa (renunciation of action) and yoga (performance of action).
The Gita and Yoga
The Holy Geeta, one of many Hindu religious scriptures1,3, in 18 chapters offers a synthesis of all relevant Upanishad teachings, an estimated 3,500 years old ancient literature. India"s oldest scriptures are Vedas, which are more than 5,000 years old. Geeta is also spelled Gita. The Gita describes all yogas or paths of selfless action to seek God. Seekers are free to choose or select one or more of these paths. All paths are equal; there is no one path superior to other; they all have equal weight in helping a devotee to reach or connect to God. Three paths popular with most devotees are gyan yoga or path of knowledge (gyan), karma yoga or path of action (karma) and bhakti yoga or path of devotion (bhakti).
Hinduism emphasizes reliance on a guru or teacher to empower seekers with education, knowledge and techniques available to connect to God. In the Gita, Lord Krishna is the teacher and confused Arjuna represents the student such as anyone of us.
Parents are not only responsible for giving birth and nurturing child but they are also the first "gurus." According to the modern psychology, first five years of a child are the formative years to lay a solid foundation on which the edifice of life is then build during rest of life. Parents are the primary gurus during the formative period. The deeply embedded tradition of Hindu family values is rooted in the guru-student relationship or deep bonding of child with parents, the first gurus.
Yuj means to join. Yoga3 is a conscious attempt by anyone to acquire or lift his/her present available personality and attune it to a higher, perfect self set ideal. Yoga also means "to acquire" for purposes of processing and Kshema means "all efforts of preserving the acquired." Yoga means control of the mind. When thoughts are stilled, the claim is, eternal soul has a chance to experience its own nature (jiva-purusha duality, Part V)).
In addition to paths of action for living described in Gita the term yoga is also a Hindu meditation technique popular in the west and India. In the West and for non-Hindus, yoga is used primarily for physical exercises and stretches, for example pranayam exercises. Hindus use techniques of yoga-paths described in Gita to meditate for seeking God, the perfect ideal. For Hindus, while pranayam - a breathing exercise program - is intrinsic to many of the meditative practices several additional practices are required as part of specific yoga/path
Is idol-worship justified?
The God is infinite and intangible; God is all around us, all over the universe. God is every where in the cosmic universe dispersed in the space-time continuum. Because it is difficult for the seeker to comprehend such an omnipresent God, idol worship makes perfect sense. Idols not only serve as props - a tangible form - for meditative minds of seekers to focus on to connect to the God, but also remind the seeker of personification of divinity over time. Ram, Krishna, Durga, Ganesha, Shiva are common idols. Hindus use the idol to build a mental image and to develop an amicable relationship to relate to the Absolute singularity representing the God.
Idols are a great help to get fixated on a mental image of the God. Practically all of us have a wandering mind and preoccupation with issues related to day-to-day living. Daily living entails a life of sensuality and satisfaction of one"s body-cravings. Reaching out to God requires breaking away from sensuality and body-cravings by redirecting with devotion, Shraddha (reverence, veneration) and concentration (a unity of mind and purpose) focused on God. Idols help seekers with devotion and Shraddha to concentrate on God.
Intellect, Mind, Gunas and Vasana (Desires)
Hindus recognize brain (buddhi; dimakh) is center for intellect, mind, desires (vasanas); brain is also the operating field for three gunas (qualities or modes of behavior). Each of these terms is defined below and it is followed by some additional observations to facilitate understanding of how Hindu religion helps each person to be empowered with knowledge and education.
Intellect and intelligence refer to mental equipment or qualities. Intellect or mental capacity is the capacity for thinking and acquiring knowledge, esp. of a high or complex order. Intellect is synonym to reason, sense, common sense, brain, etc.
Mind is that part of brain that thinks, feels, and wills, as contrasted with body. Mind is multifaceted. It is a way of thinking and feeling; it is disposition; temper; a state of awareness or remembrance; opinion, view, or sentiments; and inclination or desire. In psychology mind is totality of conscious and unconscious processes and activities.
Vasanas are desires originating through mind as perceived with sense organs.
Hindu religion identifies that three gunas act simultaneously, not in isolation for every action of a seeker. By internalizing discriminating behavior gunas can be manipulated to:
1. Acquire mental equanimity through purity
2. Free mind of attachments to avoid agitations that attack intellect with delusions and grief and
3. Seek truth through yoga and Kshema the right cognition of real nature of things.
Self-Realization and Quality Life
Complete knowledge of "the Self" destroys ignorance and reveals the Supreme (Brahman). Mental pursuit of knowledge invariably is distracted by desires, ego develops and the Self gets wrapped in ignorance instead of knowledge. Gita offers guidance, knowledge and instructions on how to avoid falling into vertigos of desires instigated by ego driven entrapments in life.
Both mind and intellect are nothing but thoughts. Devotion to God requires for mind and intellect to actually penetrate, delve into, merge, and ultimately to dissolve and become the very idea of perfection represented by God. Fixing thoughts requires thoughts to gush forward in sincerity toward God so that the personality of the devotee ends and acquires the glow and beauty of the Lord-of-his-heart.
Intellectually God is infinite, intangible or unmanifested. Hindus recognize needs of people of different intellectual capacities. Not everyone is intellectually endowed to perceive God that is imperceptible to sense organs.
A manifested or tangible form is directly perceptible to the sense organs and Hindus recognize that some seekers need a tangible from or idol to meditate or stay focused on while engaged in yoga of worship. Many Hindus can and do worship, pray, meditate or do yoga visualizing God in unmanifested or intangible form.
Hindu religion emphasizes personal empowerment to help seekers sail through life to achieve the ultimate destination of union with God. Hindu religion allows many paths or yogas to penetrate, delve into, merge, and ultimately dissolve a seeker to become the very ideal of perfection that God, the object represents.
Like Microsoft"s Word software that offers multiple choices for digital manipulation of computational situations, Hindu religion offers multiple choices to devotees to pick a set of beliefs they are comfortable with within a broad canvas of Hindu yogic scriptures to suit their intellectual and emotional needs to reach out and connect to the God.
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References & Notes:
1. The Gospel of Selfless Action or The Gita According to Gandhi by Mahadev Desai, Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad 380 014 (12th reprint, April 2007) ISBN 81-7229-126-4. Gandhiji translated Gita from Sanskrit to Gujarati Gandhiji wrote it for layman Gujaratis and did not link it to the source materials, the Upanishad.
. Mahadev Desai translated Gandhijis Gita from Gujarati to English in a 250 page text and notes in English. It is concise and lucid for layman. The book contains a 121 page introduction to Gandhijis Gita titled, My Submission."
. Mahadev Desai showed linkages of Gita slokas to that in Upanishads. He also presented the Sankhya System or doctrine/philosophy in a very easy to understand prose for layman.
. Mahadev Desai, continuing with Dr. Deussens parallel (Part I, notes) considers the Gita as Gospels of Hinduism.
2. Yoga is also complete medical science in addition to a way of life. In the West and for many in India and rest of the world yoga is an exercise tool.
. Yoga is designed for doer or self-reliant individuals and society; it is physical processes for continuous rebalancing of body equilibrium.
. I am practicing Pranayam yoga for more than a year. My experience is that the Pranayaam yoga helps regain lost happiness or induces happiness; Pranayaam yoga through a variety of breathing exercises entails enriching blood with oxygen for improving physiology and it helps rebalance body chemistry for healthy living.
. Patanjali and Hath Yoga are popular yoga practices.
. Patanjali-yoga, also called raja- or astanga-yoga, is intimately linked with Sankhya, its sister darshan. The practice of yoga is based on the Patanjali Sutras, consisting of 194 aphorisms. They are divided into four sections - samadhi (trance), sadhana (the practice), vibhuti (mystic powers) and kaivalya (the ultimate aim - moksha). The process itself is divided into eight limbs (angas).
. Although popular hatha-yoga is related to astanga-yoga, particularly the third stage, the exercises in Patanjalis system are designed not for physical health but simply to facilitate meditation and self-realisation. The yogi must be able to sit comfortably, neither straining nor falling asleep, and have complete control over the breath.
. Patanjali also warns the yogi not to be allured by the mystic siddhis (perfections), but to keep in mind the goal of self-realisation. This involves discrimination (based on Sankhya system or enumeration science discipline), purging oneself of base qualities (lust, greed, illusion, etc.) and having complete control over the mind and senses.
. Patanjali also recommends scriptural study and surrender to the Lord, which bestows peace, illumination, and samadhi.
. Kaivalya refers to the realisation that one is not the body but the soul within. It is achieved when the yogi is fixated in meditation on the Lord residing within the heart and is no longer influenced by three gunas (qualities/behavior of matter).
3. The Holy Geeta by Swami Chinmayananda (reprinted July 2001; about 1,200 pages of commentary with original Sanskrit slokas or verses and their English translations).
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