Reference no: EM133417151

Question: Hinduism can be seen as a family of religions originating and practiced mostly in India. Among its adherents, it is known as The Eternal Way rather than Hinduism. Hinduism is the name given to it by westerners because the Arabic name for India is al-hind. Since it is one of the oldest religions and developed over a vast land mass with limited communications, it is quite diverse, and it has no central authority, leading many to call it, as I said, a family of religions. What unites the religion is a series of writings the oldest of which are the Vedas. The Upanishads are later Vedas. The Bhagavad Gita (Song of the Divine), written in the first or second century CE, is part of the Mahabharata Links to an external site., which is the story of a war within the family discussed in The Gita (as it is popularly called). The other story sacred to Hinduism is the Ramayana, the story of Rama. So, there are a huge number of writings that form the basis for Hinduism. The Gita, though, is the most well-known sacred writing (and Gandhi's favorite) and for our purposes, the best because it echoes some of the themes found in the Iliad. We are not interested in Hinduism, as such, but in reading The Gita as part of Indian literature. In general, the texts in this half of the course were chosen not for their abilities to illuminate the religions that use them as part of their Sacred Scriptures, but as stories, parables, and poems that help us to understand the culture and are relevant to our culture today. If you are interested in Hinduism, the introduction to this translation, which I have not assigned, gives a good introduction to both The Gita and to Hinduism in general.

The Gita presents the story of Arjuna, a prince, who is troubled about being forced to go into battle against his family and who turns to his charioteer for advice. What he doesn't realize is that his charioteer is, in fact, Lord Krishna. One thing to be careful of is that when Lord Krishna says that something is "yoga," he doesn't mean the stretching exercises that are popular in the United States now. Yoga is the unification of mind and body. It is the most desirable way of life. The goal of those stretching exercises is not supposed to be physical health and flexibility, but the unification of mind and body, the good life. The Gita and all of the Hindu texts are written in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. Below is a portion of the Gita written in Sanskrit in the 18th century that I happen to own. The art of calligraphy is particularly valued in Chinese, Japanese, and Islamic cultures, as well as in India. In Judaism, there was a ban on "graven images" because of the fear of idol worship. This was taken over into Islam because the Prophet Muhammed developed his theology directly in opposition to the worship of idols. As a result, calligraphy became a major art form in Islam, as well. Christianity, developing in the context of Roman art forms, found a way around this prohibition, as we will see in the 13th week of this semester. In India, since there were no prohibitions on visual images, paintings were often used to illustrate sacred texts. And calligraphy often forms part of the paintings.

Do you agree with the advice Krishna gives to Arjuna, that we each have our duties that are defined by our occupation and relationship to others (as a wife, mother, husband, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, student, citizen, etc.) and that "yoga" (unification of mind and body) is doing our duties (Dharma) in accordance with our station in life? And that acting according to Dharma will lead to a good life.