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Hinduism
I- The
rise of Hinduism
People who perform methodical research into the history of
India
find it real hard to identify
India
's periods of stability; however, it
is very likely that by the 6th century B.C., the country started to
experience such periods.
India
knew lots of migrations and witnesses
the influx of various human races among which Indo-Aryan tribes,
coming from the coasts of the Caucasian sea, were the most
distinguished. Those eminent tribes paved the way to various
developments in
India
such as the rise of Hinduism. After
numerous struggles and conflicts, between the people who tried to
subdue
India
, Indo-Aryan tribes ended up by
entering into the fabric of the Indian community. Some historians
believe that the word Aryan' is taken from the Sanskrit language
- the ancient Indian language - and it means the honorable man.'
Very rapidly, the Aryans started to interact with the Dravidians - the
indigenous inhabitants of
India
- allowing
India
's pattern of religion, beliefs and
adorations of deities to take place. What is very notable, as well, is
the similarity between the way they articulate language and the way
European words are pronounced; something that goes back to the unity
of the linguistic, cultural and human origin - Indians call God (Dava);
in Latin language, He is called (Deus); in French, He is called (Dieu);
and so forth.
As for the religious Indian literature works, it had been written down
over different periods of time and it was until the 8th century B.C.
that people started to learn about them. These literature works are
called the Veda'; a word meaning The Texts or Books of
Wisdom'. And it
really remarkable that the collection of Hindu sacred texts
Vedas' is not ascribed to a single person; nay, it is the fruit
of the heritage of all the peoples who integrated together over times
forming one melting pot society.
The origin name of Hinduism is Dhorma'. During ancient times, it
was called Sentana; and it was just until recently that it took the
name of Hinduism' embodying by that culture, religion, customs
and traditions.
II- Fundamental principles of
Hinduism
When you delve thoroughly into the principles of Hinduism concerning
divinity, you find yourself plunging into more complications and
confusions because sources and references will reveal to you thousands
of sanctified gods; each one of them has only one mission to
accomplish.
Nevertheless, Brahma is regarded as the most important god in
Hindus' religious beliefs. In the
Circle of Knowledge', Al-Bustani spoke about the
etymology of the word Brahma' which is disputed among scholars.
According to him, it is a Persian compound word made up of Bray'
meaning the exaltedness' and Mah' meaning the great' or
Mayh' meaning the overarching and the overshadowing'; those
words are meant to designate the hollow celestial sphere that never
changes; neither in form nor in position. This sphere is always fixed
and it embraces the shining stars lying underneath it. On the other
hand, other scholars state that the word Brahma' has a Syncretic
root deriving from the word Barma.' And Barma' is a word of
neither feminine nor masculine form meaning that the implied god is an
epicene; he either possesses both male and female characteristics, or
lacks them both.
In The Story of Civilization' Will Durant speaks about the nature
of Gods in Hinduism: "The masses of Gods are thronged together in
the cemetery of the grandees in
India
; and if we set about counting the
names of these gods, it might take us hundreds of volumes to do so.
According to their nature, some of these gods are very close to be
angels, some of them might be demons, some of them could be meteoritic
galaxies such as the sun, some of them are amulets, etc you will
find amongst them a great number of animals or birds because Indians
do not depict large differences between the animal and the human
being; they think of the animal as a creature of spirit the same as
the human being All this variety of deities had interlaced their
threads in an intricate pattern forming a single web of non-restricted
limits called Karma - the Hindu and Buddhist philosophy according to
which the quality of people's current and future lives is determined
by their behavior in this and in previous lives the reincarnation
of souls. Among these gods, you find the elephant had turned into the
god Ganesha' considered as the son of Shiva and as the epitome of
the animal nature of human beings although monkeys and snakes
represent a source of terror, they were regarded as gods too.
Considering that a single bite may lead to a certain and quick death,
Hindus consecrate snakes, called Naja, in a very special way. In many
parts of India, you find people hold each year a big religious
ceremony aiming at glorying snakes; outside snakes burrows, Hindus put
their offerings mainly composed of milk and bananas; not to mention
that temples, especially in
East Misur, were built to worship snakes.
However, this account of
the events contradicts Al-Bayrouni's viewpoint on the subject which
states that monotheism and the idea of the pure God is the prevailing
doctrine in the Hindu system of beliefs. He describes the situation as
follows: "Hindus believe in God, the One, alone, the Eternal who has
no beginning and no end, the One who chooses to do or not to do, the
Capable and the Wise, the Alive and the Generator of lives, the Resort
and the Sustainer, the Isolated in His kingdom from all contaminated
things, the One who resembles nothing and nothing resembles him He
is the One who needs no reward; He is the Eternal and the Unique; He
who has the peace that we hope for and the power that we fear and
revere."
As for Al-Bustani, he says: "Brahma is the same sanctified Brahma of
Indians after he set up his works. He is as
well the third person of the Indian Trinity which means that
Brahma emanates from himself three times in three persons with one
person each time. In his first emanation he becomes Brahma, in the
second Shnu' and in the third Sywa'.
Correspondingly, Doctor Ihssan Haqqi seems to approve this favorable
opinion in his work on the translated version of the introduction of
Hindus' holy book or Manu Smriti -Laws of Manu. He says:
Hindus believe in monotheism; in the One God who has three assistants
running his realm; and those are: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva."
However, the most likely to be true is that Hindus believe in the
divine trinity composed of the three gods: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva;
and each one of those gods carries out a specified mission to fulfill.
A- Brahma: Brahma is called (Sang Hay Ang) in general and in the
Sanskrit language he is addressed as (Utpeti). In Hindu mythology,
Brahma is believed to be the creator of the universe and that is why
legends were made about the process of his own creation. In "the
world of religions," Hamid Faozi said: "Brahma is thought to
be a self-existent and to have evolved the world in his own way (from
an egg): After long meditations and deep thoughts, Brahma was able to
produce a fertile idea from which a golden egg evolved. As a result,
Brahma was created from that egg and this is why he is regarded as the
creator and the created." Nonetheless, although the attribute of
creative activity is ascribed to Brahma and despite of the high-ranked
status he enjoys in the canon of Hindus, the truth is that he plays
almost no part at all in Hindus rituals and sacraments.
B- Vishnu: Vishnu is popularly regarded as the preserver (or redeemer)
of the universe; and in the Hindu language, he is addressed as (Shtiti).
In his book: The Ancient Eastern Culture", Coller
describes Vishnu as the god full of love; the love that nourishes and
sustains life. Vishnu is frequently said to have a human or mortal
form (avatar) which incarnates good and salvation for all the
humankind. And to accomplish that specific mission - as Hindus believe
- Vishnu receives assistance from other gods amongst whom Rama and
Krishna
are the most important. All the more so, Vishnu enjoys a very eminent
position in Hindus' rituals and ceremonies.
C- Shiva: Shiva is a Hindu god who personifies the destructive force
of the universe. As he is represented as the destroyer, his mission
would then be in complete opposition with that of Vishnu. In Hindus'
native language, Shiva is referred to as (An Sang Kan Par).
In Hindu mythology - as described in The Story of
Civilization' - Shiva is "primarily the god of mercilessness
and destruction, he symbolizes the cosmic force that works, time and
again, on distorting all the images from which the truth of the
universe is generated, all the living cells, all the organic
creatures, all the genera, all the thoughts, all what the human hands
had ever created, all the orbits, everything"
Indeed, the Hindus, who consider Shiva as the god of destruction and
obliteration, tried to interpret that destruction as a blessing or a
mercy in itself. As Coller states in "The Ancient Eastern
Culture', when Hindus spoke about Shiva they said: "He is the
benevolent god of the divine blessing that can eradicate the
contaminating aspects of poverty which are manifested in the
deficiencies and the imperfections of the restrained spirit. In the
palm of his upper left hand, Shiva holds a tongue of flame
representing the force of destruction which had been related to him
for so long."
Likewise, the religion of Hinduism is based upon a divine Trimurti
composed of: Brahma; the creator, Vishnu; the preserver and Shiva; the
destroyer. This Hindu trinity of deities has different avatars -
incarnation in other gods - such as
Krishna
, Rama, Buddha, and Kalki. And if we want to learn more about the
functions of these gods as Hindus believe, we will find that they
regard
Krishna
as the god who aims at establishing peace and Buddha or Yuhhi the god
who spreads out knowledge and education that lead to serenity. As for
Kalki; he is the awaited god in Hinduism, the one who didn't arrive
so far because the time of his incarnation is yet to come.
III- The quality of the Afterlife
As for the question of the afterlife, Hinduism does not believe - as
Al-Suhmurani says in the book "Min Quamous Al-Adian" -in
an another life where there are heaven and hell or by punishment and
reward. Indeed, they believe in the Samsara or transmigration - Hindu
cycle of death and rebirth - where souls pass from one body to
another. The precise quality of the new birth is determined by the
accumulated merit and demerit that result from all the actions, or
karma, that the soul has committed in its past life or lives. All
Hindus believe that karma accrues in this way; they also believe that
if the person leads a life of good deeds and virtues with a
renunciation of all worldly desires, his soul will achieve release (moksha)
from this entire cycle of lives to be united with the Universal Soul,
also called Supreme Being, or else it will remain forever stuck in
this cyclical process wandering from one body to another.
Thus, Hindus take more care of the soul because they believe that
souls can reach perfection unlike bodies, which are characterized only
by their defects. Hindus maintain that in order to achieve a certain
level of purification, the body must benefit from the presence of the
soul in it, and that is why they adopted the ritual of burning the
body after death, which they consider to be a final terminal.
Indeed, the faculty of senses cannot fulfill its functions if the
Atman - essence of the individual - is not the leading power. The
origin of this Atman is Brahma (Sang Hay Ang) who considers it as the
radiant rays of the sun; the rays that widely extend everywhere all
through the lifetime and all across the planet.
In spite of being perfect, the soul in Hinduism does not reach
immortality as an independent entity; nay, its salvation is acquired
through practicing "Yoga." The "Yoga" is a harsh system of
exercise inflicting the body with a physical pain for the purpose of
teaching the soul patience and discipline. "Yoga" is a Sanskrit
word meaning "the yoke" and it was called so because it saves the
soul from the yoke of the body and the yoke of worldly desires.
The yoga promotes the unity of the individual with the Supreme Being
through a system of spiritual rituals and physical postures or
exercises, or through offering sacrifices that honor gods.
Furthermore, the yoga claims that one life is not enough to attain
that unity because according to the karma belief the evildoings of a
human being necessitate some successive reincarnations in human or
animal forms.
On this basis, we may say that Hindus are not in accord with the
Divine Revelations, especially when it comes to the question of the
creator and the last day. The greater and lesser Hindu gods are
worshiped in a number of concentric circles of public and private
devotion. Amongst the most fundamental ceremonies for every Hindu are
those that involve the rites of passage such as the funeral ceremonies
celebrated at the
Ganges
River
where Hindus sprinkle the ashes of
their dead after subjecting them to incineration for interring
corpses is not an adopted custom in Hinduism. Moreover, the
Ganges
is regarded as a holy river that
people head to for pilgrimage each year in order to get purified with
its water.
Hindus believe that cows are sacred and thus, they abstain themselves
from eating beef meat. In fact, cows wander freely in the streets of
the cities without any disturbance or restrictions; subsequently, so
many car and train accidents had occurred in
India
as a result of a sudden and quick
braking which is necessary to show reverence for a cow crossing over.
So, Hindus leave their cows strolling leisurely in the country and the
only benefit they draw from their cattle is drinking its milk and
utilizing its excrements as a material to set fire. Special respect is
accorded to cows by Hindus to the extent that the urine of the animal
is sometimes used as a cure for diseases just like medicines; it is
also used in temples as a complementary object for ceremonies when
priests put the urine in tubes and sprinkle it on the crowd. Once a
cow is dead, it must be buried reverently according to the religious
rites and celebrations.
IV- The Hindu Texts
As we have previously mentioned, the religious texts of the Indians -
the Vedas - were not attributed to a sole person. "The Veda" or
"The Weda" is a Sanskrit word meaning "the knowledge" and it
represents a wide anthology or an encyclopedia encompassing lots of
information about the
land
of
India
and its people over many centuries
starting mainly at 2500 B.C.
It took many stages in order to reach the final version of the Vedas.
Before it was written down, the Veda meant to meditate'; and
after it was recorded, turning out to be the real reference for the
history and the heritage of
India
as for the religious conceptions of
Hindu people. The Vedas became the ultimate canonical authority for
all Hindus; it organized the lives of its followers leading them
towards the path of reaching the required knowledge.
Durant tends to believe that the first people who embarked on writing
down the Vedas were some Indian tradesmen who belonged to the
Dravidian sect the thing that made these writings - as it seems - an
object for commercial and management purposes. So, the people who
originally promoted that art were indeed tradesmen and not priests.
Accordingly, Al-Suhmurani concludes that the evolution of writing down
the Vedas accompanied the evolution of the Sanskrit language itself.
Most likely, that delay in recording the collection of the Vedas was
the cause that deprived researchers of the great sources of knowledge
concerning the ancient history of
India
.
Actually, it appears that the Hindu priests - Brahmins - had
encouraged the documentation of the Vedas to use them as religious
weapons ensuring them power, control and prestigious status especially
after they established the basis of the hierarchical social system
making it inseparable from religion.
Verily, the Vedas were not constituted of one book only; nay, it was a
collection of fourteen books among which the "Manu Smriti"
also called "The Laws of Manu" was the most important one. This
book was translated into Arabic by Ihssan Haqqi who endeavors, in his
introduction, to clearly reveal all the confusions and disharmonies
that lie underneath. He says: "If we want to describe the "Manu
Smriti", we say that it is an accumulation of disharmonies because
once we notice that; in its legislation, the book reaches the highest
levels of sanity, awareness, tastefulness, and reasoning; then again,
we remark that it suddenly slopes down to the most ridiculous levels
and most shameful trivialities if that is to indicate something, it
truly indicates that this book had been written over discontinuous
periods of time by very different people; different in matters of
knowledge, reason and awareness."
V- Hindu class system
the majority of the Indian people adopts Hinduism as religion; the
religion that had evolved along with the evolution of
India
itself. And as we have said earlier,
Hinduism is not just a religion; indeed, through its conceptions and
books, it represents the encompassment of the cultural history of
India
.
As Al-Suhmurani says, the religious Hindu system had mixed with the
rest of the systems such as the political, the social, and the
economic organisms to achieve an underlying objective. In order to
guarantee themselves power and control, religious and political
personages sanctified the social class system. As a result, the castes
were founded dividing the Hindu society into four main hereditary
classes called (varnas) and dictating the social position and status
of people.
The four castes
The Hindu society is divided into four main hereditary classes: the
Brahman, or priestly; the Kshatriya, or warrior; the Vaisya, or
general populace and the Shudras, or servants. Hindus also believe in
a hierarchical categorization of the members of each caste according
to the importance of their origin, which means that the social status
is handed down through generations. In the Laws of Manu known as
"Manu Smriti", Hindus say: "To bring happiness to this world,
Brahma created the Brahman class from his face, the Kshatriya from his
arms, the Vaisya from his thighs, and the Shudras from his feet."
Al-Bayrouni described these castes similarly to what was mentioned in
the "Manu Smriti"; he says: "First of all, the Hindu institution
of the caste system is organized in four classes starting with the
Brahman; the highest Hindu caste that emanated from the head of Brahma
- as related in their books. Knowing that the head represents the top
part of the animal's body, the Brahman was accordingly considered as
the most pure organism amongst species and that is why it became a
symbol of the best and supreme position within people. The second
caste that follows the Brahman in importance is the Kshatriya which
issued from Brahma's shoulders and hands and was relatively close in
position and status to those of the Brahman. The Vaisya and the
Shudras come successively after the above two ranks; those classes
were created from the legs of Brahma and they are closely related to
each other in significance. Despite of this hierarchical system that
arranges classes of Hindu society, we find that cities and villages
embrace a mixture of the four castes' homes and dwellings."
A: The Brahman: In their Holy Texts "Manu Smriti", Hindus say that
Brahma, the supreme god, "commissioned the Brahman to read and teach
the Veda, to carry out the task of relating knowledge (Vidya),
performing religious celebrations, giving and accepting charities.
According to Coller, the members of this caste are "the elite of
priests and mentors who are regarded in general as the elite of
cultured people whose primary activities are to preserve knowledge,
culture, justice and morality in order to please the gods."
B: The Kshatriya: The Kshatriya is the second of the four Hindu castes
after the Brahman, originally a royal and warrior caste with the
mission of maintaining the security in the country. Consequently, its
members should be distinguished by their courage as by their political
and military professional standards so that they would enjoy
society's great reverence. In his definition of the Kshatriya, John
Coller said: "The members of the Kshatriya caste are the protectors
of society, the administrators of its affairs, and the guardians of
its individuals. The Kshatriya is the system that looks after
society's security, supervises and watches over the execution of
laws and commands required by the necessary social functions. The Jati
- a Sanskrit word denoting the system of caste or
varna
- also states that heroism, force,
integrity, mastership, being valorous even in battles, showing
generosity and manifesting skillful leadership; those are the natural
and intuitive duties that a member of Kshatriya caste should enjoy.
Similarly, Al-Bayrouni says that the qualities accorded to this class
require the Kshatriya person to be "revered, courageous,
influential, articulate, giving, strong in facing any hardship,
capable of solving plights successfully."
C: The Vaisya or the Waisya: Next in order of rank were the farmers
and merchants, the Vaisya caste whose crucial mission in society is to
provide the fullness of nourishment and to ensure an ample and stable
livelihood conditions. Moreover, this class is in complete charge of
the economic affairs and it is not a matter of desirable choice to
carry out this job; nay, it is an appointed decree by the "Manu
Smriti" or "The Laws of Manu" which dictate the following:
"The Vaisya are supposed to fulfill seven tasks which are: taking
care and shepherding animals, giving charities, worshipping the Vidya,
studying the Vedas, working in commerce, adopting the treatment of
usury, and assuming the farming chores." In fact, this social class
is trying hard to gradually advance in position, it is really trying
to attain liberation from life's restraints and achieve freedom from
daily worries; however, it remains for ever the servant of the nation
and the people because the responsibility of providing continuous and
ample productiveness is cast upon its shoulders.
D: The Shudras or the Sudras: The Shudras is the lowest of the four
castes in Hindu hierarchical organization of society. The members of
this class are almost slaves because their duty lies in serving the
society and working hard to fulfill whatever the upper classes burden
them with. Al-Bayrouni says: "A Sudras should be diligent in serving
and flattering people, he should try to be friendly to any one when
performing his duty, and whomsoever
shows perseverance and hard-working effort in dealing with his
prescribed ordinary task, he will be greatly rewarded." And the one
who does not fulfill his appointed job will be subjected to
punishment. Concerning the function of this particular class, the
Hindu Laws or the "Manu Smriti" relate: "The supreme god had
bound Sudras with a sole requirement which is to serve the higher
castes with complete loyalty and devotion." And by the higher
castes', he is indicating the above mentioned three castes: the
Brahman, the Kshatriya and the Vaisyas.
Verily, this Hindu social hierarchy is maintained generation after
generation allowing little mobility out of the position, to which a
person is born, blocking the way in front any competence or
ability-based promotion and consequently leaving no room for justice.
The characteristics of this Indian rigid social system paved the way
to a sharp division within the Indian society creating a serious need
to the dissolution of the artificial and oppressive barriers between
the castes. Amongst the considerable attempts aiming at eradicating
this unjust social institution was the one led by Mahatma Gandhi in
the early twenties. However, this endeavor could not realize the
expected and desired results because the class-based discrimination
has deep roots in the Hindu mentality, beliefs and society.
VI-
Hindu worship and rituals
1- Purity: It is noticeable that the most sacred places that Hindus
head toward for pilgrimage are spread throughout river banks. And the
holiest amongst all these rivers is the
Ganges
where people sprinkle the
ashes of their dead after incinerating their bodies. It is said that
the importance of the
Ganges
comes from source of which
the river issues; it springs from underneath the feet of the god
Vishnu, the preserver.
Furthermore, the Hindu theology reveals numerous cases of getting
purified. For example, the Manu Smriti texts mentioned that the sexual
defiling could be purified through washing up "Human beings can rid
themselves of the uncleanness of discharging seminal fluid by washing
out." In addition, "Washing up can be the way through which people
can free themselves from impurities that they got inflicted with by
touching moral-degraded people, by touching a woman during the
menstruation period, by touching a woman during the forty days after
childbirth, by touching a dead body, or by touching a person who
himself had previously touched a dead body."
All the more so, Hindus believe that the blood of a martyr does not
need to be cleansed up because it is pure in itself. In their Laws,
Hindus say: "The person who dies in the battlefield or during a
struggle; who perishes because of a thunderbolt; who is crashed by a
cow or by a Brahmin; who had been sentenced to death by the king or
the latter wanted to subject him to purification; no one will ever be
contaminated by the death of such person." As for the woman "she
should purify herself by washing up a day after the miscarriage to
compensate all the months of pregnancy just as
she should do after the menstruation period."
Hindus regard purity as being divided into two types; the first one is
related to the body when they wash themselves up with water, and the
second type is spiritual such as the purification of the soul through
holy knowledge and the purification of the heart through offering
worship, and so forth
2- The prayer: bathing, wearing clean garments of white or yellow
color, washing up hands and mouths with scented water are considered
as forms of prayer. Men and women take different positions during
prayers; the man sits cross-legged while the woman gets down on her
knees. Concerning the performance of prayers - as Shalabi stated in
his book "The Greatest Religions of India" - it would be as
follows: "Hinduism has neither a unifying nor a collective prayer
because, all in all, the prayer is individual."
As for when' and how many times' Hindus perform their
prayers, the Manu Smriti stated that they pray twice a day: in the
morning and in the evening. By standing up, priests perform the
ceremony of the morning that lasts from the dawn till the sunrise;
while by being seated, they recite the evening prayer till the
appearance of the stars. Those two adopted methods to pray in the
morning and in the evening are believed to wash away the sins of the
previous night and the sins of the day respectively.
Hindus insisted severely on the performance of daily prayers for the
texts of the Manu Smriti clearly stated that people who do not perform
the prayers should be expelled and regarded the same way as the
outcast Shudras, or they should be deprived from the established
rights of the reborn - indicating the people who have a soul that had
undergone the cyclical return.
The religious fervor that Hindus enjoy creates in them an intense
enthusiasm to lead the life of hermits making from forests and
riverbanks their isolated and solitary refuges. Consequently they say:
"It is sufficient that the person performs his worship by just
reading aloud the Khaytri with a peaceful heart and a sound reason,
near a river or in a forest."
Next to water that they use in order to purify things and people,
Hindus also utilize, in their ceremonies and rituals celebrated by
priests in temples, fire to burn the incense, in addition to the
remarkable usage of flours. The prayers that are recited in temples
are performed - as Al-Shalabi says - as follows: "The priest recites
his traditional enchantments. Then, the person would kneel underneath
the worshipped idol and starts his invocations Later on, the priest
spells out his traditional supplications knowing that each social
caste has its own different share in this supplication The priest
voices a special invocation. Afterwards, the person says his prayer to
be finally sprinkled with water before he departs."
3- Cremation: In Hinduism, the atman - the soul - is the
essence of individuals, which make the body of little importance,
especially when it comes to the transmigration of a soul after death.
Hindus believe that the soul keeps on undergoing the cyclical return
of life because it will be searching the attainment of enlightenment
and purification in order to free the spiritual self from attachment
to worldly things which will finally end the cycle of birth and
rebirth allowing the union with the Universal Soul "Nirvana."
Consequently, Hindus dealt very harshly with their live bodies; as for
the after death, they advocate the ritual of subjecting the corpse to
incineration until nothing remains but ashes; the ashes are then kept
in an urn to be sprinkled afterwards in their holy
Ganges
River
.
The ceremony of cremation is based upon the following items - as
identified by Doctor Shalabi: "The required elements are: fire,
wood, the corpse and water." And these items would be arranged
underneath the worshipped idol by the children or the family of the
dead person.
The procedure of the cremation: The corpse is washed with pure and
limpid water then again washed with fragrant water. All the wounds and
incisions should be completely closed. The dead body should be
incinerated by means of the revered fire set by the priest. After that
the corpse is covered with wood, which is also revered by Hindus
The burning of the body will keep going until only ashes are left;
Hindu spells, hymns, and chants will be recited over those ashes"
which should be assembled in a vessel to be dispersed afterwards in
the Ganges River.
4- The Yoga: In Hinduism, the essence of human beings is all about the
"atman" and his body is very likely to be an obstacle
hindering the way of the spiritual self which is trying to liberate
itself from the cyclical and entangling return to life to finally
reach the union with the Universal Spirit or the god Brahma.
Hence, as says Al-Suhmurani, Hindus adopted the concept of "Karma";
a conventional term to indicate their philosophy about the human
cyclic life concerning birth, Samsara - transmigration between bodies
- and the quality of people's future lives, the soul in particular,
which is determined by their accumulated merit and demerit behavior in
this and in previous lives.
So, if the human being took the right path: doing good and charitable
deeds, performing his religious duties through expiations and rituals,
renouncing all worldly desires, his soul will achieve release (moksha)
from the entire process of samsara to be unified with the
Universal Soul - Brahma. On the other hand, if the human being sought
the profane rewards of this world: taking the path of evil and wrong
doings, neglecting his duties, his soul will be endlessly stuck in the
cycle of birth and rebirth, passing from one body to another,
experiencing successively life and death.
Accordingly, Hindus adopted the Yoga discipline. The Yoga is a
Sanskrit term meaning the yoke' used to signify the fact that the
exercise of Yoga achieves the salvation of the soul from the yoke of
the body.
Verily, as we have said earlier, Brahma and the Atman (the essence or
the soul) are one entity. Therefore, the purpose of practicing Yoga -
as Coller notes - is to reestablish that unity which had split when
the soul inhabited the body. So, in order to be liberated and realize
again this oneness with Brahma, the soul necessitates the Yoga
discipline. Coller adds also that the marvels of this bodily control,
which may achieve liberation from the limitations of flesh, the
delusions of sense and the pitfalls of thought are not enough if the
human being was not introduced to wisdom and disinfected from
ignorance Once the wisdom is fulfilled, no suffering will exist any
more because there will no longer be a misconnection between the soul
(Borosha) and the substance (Brakriti) - the changing and sufferable
entity.
On this basis, Shalabi says that realizing the gratification of god,
the creator, is the ultimate goal Hindus try to achieve through
practicing Yoga; the kind of exercise based on remembrance, meditation
and silence. Coller also states that the Yoga is the answer of
salvation from pain and tragedies; it is the path through which human
beings reach the Nirvana that achieves the complete union and fusion
between the atman (the soul) and Brahma.
Moreover, Al-Suhmurani said that the Yoga saves and releases the
spirit from the bond of the body and from its primitive instinctive
impulses and drives to make from the human being a more tender and
loving person to people all. By reaching this noble level, the
concerned person will be called "Mahatma"; a title ascribed to
Hindu Saints and good people. The word is etymologically divided into
two syllables: Atma' or Atman' meaning the Soul; and
Maha' to signify the Great. Like so, the person who reaches
salvation will be deemed as the person of the Greatest Spirit.
5- Sraddha or Shraddha: the Sraddha, as described by Al-Bustani in
"The Circle of Knowledge," is an Indian term meaning faith or
trust' and it is used to designate an Indian ceremony celebrated to
honor the dead and their spirits; it mainly includes offerings of food
and water to dead ancestors. Indeed, Hindus believe that carrying out
this festival shortly after the death of the person would immediately
guide his soul to heaven and facilitate its acceptance amongst the
pure souls. In return, if that ceremony is never held, the soul of the
dead will remain lost forever wandering aimlessly in earth with the
rest of defiled spirits. Moreover, the person who keeps on delaying
the fulfillment of his duties towards his dead relatives; will be
damned by the gods and the humans; consequently, the spirits of his
relatives will be deprived from the feast of the pure souls for
several years. As for the person who dies without leaving a son to
complete the funeral requirements after him, he would become the main
cause of expelling the spirits of his ancestors from heaven to be sent
hell.
At the beginning of each lunar month, the Brahmans lead some conjoined
Sraddhaas for the sake of their ancestors in general, in which they
make daily offerings. And as individuals, they hold a special and
private Sraddhaa once a month or once a year. The Book of Manu
minutely describes the Law of Sraddhaa: If a person offers the spirits
of the dead a ball of rice simmered with milk, honey and dripped
butter during one of the lunar days when the shadow of Ganesha - an
elephant-headed Hindu god - is directed towards east; he would be
pleasing them for a whole year; as for the other offerings, they may
satisfy the souls for two or three months, or even more regarding the
kind of offerings that are being given. All the more so, the soul can
attain an eternal gratification and satisfaction if the following
oblations are made: the meat of a rhinoceros, the flesh of crabs,
goats of nearly red hair, honey, or some cereals of which a hermit had
eaten, etc These Indian customs are completely similar to the Greek
and Roman customs. To the ceremony held for the sake of the dead,
Hindus do not invite but the pure people. Two people, however, should
be present at this festival: a Brahmin who covers all the required
rules and a person of a deep knowledge in the religious Texts whose
presence is better than the crowd of a million knowing nothing about
it. In addition, if the dead person had no son to carry out this
ceremony, the adopted child - if he had one - would be commissioned to
fulfill the duties of the Sraddhaa; something that tightens and
strengthens the father-son relationship.
