Angel Patel
Assignment 4 (150 points)
READING: Chapters 5, 6, and 8 from the required course textbook.
Section A- A small paragraph
Chapter 5
Completely answer any three of the following questions (15 points)
3. What are the four life-stages prescribed by orthodox Hinduism?
There are four stages involved with the life-stages. The first stage is Brahmacharya also known as the student stage. The stage is Grihastha or the householder stage. Then comes Vanaprastha or the hermit stage. The last stage/ fourth stage is Sannyasa or the wandering ascetic stage. The first stage is gaining education that lasts for about 25 years. Up until, 25 years old, it is necessary to leave home to gain spiritual and practical knowledge. During this time, they stay with a guru. The second stage includes marriage when they take on the responsibility to earn a living and supporting a family. The third stage is the stage where they grow old. They become grandparents and their children are grown up. The last stage contains of devotion to God.
5. Define Sraddha.
Shraddha could be a Sanskrit word which portrays a positive sort of vitality that comes from profound inside each individual and shapes that person’s world and life. It can be viewed as a solidly held conviction within the life way that an individual has chosen. Shraddha is display within the most strongly feelings that we feel, both upbeat and pitiful. It reflects our internal Self and our ethics, as well as the values that we hold in most noteworthy regard. In yoga, knowing and recognizing one's shraddha can offer assistance the specialist tailor their yoga hone to best suit their life way.
7. What are the eight categories of marriage provided by Manu?
Brahma Vivah
Brahma vivah is the preferred marriage. In this the boy and young lady having a place to great families and the same varna get hitched. The boy need to be done with Brahmacharya Ashram (student hood). There's no share included, and the young lady enters the boy’s house with two sets of dress and a few decorations. In this marriage, the boy’s family approaches the girl’s family. “Kanyadaan”, which is the giving of the bride by her father to the prep, is an imperative custom of the Brahma Vivah.
Daiva Vivah
In this sort of Hindu marriage, the girl’s family looks for a prep. On the off chance that a young lady has not been able to induce an appropriate spouse for a period of time, her family see to wed her to a cleric who officiates over penances.
Arsha Vivah
Here the prep gives a blessing (a dairy animal and a combine of bulls) to the girl’s family. This as a rule takes put when the girl’s guardians cannot manage to meet the cost of the marriage. This can be not considered a perfect marriage since there's a money related thought included in this wedding.
Prajapatya Vivah
Somewhat comparative to the Brahma Vivah, but in this case the girl’s family looks for a prep and the custom of Kanyadaan isn't followed. Instead of “Kanyadaan”, the bride’s father hands over security of his girl to the prep amid the “Panigrahan” custom. The genuine wedding takes put after “Panigrahan”.
Gandharva Vivah
This could be a adore marriage, where the bride and prep wed of their claim free will. Usually the assent of the guardians isn't taken or isn't accessible since either or both guardians are against the marriage.
Asura Vivah
Somewhat comparable to the “Arsha Vivah” where the prep gives presents to the bride’s family in arrange to urge their endorsement for the marriage. More often than not the prep isn't of the same stature as the bride.
Rakshasa Vivah
In this Hindu wedding, the bride is prepared to wed prep, but the bride’s family is against the marriage. In such cases, in the event that the groom’s family persuasively takes away the bride, it could be a “Rakshasa Vivah”.
Paishacha Vivah
This sort of marriage isn't permitted. In this marriage, a young lady, who isn't in her faculties (she may not be of sound intellect or inebriated or medicated, etc) is persuasively hitched off. The young lady has not agreed to this marriage.
Chapter 6
Completely answer any one of the following questions (5 points)
2. How do you think the notions of Siva and Sakti as the quiescent male and active female principles have impacted the Hindu tradition?
I think they were the foundation of everything. They put everything in notion with what the values should be. They described how a man and woman should be and the purity behind it. Siva and Sakti are prayed to by almost everyone. Everyone believes they are one of the three Gods that are responsible for everything.
Chapter 8
Completely answer any four of the following questions (20 points)
1. What are the two main Hindu epics?
The Bhagavad Gita is one of the important ones. Numerous a Hindu has said that the foremost brief and capable shortened form of the overwhelmingly assorted domain of Hindu thought is to be found within the Bhagavad Gita. Basically, it could be a microcosm of Vedic, Yogic, Vedantic and indeed Tantric thought of the Hindu overlap. Composed between the 5th and 2nd centuries BC, the Bhagavad Gita (truly: Melody of the Ruler) may be a portion of the epic lyric Mahabharata and is venerated in Hinduism. It isn't restricted to Vaishnavs, as a few individuals erroneously accept, since it is acknowledged by Tantrics and non-denominational yogins of all Hindu streams as a seminal content. Undoubtedly, the Bhagavad Gita alludes to itself as a 'Yoga Upanishad,' subsequently building up itself as more than fair a content based on Krishna, but or maybe one that talks of truths through Krishna. The Vedas is another important one. The Vedas are alluded to as the Shruti. Researchers who have made a consider of world sacred writings keep up that the Vedas are the most seasoned extant writings. The thoughts communicated within the Vedas were customarily given down orally from father to child and from educator to follower. In this manner, these thoughts had been in circulation for a long time some time recently their codification and compilation, which are credited to a Rishi named Veda Vyasa (truly, "the splitter of the Vedas," ). He was named that way because it was, he who was licensed with shaping the huge mass of information and songs of the Vedas and 'splitting' them into comprehensible areas for the rest of humankind. On the premise of both inner and outside prove, researchers have recommended different dates for the root of the Vedas, extending from roughly 1000 BC to as distant back as 5000 BC, with most grant tolerating a run between 1200 and 1400 BC.
2. Which epic is said to have taken place in the Treta Yuga?
Ramayana
6. What is the name of the monkey general in the Ramayana?
Hanuman
8. Who is the Mahabharata’s author?
Vyasa
Section B
Chapter 5
Write at least 150 words for any one question (20 points)
3. What is known about the Hindu women of ancient India? Is there a certain role that women play in Hindu society? What is expected of women, and how are they regarded during the various stages of their life?
Ladies have struggled for their roles in communities, religions, and the country for a long time. And ladies in Hinduism are no distinctive. Ladies customarily would live the life of a mother and a spouse taking after the strides of their precursors. Women’s parts were laid out in Hindu law books such as the Dharma-Sastras, in any case essential rules within the Laws of Manu (200 C.E.) lays out how a ladies or wife ought to carry on within the family and towards her spouse. In any case women’s parts have advanced over time and ladies are going against the social standard of their convention and indeed their way of life. Hinduism could be a complex religion and not at all like numerous western religions it is additionally a way of life. Family is exceptionally vital in Hinduism and as attendant of the family women play a critical part within the convention. Ladies are uncovered within the sacrosanct sacred writings as displaying a duality of being generous and malicious uncovering her with incredible differentiating powers. Since of this changing control that a lady has it is judicious that man ought to need to control this strange control. At that point, maybe it may have been translated that ladies ought to stay stagnate, running the family, raising the children, and take part in devout ceremonies as a partner to their spouse. It is the female’s part as a spouse to bear her husband’s children and teach them in their conventional hones. To preserve their dominance over the ladies men, have their spouses keep up the domestic and the family that he has made and given for. Culture or society controls nature because it is spurred to alter and advance fair as the man tries to control the ladies. Earlier to marriage the female is regulated by her father and after that when she is hitched, she is controlled by her spouse. Amid the marriage the spouse must at that point be really committed to her spouse and it is accepted that she is able to exchange her normal female control to the spouse for every day customs and caring for his family.
Chapter 6
Write at least 150 words for any one question (20 points)
3. Define Brahman. Philosophically, what role does Brahman play in relation to the Sanskrit language?
Brahman is the extreme reality and the as it were reality. These are the as it were properties that can be attributed to Brahman, and they are one. It is without a title, without a shape or recolor, being past space, time and causation. It is one without a moment. It is all in all. None else exists. "There's not one or the other nature, nor God, nor the universe, as it were that One Boundless Presence, out of which, through title and shape all these are makes". Swami Vivekananda keeps up that the Advaita clearly hypothesizes one reality as it were, that's , Brahman; everything else is "stunning", showed and made out of Brahman by the control of Maya. To reach back to that Brahman is our objective. We are each one of us, that Brahman, that reality, also this Maya. Brahman is generic. Being without qualities and qualifications, without any connection to any protest or the world of objects. This implies that Swami Vivekananda's Brahman is superbly indistinct, like Sankara's Outright which there's no contrast between them on this point. In any case, typically as it were one perspective of Brahman as seen by Swami Vivekananda. For in Swami Vivekananda's Vedantic thought there are two developments, a negative and a positive. The portrayal of Brahman given over is the result of the negative development of his thought. It is the conventional approach to Brahman by the way of refutation. . But as a complementary to the negative way, he takes after moreover a positive way and re-affirms all that was at to begin with nullified in an unused light and with an unused meaning.
Chapter 8
Write at least 150 words for any one question (20 points)
1. In what ways is dharma a central feature in the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics?
The Mahabharata stands to be one of the foremost celebrated sagas of all times. The Mahabharata and Ramayana have an awfully tall status among the otherworldly writings, as they depict the radiance of Master Vishnu as the sign in human shape. The Mahabharata has motivated the eras through the centuries of human advancement. Stories from the Mahabharata are utilized as lessons and for the great childhood of a solid and high-minded character. The Bhagvad Gita, which has gotten to be one of the foremost prevalent parts of The Mahabharata, has the pith of Lord Krishna’s message to Arjuna as dharma being the extreme objective of life. The complete bedrock of Hinduism is based on the rule of Dharma. The basic rule that laid the establishment to the story of Mahabharata, is Dharma. The primary portion of Mahabharata is based on the occasions that lead to the extraordinary Kurukshetra War. The moment portion bargains with the war itself and the final portion is the occasions post the war and its traumatic impacts on the relatives of the warriors involved. All through the Ramayana, dharma is regularly entwined with rules. The rules are accepted to be exceedingly sacrosanct and this clearly suggests that any run the show that gets broken, accounts to Adharmic behavior. The characters in Ramayana appear more like embodiment of honesty, which assist push upon this point. The Maryada Purushottam Rama is an original optimistic man, who about comes to Godhood through his total commitment and commitment to rules indeed in times of most noteworthy trouble. He readily clears out behind his family, his position of authority, his nation and kinghood to set out upon fourteen a long time of Vanavasa (banish in wildernesses, absent from ordinary lives), all since of his father’s heading to do so.
Section C
Discuss Hinduism in America or in the West and compare it to Hinduism in India. Write around two pages (50 points)
The roots behind Hinduism is the same throughout the world, but the way it is practiced has altered. I believe that Hinduism in India is practiced more often and more in general because there are many different temples to go to and usually there’s a temple within every five miles. Whereas, in America, I don’t think Hinduism can be practiced that often or seen that often. Depending on where you live in America, but where I live, the closest temple is about twenty minutes away. This is not a big temple or anything, just a normal size one. The big one that I personally like going to is about two and a half hours away. Considering that, it is not possible to go there every day. I think people can typically go there once a week or even less than that. Living in America, I try to go to temple once a month at least. Although, I think if I lived in India, I would be going more often than that. I would probably every week at least. I don’t think the way Indians practice their religion changes depending on where they go. I pray to all the Gods that I would, if I lived in India. Everyone that I know still prays to every God that they did in India. Another thing I believe is different is that people aren’t able to pray as many times a day as they want. In America, many people have so many things to do and have work at a certain time, so they aren’t able to pray for a long time in the morning unless they wake up extra early. Whereas, in India I think people just normally have more time for prayers and performing every ritual. I think it's a major part of most people’s lifestyles, so it's not anything special. It is simply just incorporated in them and their routines. I think it’s harder for people in America to do everything before work. Doing pujas with everything isn’t easy every day. The way people celebrate religious festivals is also different depending on which country they live in. If they are in India, festivals are more exciting. People in India have days off on national holidays, so they are more likely to celebrate it. People in America do not get days off, so celebrating Indian festivals is harder. This causes them to not celebrate it or celebrate it differently. They may not be able to celebrate it the way they would in India. Indians in another country may also have to adapt a different diet than they would in India. I personally don’t believe it is necessary to have a different diet or be more open to eating things they normally wouldn’t, but some people do. Most people in India do not eat meat, but in America they feel it’s easier if they eat meat. Most people start by eating chicken as in the Hindu religion chicken isn’t considered holy or anything. Most people tend to stay away from beef though, since cows are considered to be a holy animal for Hindus. I think Ayurveda is also popular in India, or at least it used to be. Most Hindus in America don’t believe in Ayurveda, especially now. This might be because they have access to better medications or because they don’t have access to Ayurveda materials. I think many people in India still believe in it and use it for a better health. They have more things available to them, causing the belief to stand firm, whereas in America, there are many different types of things.