Four Purusharthas - Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha

The four purusharthas or goals of human life are 1. Dharma (righteousness, duty and moral order) 2. Artha (wealth and prosperity) 3. Kama (wordly desires) 4. Moksha (liberation) The ancient hindus never neglected any aspect of human life. The four goals or endeavors of human life constitute the roadmap for a happy life on earth and beyond. Let us try to understand each of the goals briefly: 1. Dharma is the foundation and first of the four human goals. Dharma refers to moral duties, obligations and conduct, namely, vidhis(do's) and nishedhs(dont's). Dharma is always given a highest importance, in Ramayana, Rama himself represented the Dharma and was crowned as a King. In Mahabharat, Krishna himself crowned the Dharma roopa Yugishtir as King. 2. Artha, is the second goal of life for the householder for the attainment of wealth and material prosperity. The efforts or means to realizing this goal must have a righteous and moral basis. It must be based on dharma or lawful means. 3. Kama, is the fulfillment of biological, physical and material desires. The householder is instructed by the shastras to legitimately fulfill his or her wordly desires in accordance with the canons of dharma. Artha & Kama are important goal for the growth and progress of society. 4. Moksha means liberation form the web of maya, freedom from the cycles of birth and death, and the experiences of divine happiness. This is the ultimate goal of human life. It is achieved through taking the refuge of God or a God-realized guru. Through the guru's grace one becomes free from the bondage or maya, and is blessed with self-realization and God-relalization. Hari Om.

Murthi-Puja : Idol Worship

In ancient times, the Indian rishis worshiped the forces of nature like Varundev (sea-god), Indradev (rain-god), Suryadev (sun-god), Agnidev (fire-god), Vayudev (wind-god), etc. They appreciated and appeased them for their contributions to human existence and happiness by chanting various prayers in the form of mantras and performance of yagnas. Later, they deified and personified the devas and the supreme God to offer elaborate rituals of devotional worship. Since it is not possible to focus upon God merely in thought or name, the rishis made pratimas (images or murthis) of clay, stone, metal or wood. With elaborate rituals the supreme God was invoked (pran-pratishta) into the murtis. The rishis regarded the murtis as God himself and they became the focus of worship. The murtis enables the aspirant to draw his or her mind and senses away from the material objects and concentrate on God. A point arrives when the aspirant realizes God, and he or she sees, speaks and touches him. The Shrimad Bhagavatam describes eight types of God's murtis " A murthi is made of one of eight materials: Stone, wood, metal, sandalwood paste or clay (or other material that can be moulded), sand, precious stone, conceived by mind and through paintin or etching." The murti is the soul of a temple. Devotees come for darshan and to offer prayer and worship to him. The ancient tradition of murti-puja imbues diving peace and joy in devotees. Hari Om.

Punarjanma : Re-Birth

Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma) teaches that the atma or jiva (soul) is intrinsically pure. It is because of material desires and the ignorance of I-ness and Mine-ness that it goes through the cycles of birth and death. The death of one's body does not destroy one's jiva or atma which is eternal. The jiva takes on another body as a consequence to it's karmas. This is called Punarjanma (Rebirth) or reincarnation. As long as the jiva remains attached to material desires and ignorance it remains subject to the cycles of birth and death. According to the puranas it repeatedly takes birth in the 8,400,000 different life-forms, that include all phylum in the animal and plant kingdoms. Birth in a human body is the highest and rarest of all births, providing an opportunity to attain mukti or liberation of the atma. There are many recorded cases of people who remember details of their past births. By the grace of God or guru the jiva is reborn as a human to purge the layers of base instincts, and overcome his or her moral and spiritual failings. Sometimes a released or enlightened soul(a mukta) is reborn by God's wish to carry out a spiritual mission. When a jiva takes on another body, it is God who gives it an appropriate birth in relation to its karma. When it enters the new physical(sthul) body it does so with its subtle (suksma) and causal (karan) bodies. The four categories into which the jiva is born are: 1) Udbhij (born of seeds i.e plants) 2) Jarayuj (born of womb i.e mammals) 3) Swedaj (from sweat i.e bugs) & 4) Andaj (born of egg i.e birds and reptiles) Hari Om.

Karma

Karma means action or deed. No one can remain without doing karmas or even a moment(BhagawadGita). Any physical, mental and emotional action is called karma. For every action there is a result or reaction. Karma is the universal law of cause and effect. Hinduism believes that karma is responsible for good and bad phenomena is a person's life. It is also responsible for the disparities apparent in human life: rich & poor, intelligent & ordinary, good & bad. Hindus believe that nothing in our world is merely accidental or a chance happening. There is a moral law called karma that applies to all living things. As you sow, so shall you reap is a common phrase of wisdom in life, and it succinctly reflects the law of karma. Good actions produce happiness and bad actions results in suffering and misery in the present or in future. There are two types of karmas that a person performs: nishkam and sakam. Nishkam karmas are called detached actions. They are done without any expectation of material gain, ego and mundane desires, but are done solely to please God. Sakam karma are karmas done for a specific material desire or purpose. God gives the fruits of one good and bad karmas. He decides and dispenses the consequences of one's karma. That is, he is the karma phal pradata. Karma or deed does not operate by itself to give results, but when God decides so only then can one experience it's good or bad effects. Hari Om.

Atma

The nearest translation of atma or jiva is self or soul. The ancient rishis or India turned their thoughts inward to discover their inner self. They had a unique experience of a metaphysical entity that was beyond the external, physical world they were living in. They found it to be eternal(sat), having consciousness (chit) and infinitely blissful (Anand). The atma in luminous, pure and bodies; beyond sorrow and decay. They discovered that it was their true self and the very essence of their life. They called it jiva or atma, which is pure, immortal and untouced by evil. They are countless jivas and all animate things have jiva or atmas. The Upanishads teach that the ultimate goal of life is to realize one's self as atma and attain God-realization. They teach that the atma and body are separate. They atma is the life-force of the perishable body. As long as one believes that one is the body one experiences misery and bondage and thus goes through the cycles of birth and death. To realize one's atma the Katha Upanishad instructs that it cannot be done so by merely delivering spiritual discourses, listening to discourses or through one's intellect, but only though God who reveals himself out of abundant grace to the seeker. Hari Om.

Avatars - Rama, Krishna, ..

Avatarvad is the belief that the one, supreme God takes a human or other forms to liberate countless jivas from material bondage and the cycles of birth and death. Avatar liberally means 'one who descends'. The approximate English word is incarnation. It does not exactly mean avatar because Hindus believe that though God himself takes a human or living forms and shows all the physical traits of living beings, he is totally divine. Even thought in a human or any other actions are neither similar to thouse of humans nor other living beings. God's body and his actions are absolutely divine and redemptory. One may ask why God has to descend as an avatar? Can be not liberate souls from his divine abode using his infinite powers? The answer is yes he can. The two main reasons why he incarnate in human and other forms are 1) To fulfill the wishes and accept the love and devotion of his devotees and countless more who are spiritually inclined and 2) To destroy adharma or evil on earth: 'Yada Yada hi dharmasya....' In Srimad Bhagavatham episode of 'Gajendra Mokasam', Sri Maha Vishnu flies down himself to save the gajendra from the cluthes of crocdile. If god wishes, just by his sankalpa he could have killed the crocodile, but the gajendra wished for bhagwan's darshan and hence he came down running to save his devotee. In Mahabharata during the Dhraupati vastrapaharan, Draupadhi did not request for Krishna's dharshan, but requested to save her dignity and hence bhagwan gave her what she asked for. It's all in what the devotees asks with a pure heart and bhagwan fulfills. The first reason allows devotees to develop deep bonds of love and glory through their personal companionship and association with God. Eventually this liberated them from the bondage of maya. In Hindusim there are 24 main avatars, of which ten(Dashavatar) are the principal ones: 1.Matsya(fish) 2.Kurma(tortoise) 3.Varah(boar) 4.Nrusimha(man-lion) 5.Vaman(Dwarf) 6.Parshuram 7.Ram 8.Krishna 9.Buddha 10.Kalki(future) Philosophically there is a reason on the order of avatars, which we'll post it in the following posts. Hari Om.

The Vedas

Like all other religions Hinduism, too, has its authorized sacred text, called the Vedas. They are ancient sacred texts of hindus that were revealed by god to the enlightened rishis of India. For hindus there is no higher scriptual authority than the vedas. All other hindu texts derive their source and authority from the vedas. The Vedas were orally transmitted from generation to generation in the form of mantras. The four main vedas are Rig, Yajur, Sama and atharva. The Rig Veda is the oldest and contains 10,522 mantras offering prayers to God and devas. The Yajur veda has 2,000 mantras that deal with rituals of worship. The Sama Veda has 2000 mantras that are sung in Yagnas. The Athara Veda contains 6,500 mantras that deal with medicine, victory, frienship, progeny,etc. The Vedas, also known as the shruti shastras, consist of samhitas (mantras), Brahmana texts (application of mantras in Samhitas for various yagnas or religious offerings, Aranyakas or forest texts (deals with contemplation) and the Upanishads (sublime texts that contain the essence of Indian Philosophy, dealing with the nature and relation of god, jiva, moksha..etc). The Orthodox hindu schools of thought and sampradays are called astik becausee their beliefs and practices are based on vedas, brahmanas, aranyakas and upanishads. Heny David Thoreau reflects upon the vedas, "What extracts from the vedas I have read fall on me like a radiant light of a higher and purer luminary, which describes a loftier course through a purer stratum'. Hari Om.

One God - many Gods

One Supreme God: Hinduism has often been misunderstood and misinterpreted as a religion of many 'Gods'. But hindus believe in one Supreme Bhagwan(God). The Rig Veda clearly states 'Ekam Sat Vipraha bahudha Vadanti' - 'To What is one, sages give many names'. He is Sat-Chit-Anand (eternal, Consciouness and blissful). He is supreme, all-powerful, the all-doer and all-prevading. Bhagwan is the giver of the fruits of karma to all souls(Karma phal Pradata). He is also known as parabrahman, paramatma or parmeshwar. Bhagwan has a divine, personal form (sakar), however he is also believed by a portion of hindus to be formless or impersonal(nirakar). He comes on earth is human and other forms to liberate the pious souls, fulfill their devotional wishes and destroy evil. The 24 avatars or incarnations are the manifestations of Bhagwan. They are held in higher esteem than the devas. Bhagwan is believed to be supreme(savopari), the all-doer(sarva karta), to have a divine form(divya sakar) and to be ever present (prakat) on earth through a god-realized guru. By devoloping such conviction one becomes liberated from the bondage of maya and attains moksha. Devas or devatas are the minor gods, of which, according to the puranas, there are thousands(indra, agni, surya, varun, vayu, yama and many others). They are all minor deities who exercise their powers in accordance with the authority and instructions of supreme bhagwan. They are remembered and worshiped as devas. Hari Om.