History of non-Christian Religions — Topic 6

6.1 Introduction.

Traditionally, all Indian philosophical schools and systems are divided into two groups: the orthodox (astika), which recognize the authority of the Vedas, and the heterodox (nastika), which do not. The first group comprises the six principal philosophical schools (darshanas): Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta. The second group is usually taken to include three principal schools: the Charvaka, the Buddhist, and the Jain.

All of these currents, however, are in one way or another religiously oriented, and they represent not theoretical, categorial philosophy but rather an exposition of the practice of attaining moksha (liberation); this practical goal and its attainment nonetheless require a theoretical foundation, and one was duly worked out in Indian philosophy. In other words, the principal aim of most philosophical schools of ancient India was reflection upon, refinement of, and clarification of the means by which moksha is attained.

6.2 Jainism.

Chronologically, Jainism is the first heterodox religious-philosophical current of ancient India. Its founder is held to be a kshatriya named Vardhamana, the son of Siddhartha and leader of the Jnatrika clan. Vardhamana’s mother Trishala was the sister of the leader of the Licchavi clan, to which Siddhartha Gautama, who became famous under the epithet Buddha, also belonged. Vardhamana himself, after attaining awakening, likewise bore an epithet: Jina, “the Victor.” In his youth, having tamed a cobra, he was given the name Mahavira, “the Great Hero.” The lives of Mahavira and the Buddha are in some respects similar: like the Buddha, Mahavira was born into a kshatriya family and received a sound education along with military training. Their deaths, however, were entirely different: at the age of 72, in 527 BC, Mahavira accepted the ritual death of a Jain, starving himself to death.

Like Buddhism, Jainism is a non-theistic religion that rejects the concept of a creator and savior God. Yet, while rejecting a supreme creator, Jains venerate the perfected souls (siddhas) who have attained liberation. These liberated souls, possessing divine perfections, occupy a place of supreme importance. Among them are the Tirthankaras (“Ford-makers”), teachers who have attained awakening, stabilizing their enlightened consciousness. Jain ontology holds that the universe is eternal, without beginning or end. Time moves in a circle, like a wheel. The universe has passed through countless cycles and will pass through countless more. Each cycle is divided into two half-cycles: ascent (utsarpini) and decline (avasarpini). In each half-cycle, twenty-four Tirthankaras are born. The last, twenty-fourth Tirthankara of our current half-cycle was Mahavira.

Mahavira opposed the basic dogmas of orthodox Hinduism. He taught that every living being has been from eternity in the bondage of karmic atoms, which accumulate as a result of good and bad deeds. Under the influence of karma, the human being seeks pleasure in material acquisitions, leading to egoism, cruelty, greed, and hatred. As a result, karmic atoms multiply. A distinctive feature of Jainism is its literal, material conception of karma: it accumulates as actual subtle matter (pudgala), yet can be exhausted by right conduct.

Right conduct must be based on five vows: 1) non-violence (ahimsa), meaning the doing of no harm to any living being; 2) truthfulness (satya), which enjoined speaking only such truth as causes no harm; 3) non-stealing, which permitted the taking only of what had been properly given; 4) chastity, which presupposed the renunciation of sensual pleasures; 5) non-attachment, or non- possession (aparigraha). The principle of ahimsa, total non-harming, was specifically Jain and was absent in other currents. Among the Jains it is carried to an extreme: Jain monks to this day wear a gauze covering over the mouth so as not to destroy any insect; they filter their water, use a small broom to sweep the road before themselves, and never set out on the road after sunset. Orthodox Jains refuse to use modern transport, since it may cause harm to living beings.

” At the core of Jain doctrine lies the concept of two eternal, uncreated, and coexistent categories: souls (jivas) and non-souls (ajivas). The number of jivas is infinite. They are divided into liberated souls (mukta jiva) and bound souls (baddha jiva). In their union with karmic matter, they acquire a gross karmic body and are born as living beings. Bound living beings are further divided into the moving (trasa) and the unmoving (sthavara)” [Ultsiferov, O.G. The Cultural Heritage of India / O.G. Ultsiferov. Moscow: AST: Vostok-Zapad, 2005, p. 197].

Jainism shares similarities with Buddhism, but with crucial differences. Buddhism denies the permanence of any essence (the doctrine of anatman). Jainism agrees that there is no eternal creator God, but vehemently asserts the eternal reality of the individual soul (jiva). The soul persists after death, either reincarnating in a karmically conditioned body or awakening to attain moksha, becoming a perfect, self-sufficient monad.

Since Jainism is non-theistic, the temple cult (puja) is directed not toward a creator deity, but toward the veneration of the Tirthankaras and local guardian deities. The depictions of all Tirthankaras are uniform, as the believer venerates their spiritual virtues rather than their physical forms. Each image, however, bears a distinctive emblem at its base; thus, the statue of Mahavira is recognized by the lion.

6.3 Nyaya.

In its broad sense, Nyaya means “that by means of which the mind arrives at a conclusion.” In the narrow sense, it denotes “rule,” “logical inference,” or “logic.” The name reflects the school’s content: Nyaya regards liberation as the result of correct logical apprehension of reality. Its specific core consists of sixteen normative categories (padarthas), including sources of knowledge (pramana), objects of knowledge (prameya), doubt (samshaya), motive (prayojana), illustrative example (drishtanta), doctrines (siddhanta), members of the syllogism (avayava), reflection (tarka), certitude (nirnaya), dispute (vada), sophistry (jalpa), eristic argument (vitanda), verbal tricks (chhala), pseudo-arguments (hetvabhasa), pseudo-answers (jati), and causes of defeat (nigrahasthana).

To characterize the philosophical ontology of Nyaya briefly, one must turn to the Nyaya Sutras. In Section III of the Nyaya Sutras it is shown that Atman is not reducible to either the external or the internal senses; the structure of the body is considered, the origin of the five senses from the material elements is established, and the mechanism of vision is investigated. Consciousness and knowledge (buddhi), according to Nyaya, are not eternal and after death are dispersed; the locus of knowledge can only be the true Atman (and not the external sense-organs, or indriyas, nor the mind). Atman is likewise the subject of desire and aversion. Atman is not reducible to the mind (manas), but to each Atman there corresponds “its own” mortal mind, and the body arises as a consequence of karma.

In Section IV the defects of consciousness (dosha) are considered, along with causality: the whole is produced from its parts as something new. In its polemic with the Buddhists, Nyaya maintains that things are not only impermanent and transient but also permanent and non-transient. In the same section the “fruits” of actions are analyzed, together with suffering (duhkha) and liberation (moksha). Suffering is not natural and original, as Buddhism teaches, but is conditioned by desires (and is therefore removable), while true cognition destroys the defects of consciousness, conducing to liberation.

The whole, contrary to the Buddhists, is not reducible to its parts, although Nyaya does recognize the existence of those parts, the atoms. The atoms lie beyond perception and are indivisible: to suppose their divisibility would lead to an infinite regress (that is, one would have to admit infinite division).

The external world, contrary to Buddhism and the idealists, possesses ontological status: that is, it really exists, was created, and its phenomena are not illusory. In other words, this is realism. There exist not only the world but also universals, general concepts, which to some extent recalls Platonism. Our perception, from the standpoint of Nyaya, attests to the reality of the external world, and the system of logical inference attests to a single subject of cognition, of volition, and of desire, namely God as cause and Creator of the world. For the attainment of liberation, besides cognition, psychotechnique and association with those who have drawn near to the truth are also recommended.

6.4 Vaisheshika.

A philosophical school close to Nyaya, and from the thirteenth century effectively merged with it, is Vaisheshika. The name of the school derives from the Sanskrit word vishesha, “particular,” which allows the school’s name to be construed as “the school of particularities” or “the school of differences.” Chronologically, the school arose before the appearance of Buddhism and Jainism, at roughly the same time as Samkhya. It is thus older than Nyaya, though, as almost always with Indian dates, there is some doubt as to precision.

The founder of the school is held to be the sage Kanada, the author of the Vaisheshika Sutra. The sources differ as to the dates of his life (from the seventh to the third centuries BC). Kanada bore several names. His real name is said to have been Kashyapa; “Kanada” means “grain-eater” (he led an ascetic life and lived on grain that he gleaned from the fields).

Despite the similarity of Nyaya and Vaisheshika, differences also obtain. The Naiyayikas recognize four independent sources of cognition (perception, inference, comparison, and testimony), while the Vaisheshikas limit cognition to only two (perception and inference). The schools also differ in their respective sets of categories. The Nyaya school admits sixteen categories (padartha), while Vaisheshika admits seven, namely: 1) substance (dravya); 2) quality (guna); 3) action (karma); 4) generality (samanya); 5) particularity (vishesha); 6) inherence (samavaya); and 7) non-being (abhava).

Vaisheshika distinguishes nine substances: 1) earth (prithvi); 2) water (jala); 3) fire (tejas); 4) air (vayu); 5) ether (akasha); 6) time (kala); 7) space (dik); 8) soul (atma); and 9) mind (manas). Of these substances, five are considered physical (pancha bhuta): earth, water, fire, air, and ether, since each possesses a specific quality (vishesha guna) perceived by an external sense.

Ether (akasha) is the substrate of sound, but although sound is perceived, ether itself cannot be.

Space (dik) and time (kala), like ether, are likewise substances not apprehended by the senses. But like ether, space and time are all-pervading, one, and eternal.

The soul (atma) likewise belongs among the eternal and all-pervading substances. There are two kinds of soul: the individual, and the one, or supreme, soul (paramatma).

The mind (manas) is composed of atoms. It is eternal, innumerable, and imperceptible. There are as many minds as there are souls, and from a practical standpoint the mind imparts individuality to the soul.

The original principle of the creation or destruction of the world is the will of God (Maheshvara), who governs the entire universe. He creates a world in which individuals enjoy or suffer in accordance with the karma they have acquired. The process of creation and destruction has no beginning, and consequently one cannot speak of an original creation of the world, since every creation is preceded by a destruction, which in its turn is preceded by the prior arrangement of the previously created world. The creative will of God acts through a hidden power (adrishta) accumulated by individual souls during their previous lives in another world. This is, as it were, the cumulative karma of the universe. Just as each individual being has karma that determines its birth, so the universe has adrishta, a hidden power which, like karma, determines a new universe.

The creative will of God, joined with this hidden power, begins to act and first sets in motion the atoms of air, whereupon air is brought into being and creates a vibrating medium in the ether. The atoms of water are then set in motion, and water is produced, and so on.

After this, by the design of God, from the atoms of earth and light there arises the embryo of the universe (brahmanda). God endows this embryo with the world-soul (Brahma) and entrusts to Brahma the concrete creation of the world. The periods of creation and destruction make up a complete, eternally recurring cycle, which has received the name kalpa.

The Vaisheshika school is an orthodox school, recognizing both God and the Vedas. Liberation means the cessation of suffering; bondage, or suffering, is generated by ignorance of the true nature of things, and liberation begins with the arising of knowledge. The correct discernment of particularities (vishesha), the knowledge of them, leads to liberation. It is only out of ignorance that the soul retains attachment to or aversion from objects and performs deeds (karma) aimed at obtaining pleasure or putting an end to pain. Deeds prescribed by the Vedas lead to good, and deeds prohibited by the Vedas produce evil. Since all must reap the fruits of their deeds, the hidden powers (adrishta), directed by God, set the atoms in motion, which leads to the creation of conditions for the enjoyments or sufferings of the soul. “Any deeds lead to remaining within the nets of samsara, the snares of rebirth, while the complete renunciation of action conduces to the cessation of the accumulation of karma and frees one from the bonds of previous karma. This knowledge alone is liberation, the complete cessation of suffering, and the soul attains peace, having separated itself from the body and the mind. The true nature of the soul lies beyond the threshold of knowledge. Consciousness, bliss, pleasure, and pain touch the soul only while it remains within the nets of samsara. When the soul is freed from them, it becomes a pure substance, devoid of any qualitative characteristics, for it knows nothing, feels nothing, and does nothing, while preserving, nevertheless, its distinction from other souls,” as Ultsiferov sums up [Ultsiferov, O.G. The Cultural Heritage of India / O.G. Ultsiferov. Moscow: AST: Vostok-Zapad, 2005, p. 280].

6.5 Samkhya.

Samkhya is among the oldest and most influential of the classical schools of Indian philosophy, and its founding is ascribed to the sage Kapila. In Sanskrit the word samkhya carries the meaning “count” or “enumeration.” This term, together with yoga, is first encountered in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, and at about the same time in the Bhagavad Gita. Concerning the relation between Samkhya and Yoga, several competing accounts have been proposed: the notion of their original unity as a pair; the notion of their initial heterogeneity and gradual synthesis through the assimilation by Yoga practice of the ideas of Samkhya; and the conception of Samkhya as one of the branches of the yogic tradition that placed its emphasis on discursive knowledge.

In contrast to many schools, such as Buddhism, Jainism, Nyaya, and Vaisheshika, the philosophers of Samkhya hold that mind, intellect, and “I” are not composed of atoms. Consequently, it is necessary to seek a foundation that can account for the existence of the gross and subtle products of nature. Such a foundation must be a non-conscious, non-intellectual principle, unconditioned by any cause and eternal. This first cause Samkhya calls prakriti, the eternal, unborn first cause of all objects of the material world. As the foundation of such subtle manifestations of nature as mind and intellect, prakriti appears as a mysterious power, capable of periodically creating and destroying the world.

Prakriti is figured as a rope twisted of three strands, that is, as consisting of three components (gunas). These three constituents, sattva, rajas, and tamas, make up the components of the primary substance, prakriti.

Each guna has its own definition. Sattva denotes the nature of pleasure in its various manifestations: joy, happiness, bliss. The activity of mind and consciousness, the brightness of light, and the striving upward are all caused by the elements of sattva. Rajas is passion; it expresses the active principle and, being always in motion, sets other things in motion. Thanks to rajas the wind blows, fire burns, and the mind becomes restless. Rajas assists sattva and tamas, which are themselves inactive and immobile. All sensory experiences and mental acts caused by rajas ultimately lead to suffering. Tamas represents the passive and negative principle in things. The three gunas are associated with three colors respectively: white, red, and black.

Prakriti, however, does not exhaust being; besides prakriti there is Purusha, the spirit endowed with the highest consciousness, distinct from the mind, the analogue of atman, the eternal pure subject, who is entangled by prakriti and her threads and is therefore in delusion. The consciousness of Purusha is the highest, since mind (manas) and intellect (buddhi) are generated by prakriti at the moment when she binds Purusha.

The “I,” or Purusha, who represents the external power, becomes the cause of the manifestation of prakriti and, ultimately, of the appearance of the world. But the evolution of prakriti, the disturbance of the equilibrium of the gunas which gives rise to evolution under the influence of Purusha, is not a conscious act on his part. Like Aristotelian matter, prakriti is set in motion merely by the presence of Purusha. He moves the world while remaining himself unmoved, just as the God who is First Mover moves matter in Aristotle’s metaphysics. Thus the world arises. Prakriti, under the influence of Purusha, forms the world of objects. The evolution of the universe begins with the contact of prakriti with Purusha, that is, of primary matter with the “I.”

Purusha, as the “I” of each being, by his very existence compels prakriti to move, and she in turn entangles him, creating for him a mind and an intellect by means of which he becomes self-aware and becomes enamored of himself (ego, ahankara). Here Samkhya sees the root of suffering and rebirth. Purusha gazes upon prakriti as upon a “dancing-girl” and cannot tear his eyes from her. Such was the analogy offered by the philosophers of Samkhya.

Accordingly, moksha, or liberation, lies in the correct cognition of reality; this will allow the buddhi (intellect), which is like a mirror, to be turned about so that it ceases to reflect prakriti and is fully directed toward Purusha. Reality is composed of a plurality of “I’s” and of the world of objects standing before them. The “I” is a rational principle which has no quality, is devoid of activity, and is pure consciousness, free from the limitations of space, time, and causality. The “I” is a pure subject, distinct from the world of objects, which encompasses physical objects, organic bodies, mind, senses, ego, and intellect. The “I” experiences neither pleasure nor suffering, neither happiness nor unhappiness. This is the prerogative of the mind. When the understanding of the difference between the “I” and the “not-I” is attained, the “I” ceases to be subject to the influence of mind and body, becoming an impartial witness of all changes, physical and spiritual. After the death of the body, the soul is freed from the material and subtle bodies and obtains the absolute and full freedom of Purusha. It becomes, in fact, pure, self-sufficient Purusha.

6.6 Yoga

Like Samkhya, Yoga is among the oldest schools of Indian philosophy. From the Sanskrit, the word “yoga” is rendered as “union” or “junction.”

The word yoga may signify: 1) any organized spiritual practice, discipline, or method of spiritual exercise (cf. the distinction between karma-yoga, “the discipline of action,” jnana-yoga, “the discipline of cognition,” and bhakti- yoga, “the discipline of devotion”); 2) among these practices, the specific psychotechniques, a hierarchy of ascetic exercises correlated with definite bodily postures (hatha-yoga); 3) among these psychotechniques, the so-called eightfold path (ashtanga-yoga), beginning with five kinds of “abstentions” (from killing, falsehood, theft, unchastity, and acquisitiveness) and culminating in the “dissolution” of the contemplative practitioner’s consciousness into the object of contemplation; 4) one of the classical darshanas, whose teaching is closely bound up with the conception of the “eightfold path” and with the fundamental principles of Samkhya. It is above all of this last sense of yoga that we shall speak below.

The initial period of Yoga (fifth century BC to first century AD) coincides with the first stage of Samkhya. One of the early Samkhya thinkers, Arada Kalama, the instructor of the Buddha (whom the Buddha rejected), was at the same time among the first theorists of Yoga, formulating its practice in two stages: first, a preliminary moral and ascetic training; then, the graduated attainment of “altered states of consciousness” in the form of the four dhyanas.

The classical text of Yoga is held to be the Yoga Sutra of the sage Patanjali, who lived, according to various sources, in the third or second century BC. The Yoga school is often called the system of Patanjali. In addition, the philosophy of Yoga rested on commentaries on the Yoga Sutra, of which the best known is the Yoga Bhashya of the sage Vyasa (fourth century). Classical Yoga maintains its adherence to the Samkhya school. But whereas Samkhya focuses its attention on how Purusha and prakriti are conjoined for the creation of the world, the kindred system of Yoga, within the framework of Samkhya metaphysics, provides a systematic description of the practice for attaining liberation, which requires the separation of Purusha from prakriti. The two philosophical schools have much in common, but there are also differences. For example, whereas Samkhya regards intellect, mind, and ego as distinct organs, Yoga unites them into a single organ, called “chitta,” which is all-pervading.

Samkhya teaches, further, that when Purusha becomes aware of himself as distinct from prakriti, he attains liberation; knowledge is therefore the liberator. Yoga chooses a different path; it speaks of control over prakriti through asceticism, discipline, and meditation, by means of which the chitta is purified and begins indirectly to conduce to the liberation of Purusha. Liberation cannot be attained by knowledge alone; a strict discipline of body and mind is necessary.

Yoga is also distinguished by a more developed theology. Whereas early Samkhya is regarded as wholly atheistic and only later begins to teach about God, Yoga from the outset elaborates a doctrine of God. God, Ishvara (the Lord), or Maheshvara (the Great Lord), is the Purusha who has never come into contact with prakriti and is eternally pure and eternally free. He knows no karma and is not bound by it, but in essence Ishvara does not differ from the other Purusha-subjects, which represent living beings.

The goal of Yoga is the cessation of all modifications of the mind-stuff (chitta) (chitta vritti nirodha). So long as changes occur in the chitta, the individual “I” is reflected in it and identifies itself with it, since it cannot distinguish itself from the rest of the world. The “I” is therefore subject to attraction and aversion, which makes it dependent. Consequently, if a person wishes to attain liberation, he must restrain the activity of the body, the senses, and the mind-manas, so as to put an end to all changes of chitta.

The mind-stuff (chitta) can be in the following states: the restless (kshipta), the inactive (mudha), the troubled (vikshipta), the concentrated (ekagra), and the restrained (niruddha). The yogic state, however, cannot be attained in any of the first three. At the first stage (kshipta) the chitta is under the influence of the gunas rajas and tamas, and so the objects of sense are extremely active, and the chitta itself serves for the attainment of power and might. At the second stage (mudha) the chitta is greatly influenced by the guna tamas, which leads to the manifestation of such qualities as sloth, vice, and ignorance, and induces sleep. At the third stage (vikshipta) the chitta is free from such influence, and as a result the person performs good actions, occupies himself with cognition, and exercises care. At the fourth stage (ekagra) the chitta is freed from the guna rajas, and the guna sattva manifests itself. This conduces to a prolonged concentration of the mind upon a particular object. At the last stage (niruddha) all mental activity ceases, the succession of mental states is absent, and chitta abides unchangingly in a state of imperturbability and calm.

The last two stages lead to the yogic state, since the chitta is here wholly under the influence of sattva. Only thereafter, while remaining in a state of full detachment, does the “I” abide in its essence as pure consciousness.

Classical Yoga proposes for the purification of the chitta the eightfold path of self-perfection (ashtanga marga):

Abstention (yama) from violence (ahimsa), from unrighteous living, from deceit, from theft, from sensual indulgence, from covetousness, and from incontinence. A person must cultivate friendship, compassion, and joy.

Observance of religious precepts (niyama), which is concerned above all with the purification of soul and body, with piety, asceticism, patience, the study of sacred treatises, and the veneration of God.

Static postures (asanas).

Control of breath (pranayama), which enables one to concentrate the mind and to remain long in a state of concentration.

Withdrawal of the senses, or the inward direction of consciousness (pratyahara), in which the senses are withdrawn from external objects and control over them is maintained by the mind.

Concentration (dharana), which enables the mind-chitta to focus upon a chosen object.

Contemplation (dhyana) of the object, which consists in calm and constant observation of it.

A state of deep meditation (samadhi). This is the final stage in the system of Yoga. The mind is absorbed in the object of contemplation, loses itself, and has no awareness of itself. In such deep meditation the subject and object of cognition merge into one.

Yoga acknowledges the existence of God, although its goal is not union with him. Its goal is the separation of Purusha from prakriti. God in the Yoga system rather resembles the Tirthankara of the Jains, since he never enters into contact with the believer. He is, as it were, an unsurpassable object of worship. His specific symbol is the sacred syllable “OM” (“AUM”). Although God does not bestow liberation, he helps to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of it. Ishvara is the Supreme Purusha, possessing a perfect nature, but he cannot be identified with the liberated Purushas, since, unlike them, who have lost contact with the world, he is in constant contact with it. He is the teacher of the ancient sages and teaches the sacred texts in each of the world ages.

6.7 Mimamsa.

Mimamsa is one of the six classical darshanas. The word mimamsa means “exegesis,” or “the interpretation of texts.” The founder of the school is held to be the sage Jaimini, who lived, according to various sources, between the fourth and second centuries BC. The chief preoccupation of the authors of early Mimamsa was not the liberation of the “I” but the correct interpretation of the ritual side of the Vedas. The Mimamsa Sutra is a collection setting forth the rituals attached to various prescriptions and prohibitions. The Mimamsakas defended the thesis that reliable knowledge of dharma is contained only in the Vedas. The sophisticated philosophical constructions of Mimamsa throughout its history served as the foundation of Brahmanical ritualism. The Mimamsakas regarded the prescriptions of the Vedas, which consist of words, as infallible and eternal: for in regard to a prescription the question of reliability cannot even be raised, since its meaning lies not in the description of present facts but in the call to action. The cult of the Vedas, in its turn, rested on the cult of the very language in which the sacred word was uttered, Sanskrit, and on the conception of it as not merely “one true” language.

In polemic with Buddhism, the Mimamsakas defended the reality of the human being as a substance (dravya); they defended the existence of the soul, which persists through a multiplicity of reincarnations. There exists an innumerable host of souls and a limited number of bodies, but there also exist incorporeal, liberated souls. Souls are eternal, permanent substances. Besides them, there is an innumerable host of atoms and other eternal and innumerable substances. Mimamsa does not deny the laws of karma, the existence of a hidden power (apurva), heaven and hell, the bondage of samsara, or liberation. The existence of a Supreme God, however, was not accepted by all the Mimamsakas (though the gods as recipients of sacrifice were accepted by all); but even those who recognized his existence did not recognize him as Creator, holding that the world is eternal and uncreated.

Liberation in Mimamsa was thus conceived as the result of the scrupulous performance of the rituals. The attainment of heavenly, unclouded bliss is moksha. Through the disinterested performance of duty and self-knowledge, accumulated karma is gradually destroyed, and the person, freed from all bonds, attains liberation. Separated from the body and from all its organs, including the mind, the liberated soul possesses no consciousness and experiences neither bliss nor suffering.

6.8 Vedanta.

Vedanta is the most significant philosophical school that has ever existed in India. It stands in defense of orthodox religion and grounds its authority in the concluding portion of the Vedas, the Upanishads. Vedanta means, literally, “the end of the Vedas.”

On the whole, Vedanta is the continuation of the teaching set forth in the Upanishads. It is usually grouped with Mimamsa, whence its other name: uttara- mimamsa, or later Mimamsa. Unlike purva-mimamsa, the “earlier Mimamsa,” which likewise proclaimed its direct connection with the sacred texts, Vedanta teaches not the understanding of ritual rules but an integrated interpretation of revelation (shruti).

The three canonical sources of Vedanta are the Upanishads (the foundation of revelation), the Bhagavad Gita (the foundation of tradition, that is, of a secondary text relying upon the Vedas), and the Brahma Sutras of Badarayana (the foundation of reasoning). It is indeed customary to place Badarayana first in the chronology of the sages of Vedanta. Besides him, the most important representatives of Vedanta are Bhartrihari, Gaudapada, and, later, Shankara.

“Drawing above all upon the definition of Brahman as sat-chit-ananda, i.e. ‘reality-consciousness-bliss,’ as well as upon the thesis proclaimed in the Upanishads of the unity of Atman and Brahman, the Vedantists raised the question of the source and ontological status of the world, of the nature of the supreme Brahman and of the personified God-creator Ishvara, of the essence of the human soul (jiva), of the sources of reliable cognition and the fundamental knowability of God and the world, and also of the means of attaining liberation. They sought to present without contradiction the relation between the one Brahman and the multiplicity of the phenomenal world,” as N.V. Isaeva briefly characterizes Vedanta [Isaeva, N.V. Vedanta // Indian Philosophy. Encyclopedia. Ed. by M.T. Stepanyants. Moscow, 2009, p. 252].

Vedanta wholly repeats and develops the teaching of the Upanishads: “The Upanishads devote their main attention not to the Vedic gods but to the human ‘I.’ They subject this ‘I’ to analysis, drawing a distinction between its outer shell and its inner content. The body, the senses, the mind, the intellect, and the pleasures or sufferings they generate, belong to the transitory, changing categories, but they are not the abiding essence of the ‘I.’ The real ‘I’ is called Atman. As infinite conscious reality, the ‘I’ of the human being is identical with the ‘I’ of all beings, and consequently with God, Brahman” [Ultsiferov, O.G. The Cultural Heritage of India. Moscow, 2005, p. 329].

In the Upanishads the thought is expressed that one cannot attain immortality by means of sacrifices. At best these can secure a temporary sojourn in heaven, after which the individual returns once more to the cycle of births. Therefore the sacrifice intended for the “I,” or Brahman (an internal, not external, sacrifice), is higher in significance than the sacrifice to the gods. Only through the knowledge of the “I,” or Brahman, can the individual put an end to the cycle of rebirth and, with it, to all suffering.

“The Upanishads affirm that Atman (or Brahman, or sat) is both the creator and the material cause of the world. The central thought of the Vedanta Sutra is the affirmation of the position of the Upanishads concerning the unity that lies at the basis of differences, concerning the one reality that takes into itself all manifestations of the phenomenal world. Badarayana refutes his principal opponents, the representatives of the Samkhya school, by maintaining that prakriti and Purusha are not separate substances but express one reality, Brahman. Brahman is the beginning, the preservation, and the end of the world. He is the first cause and the material foundation of the world; he brings it forth out of himself” [Ultsiferov, O.G. The Cultural Heritage of India. Moscow, 2005, p. 331].

The state of the “I” that has attained its goal is characterized by inseparability from Brahman. In defining the liberated “I,” Badarayana says that thought is the principal feature of the liberated soul. Although the liberated soul possesses boundless power and limitless knowledge, only God possesses the ability to create, preserve, and destroy the universe. To the question whether this means an eternal difference between God and the soul, the sutras give no clear answer.

A further important question of Vedanta is this: does the manifestation of Brahman entail an ontological change in Brahman himself, or not, and what is the degree of reality of these changes? The answers to these questions gave rise to various schools of Vedanta, above all the Kevala-Advaita Vedanta, the Vishishtadvaita Vedanta, and the Dvaita Vedanta.

6.9 Kevala-Advaita Vedanta.

Kevala-Advaita Vedanta (the non-dual Vedanta), or simply Advaita (non- duality), is the first religious-philosophical school formed within Vedanta. It represents the only consistently monistic current of Vedanta, since it interprets the thesis of the unity of Atman and Brahman as absolute identity. Some of the ideas of Advaita were sketched by Gaudapada (sixth century), but they were systematically worked out by Shankara (seventh to eighth centuries) in the Brahma-sutra-bhashya and in other works.

Within the framework of the theory common to Vedanta, satkaryavada (the effect is implicitly contained in the cause and is wholly determined by it), Advaita put forward the conception of vivartavada, the teaching of mere appearance, of illusoriness, according to which the universe exists thanks to maya, a veil or magical illusion. Just as a rope in the hands of a conjurer appears to be a snake, so the manifold properties of the world are only temporarily “superimposed” upon the unchanging and only true foundation, Brahman. Maya appears as the creative power (shakti), or as the reverse side of Brahman himself, and it is she, not God, who is subject to change and transformation.

Brahman exists in two forms, one of which is the true and the other illusory and apparent. The first is Nirguna Brahman (the unqualified): God devoid of any properties whatsoever, eternally remaining self-identical and one. The second is Saguna Brahman, God with attributes and qualities, Ishvara, the Good Lord who cares for the world and for people, the Creator. This is the form of God, or God in form. However, since the world is illusory, all acts of creation are likewise illusory; illusory too are the creation and the Creator who has created it and interacts with it. Thus the manifestation of God is a purely apparent process, and all multiplicity, including the individual souls brought forth by Brahman, is likewise not eternal. There is only Brahman, and Atman is identical with him; consequently, after death, the one who has attained Brahman dissolves without remainder, just as a drop of water dissolves in the ocean. Shankara gives the analogy of pots: the air outside the pot is Brahman; the air inside the pot is Atman. Both are one and the same air, but differ in their situation. By circumstance, the air has entered the pot. The walls of the pot are human consciousness, and more broadly the human being in his self-conception. The goal is to break the pot and to realize oneself as Atman, to realize the unity of Atman. He who has attained this goal loses his personal characteristics; and the Advaitin conception of personality is negative: personality is that which limits; personality is the boundary itself. Personality is what distinguishes me from another person; it is the set of distinctive features that defines a person as a being. Yet every definition is negation (the “I” becomes aware of itself through the “not-I”), which means that personality consists of boundaries that vanish when one realizes oneself as Atman. In essence, there is nothing besides Atman; all the rest is a dream. So long as a person is asleep, all that occurs in the dream is real; but on awakening, the dream and its content dissolve. So too the soul of man, on attaining Brahman, awakens, and the content of personality disappears.

6.10 Vishishtadvaita Vedanta.

Vishishtadvaita, “qualified non-duality,” is the second most important current of Vedanta, in opposition to Advaita-Vedanta. In contrast to the teaching of Shankara, in the system of Vishishtadvaita, Brahman creates the world out of himself and by his own will through matter not illusorily but really (although he himself does not change in the process). Recognizing the existence of one God, this school discerned in God the presence of many various attributes. There is only God. All else that appears before us is various manifestations or attributes of God. God represents an organic whole, consisting of a multiplicity of specific (vishishta) manifestations, which in no way detracts from his oneness. The principal theorist of the school is the sage Ramanuja, who was born in 1017 AD.

According to Ramanuja, God is one, despite the multiplicity of his attributes, since the attributes cannot exist apart from God, for they are not independent. The attributes are forms, accidents, and aspects under the control of the one God. The God Narayana (one of the incarnations of Vishnu) has two forms, or consists of two realities: matter (achit) and soul (chit). They are related to him as the body is related to the soul. Apart from him they have no independent existence. They are present in him as attributes are in a substance. Matter and soul make up the body of God. Matter and soul are subordinate elements; they may be called the appurtenances (visheshana), or qualifications, of God, who is the qualified one (visheshya).

Vishishtadvaita is in many ways a Vaishnava philosophy and traces its origins to the Alvar poets and to the bhakti (devotional) movement in India. For the bhaktas, God was always a personal being, loving, to whom one must be devoted on a personal level. Ramanuja identifies God with Narayana, who dwells in the paradise called Vaikuntha. Thus the principal difference from the Advaita of Shankara was the recognition of the reality of the world and of the individual human soul. This reality does not, however, mean otherness of essence. The essence belongs only to Brahman, but the Creator creates not illusorily but really.

Accordingly, the conception of liberation also differed. While Shankara speaks of the dissolution of the soul, and says that the very individual being of the soul is only an appearance, Ramanuja teaches the reality of the individual soul and the preservation of its personal distinctness after death. That is, the soul is united with Brahman, since it is one with him, but it is not dissolved in him.

According to Ramanuja, three kinds of souls are distinguished: the eternal (nitya), the liberated (mukta), and the dependent (baddha). The eternal souls have never been dependent. They dwell together with God in heaven (Vaikuntha). The liberated souls were once subject to rebirth (samsara) but have attained liberation and now dwell with God. The dependent souls remain subject to the torments of rebirth and strive for liberation. They wander from one living body to another until they obtain salvation. The human being and his soul are a particle of God, who contains all things within himself, like a spark from an immense bonfire.

6.11 Dvaita Vedanta.

The dualist Vedanta is yet another form of the Vaishnava Vedantas, in which God is perceived not as the Absolute Brahman but as a person, Vishnu, having properties and attributes. The teaching arose with the sage Madhva (1197–1278), a religious reformer and commentator. His Vaishnavism received the name sad-Vaishnavism (“true Vaishnavism,” or “the Vaishnavism of Brahma”), in contrast to the shri-Vaishnavism (the “venerable Vaishnavism,” or the Vaishnavism of Lakshmi) of Ramanuja.

Madhva sees an absolute difference between God and all living and non-living objects. God alone is the independent reality, to which all living and non- living objects are subordinate. Madhva’s Vedanta is the philosophy of absolute differences (atyanta bheda darshana). All followers of Madhva must firmly believe in five real and eternal differences (pancha bheda): 1) between the Supreme Being and the individual soul; 2) between God and matter; 3) between soul and matter; 4) between one soul and another; 5) between one part of matter and another.

The philosophy of Madhva is in many respects similar to the philosophy of Ramanuja. He likewise recognizes Vishnu as the Supreme God. The phenomenal world is real and eternal. All distinctions within it are real. All individual souls (jivas) are dependent upon Hari (Vishnu). The difference from Ramanuja consists in this: that God, the souls, and the world are by nature distinct. According to Madhva, objective reality, or padartha, is divided into two categories: the independent (svatantra) and the dependent (paratantra). God alone is the independent reality, while the soul and the world are dependent realities, governed by God. Liberation is the enjoyment of the bliss experienced by the individual soul. Full devotion to God (bhakti) is the means of attaining liberation.

6.12 Unifying Principles of Hinduism.

Hindu sanatana dharma (“the eternal religion of the Indians”) is a conglomerate of schools difficult to classify, united by (1) Indian origin (including the territories of present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka); (2) belief in a single higher Reality (which distinguishes Hinduism from the other Indian religions, Buddhism and Jainism); and (3) belief in the law of karma and reincarnation (including belief in the cyclical creation and destruction of the universe). No other principles, sometimes cited by scholars (such as the recognition of the authority of the Vedas, the avoidance of non- vegetarian food, etc.), are obligatory markers of belonging to the Hindu community. Likewise, contrary to the view of some scholars, under the legislation of the Republic of India, Hinduism may be embraced without one’s being born of Hindu parents (and foreigners are included as well); this, however, pertains predominantly to sectarian Hinduism.

There are several classifications of movements of Hinduism. For example, a classification by the literature on which the teaching is based:

1. Shrauta (recognizing the authority of the shruti alone);

2. Shrauta-Smarta (recognizing the authority of both the shruti and the smriti, including the Puranas);

3. Agamic (basing their doctrine on the Agamas);

4. Tantric (basing their doctrine on the Tantras);

5. Others.

The more widespread classification, however, is the doctrinal one:

Smartism (Smarta)

Vaishnavism (Vaishnava)

Shaivism (Shaiva)

Shaktism (Shakta)

6.13 Orthodox Hinduism.

Orthodox Hinduism in the full sense of the term comprises only the Shrauta and the Smarta, that is, what rests on the texts of the shruti and the smriti.

The Shrauta are extremely few in number and are represented by particular gotras (clans) of brahmanas who adhere to the philosophy of one of the first five schools of Vedic philosophy (most often Mimamsa, but sometimes also Samkhya, Vaisheshika, Yoga, or Nyaya). As a rule, the gotras are closed; access to their life and practice is available neither to scholars nor to other Hindus. On the basis of Shrauta doctrine, however, there arose in the nineteenth century the reformist iconoclastic movement Arya Samaj (founded by Swami Dayananda), which admits even foreigners into the Shrauta dharma. In India itself, however, the attitude toward it is extremely ambivalent.

Shrauta-Smarta is “the Hinduism of the majority” (“non-sectarian Hinduism”), and is what we today understand by Hindu orthodoxy. It is represented by the largest school in India, the Smarta Sampradaya.

Its philosophy is Advaita-Vedanta (monistic Vedanta); its chief ideologue is Shripada Shankaracharya (eighth century), who founded four mathas (patriarchates), headed by patriarchs bearing the title Jagadguru Shankaracharya (“guru of the universe, teacher Shankara”), and ten monastic (sannyasa) orders (dashanami), the most numerous and active of which are the Saraswati, Puri, Giri, and Bharati orders. A given monk’s order can be discerned from his title: thus the world-famous twentieth-century guru Swami Sivananda Saraswati belonged to the Saraswati order.

On the basis of the Smarta Sampradaya there also operate a whole number of international Hindu organizations, such as the World Council of Hindus (Vishwa Hindu Parishad), founded in the 1970s by Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati, a significant part of whose activity is devoted to combating Western missionary work in India (although it is one of the most universalist currents of Hinduism, the Smarta Sampradaya nonetheless actively conducts campaigns of reconversion, of bringing back into Hinduism the “victims” (their term) of Christian missionary work). In practice, the Smarta Sampradaya combines elements of the Vedic cult (yajna; animal sacrifices, however, are no longer practiced), of jnana (contemplation and the study of the Vedantic scriptures), and of bhakti (the temple and domestic cult of the Hindu gods; from the school’s standpoint, all the gods are equal manifestations of the One Brahman, and the believer may choose any of them as his chosen deity (ishta-devata), the highest goal being brahmanirvana (the realization of absolute unity with Brahman)).

6.14 Orthodox Universalism.

The Smarta Sampradaya holds that the individual is free in his choice of a particular aspect of God for worship. The ishta-devata (chosen god) of one teaching is ontologically the same manifestation of the Supreme Brahman as the ishta-devata of another teaching, and so the two are of equal value with one another. Each, accordingly, venerates the form of Brahman that he has chosen or, far more often, that which he has inherited within his gotra (family). One person may venerate Vishnu, another Shiva, a third Ganesha, a fourth Hanuman, and they all recognize one another as equally valid worshippers of God. Without abandoning his family and local deities, a Hindu has the right to choose a personal deity for worship. In addition, certain gods are worshipped in correspondence with the time of day, the day of the week, the events of life, the festivals, or one’s occupation. For example, students more often turn for help to Saraswati and Ganesha. A Hindu may also pray to gods outside his “own” tradition, if domestic circumstances require it. Some gods do not pertain at all to the cults of the higher gods. For example, at dawn orthodox Hindus recite the Rigvedic Gayatri mantra, addressed to the god of sunlight, Savitar.

As a difference, let us note that the Vaishnavas hold that only Vishnu and his avatars (incarnations) are worthy of worship, while other gods are his subordinates. Accordingly, the Vaishnavas hold, for example, that only through the worship of Vishnu and his avatars can a person attain liberation. Likewise the Shaivas teach the same of Shiva alone. Many Shaivas hold that Shakti is worshipped as a means to attaining Shiva (in which case Shakti appears in the image of the consort of Shiva); for others Shakti is the impersonal Absolute. In Shaktism the emphasis falls on the feminine, active principle, Shakti; the great Goddess is venerated.

A certain difficulty may be noted here. If someone venerates Shiva, this need not mean that he is a Shaiva. He may turn out to be an orthodox Smarta who venerates Shiva or his avatar as ishta-devata, the chosen god. Or he may indeed be a Shaiva. The same applies to Vishnu and his avatars, and to Mahadevi (the Great Goddess) and hers. If someone venerates Kali, or makes an offering to the goddess Durga, this does not mean that he is a Tantrika Shakta; most likely he is an orthodox Smarta venerating Shakti.

The Smartas, like the Shaivas, hold that Surya is one of the aspects of God. The Shaivas, however, differ from the orthodox Smartas in that they regard Surya as an aspect of Shiva. In Shaiva theology, for instance, the sun is one of the eight forms of Shiva, the Ashtamurti. Ganesha and Skanda are for most Shaivas likewise aspects of Shakti and Shiva, respectively, while for the orthodox they are manifestations of Brahman.

For the orthodox Hindu, any of the three classical paths to liberation is open: jnana-yoga (the study and recitation of the texts of the Vedas, reflection upon the ideas of Vedanta, meditation); karma-yoga (the accumulation of karmic merit through the observance of varnashrama-dharma, adherence to ritual and ascetic prescriptions, the avoidance of ritual defilement, and piety in general); and bhakti-yoga (the cultivation of devotion to a particular deity). Orthodox sannyasins practice raja-yoga. Great spiritual authority among orthodox Hindus is enjoyed by the pandits, especially learned brahmanas, experts in the scriptures and above all in the dharma-shastras. To this day orthodox Hindus uphold caste, that is, they live by and defend the caste structure as sacred.

6.15 Deities of Orthodox Hinduism.

Among the gods venerated by the Smartas are the traditional five: Shiva, Vishnu, Surya, Ganesha (Ganapati), and Devi (in her various manifestations: Lakshmi, Saraswati, Durga, Kali). Equal worship is offered to all of them. In orthodox Hinduism too, within the context of the cosmos, its own “trinity” is venerated, the Trimurti, the divine triad: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. According to the Puranas, Brahma is the creator of the world, Vishnu its preserver, and Shiva its destroyer.

Brahma is the supreme deity, the creator of the world, the first of the gods of the triad. He is the parent of gods and humans (Prajapati), and also the self-created creator (svayambhu). From his body sprang his consort Saraswati, and from their union all things on earth came into being. It is possible that the cult of Brahma (a masculine noun ending in long “a”) developed out of the concept of Brahman (a neuter noun).

There are several legends about the birth of Brahma. According to one, he was conceived in an egg, the “golden embryo” (hiranyagarbha), which floated in the primordial waters created by Brahma himself. After spending a year inside the egg (whence the concept “year of Brahma” derives), Brahma emerged from the egg, dividing it into two parts. Thus heaven and earth, and the space of the air, were created. Brahma is usually depicted as a being with red skin and four heads, although in the Puranas a fifth head of his is also mentioned. He is clothed in white garments and rides upon a goose. In one of his hands he holds a staff as a symbol of power; in another, a bowl for alms. In other depictions Brahma holds in his hands a rosary (akshamala), stalks of kusha grass (kurcha), a large (sruk) and a small (sruva) ladle for sacrifices, a pot for water (kamandalu), and a book (pustaka). The rosary symbolizes time; the pot of water, the primordial waters; the kusha grass and the two ladles signify the rite of sacrifice. The book represents religious and secular knowledge.

One of the peculiarities of Hinduism is the fact that the Creator is not venerated, and Brahma has virtually no cult. In contemporary India, temples dedicated to Brahma are found only at Lake Pushkar in the state of Rajasthan (near the city of Ajmer). Moreover, Brahma, like certain other incarnations of the Supreme Brahman in their phenomenal aspect, may even commit errors. Brahma, for example, more than once becomes the object of mockery and even derision on the part of the gods, especially Shiva and Vishnu.

Vishnu is the second god of the triad, the god-preserver of creation. He is first mentioned in the Vedic hymns, where he occupies a modest place. In the Brahmanas the number of myths associated with Vishnu increases, and he gradually assumes a dominant role. In the epic, Vishnu (whether himself or in the guise of his incarnations as Krishna and Rama) becomes the central character. The Puranas assign Vishnu the highest place in the triad. In the Padma Purana it is said that the great Vishnu at the beginning of creation, wishing to create the entire world, becomes a triune god: the god-creator, the god-preserver, and the god-destroyer. In order to create the world, the Higher Spirit brings forth from his right side Brahma. Then, in order to preserve this world, he brings forth from his left side Vishnu, and then re-creates from the middle of his body Shiva.

As preserver and restorer of the world, Vishnu is one of the most popular gods; his worship has a joyous character. He is endowed with a thousand names (sahasranama), the recitation of which is a component part of his worship. The consort of Vishnu is Lakshmi (or Shri). Vishnu dwells in a heaven called Vaikuntha.

Vishnu is sometimes depicted lying upon the king of serpents, Shesha, who floats upon the world ocean. He may also be shown sitting upon a lotus with Lakshmi or reclining upon a lotus petal. Vishnu assumes various guises in order to overcome one or another evil and to save mankind from one or another disaster.

Usually ten great avatars (maha-avataras) of Vishnu are described (in the Varaha Purana). The Bhagavata Purana, however, mentions twenty-two incarnations of Vishnu. Among the best known are Rama, Parashurama, Narasimha, Vamana, Krishna, and even the Buddha (some Vaishnavas believe that the Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu, in whom he came to mislead the world or, on the contrary, to give a teaching to those incapable of believing in God).

Shiva is the third in the Indian triad. Certain features and attributes of Shiva can be discerned in the Vedic Rudra. Subsequently, one of the names of Rudra, “Shiva,” by which Rudra was invoked in his gracious aspect (Shiva, “dear, kindly”), became the principal name, while the name “Rudra” became one of the wrathful names of Shiva.

Shiva is the incarnation of the cosmic energy that regulates the world order; he draws his strength from Shakti, who appears as the creative divine energy and as the consort of Shiva. In general, many goddesses are regarded as consorts of Shiva, but his principal wife remains Devi, or Mahadevi (she in whose womb the universe is contained). Most often the wife of Shiva is called Parvati (“the Mountain one”). Shiva and Parvati have two sons: the remover of obstacles, Ganesha, and the god of war, Kartikeya. Devi herself appears under two aspects: as the wife of Shiva, and as the goddess Kali, bringer of death and destruction.

Like Vishnu, Shiva possesses many names, linked to his various functions. He is Mahadeva, “the Great God”; Nataraja, the king of the ecstatic dance; and Mahayogi, “the Great Yogi,” the focal point of the highest perfection in asceticism and meditation. “As an ascetic he appears in the guise of one ‘clothed in the heavens,’ that is, devoid of clothing, the Digambara. As the merciless destroyer Shiva appears in the form of Bhairava. He is also the deity of all spirits and apparitions (Bhuteshvara). In these last two forms Shiva appears as a being around whose head serpents are coiled and on whose neck hangs a necklace of skulls. Shiva and the army of spirits surrounding him wander through cemeteries and cremation grounds, destroying demons who have risen against him” [Ultsiferov, O.G. The Cultural Heritage. Moscow: AST: Vostok-Zapad, 2005, p. 60].

He sits, as a rule, upon a tiger skin. His neck and shoulders are wreathed by several cobras. His long hair is gathered up into a pyramid, crowned by the image of a half-moon. The sacred river Ganges falls down from his head and torso. In one of his hands he holds a trident. One of the chief symbols of Shiva is the lingam (phallus), the sign of the giver of life. An interesting legend is in fact attached to it. The Padma Purana ascribes the lingam to the curse of the sage Bhrigu. When Bhrigu was sent to discover who was the chief god of the triad, he came to the dwelling of Shiva, but he was not admitted to the inner chambers by the doorkeeper, who said that Shiva was with his wife Devi. Having waited some time and lost all patience, Bhrigu said: “If thou, O Shankara, preferrest to me the embraces of thy wife Parvati, then mayest thou be worshipped in the image of the phallus (lingam) and the female organ (yoni).” It should be noted that the phallus and the symbol are venerated without any erotic connotation.

Important: This legend, like many others, points up yet another peculiarity of Hinduism. The incarnations of Brahman are not all-perfect, and since the same Atman is present in the gods as in human beings, a person, through yoga and asceticism, is capable of surpassing the gods and even, as in this story, of cursing them, dooming a god to one fate or another.

In the Puranic literature there are lists of the avatars of Shiva (both in the Maha-puranas and in the Upa-puranas); the texts give various numbers (18, 28, 64, 108, and others). The best known is the list of 28 avatars in the Linga Purana, the last of which is Lakulisha, the founder or reformer of the Pashupata tradition, who lived in the first or second century. Shankara, the founder of the philosophical school of Advaita-Vedanta, is likewise regarded as an avatar of Shiva. Of mythological figures, the rishi Durvasa is often named as an avatar of Shiva. So too is Hanuman, the helper of Rama, the eighth avatar of Vishnu. Some local deities are also occasionally perceived as avatars of Shiva.

6.16 Puja and Temple Worship.

Worship in Hinduism is performed through the mediation of images of the deities, called murti (literally “face”). The chief role of the murti is to foster a deeper personal relationship with the deity. The murti is regarded as a manifestation of the deity, not distinct from him. In the Padma Purana it is expressly stated that the murti should not be taken for an ordinary stone or piece of wood; the murti is the direct manifestation of the god. The images are of two kinds: self-manifested and not self-manifested. To the self- manifested murti belong those that are, as it were, not made by human hands; to the not self-manifested belong the images made by human hands. For the worship of such an image, the deity is first invited to enter into it, and after the ritual the gods depart from their images. It therefore happens that after the puja the image may simply be discarded. Self-manifested images do not require the invocation of the gods to enter within them. The images are fed, sung to, and even put to sleep. Some currents in Hinduism, such as the Arya Samaj, reject the worship of murtis.

For the orthodox Hindu, any of the three classical paths to the attainment of moksha is open: jnana-yoga (the study and recitation of the texts of the Vedas, reflection upon the ideas of Vedanta, and meditation on oneself as Brahman); karma-yoga (the accumulation of karmic merit through the observance of varnashrama-dharma, adherence to ritual and ascetic prescriptions, the avoidance of ritual defilement, the giving of gifts to the brahmanas, and the offering of hospitality); and bhakti-yoga (the cultivation of devotion to a particular deity). Orthodox sannyasins practice raja-yoga. Great spiritual authority among orthodox Hindus is enjoyed by the pandits, especially learned brahmanas, experts in the scriptures and above all in the dharma-shastras. Orthodox Hindus strictly observe caste regulations.

The following liturgical forms of Hinduism may be distinguished:

Puja at sunrise after ablutions, or at the end of the day. This rite is usually performed at the family shrine or domestic altar and consists in offering to the murti a kindled lamp (arati, the offering of fire), incense, and food, which after being offered is considered prasad (that is, food that the god has eaten, and is therefore consumed in the wish to attain union with him). Prasad, in Christian terminology, is ” food offered to idols.”

The communal reading of various sacred scriptures.

Kirtan and bhajan, rites of chanting prayers, mantras, and religious songs.

Various kinds of meditation, such as the recitation of mantras on a “japa- mala” (rosary), a practice called “japa.”

Mantras and prayers. The ritual repetition or chanting of mantras plays a major role in Hindu religious life. It may be performed individually as japa (the recitation of mantras on a rosary), or be conducted in a group, a practice called kirtana or bhajana. For many Hindus these practices are the foundation of spiritual life.

6.17 Shaivism.

Sectarian Hinduism is in many respects based on Agamic literature, that is, on the Agamas, texts of religious-philosophical content. The Shaivas and Shaktas are directly grounded in the Agamas, but the Vaishnava sects too made use of the Agamas in their early stages.

To the Agamic currents belong all the schools of Shaivism, the largest of which are (1) Kashmir Shaivism, (2) Tamil Shaivism (Shaiva Siddhanta), and (3) Vira-Shaivism (Vira-Shaiva, Lingayata). Shaivism constitutes a significant segment of the Hindu community and has given India many saints renowned for their religion.

Kashmir Shaivism holds to an absolute monism, distinct from the Advaita- Vedanta of Shankara above all in its emphasis on the reality of the world as a manifestation of Shakti. Its chief ideologue is Abhinavagupta (tenth to eleventh centuries). The Shiva of Kashmir Shaivism is identical with the Brahman of Vedanta, and the highest goal remains brahmanirvana (the realization of absolute unity with Shiva). The school is loyal to Shrauta- Smartism and does not openly reject the authority of the Vedas (though it does not use them as its principal doctrinal source). Some saints of Kashmir Shaivism are of pan-Indian significance (Abhinavagupta, Lalleshvari); in the twentieth century the school was made famous by the saint Swami Lakshman Joo, among whose disciples there were also foreigners.

The philosophy of Tamil Shaivism is essentially close to that of Kashmir Shaivism, with a somewhat greater emphasis on the role of the interrelations of Shiva and Shakti in the unfolding of the cosmos. Moreover, while the ideologues of Kashmir Shaivism were above all philosophers, the ideologues of Tamil Shaivism were saint-poets who set forth their ideas in the language of myth and poetry. Thanks to the activity of 63 early medieval Nayanmar poets, Tamil Shaivism became the popular religion of South India; the works of two of them, Tirujnanasambandar and Manikkavasagar (the author of the epic Tiruvacakam), are considered classics of Tamil literature and are still studied in Indian schools. This school too is loyal to Shrauta-Smartism and likewise does not openly reject the authority of the Vedas. In South India most teachers of Vedanta also have initiation into Shaiva Siddhanta (further on this can be read in Swami Abhishiktananda’s book Guru and Disciple, the principal character of which, Swami Jnanananda Giri, is precisely a typical representative of both schools at once).

Vira-Shaivism differs from the two preceding schools in its dualist philosophy (i.e., Shiva, the living being, and the world are three distinct subjects) and in its rejection of the authority of the Vedas. There are also other, lesser, Agamic Shaiva schools. Adjacent to Agamic Shaivism is the South Indian Kaumara Sampradaya, whose philosophy is likewise close to Shaiva Siddhanta but at the center of whose cult stands not Shiva but his elder son Murugan (known in the Vedas as Kartikeya or Skanda). The Kaumara Sampradaya is active not only in India but also in Sri Lanka and Malaysia, where the largest sanctuary of Murugan in Asia (Batu Caves) is located.

The Kapalika, “those who wear a skull,” is an ancient Tantric Shaiva current in Hinduism. As a rule, the Kapalikas live in cremation grounds (shmashanas) and worship Shiva in his wrathful forms: Kapaleshvara (Lord of the skull), Bhairava (the Terrible One), Mahakala (the Great Time), and Kapalabhrit (Bearer of the skull). The Kapalikas performed rituals connected in one way or another with death, cemeteries, dead bodies, blood, sometimes impurities, and sexual practices. They not infrequently occupied themselves with the ritual preparation of the body for cremation. The Kapalikas’ offering bowl was the upper part of a human skull; other paraphernalia connected with death were also used (a rosary of human bones, a brahman’s skull mounted on a staff, life in cemeteries, and so on).

The Aghora is an extremely small Tantric religious school, which broke off from the Kapalika in roughly the fourteenth century. Many Hindus regard them with sharp disapproval on account of their taboo rituals. The Aghoris worship Shiva and, at the same time, ritually consume meat, drink alcohol, use human skulls (kapalas) in their rituals, and meditate in burial and cremation grounds. Traditional Hindus, including those of sectarian schools, do not consume meat, fish, or alcohol, while the Aghoris on the contrary employ all of these in ritual.

6.18 Shaktism.

To the Tantric currents belong the Shakta schools, at the center of whose cult stands the Divine Mother, either in her gracious (Parvati, Lakshmi, and so on) or in her wrathful (Kali) form. Tantra may be orthodox (the Tantra of the right hand, dakshinachara, all of whose practices conform to the principles of orthodox Hinduism, including non-violence, chastity, vegetarianism, and so on) or heterodox (the Tantra of the left hand, vamachara, whose practices are as a rule addressed to the wrathful aspect of the Mother and include the use of alcohol, meat, and ritual sex). From the standpoint of orthodox currents of Hinduism, heterodox Tantra is considered ritually impure and its practices are rejected.

Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to identify Tantrism with Shaktism. Tantrism is a broader concept, formed within Buddhism, Hinduism, and to a lesser extent Jainism, which offered a new path to “liberation,” based on a mystical interpretation of the divine creative energy (shakti). Tantra uses special secret practices and initiations that lead to liberation and spiritual development; Tantrism considers these methods the most effective. It spread in India, Nepal, Bhutan, and especially Tibet. Tantrism takes its name from the word tantra, “the warp of a fabric,” a genre of texts in ancient India alongside the mantra and sutra. The tantras (the texts) themselves may contain nothing “Tantric” in the sense of developed Tantrism. In other words: while all Shaktas are in fact Tantrikas, not all Tantrikas are Shaktas.

Shaktism partly recognizes the Vedas (particular hymns of the Rigveda and Yajurveda) and the Upanishads (above all the eight Shakta Upanishads). Owing to the predominantly Tantric character of Shaktism, however, the dominant role in teaching and practice is played by the Shakta and, in part, the Shaiva Tantras: the Yoni Tantra, the Kali Tantra, the Kamakalavilasa Tantra, the Kularnava Tantra, the Mahanirvana Tantra, the Tara Tantra, the Tripura Tantra; in all about two hundred such texts.

Shaktism is divided into many currents and groups. Some practice the rites of the “right hand” (dakshinachara), the orthodox Brahmanic variant; others follow the path of the “left hand” (vamachara), a more Tantric variant in which the panchamakara method, incompatible with Brahmanism, is used (the “five M’s”: the offering during the puja to the ishta-devata of small amounts of wine, meat, fish, parched grain, and ritual sexual union). Within left-hand Shaktism, in turn, “right” currents are distinguished, in which all the rites are performed only in the imagination, and currents of a more thoroughgoing “left hand,” whose adherents drink wine from skulls and practice ritual sexual union (maithuna) with another man’s wife.

Two main traditions (sampradayas) of Shaktism are distinguished: Shri-kula (or Shrividya) and Kali-kula (or Kalividya).

“Shri-kula,” which is close to Brahmanism, venerates Shakti in the form of the goddess Tripurasundari (Shri Lalita), the original shakti of Brahman. The gracious image of Tripurasundari is also connected with such a manifestation of the consort of Shiva as Parvati. One of the most important ritual texts is the Lalita-sahasranama (“The Thousand Names of Lalita”).

“Kali-kula,” as the name itself indicates, worships Shakti as the goddess Kali, one of the wrathful manifestations of the consort of Shiva. The key texts are the Kali Tantra and other tantras.

6.19 Vaishnavism.

All the schools of Vaishnavism originally arose as Agamic schools, often in opposition to the Vedic religion (already in the works of Shripada Shankaracharya the ancestors of contemporary Vaishnavas, the Bhagavatas, are defined as heretics); in the Middle Ages, however, the ideologues of some of them accepted the authority of the Vedas and created their own currents of Vedanta, while nonetheless preserving elements of the Agamic (or Tantric) cult. Today there exist four schools of Vaishnavism that combine Vedanta with the Agamic (Tantric) cult: (1) Shri Sampradaya, (2) Madhva Sampradaya, (3) Nimbarka Sampradaya, and (4) Vallabha Sampradaya.

The foundations of the worldview of the Shri Sampradaya were laid by the early medieval South Indian Alvar poets (the most famous of whom are Nammalvar and the poetess Andal), and its Vedantic basis was provided by Shri Ramanujacharya (eleventh century). In the fourteenth century the Ramananda Sampradaya broke off from the Shri Sampradaya; its founder was Shri Ramanandacharya. Both the Shri Sampradaya and the Ramananda Sampradaya adhere to the philosophy of Vishishtadvaita Vedanta (qualified monism); the difference between them is that in the Shri Sampradaya the supreme Deity is Vishnu (worshipped together with his Shakti, the goddess Lakshmi), while in the Ramananda Sampradaya it is Rama (worshipped together with Sita). At present the Ramananda Sampradaya possesses the second largest monastic order (after that of the Smarta Sampradaya), that of the vairagis, and is headed by six patriarchs bearing the title Jagadguru Ramanandacharya (“guru of the universe, teacher Ramananda”). The practice of both the Shri and the Ramananda Sampradayas includes elements of bhakti (the temple and domestic cult of Lakshmi-Vishnu and Sita-Rama respectively; sankirtan, the individual and collective chanting of the name and glory of Vishnu or Rama; and the continual recitation of the epic Ramayana, in the Ramananda Sampradaya predominantly in the medieval Hindi version of Goswami Tulsidas) and of jnana, with, unlike in the Smarta Sampradaya, bhakti taking priority over jnana. A significant portion of the Ramanandis are rasiks (sensuous worshippers of Rama, who perceive him as the Supreme Beloved), and the Tantric element is strong in their practice.

The Madhva Sampradaya is the creation of the twelfth-century philosopher Shri Madhvacharya. Its philosophy is Dvaita-Vedanta (a strict dualism that posits ineradicable differences between God, the living being, and the world). It is one of the most sectarian and least numerous schools of Vedanta; unlike the other currents of Hinduism, which engage in philosophical dialogue with one another, it considers the doctrines of other schools to be false. Its sole object of worship is Vishnu; all his forms (including Rama, Krishna, and others) are regarded as equal.

Formally part of the Madhva Sampradaya is the Bengali Gaudiya Sampradaya, which arose as a protest against the absolute monism of Shankara on the one hand and the strict dualism of Madhva on the other. Its founder, Chaitanya (sixteenth century), preached sensuous devotion to Krishna as the Supreme Deity, together with his Shakti, Radha. The philosophy of mainstream Chaitanyism (the Gaudiya Sampradaya) is achintya bheda-abheda (incomprehensible unity and difference), according to which Krishna and the living being are qualitatively one but quantitatively different. Some lines of disciplic succession that trace their lineage to Chaitanya are, however, rasiks (Gauranga Nagari) or Tantrikas (Sahajiya, among whom the most famous group is the Bauls, renowned for their musicians). The International Society for Krishna Consciousness and the Chaitanya Saraswat Math, both active in Russia, belong to the Gaudiya Sampradaya. At the level of practice, the Madhva Sampradaya places emphasis on combining bhakti and jnana (in this case, the study of the philosophy of Dvaita-Vedanta); the Gaudiya Sampradaya emphasizes above all bhakti (temple and domestic cult).

The two remaining Vaishnava schools, the Nimbarka Sampradaya and the Vallabha Sampradaya, are connected with the names of their ideologues, the late medieval philosophers Nimbarka and Vallabha. The Supreme Deity of both is again Krishna. The philosophy of the first is dvaita-advaita Vedanta, essentially close to the philosophy of the Gaudiya Sampradaya; that of the second (also known as Pushtimarga) is shuddhadvaitaVedanta (pure non-duality), whose essence is that both living beings and the world are manifestations of the Shakti of Krishna and thus inseparable from him. In the past the Vallabhaites were marked by a rasik-Tantric element, on account of which the school was effectively dismantled by the British colonial authorities. Both schools today are fairly small in number.

In addition to the Vedantic currents of Vaishnavism, there exists a whole range of non-Vedantic (“non-orthodox”) schools with rather diffuse philosophical views, such as the Varkari Sampradaya, whose followers live predominantly in the state of Maharashtra and worship the sole icon of Krishna as Vithoba of the town of Pandharpur. To this school belonged the medieval saint Jnaneshvar, the author of a widely read commentary on the Bhagavad Gita called the Jnaneshvari, which is also venerated throughout India. Maharashtra was likewise the home of the saint Ramdas, the court guru of the emperor Shivaji, who founded the Ramaite Samartha Sampradaya and wrote the famous poem Manache Shloka. Also worthy of mention is the sixteenth-century Assamese saint Srimanta Shankaradeva, who founded the rather universalist Vaishnava school of Ekasarana Dharma and preached the equality of representatives of all castes and peoples.

6.20 Unclassifiable Currents.

A significant number of Hindu schools are difficult or simply impossible to classify. For example, Sanatan-Sikhism, represented by two large schools, the Udasi Panth and the Nirmal Panth, is an intermediate link between Hinduism and Sikhism. Both schools recognize simultaneously the authority of the Shrauta- Smarta texts (the Vedas, Vedanta, Itihasas, and Puranas) and that of the sacred book of Sikhism, the Shri Guru Granth Sahib. The Udasi Panth was 100% Shrauta-Smarta before the coming of Guru Nanak, and was Sikhized owing to the fact that in the sixteenth century its patriarch (Jagadguru Udasinacharya) became the eldest son of the founder of Sikhism, Baba Sri Chand; the Nirmal Panth, by contrast, arose within the Sikh milieu (it was created by the tenth Guru of Sikhism, Gobind Singh, for dialogue with Hinduism, and then, after his death, was Hinduized). The Udasi Panth is predominantly a monastic structure; most Nirmals are laypeople. Both schools adhere to the philosophy of Advaita- Vedanta and interpret the texts of the Shri Guru Granth Sahib in an Advaitin manner. The practice of both schools includes both Hindu and Sikh elements. To the first belong contemplation, the study of the philosophy of Advaita- Vedanta, the Hindu temple and domestic cult, including the worship of images of the Hindu gods, pilgrimages to the holy places of Hinduism, and elements of yoga; to the second belong the individual and public recitation of the Shri Guru Granth Sahib and visits to Sikh gurdwaras (temples).

6.21 Low-Caste and Out-of-Caste Religions.

Low-caste and folk schools are widespread in India, most of which incorporate the cult of the Hindu gods and saints but ignore or even openly reject the authority of the Vedas and Vedanta. A typical and successful representative of these is the Valmiki Samaj, whose members venerate the author of the Ramayana, the poet Valmiki, as the Most High, while his character Rama is perceived only as a cultural hero. The philosophy of the school is a spontaneous Advaita formulated in the medieval work Yoga Vasistha, which, together with the Ramayana, is considered a divinely revealed text. The Vedas and Vedanta are rejected. The genesis of schools such as the Valmiki Samaj evidently took place in the late Middle Ages; the school took definitive shape only by the nineteenth century.

The religions of the Adivasis (tribal cults) stand apart: non-Hindu in essence, they sometimes import gods from Hinduism, becoming Hinduized, or conversely export their tribal deities into Hinduism, where these acquire a special status (the most striking example is the icon from Orissa now known as Jagannatha, who is today venerated by Hindus as Krishna and is the central figure of the Ratha Yatra, the festival of chariots, popularized by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in the West and in Russia; Jagannatha was originally a tribal deity of the Sabar people of Orissa, but when in the early Middle Ages the king of the city of Puri became an adherent of his cult, his priests had to reinterpret this image in the spirit of Hinduism).

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Monier-Williams, Monier. Brahmanism and Hinduism: or, Religious Thought and Life in India, as Based on the Veda and Other Sacred Books of the Hindus. Elibron Classics. 1974

Muller M. The Six Systems Of Indian Philosophy. Longmans Green And Co 1919

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• 6.1-6.5
• 6.6-6.8
• 6.9-6.11
• 6.12-6.17
• 6.18-6.21

Related Concepts

• adrishta
• advaita
• advaita-vedanta
• agamas
• ahimsa
• apurva
• atomism
• avatar
• bhagavad-gita
• bhakti
• brahma
• brahma-sutras
• buddhi
• buddhism
• charvaka
• chitta
• chitta-vritti-nirodha
• cosmology
• crisis-of-sacrifice
• darshanas
• devotion
• dharma
• dravya
• duhkha
• dukkha
• epistemology
• guna
• gunas
• hells
• ishta-devata
• ishvara
• jain-puja
• jain-vows
• jainism
• jina
• jnana
• karma
• karma-yoga
• krishna
• logic
• mahavira
• maheshvara
• maya
• meditation
• mimamsa
• moksha
• nirguna-brahman
• nirvana
• nyaya
• ontology
• padartha
• panchamakara
• pandits
• prakriti
• pramana
• prasad
• pratitya-samutpada
• pudgala
• puranas
• purusha
• rama
• rebirth
• reincarnation
• ritual
• saguna-brahman
• samadhi
• samkhya
• samsara
• shaivism
• shaktism
• shankara
• shiva
• siddha
• skandhas
• smartism
• temple-worship
• tirthankara
• tridhatu
• trimurti
• upanishads
• vaisheshika
• vaishnavism
• varnashrama-dharma
• vedanta
• vedas
• vegetarianism
• vishesha
• vishnu
• vivartavada
• yama
• yoga
• yoga-states