Final Exam Study Guide Introduction to World Religions Be able to identify the following terms Vedas Hinduism religious text The earliest surviving known Indo European compositions these are the works collectively known as shruti Sanskrit knowledge There are four Vedic collections Rig Sama Yajur and Atharva Each of these collections consist of four sections hymns Samhitas directions for the performance of sacred rituals Brahmans compositions for the forest Aranyakas and philosophical works called the Upanishads sitting near the teacher Each Veda has its own Upanishads philosophical works composed around 600 BCE The Upanishads do not totally reject the early hymns and sacrificed rituals Instead they rethink and reformulate them Karma It is in the Upanishads that we find the earliest discussions of karma The literal meaning of karma is action especially ritual action but in these books the word eventually comes to refer to a system of rewards and punishments attached to various actions This system of cause and effect may require several lifetimes to work out Thus the concept of karma implies a continuing cycle of life and rebirth or reincarnation called samsara To achieve liberation moksha from this cycle according to the Upanishads requires a transforming experiential wisdom Those who attain wisdom become immortal Yoga In the course of the Gita Krishna describes three ways or three aspects of a single way to liberation from the cycle of birth and death 1 the way of action karma yoga 2 the way of knowledge jnana yoga 3 and the way of devotion bhakti yoga Each way marga is also a discipline yoga Guru Brahman At the heart of this wisdom is experiential knowledge of the relationship between the human soul Atman and the Supreme Being Brahman Brahman pervades and yet transcends not only human thought but the universe itself Ultimately Brahman cannot be described any more than infinity can be contained Dharma Hinduism the codes of righteousness and ethics part of the smrti Buddhism teachings Puranas Ancient stories part of the smrti Avatar Among the supporters of the Pandavas is Krishna an avatara incarnation of the god Vishnu who is among the most beloved figures in Hinduism Vishnu The all pervasive one is portrayed as coming to Earth in various forms animal and human to rid the world of evil and establish dharma or righteousness Shiva Shiva emerged as a great god in the post Upanishadic era Unlike Vishnu however he did not reveal himself sequentially through a series of incarnations Instead according to his followers Shiva expresses the manifold aspects of his power by appearing simultaneously in paradoxical roles as creator and destroyer exuberant dancer and austere yogi The wedding portrait of Shiva and his divine consort Parvati is an important part of his tradition and his creative energy is often represented in the symbolic form of linga a conical or cylindrical stone column Devi Parvati The Great Goddess or Devi appears in multiple forms though the lines between them are not always clearly defined The most familiar manifestation of the Goddess is Parvati the wife of Shiva though in this benevolent aspect she may also be called Amba mother Trimurti The notion of the trimurti three forms seems to have been part of the Hindu tradition since at least the fourth century The symbolism of trimurti the three gods Brahma Vishnu and Shiva are sometimes represented as equal and sometimes coalesce into a single form with three faces This has sometimes been interpreted as implying a polytheistic belief in three gods Brahma the creator Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer Ramayana For many Hindus the phrase sacred books refers specifically to two epics the Ramayana Story of Rama and the Mahabharata The Ramayana has been memorized recited sung danced enjoyed and experienced emotionally intellectually and spiritually for 2 500 years A source of inspiration for countless generations it is performed in theatre and dance in places of Hindu and Buddhist cultural influence throughout Southeast Asia The hero or the Ramayana is the young prince Rama whose father Dasaratha has decided to abdicate in favor of his son On the eve of the coronation however a heartbroken Dasaratha is forced to exile Rama because of an earlier promise made to one of his wives Rama accepts cheerfully and leaves for the forest with his half brother and wife who both refuse to separate from him Bhagavad Gita With approximately 100 000 verses the Mahabharata is said to be the longest poem in the world It is not found in many homes but many people own copies of an extract from it called the Bhagavad Gita Brahmins Priests and teachers The Brahmins are the priestly class the only group in Hindu society authorized to teach the Vedas Although not all members of the brahmin community were priests all enjoyed the power and prestige associated with spiritually learning Highest rank in the caste system Vedanta Six schools of philosophy are recognized within the Hindu tradition Samkhya Nyaya Vaisheshika Mimamsa Yoga and Vedanta and elements of all six can be seen in modern Hinduism Vedanta however is the most important Vedanta end of the Vedas has engaged Hindu thinkers for more than a thousand years Although the term Vedanta traditionally denoted the Upanishads in popular usage it more often refers to systems of thought based on a coherent interpretation of the Upanishads together with the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras a collection of roughly five hundred aphorisms summarizing the teachings of those texts An important early interpreter of Vedanta was Shankara Bhakti Yoga The way of devotion Ultimately Krishna promises Arjuna that if we surrender to him in loving devotion he will forgive all our sins Om The mystical symbol om was considered the beginning of sound in the universe and a manifestation of the Supreme Being Orientalism the representation of Asia especially the Middle East in a stereotyped way that is regarded as embodying a colonialist attitude The Indo European Hypothesis Based on linguistic evidence nineteenth century scholars posited a theory of migration that would account for the resemblances According to this theory people from Central Asia began migrating to widely distant regions at some time in betweem 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE Some moved west and north into what is now Europe from Ireland to Scandinavia Others headed south or east and settled in the region of Iran where they called themselves Arya s a name
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