draft of "Primer for Beginners in Advaita"- part 2/4

[Guest guest]

advaitin Shri DD Arya wrote:

Specific to a Primer in the format of Religion-Hinduism -Vedanta-Advaita in that

specific order is really perfect for

someone who is just getting initiated into spritual matters..

 

 

Hari OM,

 

 

Pl find the part 2 on Hinduism in less than 500 words. To follow are: Vedanta

and Advaita. Hopefully there is a continuity of logic. Points 1 to 6 were posted

under "Religion Simplified".

HINDUISM SIMPLIFIED

7) Hinduism, a foreign word, refers to a set of religious practices that began

earlier than 5,000 years back in India. Sanskrit, in which most of the original

texts were recorded, describes it as “Universal Right way of conduct”.

 

8) Hinduism, revealed from the cosmic medium of ether, to a group of scholars

called as “Rishis” who then taught by “oral tradition”, to their disciples as

Vedas of which there are 4. A summary of the Vedic concepts is called as

Vedanta. The original Vedas remain unaltered, after several thousand years. A

summary of the various approaches “Gita” is considered now, as the Hindu text

book.

 

9) The major aspects of Hinduism are:

a) Brahman, the Super soul, is the source of all consciousness in this universe

(not just this world) and to whom all the individual souls & matter return.

It is beyond human comprehension or description and is infinite.

b) Humans are a result of a temporary amalgam of the “soul” (jiva) and non-life

matter forming this body.

c) The priority of human life is pursuit of spiritual enhancement so that the

soul merges with the Brahman for which a spiritual code (sadhana) with emphasis

on introspection is prescribed. On reunion with Brahman, there is permanent,

real bliss and consciousness and no more return to human life.

d) If this is not done, then the soul is “recycled” into various forms of life,

till it realizes the limitations of worldly existence which has inevitably a

cycle of “life & death” with intermittent “happiness & miseries”. All

human actions create their own quota of Karma which is a self balancing system.

 

10) The religion is not driven by life or teachings of any one Prophet but by

spiritual and ethical values. It does not have just one guiding text such as

Bible or Koran but has several texts some of which are spiritual and some are

social codes of human conduct. For more than 3000 years, there were no competing

foreign religions such as Islam and Christianity.

 

11) It was recognized from the early stages that a purely spiritual approach, is

not suitable for “popular comprehension or practice” at the level of masses. So

the social management aspect of the religion differs in content from the “core”

spiritual aspect which form the boundary controls. It is comprehensible only

within the contexts of the original design where there is a built in 2 tier

system with spiritual pursuit distinct from normal life (samsara).

 

12) The majority of Hindus follow the second level of social conduct where there

are idols, different forms of Gods, God men, Gurus, temples and several types of

worship, castes and rituals all of which have been changing over the time but

they do not challenge the core concept of human soul & Brahman. In general

the common practices encouraged are Love and Devotion to God, Non-violence to

all forms of life, truthfulness and conduct relevant to one’s situation in life.

 

 

Pranams

 

 

P.B.V.Rajan

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