The Hindu Way of Life

In the previous post, I talked about the objective of the human form and why is it so important. The main aim of Hinduism is to show a person how to lead a life through which he can attain Moksha. So now, let's look at the Hindu way of life.

In Hinduism, there are four aspects to the human life or the four Purusharthas (purposes): Dharma (social, moral, and religious duties), Artha (material and financial needs), Kama (desires) and the ultimate goal Moksha (freedom from the cycle of life and death). Lets look at each of these Purusharthas in detail.

Dharma:
I had mentioned in the previous post that the human form is considered to be the superior form, because with the human form one gets free will. With this benefit comes responsibilities. A person has to make responsible decisions considering a lot of things in mind. He should think how his decisions affect not just himself but also the society, and act accordingly or perform karma. Performing the right action or karma according to ones Dharma, is considered as a service to the society and to God.

Bhagawath Geeta is entirely based on the concept of Dharma and Karma. When Arjuna sees his grandfathers, cousins, uncles, friends in the battlefield standing against him, he becomes overwhelmed with compassion. He tells Krishna that he will not gain anything by fighting against his beloved ones, even though they may be following the wrong path. So Sri Krishna reminds him of his duty and asks him to do the right karma. For more details, read the summary of the epic Mahabharata.

Artha: 
This purushartha refers to a persons material needs. For example, everyone needs food to satisfy hunger, clothes and shelter to protect from the harsh weather, and money to buy food, clothes, etc. So a person has to works towards getting all these material needs. However, this should not be the only purpose in a person's life. Usually, people are not satisfied with what they have. They desire for more. This is a clear example of greediness. Such desires create attachments to materialistic things and divert us from the main objective of human life i.e. attaining moksha.

Kama:
Kama means sexual desires. However, in a broader sense it also means desires. Desires are common to human nature. Nobody can deny that he is free of desires. But one shouldn't succumb to it. In Hinduism, one is free to have desires(be it material or sexual) as long as it doesn't conflict with his Dharma. 

In Bhagawath Geeta, Sri Krishna says that desires lead to attachments. Attachments are the chief cause of sufferings and divert us from doing our Dharma. When one becomes free of desires, he finds satisfaction in self. Such a person is called a Sthitapragya. A sthitapragya has a steady mind and is in full control of his senses. Even while enjoying the worldly pleasures, a Sthitapragya remains free from desires. He understands his purpose in life and acts accordingly.

Moksha:
I spoke about this Purushartha in my previous post as well. Attaining moksha should be the main purpose in a persons life. Human life is rare and one should make the best use of it. Only in this form does one get free will; and thus has to act responsibly. Depending on his karma, he either gets liberated or trapped in the vicious cycle of life and death.

I may have written this article but I know how hard it is to follow these perfectly. I hope one day we all can be free of irrational desires and be able to do our duties responsibly; and ultimately reunite with the ParamAtma.

References:

Bhagawad Geeta, ISKON
Some articles on Wikipedia
Sri Krishna by Ramanand Sagar, (which is primarily based on Srimad Bhagavatam)

Hinduism and Humanity

Hinduism is one of the major religions of India, practiced by 80% of its population. Unfortunately, I personally feel that a majority of the people, including me, do not completely understand the core concepts. So I thought about writing a brief article on Hinduism and Humanity. Here, I will briefly introduce some of the concepts of Hinduism, such as human life and death. A more detailed analysis on some of the terms and concepts described below will be covered extensively in later posts.

So, what is Hinduism or the Sanatana Dharma? Many scholars describe it as a way of life. Indeed, it is. Hinduism explains how one must behave and what path one must follow in order to attain Moksha, where the Atma (soul) re-unites with the ParamAtma (The Supreme Soul, The One Supreme God, The Absolute), and becomes free from the cycle of life and death.

Human Life:

In Hinduism, the human form is considered to be one of the most important and superior forms, which even the Devas (Gods) desire to seek. The soul has to travel through animals, reptiles, plants, and various other forms until it becomes eligible for the human form. This is the ONLY form in which one can perform karma (deeds/action) and attain moksha to reunite with The Absolute. All the other species such as animals, plants, etc, are completely controlled by their nature and thus cannot perform karma.  It is believed that only in the human form, you have the opportunity to express free will. So it is a person's dharma (duty/responsibility) to perform the right karma. For example, if you see your dearest one commit a murder, it is your duty to report it to the cops. You must not try to protect him or help him cover up his crimes, just because the person is close to you.

It is said that the human senses and emotions are controlled by the mann (mind), which is an intermediate between the body and the JivAtma (reflection of Atma within an individual, see references). The mind always gets distracted from it's duties by indulging in relationships and worldly pleasures; thus it gets diverted from the path of moksha. However, when the JivAtma is awakened, one can control his mind and focus it towards the ultimate aim of attaining moksha. In Bhagawad Geeta, Sri Krishna has described several ways in which one can control his mind and attain moksha even while leading a normal life. (I will talk about Karma, Moksha and the ways described by Sri Krishna and in the Vedas in detail, in my later posts).

After Death:

When a person dies, the JivAtma leaves his body. Depending on the persons karma, the JivAtma has to spend time in both the Deva-loka (The Heaven) and the Narka-loka (The Hell). The amount of time that one has to spend in these lokas (worlds) is decided by the amount of good and bad karma that he has performed in his life. In the Deva-loka, the JivAtma manifests itself in the form of a Deva (God), Gandharva (the guardians of the divine drink or the Soma) or Kinnera (The musicians of the heaven) and enjoys the fruits of his good karma. Then it manifests in the narka-loka to answer to it's sins. Any good/bad acts done during these manifestations don't earn any results towards the attainment of moksha. Only the deeds done in the human form work towards this. Once the JivAtma completes it's journey of these lokas, it is sent back to the Mrityu-loka (The Earth) to perform karma. The form attained by the JivAtma depends on the karma performed in it's previous birth. For example, a person who was lazy and unhygienic throughout his life may take rebirth as a pig in his next life. Again the Jivatma has to work towards the attainment of the human form to perform it's karmic duties. This cycle continues until the JivAtma attains moksha, and the Atma re-unites with The Absolute.

To summarize, the ultimate goal of the Atma is to reunite with the ParamAtma, by attaining moksha, thereby ending all the sufferings involved in the cycle of life and death; and this can only be achieved by performing karma in the human form. This is the core of Hindu philosophy.

References:
Bhagawad Geeta, ISKON
Atma Paramatma and Jivatma Differences: http://www.chakras.net/yoga-principles/7-jivatma-atma-and-paramatma

Swami B.V. Tripurari's comments on "Do animals have karma?" - Beleifnet
Sri Krishna by Ramanand Sagar, (which is primarily based on Srimad Bhagavatam)

Some articles on Wikipedia

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware" - Martin Buber

If you ask an Indian student pursuing a degree in Science and Technology about his dream job, an obvious answer would be the Software and IT industry, no matter which field he is in. 

Since the Y2K era, there has been a boom in this sector, especially in India, and a lot of well paying jobs have been created. For most Indian students, who come from middle-class income families,  getting a job in this sector is considered to be life changing. Same was my case. 

After getting a degree in Computer Science, I joined an IT firm. Initially I loved the job and the pay, but after a while I got bored of the monotonous work. I needed some challenge in my work. So I decided to pursue Masters in a research oriented course, from a country abroad. But I was unaware that apart from this, something big  and wonderful was awaiting me. 

My journey started a year ago with the goal of pursing a Masters degree. I was enrolled in an International masters program in a European country. One of the main highlights of an International program is that you get to meet people from different countries. This provides an opportunity to understand each other's traditions, culture and religion. People here ask me various things about religion, yoga, etc. This was the time when I realized that my knowledge about Indian culture and my religion was minuscule. I dont like to speculate or mislead people. So, I decided that whenever someone asks me about something, I will conduct a research of my own on the internet and put forth my understandings before them. But every article that I read, made me excited and more inquisitive to explore it even further.  Thus I set out to discover more about my culture and religion. This was one of the secret destinations that was awaiting me.

I thought that it would be nice to share my knowledge with those who also want to know more about Indian culture and religions; so I started this blog. But let me honestly mention that I am not a professional blogger. In fact, this is the first blog that I am posting. So kindly bear with my style of writing and if possible, try to help me with some constructive comments and suggestions. I hope to spend at least an hour a day to do some research and try to come up with at least one informative post per week. 

Thanks for reading this post and welcome to my pilgrimage of discovering Hinduism.

Please note: In this blog, I will share my views/(internet based)research on Hinduism, Indian religions and culture, and some related topics. I expect you, not to compare religions or make derogatory comments about any religion. All religions are just different paths to the same God, and hence equal.