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Hindu View of
God, Individual and World
“Hindu religious
thought is based upon the belief in the Ultimate Reality (Brahman
of the Upanishads), faith in the reality of the spirit (ãtman),
and faith in the spiritual order of the world. Through their spiritual
experiences, the ancient rishis (sages) discovered that there are
different ways to approach the same goal, catering to different people
exhibiting different levels of spiritual development. Enormous diversity
is thus an essential feature of the religious life of Hindus.
Hindu View
of God
Hindu view of
the Ultimate Reality is expressed in the following revelation of the Rig
Veda, the oldest Hindu scripture:
"Ekam sat
vipraha, bahudha vadanti."
"Truth is one, the wise call It by various names."
This doctrine
recognizes that the Ultimate Reality possesses infinite potential, power
and intelligence, and therefore cannot be limited by a single name or
form. Thus, Hindus view the Ultimate Reality as having two aspects:
impersonal and personal. The impersonal aspect of the Ultimate Reality
is called Nirguna Brahman in Hindu scriptures. Nirguna Brahman
has no attributes and, as such, is not an object of prayer, but of
meditation and knowledge. This aspect of the Ultimate Reality is beyond
conception, beyond reasoning and beyond thought.
The personal aspect
of the Ultimate Reality is known as Saguna Brahman, that is
Brahman with attributes. Saguna Brahman is the creator, sustainer and
controller of the universe. Saguna Brahman cannot be limited by one form
and is therefore worshipped by Hindus in both male and female forms. As
the male aspect, Saguna Brahman is called by various Sanskrit names,
such as Ishvara, Parameshvara, Paramãtma, Maheshvara, and Purusha.
These Sanskrit names repre-sent more or less the same concept as the
word God in other religions.
As the female
aspect, Hindus refer to Saguna Brahman by various names, such as
Divine Mother, Durgã and Kãlî. Hindus further worship the
male and female aspects of Saguna Brahman in many forms, called deities.
Hindu View
of the Individual
Hindu
scriptures teach that an individual is essentially ãtman clothed
in a physical body. The Sanskrit word ãtman, meaning "God within," is
usually translated as soul, self, or spirit. If the physical body of an
individual were compared to a computer, the ãtman would represent the
electricity that operates the computer. Thus, without ãtman, the human
body is insentient. In a human body ãtman is the source of the mind,
intellect and ego sense.
Hindu
scriptures declare that ãtman is immortal and divine. In Hindu view,
therefore, an individual is potentially divine and eternally perfect.
There are two states of existence associated with ãtman: the bound state
and the liberated state. In the bound state, ãtman is associated with a
physical body. As a result of this association, ãtman is subject to
mãyã, which causes it to forget its true divine nature and commit
evil deeds in the world. The powers of mãyã are two-fold. As cosmic
ignorance, mãyã deludes the ãtman into forge-tting its own true nature.
As creative energy (shakti) of Brahman, mãyã is the material
cause of the universe. In the liberated state, ãtman is said to have
attained moksha (spiritual perfection) and consequently enjoys
union with God. Moksha simply means freedom of the individual from
ignorance, i.e. realization of one's own true divine nature, or union
with God.
Although there
are various viewpoints, the predominant Hindu view is that the same
ãtman dwells in all beings. Thus, all human beings have a common source
and are interconnected in a subtle way. The reason humans are different
from each other (or at least think they are different) is that the
manifestation of ãtman in a physical body depends upon the type and
construction of the physical body. Just as the same electricity
manifests as cold in a refrigerator and heat in an oven, the same ãtman
manifests as a saint in one human body and a sinner in another human
body, owing to the past karma. Thus a sinner of today is a
potential saint of tomorrow.
In Hindu view,
an individual is not born a sinner, but commits sin due to mãyã. Just as
darkness quickly disappears upon the appea-rance of light, an
individual's delusion vanishes when he gains self-knowledge. Self-effort
and guru's (spiritual preceptor) grace is all that is needed to dispel
one's ignorance and attain self-knowledge.
Hindu View of the
World
The Sanskrit word for
creation is srishtî, which means "projecting gross phenomenon
from subtle substance." In Hindu view, creation originates from the
Ultimate Reality, Brahman. When a potter makes a pot from clay, he makes
the process happen and is the efficient cause. The wheel he uses to spin
and mold the pot is the instrumental cause, and the clay is the material
cause. Unlike Jewish, Christian and other Western theologies, the
predominant Hindu view is that Brahman is the efficient cause, the
instrumental cause, as well as the material cause of the universe. Thus
Brahman is the whole universe, animate and inanimate. With this thought
in mind, Hindus worship God as abiding in all created things and beings.
Brahman
manifests as consciousness (ãtman) and nature (matter) in the phenomenal
world. This manifestation is made possible by mãyã, the inherent
creative energy of Brahman. Hindu scriptures reveal that the
manifestation of Brahman as the things and beings of the world is a
divine sport (lîlã). In this eternal sport Brahman manifests in
diverse forms in the phenomenal world (creation), stays in that mode for
a time (sustenance), and reverts back to the original state
(dissolution). This process of creation, sustenance and disso-lution is
repetitive and occurs in cycles without beginning (anãdi) and
without end (ananta). Thus, in Hindu view there is no absolute
beginning or end to the universe. Whenever the words "beginning" and
"end" appear in Hindu scriptures, they simply mean the beginning and end
of a particular cycle of creation.
In the
beginning of creation, consciousness is wrapped up in matter. Through
the process of evolution, consciousness evolves from lower forms to
higher forms of life until it becomes aware of itself in a human body.
From that stage onwards, it struggles to free itself from physical
limitations (through spiritual discipline) and attain union with
Brahman, the original source of consciousness.
In Hindu view,
individuals go through the repeated cycles of birth and death, while
time goes through the repeated cycles of creation, sustenance, and
dissolution. Thus, the Hindu notion of time is cyclic and both time and
individuals are viewed as non-unique entities. The Western notion of
time is unidirectional and in the Western system both individuals and
time are viewed as unique entities.
Practical
Significance
The Hindu view
of God allows one to exercise complete freedom in worship. A Hindu may
worship any deity as he chooses based upon his own mental constitution.
He knows that different modes of worship are just different roads to the
same destination of union with God. He has no quarrel with other
religions as he considers them as different rivers flowing to ultimately
merge in the same ocean. As such, he has no urge to forcibly convert
other people to his own faith.
The belief in the
existence of the all-pervasive Divinity in the universe creates an
attitude of acceptance, reverence, benevolence and compassion for all
things and beings in the mind of a Hindu. He does not see any intrinsic
evil in Nature. He sees the ground, the sky, the trees, the hills and
mountains, and the rivers all sacred.
The Hindu
concepts of the individual and the world eliminate the fear of God or
eternal hell from one's mind. A Hindu considers life a divine pilgrimage
from "unreal to real, darkness to light, and death to immortality."
Being on this road of pilgrimage, a Hindu has no intention to hurt
anyone. He is thoroughly convinced that whatever he does in this life
will come back to him in the next life. Thus he must do good and be good
now, as he will have to come back again and again in this world until
all scores are settled.”
Hindu View of God, Individual and World
http://www.hindubooks.org/authors/bansi_pandit/hindu_dharm
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