Asian Religions, page 16
The realization of moka is the ultimate goal expressed by the god Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. This realization can be accomplished by the discipline of wisdom and insight, jñāna-yoga. Quoting from the Gita:
The truly wise mourn neither for the living nor for the dead. There was never a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor any of these kings. Nor is there any future in which we shall cease to be … Bodies are said to die but that which possesses the body is eternal.3
Notes
1 V. C. George, in his “Purusharthas: Dharma Artha Kama Moksha” (Mahatma Gandhi University doctoral thesis, 1995, p. 39), defines puruārtha as “meaning of life”; etymologically, it is “that which is desired” (p. 39).
2 For a discussion, see Patrick Olivelle, The Asrama System: The History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 216–218.
3 Translation adapted from Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, Bhagavad-Gita: The Song of God (New York: Signet Classics, 2002), p. 36.
17
Bhakti-marga
The third of the three paths to liberation is often described as the “easiest”: trusting God in whatever form God may take, through ego-denying acts of worship and devotion. This is bhakti-yoga, the discipline of love, and it is expressed by Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita in these words:
Offer up everything to me. If your heart is united with me, you will be set free from karma even in this life and come to me at last … Though a man be soiled with the sins of a lifetime, let him but love me, rightly resolved, in utter devotion: I see no sinner. That man is holy … Even those who belong to the lower castes – women, Vaishyas and Shudras, too – can reach the highest spiritual realization, if they will take refuge in me … Fill your heart and mind with me, adore me, make all your acts an offering to me, bow down to me in self-surrender, and you will come into my being.1
Offerings to the Hindu gods are made in a worship service (pūja) conducted in a temple (Figure 17.1) and presided over by trained priests. Devotees participate in these offerings with single-minded devotion. Thousands of Hindu temples can be found in India and throughout the world, including some 1,000 Hindu temples in North America.2
Figure 17.1 Hindu temple featuring images of the Lord Krishna. © Sunsetman / Shutterstock.
Theologically, Hindus explain that Krishna – or any of the other deities worshipped in Hindu temples – is a divine manifestation of the one great soul, Brahman. In fact, if you were to interview any of the devotees at the Hindu Temple of San Antonio (or any other temple situated in the English-speaking world), they would explain that Hinduism is a monotheistic religion, in spite of the presence of several deity images arrayed at the front of the temple, for instance the elephant-headed god Gaeśa, the goddess Lakmī, the kingly lord Rāma, the dancing god Shiva (Śiva), the shape-shifting monkey god Hanuman, and so on.
It is common among Hindus to choose one god as especially “cherished” or “favored,” a personal ia-devatā. This choice may be conditioned by one's place of birth or family, but the devotee is free to choose the god who is most meaningful to him or her. Although the ia-devatā – the “cherished one” – is but one god among many, he is treated as “one alone without a second” (as Brahman is described in the Upaniads), an object of love and devotion that is all-encompassing and – in Western terms – monotheistic. Bhakti inspires this kind of single-minded focus on the divine object of love. The one god of worship is given one's full attention, affirming the unity of God: the unity of all gods, the unity of all souls, and the unity of self and God.
On different occasions or in different temples, other Hindu devotees direct their undivided attention to a different god or to a different manifestation of the one God (Brahman). In this light the worshipper can appreciate the greatness of God in all of God's forms and experience the love of God in all aspects.3 As one devotee explained to me:
In my life I experience many kinds of love – parental love for my child, sexual love for my lover, adoring love for my parent, tender love for a pet, grateful love for a teacher, and so on; if I imagine God in all forms, I experience love of God in all of these aspects.4
As one worships each of the gods in turn (some dedicate one day of the week to each of six or seven temple deities), one's concentration is so focused on a single god of worship and on that god alone. One is “seeing God” through one of God's particular manifestations.
Another way in which this multiplicity within unity is expressed is through the pūja or worship service itself. A key element of the ritual is the chanting of the “108 names” of the god. This is performed for a number of gods, and the number 108 is constant, but the particular names differ from one god to another. Among the 108 names of Krishna, for example, are murali manohara (“flute-playing god”), shyam (“dark-complexioned”), and gopalpriya (“lover of cowheards”), distinctive characteristics that are described in Krishna's mythology. The 108 names of Gaeśa include gajānana (“elephant-headed”), vighneśvara (“remover of obstacles”), eshanputra (“son of Shiva”), and so on. By chanting the 108 names, the devotee is able to visualize the deity's form and functions as a multifaceted object of devotion.
Taken together, all of these forms create an experience of complete and total love, and at least an approximation of the limitless nature of Brahman and of the soul in union with Brahman. This is the multidimensional nature of bhakti.
Brahman is difficult to comprehend at a conceptual level. Brahman is described in the Hindu scriptures as being (paradoxically) “beyond description”: “neither this nor that,” neither male nor female, limitless, all-encompassing, indistinguishable from any other thing and yet not contained in any one thing, “one without a second.” From a comparative point of view, Brahman is theologically parallel to the God of the Abrahamic traditions. But how far can this comparison take us, if we, being Westerners, wish to understand Hindu divinity? This is a theological and philosophical question that goes beyond the scope of this book; but, descriptively at least, it is a meaningful question. In his Summa theologica, Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), who is often regarded as Christianity's most comprehensive theologian, describes eight attributes of God. Hindu theology regards Brahman as having parallel characteristics:
1 Incorporeality: the Abrahamic God and Hindu Brahman share the characteristic of being beyond any single form; in fact, both are described as immaterial, pure spirit.
2 Ineffability: God is inexpressible in words; Brahman is “neti … neti… ,” “not this … not that …”
3 Unity: though Christians have their notion of a “triune” God or “Trinity,” God's oneness is always affirmed; in the Muslim prayer, too, “there is no god but Allah”; in the Upaniads, Brahman is described as “one alone without a second.”
4 Eternity: the Abrahamic God existed before time began and is eternal; Brahman transcends all cycles and all rebirths.
5 Immutability: God's being is perfect and indestructible; Brahman is sat-chit-ānanda, perfect being, perfect consciousness, perfect bliss.
6 Omnipotence: God is all-powerful; Brahman is creator, sustainer, and destroyer of worlds.
7 Omniscience: God is all-knowing; union with Brahman produces a “cosmic consciousness.”
8 Goodness: God is benevolent, though His ways may be incomprehensible; Brahman represents the fulfillment of the highest spiritual goal.
Aquinas insists that God cannot be fully comprehended; He is “ineffable.” Brahman, too, is beyond description. If this is so, how can God/Brahman be known? The Abrahamic traditions propose two types of solution to this problem: either God can be known by virtue of God's appearances or manifestations within the world (Christians, for example, say that God was made “incarnate” in Christ), or God can be known through mystical union. The Hindu tradition shows similar approaches, and we will look here at two illustrations: “knowing Brahman” in the god Krishna (an avatar or physical manifestation of Brahman) and in the god Shiva (a god who evokes mystical union). Krishna and Shiva are among the most widely worshipped of all the Hindu gods, and so we are justified, in a short introduction such as this one, to limit ourselves to them as representative examples of Hindu divinity.
Krishna: Knowing Brahman in Human Form
The first sense in which Brahman can be known is through incarnation in worldly manifestations, that is, in physical forms that make Brahman approachable and accessible. In Sanskrit, this is Sagua Brahman, Brahman “with characteristics,” in contrast with the “formless” nature of Brahman as “pure spirit,” Nirgua Brahman (Brahman “without characteristics”).5
As Krishna (Ka), Brahman loves the world and asks for love in return. Krishna is the most widely venerated object of bhakti. This love is total: in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna enjoins the devotee to “keep the name of the Lord spinning in your mind in every instant.”
When we think of love, we think of two kinds of love – or two of the most intense forms of love: the love of a parent, especially a mother, for her child, and the love of a lover for his or her beloved. Krishna satisfies both of these deeply emotional needs, in a way that is spiritually fulfilling thanks to his eternal nature.
Many stories about Krishna revolve around his childhood: he appeared to his parents as a blue-skinned infant who inspired their undying devotion (as portrayed in Figure 17.2, for example). The best known image of the infant Krishna is “Krishna the butter thief.” After hours of toil over the butter urn, Krishna's milk mother discovers that the boy has helped himself to the sweet butter: the evidence is all over his face! Ready to spank the naughty child, she is so overwhelmed by love for her darling boy that she stays her hand, smothering his cheeks with kisses instead. Such is the love that the mischievous god inspires. This well-known story is the subject of a classical Indian dance, learned by many teenage Indian girls, both in India and around the world, especially in the dance form called Bharata natyam.
Figure 17.2 Krishna the Butter Thief: a portrait of Krishna painted on a truck in Jodhpur. © Floris Leeuwenberg / Corbis.
In adolescence Krishna is even more mischievous – and even more alluring in his seduction of the goat-herding girls (gopis) of a pastoral forest (see Figure 17.3). There he engages in rāsa-līlā, the “relish of play,” hiding the gopis' clothes, demanding that they raise their hands in worship of him, and seducing them with the intoxicating sounds of his flute. Krishna's favorite object of love is a gopi named Rādhā. Their love is consummated in a role reversal where it is the god who serves the mortal, and their sexual union represents the union of human and divine, soul and Soul, Ātman and Brahman. In his discussion of the love affair between Rādhā and Krishna, David Kinsley writes: “In the worship of Krishna, the earthly passions of love are refined, idealized, and endlessly embellished so that they may become the vehicles through which humans transcend their earthly limitations.”6
Figure 17.3 Krishna and Radha, surrounded by the gopis of Vrindavana. Painting miniature. Rajasthan, India. © appujee – Fotolia.com.
Shiva: Knowing Brahman through Mystical Union
The second way in which Brahman can be known is through mystical union, in experiences that transcend material limitation. This mystical sense of God is illustrated by another of the major Hindu deities, the god Shiva (Śiva).
Like the other gods, Shiva is also represented in form; but his forms are highly abstracted, possessing opposite and paradoxical aspects, and thus compelling the viewer to recognize Brahman as ultimately featureless, beyond representation or conceptualization. In one popular image, Shiva is nataraja, the “lord of dance” (Figure 17.4), where he manifests all the characteristics of Brahman in one image: in one hand he holds a drum, symbolizing the creation of worlds; a second hand is raised in a symbolic gesture (a mudrā) of fearlessness, which also represents Shiva sustaining the universe; a third hand holds fire, symbolizing the destruction of worlds at the end of a cosmic cycle; a fourth hand points downward, at that which is most important – the upraised foot – in a symbol of freedom from embodiment. The other foot is stamping on a demon, who represents the ignorance that ties us to the world: this gesture symbolizes overcoming illusion. Since the world as we know it – material, differentiated, bound by death and rebirth – is ultimately illusory, Shiva is known as the “destroyer of worlds,” which is symbolized in the Shiva-nataraja by the ring of fire encompassing the dancing image.
Figure 17.4 Shiva-nataraja, “Lord of the Dance.” © Bouzou / Shutterstock.
Other images of Shiva demonstrate his capacity to hold opposite characteristics within one form. One example is Ardha-nārīśvara, the Lord who is “half-male, half-female” (see Figure 17.5). In this form Shiva demonstrates his capacity to overcome all dualities.
Figure 17.5 Lord Shiva as Ardha-nārīśvara, “half-male, half-female.” Chola Period. Bronze Gallery, Chennai, India. © Hal Beral / Corbis.
The most abstract forms of Shiva are the Shiva-lingam (the “mark” of Shiva, resembling the phallus) and the yoni (the vagina); the two are depicted sometimes separately, sometimes together (see Figure 17.6). In India Shiva is most frequently represented as the Shiva-lingam. The lingam is an aniconic, abstract image of Shiva: Shiva as Nirgua Brahman (in this case, Brahman without a fully anthropomorphized or human form). The yoni is the aniconic image of the Goddess (devi) – or of the Feminine Principle (shakti) – in union with the Shiva-lingam.7
Figure 17.6 Aniconic image of Shiva as the unity of lingam and yoni. © rajidrc – Fotolia.com.
These physical symbols illustrate that manifestations of God (Brahman) in the form of Shiva bring opposite qualities together in one being. As creator, renunciant, and destroyer of illusion, Shiva is a composite figure in five aspects:
1 his name: etymologically, the name “Shiva” means “kindness, benevolence,” but Lord Shiva is the “Destroyer” of worlds: in his male iconic form, Shiva has a third eye with which he burns desire (kāma) to ashes;
2 his aniconic form: Shiva is represented in aniconic form as the lingam – the phallus; and yet Shiva is the patron god of sannyasi, renunciants who have given up all forms of sexual desire;
3 his iconic forms, both male and female: Shiva is represented as Ardha-nārīśvara, “half-male, half-female”;
4 his activity: as male, Shiva is quiescent; but in union with the divine feminine principle (shakti), in the form of Pārvatī, Kālī or of other deities, he is active;
5 his aniconic forms, both male and female: Shiva is represented as the lingam in union with the yoni, symbol of the feminine principle.
In all of these images, Shiva represents the overcoming of opposites and the non-duality of Ātman and Brahman, male and female, self and God.
Survey 3 Religious Attitudes Based on Hindu Worldviews
The link for this survey is http://goo.gl/NQKBFa. It asks you to choose statements that reflect your theological understanding in relation to Hindu conceptions of divinity.
Notes
1 Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, Bhagavad-Gita: The Song of God (New York: Signet Classics, 2002), p. 81.
2 Website of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University (pluralism.org), consulted on March 28, 2012.
3 “Each god is exalted in turn. Each is praised as creator, source, and sustainer of the universe when one stands in the presence of that deity. There are many gods, but their multiplicity does not diminish the significance or power of any of them. Each of the great gods may serve as a lens through which the whole of reality is clearly seen.” Diana Eck, Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), p. 22.
4 Conversation with Kedar Chintapalli, Hindu Temple of San Antonio, November 2011.
5 On the distinction between Sagua Brahman (Brahman “with characteristics”) and Nirgua Brahman (Brahman “without characteristics”), see Eck, Darsan, p. 10.
6 David Kinsley, Hinduism (Prentice Hall: 1982), p. 79.
7 The “phallic” character of the Shiva-lingam is contested. Some Hindus, especially in response to Westerners who take offense that Hindus would “worship a phallus,” argue that the Shiva-lingam is nothing more than the pillar-shaped “mark of Shiva” (the literal meaning of lingam). On the other hand, many scriptural sources clearly identify the lingam and the yoni with the sexual organs. In either case, the lingam is hardly limited to sexual associations. As is written in a commentary on the image, “when one looks at the lingam, one's mind is elevated and thinks of the Lord” (Shiva-lingam sadhana).
18
Hinduism in the Modern World
Enter a Hindu temple anywhere in the world, and you are met by colorful images of gods and goddesses. Appearing both within history and outside of it, both in “this world” and in other cosmic times and places, their stories are recited and reenacted in sermons, at the theater, in music and dance. Hindu cosmology describes vast cycles of time, traversing tens of thousands of years, in patterns of cosmic decline and regeneration. Yet an entire cycle, a mahā-yuga, is “but a single blink in the eye of Brahman.” Myths of ageless gods and cosmological conceptions of eternal life, death, and rebirth give Hinduism the feel of something quite ancient, even timeless. Not surprisingly, in books such as this one, Hinduism usually comes “first,” no doubt due in large measure to this almost primordial appeal.
Today Hindu influence extends far beyond India. Hindu gods, Hindu rites, and Hindu philosophy can be found all over the world: certainly in Buddhism, which many Hindus regard simply as a particular expression of Hinduism, but also in deity cults, temple architecture, conceptions of karma and rebirth, and other cultural symbols, from Indonesia to Japan. In fact it would not be a stretch to make the claim that Chinese religion and culture cannot be fully understood without reference to the Hindu tradition. Just to give one example, the fire offerings and talismanic writing that feature prominently in Taoist temple rituals resemble their Hindu counterparts too much for the similarity to be merely coincidental; an historical liturgical transmission is much more likely. Moreover, many Chinese temples also host Hindu gods, which stand out through their fierce expressions and what Chinese call their “Western” (that is, Indian) characteristics.
