INTRODUCTION

    A. At a period of about twenty-five hundred years before Jesus Christ
         was born, there roamed on the grassy plateaus and steppes of
         Central or Eastern Europe or Western Asia tribes of nomadic 
         peoples seeking pastures for their flocks and herds.

        1. They were white men, they spoke a common language, and
            apparently had boundless energy.

        2. For some unknown reason groups of these restless nomads would
            start off to find a more congenial home for their cattle and
            themselves, until in the end they were scattered far to the east and 
            south and west, far from cold and misty Ireland and Scotland to the 
            plains of India under a blazing topical sun.

        3. The Aryan branch of these scattered peoples came into Persia
            (Iran, the Persian for Aryan) and into India.

    B. Those who came to India settled first on the banks of the Indus, which
        means “river” or “flood,” so they called their new home “the land of 
        the Indus” from which comes the name “India.”

        1. They did not come at any one time but, in all probability, came in
            various sized groups during hundreds of years.

        2. Some believe they were still arriving in the land fifteen hundred years
            before Christ.

        3. After settling northern India they spread out over the Punjab, or
            region of the “five rivers,” and then, through the years, slowly 
            extended their settlements to the south and east, taking possession 
            of the rich Ganges Valley in their advancement.

        4. “They were then soldier-farmers, equally used to the plow and the
            sword.  They were constantly at war with the aborigines around 
            them; and they looked eagerly for sunshine and rain to mature their 
            crops and give them fodder for their cattle and herds.  They were
            still a primitive people, living in simple villages, with but few of the 
            arts of civilization, and untrammeled by the bonds of caste.  They 
            had no writing and no coinage.  They ate beef and drank 
            intoxicating drink.  The tribes lived each under its own chieftain,
            and now and then quarrels led to war among them.  The family was 
            still in a healthy condition.  Their women had a great deal of 
            freedom throughout their lives.  There was no child-marriage
            among them, no seclusion in the zenana (house for women), no 
            widow-burning, and no law against the remarriage of widows.  Like
            most primitive peoples, they practiced the exposure of girl children 
           and old people.” 
 
 

DISCUSSION

  I. THE RELIGION OF THE VEDAS.

    A. India has some great literature, very largely religious in nature.

    B. However, the absence of works of history makes it very difficult in
        tracing certain courses of events.

        1. During the first part of the twentieth century, archaeology made
            some surprising revelations.

        2. As quoted above from A Primer of Hinduism, Mr. J. N. Farquhar,
            and others, thought that civilization in India began with the coming 
            of the Aryan peoples. 

        3. Archaeology has revealed a culture which existed in the Indus
            Valley at least fifteen hundred years before their arrival.

        4. At Mehenjo-daro and at Harappa the remains of a civilization as far
            advanced as that of Mesopotamia were exposed.

        5. It was a culture very different from the Aryans in most respects and
            yet it is believed to “contain the germs of much that was to play a 
            great part in the life of the people of India.”

    C. This discovery has brought about significant changes in thinking as to
         the sources of Hinduism.

        1. Before this time it was believed that Hinduism had its origin in the
            faith which was brought into India and developed by the Aryans 
            and then imposed upon the native peoples there.

        2. But it is now believed that the Aryans may have blended their
            religion with that of the native peoples which were called
            Dravidians by the Aryans.

    D. The Aryans brought with them a religion which was similar to that of
         the Persian peoples (to whom they were closely related), but soon 
         they began to develop features quite different and very much their 
         own.

    E. This knowledge is based in a collection of hymns known as the
        Rig-Veda.

        1. These hymns, or “praises,” were composed during long periods and
            were committed to memory and used at sacrifices.

        2. There are over a thousand of them and they were finally written
            down in Sanskrit and preserved as a single collection.

        3. All the gods whose praises are sung are nature deities and are
            divided into three groups with eleven gods in each group.

        4. They are gods of celestial regions, those of the earth, and those of
            the space between the earth and sky.

     F.  Of the gods of the high heavens, three will be mentioned.

        1. Mitra, who as Mithras was well known in Persia and also in the
            Roman Empire.

        2. Vishnu, who in a later day assumed an importance in Indian religion
            which he had not known in the earlier period.

        3. And Varuna, who is the god of the vast luminous heavens, viewed
            as embracing all things, and as the primary source of all life and
            every blessing.

           a. Hinduism may have reached a far nobler level had Varuna and the
               things for which he stood been attained.

        b. Not only was this god sublime in his majesty and power, but was
            the judge of men’s hearts and the pattern of nobility, truth, and
            righteousness who expected the same from his followers.

        c. However, modern Hinduism has discarded Varuna and adopted
           other gods which are far different in ideals.

     G.  There were three important gods of the earth; Agni, Soma, and 
           Yama.

        1. Agni was fire, that of lightning, the sun, and the sacrificial flame, as
            well as the fire which was used on a daily basis.

            a. As the flame ascends and seems to be traveling toward the
                purified home of the gods, fire was early looked upon as a priest
                conveying sacrifices to the other deities.

            b. Many high functions in human life and even in creation have been
                delegated to this god but in all various forms Agni has always
                remained just the material fire with which we are familiar.

        2. Soma was the name of an Indian plant, still unidentified, and the
            fermented juice which was extracted from it.

            a. It was intoxicating and therefore divine to the early Aryans.

            b. They were possessed of a spirit not their own when they were
                intoxicated and their only explanation was that it must come from
                the gods.

            c. Suggested here is the origin of the term “ardent spirits” which
                literally takes possession of the man who has imbibed freely.

            d. Soma also had a celestial reference and was supposed to flow in
                the invisible world as well as on earth.

            e. The gods themselves attained immortality by drinking the Soma
                and so would men when they drank the life-giving potion with
                Yama in the land of the blessed.

            f. Again, as in the case of Agni, the physical character of the god 
               was never lost.

            g. Soma remained until the end, and in spite of the idealizing
                process, the juice of the Soma plant.

        3. Yama was a god who might have lived on immortal but he chose to
            die.

            a. He thus was the first to cross the dreaded flood from which none
                return.

            b. The dead who lived nobly went to him.

            c. Nothing much was written about the wicked who perished or
                continued to exist “in dark and dismal pits” with demons and
                other spirits. 

    H.  Of all the gods of the Rig-Veda, Indra took first place as the national
          god of the  Aryans.

        1. He was the greatest of the atmospheric gods, the king of heaven,
            the warrior who gave the victory to his people, and at the same 
            time was the giver of good and the author and preserver of life.

        2. Indra not only fought with the people when they were engaged in
            war, but fought for them with his faithful companions, the Maruts
            (“the bright ones”), the gods of storm and lightning.

        3. Intoxicated with Soma, he rode among the clouds, striking his
            enemies with thunderbolts.

        4. When it is remembered that it is to the atmosphere the people of
            India must look not only for prosperity but for life itself, it can be
            seen quite readily how Indra, the god who defeated the enemies
            who would have prevented the breaking of the monsoon with its
            copious rains, would be lifted up and idealized until he became 
            their great champion and protector.

    I. When one reads the hymns of the Rig-Veda, he is confused by the
       manner in which the qualities of one god are ascribed to another and
       still another god so the lines of demarcation between them become
       hazy and indistinct.

        1. This tendency to fuse and assimilate the gods and their functions
            was the beginning of a long process which continued until it led
            into the monism which is so characteristic of feature of later Indian
            thought.

        2. The Indian mind even at the this early date was beginning to feel
            out after a unity in which there should be no distinctions, and, 
            though the fully developed theory was not completed for many
            centuries, the tendency began to make itself evident very early.

    J. One can also see in these hymns by the ascriptions of praise to one
        and then another of these divine beings that at the time of the praise
       given, that particular god was considered the sole god of the universe. 

        1. Many gods were worshiped but each at times in a more or less
            exclusive manner.

        2. The theology oscillates between polytheism and an approach
            toward    monotheism.

        3. It is one form of henotheism (also called monolatry) or the worship
            of one god without rejecting other gods who may be worshiped at
            other times as needs and occasions may require, but only one god
            at a time.

        4. The worshiper was uneasy with this because he had inherited many
            gods with various functions to provide him with needed care and
            protection but he was not satisfied.

        5. The desire for some kind of unity was beginning to assert itself
            making the worship of a variety of gods seem to lack harmony or
            agreement.

        6. With this desire, and by a very natural process, the conception
            changed and developed until in the final outcome all these gods
            came to be looked upon as manifestations only, manifestations 
            of a primal essence behind and inclusive of them all.

    K. The worship of the gods was largely sacrificial and animals were
         offered in increasing  numbers as the centuries passed.

        1. There were elaborate rites connected with the offering of the soma
            and of the ghi (clarified butter).

        2. There were no temples and no images in the earliest days and the
            worship was conducted outside in the open air. 

        3. There were priests in the early days and as the sacrifices became
            more elaborate they increased their hold until their grip on the
            people of India was complete.

        4. The theory was very simple.

            a. Sacrifice was looked upon as an absolute necessity.

            b. Life could not be preserved or prosperity continued without it.

            c. The result of the sacrifice did not depend upon the moral fitness
                or sincerity of the worshiper nor the will of the gods.

            d. It depended solely upon the correctness with which the ritual of
                sacrifice was performed.

            e. This was believed implicitly by all the people, both high and low.

        5. In the earliest days, the father of the family was the priest of his
            family but as the theory of the sacrifice developed it became
            increasingly difficult for him to master the ritual on which the 
            fortunes of the family depended.

        6. Professional priests took the father’s place and performed the
            ceremonies for  him.

        7. They made themselves experts in religion, masters of ceremony 
            and ritual, and thus became indispensable to the people to the
            point that nothing in religion could be done without them.

        8. They dominated life and exercised their sway with more and more
            severity until they came to occupy a unique position in the lives of
            the people.

        9. The Brahmins, as they came to be called, wielded the mightiest
            power in the land, and, jealous of their position, they separated
            themselves more and more from the other classes and were 
            looked upon and treated as superior beings, veritable gods on earth.

    L. The theory of the efficacy of sacrifice was carried so far that sacrifice
        was looked upon as irresistible and so the whole system became
        saturated with magic.

        1. The carrying out of the ritual with minute exactness would bring
            about the desired end with little reference to the will of the god 
            who was addressed.

        2. This, of course, did not exalt the gods but further elevated the
            authority of the divine priesthood which could perform such
            wonders.

        3. It was said that the gods themselves had attained their present
            positions by sacrifice and so it logically followed that it was not
            beyond the range of mortal man to reach the position of a god.

    M. The Rig-Veda was the earliest literature of the Indian mind but it
         was only one of four and was by far the most important.

        1. But Vedic literature became much more extensive and influential in
            the later development of the Hindu religion.

        2. All four of the Vedas had attached to them one or more Brahmanas
            which were voluminous priestly writings which explained the
            sacrifices and gave direction to the various schools of priests
            concerning the conduct of the ritual.

    N. Closely connected with the individual Brahmanas was another series
         of writings called  Aranyakas (which means “Forest Treaties”) which
         are the musings of certain thoughtful men who were not satisfied by
         the monotony of sacrifices - though they did not repudiate them - 
         and went off alone in the forest to think more deeply on the meaning
         of life and religion.

        1. But of greater importance than the Aranyakas was another group
            of writings which were embedded in them and are difficult to
            distinguish from them.

        2. These are the famous Upanishads, one of the chief foundation -
            heads of Hindu philosophy.

    O. All these writings which have been mentioned are called sruti, which
         means “hearing,” the things which were heard by the inspired Rishis 
         of a day long past as they listened to divine revelation.

    P. All other writings, no matter how important and sacred, are called
        smriti, “what is remembered,” traditional knowledge but not inspired
        as are the Vedas. 

  II. THE PHILOSOPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF HINDUISM.

    A. When the Aryans came into India, they possessed no belief in the
         doctrine of transmigration and yet it is one of the basic doctrines of
         Hinduism.  From where did it come?

        1. The idea was suggested by contact with the aboriginal population
            into the midst of which they were thrown.

        2. While the Aryans came more and more to dominate the religious 
             life of the country, they unconsciously absorbed many of the ideas
             of the primitive Dravidians.

        3. One of these was transmigration.

           a. The theory is when a man dies his soul leaves the dying body and
               enters the body of some animal or human being as it comes into
               the world to begin its life.

            b. The process is repeated generation after generation time and time
                again without end.

    B. The theory came to the Aryans in a very crude form but apparently
         the keen minds of the thinkers among them would not allow it to rest
         but worked it out to its logical conclusion and made it a part of their
         growing philosophical system.

        1. The force which determined the operation of transmigration was
            karma. 

            a. Karma means “action” or “deed,” actions or deeds in one life
               which work out their results in the next life, and the next, and so
               on through unlimited time.

             b. According to karma we are born into a new life well and strong,
                 good or bad, rich or poor.

            c. It is a kind of reward or retribution as the case may be, working
                itself out automatically and inevitably in existence after existence.

            d. There is absolutely no escape from the clutches of this inexorable
                law.

        2. The best that can be hoped for is not to add to our karma so that
            when what we have inherited is finally exhausted there will be no
            more to keep the fire going.

            a. The fuel consists of all deeds - good or bad - which stimulate life.

            b. To live, then - just to live within itself, whether nobly or
                dishonorably, it makes very little difference - is an evil with a
                most unfortunate entail for the future.

    C. The importance of the doctrine of transmigration must not be
         overestimated.

        1. To the Hindus it is this doctrine of transmigration on which all the
            philosophies of their lives are based.

        2. The law of karma (as a man sows so shall he reap) is the keystone
            of the arch over which the vast edifice of Hinduism has been built
             through the ages.

        3. To be saved from the endless succession of births and deaths is
            what religion means to the Hindus.

        4. It seems almost hopeless and so deathlike is the grip of this doctrine
            on the mind of the people, but in one way or another they continue
            on with the high hope of breaking the heavy chain at some time in a
            distant future.

    D. Hindus, in their earnestly seeking to liberate themselves from the
         necessity of rebirth time after time, have worked out three ways of
         salvation.

        1. Salvation for a Hindu means the liberation from samsara, the 
            endless repetition of births to which they are bound.

        2. The first way of salvation is karmamarga, the way of works.

            a. This means that one must keep caste regulations scrupulously,
                perform all the religious rites in the family and temple, and do the
                hundred other things which are laid down in manuals and have
                come down traditionally from one generation to another.

            b. But even by the most scrupulous observance of these regulations
                a man cannot hope to escape being born again; what he may
                look forward to in another life is a happier lot than that which is
                his in the present life.

        3. The second way of salvation is called bhaktimarga, or the way of
            loving devotion to one or another of the divine beings he has chosen
            to worship.

        4. The third and final way of deliverance is jnanamarga, or salvation
             by knowledge.

            a. This is a method of release by philosophical insight and intuition.

            b. This is the only way by which one is able to secure release from
                 transmigration, so that he will never be born again, but enters
                 into the bliss of Nirvana.

            c. This attitude toward the way of salvation by knowledge raises
                 philosophy to the supreme place in the minds of Hindus.

            d. In India all philosophy is religious philosophy with the ultimate
                object being to secure the release from transmigration.

            e. It is a very practical matter and enters into the thinking of the
               people far more pervasively than philosophy in the Western
               world.

    E. The early results of the Indian philosophic mind are found in the
        Upanishads.

        1. They are obscure, probably intentionally so, and embody esoteric
             teaching and secret doctrine for only those who can go to a teacher
             for interpretation.

        2. The Upanishads do not present a definite system because they are
            anticipations rather than completions of doctrines and they are
             inspirational rather than dogmatic.

        3. The Upanishads do show however that life had become more
            difficult and complex since the joyous and free days of the
            Rig-Veda.

            a. The zest of life is gone and there is a sadder and more wistful
                mood displayed.

            b. It is expressed in a refrain found in one of the Upanishads, “Lead
                me from darkness into light, from the unreal to the Real.”

    F. In these writings the gods are not eternal but only the temporary
        manifestations of one absolute being back of and responsible for all
        that exists.

        1. The souls of men are “sparks from the central fire, drops from the
            ocean of divinity,” to be incarnated times without number, according
            to the law of karma, but in the end to find release and drop back
            into the boundless ocean from which they came.

        2. The only eternal, unquestionable fact in the universe is Brahman, the
            world-soul, and the conclusion was reached that the atman, or the
             individual human soul, was identical with it.

        3. “Myself is the infinite self,” and “The soul of the universe, whole and
              undivided, dwells in me,” are two of the many ways in which this
              identity was expressed with the most used phrase being “Thou are
              That.” 

        4. The object of life for these thinkers is to realize the truth of this
             startling affirmation.

        5. Salvation is attained by jnanamarga, knowledge, intuition, a sudden
            flash of insight, which will drive away the darkness and leave the
            man possessed of the liberating thought.

        6. Should he achieve this insight by the power of meditation,
            concentrating his whole mind on this one thought, he was free; he
            would not be born again; the release was complete.

    G. As we look more closely at the absolute being of Brahman we find the
         word “Brahman” is a neuter noun which expresses the common
         thought of the time that the world-soul is an impersonal essence
         present in all things.

        1. So enthusiastic were these thinkers over their find of Brahman they
            could not refrain themselves in their rapture.

        2. Brahman was to them everything good and desirable, the aim of all
            their  longings.

        3. But when an attempt is made to describe Brahman and to state the
            qualities and attributes involved in the conception, the result is most
            disappointing.

        4. Nothing positive can be found, it must all be in negatives.

        5. He is, in fact, attribute-less.

        6. Of each positive characteristic that one may mention the response is
            neti, neti, “not that, not that.”

        7. It is only by accommodation that Brahman is called “he” at all for
            Brahman is impersonal and therefore the appropriate term must be
            “it.”

        8. But even more serious is the impossibility of thinking of Brahman as
            holy or righteous because he is presented as a being beyond the
            distinction between right and wrong.

        9. To present him as knowing the distinction of right and wrong would
             lower him to the level of human frailty and finiteness.

        10. But the fact is that to uphold any being and claim that for him no
              ethical distinctions exist is to bring that being down to a level lower
              than the human being for we are moral beings - and thus one of the
              major fallacies of Hinduism.

    H. This philosophical development was not completed for centuries after
          the writing of the Upanishads, which were finished about 500 B.C.

        1. Very little is known during the long period after that but what we
            find is that six systems of philosophy arose, three of which scarcely
            deserve the name of philosophy, and yet all claiming to deliver
            mankind from the cycle of rebirth.

        2. Only two of these are important enough for our discussion and will
             be described.

    I. The oldest is that of the Sankhya which is fundamentally a dualism far
       different from what we have mentioned thus far.

        1. There is a primary substance called prakriti which pervades the
             universe and is accountable for all there is in it.

        2. There are also separate individual souls, called purusha, which are
             eternal and distinct entities.

        3. The release from rebirth is secured by knowledge, the flash of
            insight in which a  man realizes that his soul is essentially and
            eternally distinct from the active  substance of the universe about
            him.

        4. Sankhya is atheistic and contains less hope and help than the
            Brahman system which has outrivaled it in securing the allegiance of
            Indian thinkers. 

        5. One will find no two systems so antagonistic to one another except
            in the important fact that both secure deliverance from the cycle
            of rebirth in the same manner - through knowledge.

    J. The second and more important system is that of Vedanta.

        1. The word “Vedanta” means the “end” or “aim” of the Veda, that to
            which the ancient Vedas point and in which they have their
            consummation.

        2. Three great exponents of the Vedanta have arisen, differing widely
            from one another, and yet each claiming to be the correct 
            interpreter of the inner meanings of the ancient writings.

        3. They all teach that salvation is to be secured by knowledge though
            two of them make a most important addition by declaring that
           devotion to a personal god is also necessary.

    K. The first and greatest of the acharyas, or men worthy to be followed,
         was Shankara, whose dates are A. D. 788 to 828.

        1. He called his system non-dualism and building on the teaching of the
            Upanishads that there is but one reality in the universe, Shankara
            was forced to acknowledge the existence of the external world, the
            people and things which we can see around us on every side.

        2. He could not deny that they had some kind of existence, but did
            not know what kind of existence it was.

        3. He came to the conclusion that it was only a seeming existence,
            that in reality they did not exist at all.

        4. But how was the seeming existence to be accounted for?

        5. Here he made use of an idea from the Upanishads but which he
            raised to a new and most important position.

        6. It was the concept of Maya, a subtle but powerful force at work in
            the universe creating the mistaken notion that there was something
            in existence besides Brahman the absolute.

            a. This cosmic force was the power of ignorance which created the
                erroneous idea that people and external nature had real existence.

            b. But if maya created the illusion that things exist then what of the
                origin of maya? 

        7. There is no way of avoiding the conclusion that it came from the
            only real being that exists, that is, from Brahman.

        8. And when seen in this light it looks as though the Absolute was
            responsible for the delusion which was the cause of the entire
            misconception that anything really existed besides the All, Brahman
            itself.

    L. Shankara made full use of the old perception that all were really
        Brahman if we only could see and understand it.

        1. So, to be saved meant getting rid of the illusion caused by maya 
            and realizing that we are Brahman.

        2. This is to be accomplished by a flash of insight after long discipline
            of both the mind and body.

        3. When this occurs and the insight has become ours, we are free; we
            will never be born again; we may live a few years, but when our
            bodies die we have entered the nirvana of bliss.

        4. And this was the contribution of Shankara to Hinduism. 

    M. But this teaching was not acceptable to many men of insight and
          learning.

        1. Another man whose name was Ramanuja, who lived from 1050 to
            1137, had another philosophy called qualified non-dualism.

        2. His philosophy was in the tradition of the Vedanta because he
            believed that there was oneness in the universe and that reality did
            not consist of a plurality of separate and independent factors but of
            a united whole.

        3. He believed that God together with the souls and matter is an
            organic whole but he also believed the ultimate not to be the
            impersonal All, Brahman, but a personal God.

        4. He believed the souls of men and the nature around them are real
            and not destined to be absorbed by and in God.

        5. He believed these things to be permanent and that human beings
            may look forward to continued conscious life in communion with
            God once they attained the knowledge that liberates and if they give
            themselves in loving devotion to God, he comes to them with his
            grace and gives them the freedom from the fetters of transmigration.

    N. Finally there arose Madhva, 1199 to 1278, the last of the three
         classical Indian philosophers.

        1. His system was called dualism for he did not hold, as did Ramanuja,
            that the universe formed one organic unity or whole, in which God
            was in a way embodied in individual souls and matter - he thought
            God to be too transcendent for that!

        2. God was essentially different from all else in the universe, from souls
            and nature, but he is the only independent being, existing in his own
            right.

        3. On the other hand, God is the creator of souls and things and these
            things are dependent upon him.

        4. Madhva called himself a Vedantist and believed in the necessity of
            traveling the way of knowledge, but he believed in a God who 
            could be counted on to save men through his grace, and this grace
            was the crowning cause of salvation.

        5. But India has gone with Shankara and his influence still has a
            tremendous pull on Hinduism. 
 

  III. THE CASTE SYSTEM. 

    A. Hinduism is the most amorphous of all religions which means that
         almost anything can be said of it with assurance that it is true, and at
         the same time almost anything which is said may be denied, and that
         with good reason.

        1. What is it then that makes one a Hindu and what is the standard of
            authority which may be applied to determine a man’s standing in the
            Hindu community?

        2. One of Hindu’s own adherents states that it cannot be defined for
            the reason that Hinduism is absolutely indefinite and as an
            anthropological process to which, by a strange irony of fate, the
            name of ‘religion’ has been given.

        3. It is all comprehensive, all absorbing, all tolerant, all complacent, all
            compliant.

        4. One may believe or deny what he likes, do as he pleases, and
            follow any ritual or custom he chooses and still be a Hindu.

        5. It comes down to this - a Hindu is one who does not repudiate that
            designation, or one who says he is a Hindu and accepts any of the
            many beliefs and follows any of the many practices that are
            regarded everywhere as Hindu. 

        6. But among all this there is one standard which is so important and
            so inclusive that it must be accepted as valid criterion.

        7. This is the caste system or the form of organization obtaining
            wherever Hinduism exists.

        8. To be a Hindu means to belong to one of these castes and to obey
            caste regulations.

        9. Orthodoxy in Hinduism is then conformity to custom petrified in
            social organization.

    B. A caste is a group of people kept apart from other caste groups by
         regulations touching marriage, food, in some cases occupation, and
         also residence.

        1. Looking at these in reverse order, conformity with reference to
            residence, which is the least important, means that a Hindu shall not
            travel or reside outside of India.

            a. Just one look at the roles of the world’s universities shows that
                this rule is taken lightly by many Hindus.

            b. However, among stricter families, a ceremony of purification is
                necessary on the return from a foreign country to wash away the
                taint which has been incurred by travel and association with
                foreigners.

        2. Occupation helps to determine caste in may situations.

            a. The Ahirs are by tradition herdsmen; the Chamars are workers in
                leather; the Chuhras and one or two others are scavengers; the
                Goalas are milkmen; the Kayasths are writers or penmen; the
                Kumhars are potters; and so on.

            b. But even in these cases not all the members of the caste follow
                the traditional occupation.

            c. Likewise, the Brahmins constitute the priestly caste but are found
                widely scattered among the professions and occupations, and so
                of many others.

        3. In respect of food conformity is more significant.

            a. One must not eat with a man of another caste and, frequently
                among the higher castes, the food he eats must be prepared by a
                servant who belongs to the same caste.

            b. But even with respect to this regulation many Hindus pay little
                attention at times.

        4. It is at the point of marriage that the caste system retains its most
            tenacious grip upon the social lives of Hindus.

            a. Hindu parents find themselves between the proverbial rock and a
                hard place - it is a disgrace to have daughters who remain
                unmarried after their teens and yet husbands must be found with
                the caste or sub caste.

            b. For many years this regulation was absolute and unbending.

            c. A Hindu could be lax in respect of food, eating with others, and
                living outside of India but he must not marry his children to
                outsiders and thus break caste.

        5. Marriage within the caste system brought about many problems and
            some still exists today.

            a. Child marriage is almost inevitable because of the necessity of
                finding desirable husbands and wives for all the boys and girls in
                the community.

            b. Untold numbers of marriages are consummated before the
                children reach their teens which results in many physical and
                moral problems.

            c. This custom, in a land of high mortality, has produced thousands
                of little widows and widowers.

            d. The boys marry again but the girls suffer greatly.

            e. According to tradition the girl is held responsible for the death of
                her husband and, as a criminal, her hair is shaved off, her
                ornaments are taken away and she is dressed in a coarse
                garment and becomes the drudge of the family.

            f. She may not remarry but remains until the end of her life a poor
               and  miserable soul unless she is the mother of sons which lifts
               her to a position of honor from which she cannot be displaced.

            g. The most commendable thing for a widow to do until
                comparatively recent times was to mount the pyre and be
                burned to death with the body of her husband, and, willingly or
                unwillingly, this horrible custom, called sati or suttee, was carried
                out many thousand times over before the practice was stopped
                in 1829.

    C. Measures of reform have been enacted against the caste system in
         recent years and much good has been achieved in this area.

        1. The primary thrust of this was the raising of the age of marriage and
            the relief of widows by allowing them to remarry.

        2. However, no matter what the reformers may say, many of the
            people still cling to the old customs and many folks, women in
            particular, still suffer from the disability of inferiority.

    D. There is no completely satisfactory theory of the origin of the caste
         system.

        1. No one knows for certain how many castes and sub castes there
            are but over two thousand are known.

        2. The word for caste in Sanskrit is varna which means “color.”

        3. This would indicate that the Aryan as he came into India from the
            north was originally fair skinned in contrast to the darker Dravidian.

        4. In their endeavor to preserve the purity of their blood and the
            fairness of their skin the Aryans hedged themselves around with
            restrictions touching their relations with the Dravidians.

        5. The earliest division on record separates into distinct groups the
            priests (Brahmins), the warriors (Kshattriyas), the agriculturalists
            (Vaisyas), and the menial laborers (Sudras).

        6. The priests, the warriors, and the agriculturalists constitute the twice
            born people or those who had the right to be initiated or be born
            again into the religious community.

        7. The Sudras, who are supposed to have been largely of Dravidian
            blood, at least in the beginning, were outsiders so far as the
            ceremonial and worship of the twice born were concerned.

        8. According to the theory found in the Institutes of Manu, one of the
            ancient books of laws and customs, the Brahmins, Kshattriyas, and
            the Vaisyas were born from the mouth, the arms, and the thighs,
            respectively, of the supreme soul of the universe, while the poor
            Sudras proceeded from the feet and were looked upon as the
             menial, doing their work at the bidding of the three others.

        9. The tendency of the present time is to put less stress on the
            differences of race and color as the explanation of the origin of the
            caste system and more on occupation and division of functions.

        10. But the complexity of the caste system and its multiple divisions
              and subdivisions is so confusing that most authorities give up the
              attempt to give an adequate account of its origin and development.

    E. However, the most evident fact in the whole caste system is the
        preeminence of the Brahmin priest.

        1. He is the vitalizing force in the caste system and dominates it
            completely.

        2. He looks upon himself as inherently superior to all others, created
            differently, and as to have demonstrated that he is not to be
            classified with the common run of men.

        3. The caste system is his way of preserving his position inviolate, and
             he clings to it with the most serious concern.

        4. At many points he may deserve well of the people because he is
            rightfully recognized as the gifted leader in the higher life of the
            community.

        5. But on the other hand, the Brahmin has little or no sympathy with
            those in a subordinate position and, filled with unfathomable pride,
            the Brahmin lords it over the consciences and wills of men and
            exercises a tyranny unsurpassed anywhere else in the world.

    F. There are some good things to be said about the caste system.

        1. It does engender a certain solidarity which is of great value in the
            precarious conditions in which most of the people in India live.

        2. In times of distress caste acts as a kind of labor union, or a trade
            guild, or as a relief association in giving assistance to those who
            otherwise would have no sense of security.

        3. And, there is a mutual helpfulness exercised which is good and
            beneficial to those in the caste.

        4. However, it is fundamentally divisive and stands as a bar against the
            unity in Hinduism.

  IV. HINDUISM SINCE THE RISE OF BUDDHISM. 

    A. During the sixth century Buddhism arose in northern India and the
         result of the example and teachings of Gautama Buddha greatly
         changed the whole complexion of things  religious.

        1. Eventually Buddhism waned, and Hinduism asserted itself anew; it
            was a veritable renaissance, which in the end established the
            supremacy of the old faith all over India.

        2. But the Hinduism which raised its head after the centuries of strong
            Buddhistic influence was not the same.

        3. The caste system remained intact and even developed, though it
            was not encouraged, to say the least, by Buddha and his followers.

        4. The sacrificial system of Hinduism was more seriously modified.

        5. The theory remained the same, but the form was changed.

        6. Bloody sacrifices almost ceased to be offered, and their place was
            taken in large part by cereals and flowers.

        7. There were exceptions to this rule but the remarkable change is not
            to be minimized by the relatively few instances of animal sacrifice
           which continued to exist.

        8. And, finally, the Hinduism which emerged presents a very different
            organization of the pantheon; it even worships a different set of 
            gods.

        9. The same names occur, but gods who were once prominent have
            given place to others who held a subordinate position or to those
            whose names do not even occur in the ancient records.

    B. Back in the period of the Gupta dynasty, A. D. 320-650, a strong
         movement came to light to look upon Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva as
         the threefold manifestation of the Supreme, the Absolute Brahman 
         we have met before.

        1. This triad, or Hindu Trimurti, has never entered deeply into the
            thinking of the people, though it is frequently mentioned in the
            religious literature and is at times represented in sculpture in the
            form of a triple head on one pair of shoulders.

        2. Brahma, the first member of this trio, is the creator, the more or less
            personal source of the universe and the life which it contains.

        3. He has no popular following, only one temple in all India being
            devoted solely to his worship.

        4. But the fact that he is looked upon as personal calls attention to the
            theistic tendency which has expressed itself in various forms
            throughout the course of Indian religious history.

    C. The stories of Vishnu and Siva are very different.

        1. Their worship constitutes the sectarianism of modern Hinduism, the
            people being roughly divided between the worshipers of Vishnu and
            the worshipers of Siva.

        2. Vishnu was one of the celestial gods in the Rig-Veda and was
            associated with Indra, with whom, however, he could not compare
            in importance.

        3. During the centuries Vishnu increased in dignity and greatness, and
            took to himself some of the qualities of the great Indra himself, until
            in the end he easily overtopped the national god of the Aryans of a
            bygone era.

        4. The most marked characteristic of the worship of Vishnu is that he
            is not worshiped in his own person but in that of one or another his
            manifestations, or avatars, in Sanskrit.

        5. Through one of these manifestations the worship of Vishnu
            absorbed many stray beliefs, even the Buddha being acknowledged
            as one of the avatars.

        6. An avatar is the descent or appearance of deity among men, more
            or less temporary, to accomplish some special task.

        7. It is more of a disguise than a revelation of what the god is really
            like, so it differs from the Christian idea of incarnation, which does
            not change and is the “very image” of the invisible God.

        8. Vishnu himself was lifted higher and higher until he was finally
            declared to be one with the Universal Spirit, the great Preserver,
            and as such fills the place of the sole god of the universe.

    D. The most prominent of the incarnations of this great god are Rama 
        and Krishna, heroes of the great epic poems, the Ramayana and the
        Mahabharata.

        1. Krishna is an avatar with a very striking history.

        2. How much of it is legendary and how much sober fact it is
            exceedingly difficult to determine. 

        3. He is, like Rama, a great hero, “an exterminator of monsters, a
            victorious warrior,” but unfortunately his record is not consistent.

        4. In the Bhagavad-Gita he is pictured as a noble counselor, but in the
            puranas he is far from that.

        5. Much of his time is spent in impure frolic with the gopis,
            shepherdesses, on the hills, and even in adulterous relations with
            Radha, who becomes his beloved mistress.

        6. Spiritualize the account as many high minded Hindus do, the
            dangerous journey through such mire to reach the heights beyond
            is likely to stain the soul of the purest minded devotee.

        7. This is the plight in which popular Hinduism finds itself with its most
            exalted avatar.

        8. And, if the great God above is anything like that, well so much for
            any level of honor and purity among his followers.

    E. In contrast with Vishnu the Preserver, Siva is known as the Destroyer
        and represents the dark, cruel aspects of life.

        1. He also represents the powers of reproduction and is always
            symbolized in his temples by the lingam instead of by an image.

        2. This idea is strongly emphasized in Siva worship, Nandi the bull
             being represented as an attendant of the god, a striking example
             of power and passion and generative power.

        3. Yet in South India there are sung to Siva hymns that for warmth of
            feeling have not often been excelled.... The god seems so unlovable,
            yet the Saivite saints are intoxicated with love for him, and call him
            Grace itself.

        4. With all his other attributes Siva becomes to them all that any of the
             gods stand for, and even ravishes their gaze as they see in him the
             god of love.

        5. For both the philosopher and the peasant Siva is the paragon of all
            excellence; for one, the basis of an all embracing world vies for,
            and for the other, the friendly god who will be with him in trouble.

    F. Unlike Vishnu, Siva has no incarnations, but he is not alone in the
        world of gods.

        1. He has his consorts, or wives, and is very frequently worshiped in
            their person rather than his own.

        2. Among these wives are Devi, “the goddess”; Durga, “the
            inaccessible”; Karala, “the horrible one”; and Kali, “the black one.”

        3. This terrible nest of harpies accentuates the tragic feature of Siva
            worship and illustrates to what lengths these poor people, on whom
            the struggle of life has laid its heavy hand, are compelled to go to
            find solace and relief.

        4. To show but one example, Kali, the goddess after whom the city of
            Calcutta is named, is depicted as a cruel woman who with devilish
            glee dances on the body of her husband, holding aloft a human head
            she has just cut off.

        5. She can be satisfied only with blood, and at her temple goats are
            killed in order to spatter her protruding tongue with the bloody
            sacrifice.

        6. And yet women all over India cry out to “Mother Kale” as their
            only hope in distress and suffering.

        7. Closely connected with the worship of Siva is that of Ganesa, his
            son, the elephant headed god of wisdom and “the embodiment of
            success in life,” whose unique images are to be seen in all parts of 
            the country.

        8. The Saivites are numbered by the million, and by their devotion 
            and earnestness attest the inalienable religiousness of the Indian
            people, who seek God even in the grotesque and repulsive forms
            in which Siva and his company are so frequently represented.

    G. Intimately connected with the growth of sectarian Hinduism, another
         most significant development was taking place.

        1. The worship of Vishnu and later the worship of Siva took a form
            which became the most characteristic feature of Hinduism and
            which retains a powerful influence on the religious life of India.

        2. It is called bhakti, a word which means, as clearly as we can
            translate it, loving devotion.

        3. It is akin to the Christian idea of faith, though bhakti is more deeply
             impregnated with fervent emotion, emotion of the exuberant type 
             of excessive physical and mental agitation.

        4. Slight traces of this attitude are found in the Upanishads, but it was
             in the Bhagavad-Gita - commonly called the Gita - that it began to
             exercise a powerful influence.

        5. The Gita is the most influential book in Hinduism.

        6. Coming to its present form in about A. D. 200, it has had its ups
            and downs in popularity, but is now at a new peak in esteem.

        7. It has been called the “New Testament of Modern Hinduism,” and
            it is well known Gandhi went to it for comfort and to be uplifted
            more than to any other religious classic.

    H. It is impossible here to go into a description of the Gita except to call
         attention to the emphasis found in it on the attitude of utter devotion
         to Krishna.

        1. All three of the great philosophers - Shankara, Ramanuja, and
            Madhwa - wrote commentaries of the Gita, but it was Ramanuja
            who emphasized the feature of devotion to Krishna and thought to
            make it the key to unlock its secret.

        2. Since his time a long succession of Bhaktas has always been at war
            with the monistic philosophy of Shankara and his followers, who
            have little or no place for a personal God and or a conscious and
            permanent relation between him and his worshipers.

    I. Another movement that developed was that of the Shaktas becoming
        the worshipers of Kali.

        1. A Shakti is the wife of a god thought of as energy, the sexual energy
            of her husband, so the whole movement is erotic in nature.

        2. Yet even here there is a distinction.

        3. One group of Shaktas, those of the “right hand,” are respectable,
            reading mystic meaning into sexuality as the symbol of creativity in
            the universe.

        4. Another group however, those on the “left hand,” include sexual
            immorality as an essential element in their worship.

        5. Very fortunately this form of worship is frowned upon by most of
            the Hindu community, and it is doubtful if it continues to be
            practiced.

        6. But the very fact that these erotic forms of worship have been
            practiced and that a whole literature, the Tantras, exists and is
            popular attests that Hinduism always runs the danger of being
            contaminated by practices which are entirely unworthy of 
            high-minded men and women.

    J. Besides these forms of religious life India has many others.

        1. When one considers that 90 per cent of all the people of India are
            demon worshipers, one asks how that can be when the people have
            been roughly divided between these two greats sects.

        2. The fact is, the lines are loosely drawn and are stepped over with
            ease.

       3. Millions who may at times worship at the shrines of Krishna or Siva
           are also devotees of lesser gods and village divinities who are little
           better than malignant demons.

        4. These people see no incongruity or inconsistency in so doing this.

        5. They are in want and are fearful as they look into the future - why
            should they not have access to any and all gods who may possibly
            avert the dangers which beset them?

        6. And so the worship extends out to include the worship of heroes
            and saints, demons and spirits, guardian and village deities, the
            family ancestors, and even animals and plants and stones and other
            inanimate objects.

        7. There is no end to the list of sacred objects held in reverence and
            worshiped by the people of India.

        8. The cow is holy and inviolable, and is to be treated with reverence.

        9. Even monkeys are sacred, with temples erected in their honor, in
            whose courts troops of chattering fortunates are fed and treated like
            spoiled children.

        10. India is ineradicably religious and finds divinity everywhere.

        11. All the way from the lofty conception of the Supreme Creator
              down to the depths of India has run the gamut of religious
              experience and doctrine.

        12. This god-intoxicated land will not be restrained in her quest for a
              satisfying conception of God and for an experience which will
              bring the people into vital touch with him.

  V. REFORM MOVEMENTS IN INDIA AND THE CURRENT
      SITUATION.

    A. On August 15, 1947, India achieved her independence from Great
         Britain and this independence had a great effect on the religious life of
         the Indian people.

        1. Outwardly the most marked result was the partition of land between
             India and Pakistan.

        2. This was a religious move from top to bottom, the Mohammedan
            minority being convinced that they could not expect to be treated
            justly and to take the part which they felt they should have in the
            conduct of public affairs.

        3. They felt that they could not trust the Hindu fellow countrymen who
            formed the vast majority in the land as a whole.

        4. So India was torn in two; a new government was set up in Pakistan;
            hundreds of thousands of people, both Hindus and Muslims, were
            killed, and great hoards of refugees, Hindus from Pakistan and
            Muslims from India, fled from their homes and remain for the most
            part today displaced people cared for from public funds.

        5. The whole series of events provides terrible evidence of what bitter
            religious intolerance can do when animosities of long standing are
            unleashed.

    B. As we look at Hinduism and the effect of the coming of independence
        on the thinking and inner life of the Hindu community, we see the most
        marked effect is a new self-confidence which is naturally accompanied
        by tremendous patriotic fervor which the coming of independence 
        engenders.

        1. After independence, on every hand was evidenced what the Indian
            scholars called “the Renaissance of Hinduism.”

        2. A sense of self-sufficiency and even of complacent self-satisfaction
            was abroad throughout India, and Hinduism was being proclaimed
            with renewed confidence as the crown of the world’s religions.

    C. Contact with the Western world influenced the religious life of India to
         some extent as well.

        1. The coming of Western education, the teaching of the Christian
            missionaries, and their benevolent work through hospitals, schools,
            and orphanages together with the work of the Western scholars in
            studying and revealing to the astonishment, even of Indian religious
            thinkers themselves, the beauties and profound insights in the ancient
            religious classics of Sanskrit literature - all of these play their part in
            changing the religious face of Hinduism.

        2. As a result of these and other influences a number of important
            movements of social and religious reforms mark the history of
            Hinduism.

    D. India is a Hindu country.

        1. Although there is a tremendous amount of mission work taking
            place in India, Indians do not fear that Hinduism may be
            overpowered by Christianity or Western civilization.

        2. A Hindu scholar, Mr. D. S. Sarma, stated, “It (Hinduism) has
            outlived the Christian propaganda of modern times as it outlived the
            Muslim oppression of the Middle Ages and the Buddhist schism of
            ancient days.  It is now able to meet any of the world religions on
            equal terms as their friend and ally in a common cause.”

        3. Unlike Islam, which with intolerant zeal has so often used coercion
            in its expansion and has repressed and restricted other faiths which
            are in a minority, Hinduism, at least in the mind of many of its past
            and present leaders, can live at peace with other religions and
            actually look at them as allies in a common cause.

        4. One of the most insistent notes of Hinduism today is “The Essential
            Unity of all religions.”

        5. And yet, this liberality and tolerance is vaunted because the one
            thing which Hindus will not tolerate is the winning of converts from
            one religion to another.

        6. They excuse this intolerance by proclaiming, “After all, why should
            such an attempt be made when all religions are true and lead to the
            same goal?”

CONCLUSION

    A. Hinduism is a religion without definite form; it is shapeless.

        1. Almost anything can be said of it with the assurance that it is true,
            and at the same time almost anything can be denied, and that with
            good reason to the Hindu. 

        2. The standard orthodoxy in the Hindu religion cannot be defined.

        3. A Hindu is one who does not repudiate that designation, who says
             he is a Hindu, and accepts any of many beliefs, and follows any of
             the many practices that are regarded everywhere as Hindu.

    B. Some may say this concerning true Christianity but such is not the
         case.

    C. While it is true concerning denominationalism, true Christianity has a
         definite pattern,  definite doctrine, and a definite destination.

        1. While Hinduism is a religion of many gods, true Christianity only has
             the One God, Jehovah.

            a. The supreme being of Hinduism is an impersonal principle called
                Brahman that pervades the universe and has nothing to do with
                the people.

            b. But Jehovah God is a living Person who created the universe and
                all that is therein and loves the people and knows them as a
                Father and interacts with them by seeking only man’s good even
                though man does not deserve His grace (Genesis 1:1; 1 John
                3:16; 4:10).

        2. While Hinduism is a religion of many written standards, true
            Christianity recognizes only the New Testament of its Lord and
            Saviour Jesus Christ as the only standard of authority in faith and
            practice.

            a. Hinduism recognizes many standards such as the Upanishads, the
                Bhagavad-Gita, and the writings of certain Hindu philosophers.

            b. It does not recognize a saviour from their sins because sin is only
                thought of as ignorance and so one must save himself through
                knowledge which dispels the ignorance.

            c. Christianity recognizes sin as a transgression of God’s law which
                separates man from God (1 John 3:4).

            d. Jesus Christ is the Saviour who reconciles man to God through
                His sacrifice on the cross.

            e. Salvation to the Hindu is a breaking of the life cycle (incarnation)
                and a merging of one’s consciousness with the Great and Divine
                Nothingness.

            f. But Christianity offers the forgiveness of sins through the blood of
               Jesus Christ and an eternal home in heaven with Christ and the
               Father (John 3:16; 14:1-3). 

        3. While Hinduism is a religion of countless inconsistencies and
            opposing thoughts, true Christianity is perfect, consistent, and
            logical in every way.

    D. Jehovah God wants all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9)
         and has provided one way for all men today to be saved (John 14:6; 
        1 Timothy 2:5).

    E. Christianity is the only religion of the One and Only True and Living
        God. 
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Farquhar, J. N.  Modern Religious Movements in India.  New York: The Macmillan Company, 
 1915.

Farquhar, J. N.  An Outline of the Religious Literature of India.  New York: Oxford University
 Press, 1920.

Hill, W. Douglas P.  The Phagavadgita.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1928.

Hiriyana, M.  The Essentials of Indian Philosophy.  New York: The Macmillan Company, 1949.

Smith, Huston.  The Religions of Man.  New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1986.

Soper, Edmind Davison.  The Religions of Mankind.  New York: Abington Press, 1966.

Various Internet Sites on Hinduism, 2002.