Getting a Handle on Hinduism
Nov. 10th, 2010 03:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kent_allard_jrI'm a bit reluctant to talk about religion in public, particularly other people's religions, due to vivid memories of arguments in Alarums and Excursions and elsewhere in the 1990s. Whether it's a resistance to generalizing, a concern with cultural appropriation, or a natural urge to mystify (there'd be no need for gurus if you could learn the stuff in a goddamn book), people tell you you just can't understand this stuff unless you were raised in it since birth and spent 30 years in an ashram, temple or mountaintop. As you can tell, I never cared for this type of attitude; I think generalizations can be worthwhile when you're learning a subject (you can pick up the exceptions later), cultural appropriation is harmless as long as you give due credit to your source, and mystification is to be frowned upon. I think you have to reject it if you're interested in comparative religion, not out of a search for Ultimate Truth (which should take a lifetime on a mountaintop...) but out of simple intellectual curiosity.
Reading about Hinduism has strongly challenged my approach. Hinduism is so complex, so baroque, so filled to the brim with gods, scriptures and sects that it'd be natural to throw up your hands and say it's beyond a Westerner's understanding. Some say you can't call Hinduism a "religion" at all, and I agree that it'd be silly to call it a single faith, anymore than Judaism, Christianity and Islam are "the same religion." Nevertheless I think I can piece together some of the main themes and, at the risk of overgeneralizing, identify the more prominent approaches.
As far as I can tell, most major strands of Hinduism share the same goal, which they share with Buddhism and Jainism: Release from the endless cycle of death and rebirth. There are different approaches one can take to liberation, although they aren't incompatible and no doubt their techniques are combined in all sorts of ways:
Again, I'm sure this is a gross simplification of the vast complexities of Hinduism, but I think it's accurate enough for a short LiveJournal post.
Reading about Hinduism has strongly challenged my approach. Hinduism is so complex, so baroque, so filled to the brim with gods, scriptures and sects that it'd be natural to throw up your hands and say it's beyond a Westerner's understanding. Some say you can't call Hinduism a "religion" at all, and I agree that it'd be silly to call it a single faith, anymore than Judaism, Christianity and Islam are "the same religion." Nevertheless I think I can piece together some of the main themes and, at the risk of overgeneralizing, identify the more prominent approaches.
As far as I can tell, most major strands of Hinduism share the same goal, which they share with Buddhism and Jainism: Release from the endless cycle of death and rebirth. There are different approaches one can take to liberation, although they aren't incompatible and no doubt their techniques are combined in all sorts of ways:
- The oldest approach concentrated on achieving detachment world through renunciation. Yoga techniques developed, more or less, as tools to concentrate the mind in pursuit of this goal.
- Later, bhakti practices emerged, largely under South Indian influences. The bhakti approach emphasizes love and devotion to God, predominantly identified with Vishnu and his avatar Krishna, but sometimes with Siva and the Goddess.
- Tantric sects emerged even later. These sects tend to be devoted to Siva and the Goddess. Initiates to these mystery cults use yoga, mantras, and ritual to achieve great power and, ultimately, unity with the godhead.
Again, I'm sure this is a gross simplification of the vast complexities of Hinduism, but I think it's accurate enough for a short LiveJournal post.
