|
Lisa Miller, who writes for Newsweek, recently wrote an intriguing article entitled, “We are all Hindus now.” She writes, “A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity.” Miller articulates three ways in which Americans manifest, at least practically speaking, the Hindu worldview.
- A Hindu believes that there are many paths to God. She cites a 2008 Pew Forum survey which found that 65% of Americans believe that “many religions can lead to eternal life,” including 37% of white evangelicals.
- Central to Hinduism is a belief in reincarnation, the transmigration of the soul after physical death to another living being. Miller cites a 2008 Harris poll that finds 24% of Americans believe in reincarnation.
- Typically, Hindus burn the body after death. Miller cites the statistic that 1/3rd of Americans now practice cremation.
In my judgment, what Miller cites is not evidence that Americans are embracing Hinduism; rather, these beliefs and practices reflect the Postmodern commitment to radical autonomy, relativism and pluralism. Broadly speaking, Americans have abandoned a commitment to absolute truth and the exclusive teaching of biblical Christianity and adopted a rather radical toleration of all “truths.” Nonetheless, her article gives us an opportunity to examine Hinduism as a worldview, which is the main thrust of this second Perspective.
Hinduism is perhaps the most complex and difficult worldview to understand, especially to the western, rational mind. It seems to hold frequently contradictory tenets and is the most difficult to summarize. Hinduism gradually grew over a period of five thousand years, absorbing and assimilating all the religious and cultural movements of India. It has been likened to “a vast sponge, which absorbs all that enters it without ceasing to be itself. . . Like a sponge it has no very clear outline on its borders and no apparent core at its center.”
HINDUISM AS A WORLDVIEW: ITS THEOLOGY
Hindu theology is complex and difficult for the western mind. Foundational to Hinduism is the concept of Brahman. Brahman is the unchanging reality of the universe. It is the unity that is in the universe and yet beyond it. All objects, animate and inanimate, are included in it. Gods, humans, demons, animals, etc. are all part of Brahman. (The term “Brahman” derives from a root which means “to expand,” denoting an entity that cannot be limited in magnitude or expansion.)
In the Upanishads, Brahman is represented in two aspects--in an unqualified state named Nigurna Brahman, and in a qualified sense named Saguna Brahman. Nirguna Brahman is indescribable in human terms. Nirguna is attributeless. It is described by negation (i.e., by that which it is not--no body, no form, no attributes). It is beyond space, time and causation; it is infinite and unknowable. The Upanishads describe Nirguna as: “Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else--that is the Infinite. Where one sees something else, hears something else, that is the finite” (Upanishads, I, p. 34).
Central to Hinduism’s understanding of Brahman is that Nirguna Brahman is veiled, i.e., its “maya” (veil) hides the true nature of Brahman and causes the perception in humanity that the physical world is true reality, when in fact Nirguna Brahman, the realm of the true Infinite, is reality. Thus, Saguna Brahman is the veiled Brahman.
Because of Saguna Brahman, Hindus can speak of creation and its various deities. Saguna Brahman is the personal “god” who watches over the physical universe and acts as its ruler. When one speaks of attributes of deity, one is speaking of Saguna Brahman. For that reason, as well, Saguna Brahman is familiarly known as Brahma--the Creator, Vishnu--the Preserver and Shiva--the Destroyer. All three of these “gods” are simply different ways of looking at Saguna, who is the veiled Nirguna:
- “Brahma” is the Creator but does not create ex nihilo. Brahma creates out of Nirguna Brahman the things of this world that appear physical.
- “Vishnu” is the preserver and benevolent “god.” He is “the perfect and patient exemplar of winsome divine Love. He watches from the skies, and whenever he sees values threatened or the good in peril, he exerts all his preservative influence in their behalf.”
- “Shiva” is the patron god of ascetics and holy men, because they are “destroying” their lower selves in order for the more powerful spiritual self to emerge. Also, Shiva is identified with the process of reproduction in every realm of life--vegetable, animal, and human. He is often represented, therefore, with human genitals as the god of sexual energy. Shiva is the “destroyer” because all life comes from that which dies--in the vegetable, animal and human kingdoms.
The following chart attempts to visualize the difficult theology of Hinduism:
NIRGUNA BRAHMAN
(Impersonal Brahman)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE VEIL OR “MAYA”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAGUNA BRAHMAN
(Personal Brahman with attributes)
SHIVA BRAHMA VISHNU
For the Western, rational mind, one major question looms in Hinduism: How can there be different beliefs in different gods (Hindu polytheism) and yet still maintain the reality of oneness, so central to the Hindu idea of Nirguna Brahman? Because of the relative unreality of God himself in the theistic sense, the realization that all concepts of God are human and all creatures are Brahman, it seems to be only natural that the Hindu can tolerate the worship of an form of any kind as a manifestation of Reality. This is the framework that allows the most advanced Indian philosopher to feel that the most primitive animist, in living up to his best light, is on the path to the realization of Reality.
Although Hinduism seems therefore to be a polytheistic religion, in reality, its theology contends that there is one monistic Nigurna Brahman. Ultimately, all regions and all beliefs reflect some kind of “path” to that Reality. Hence the “sponge” we know as Hinduism.
HERE ARE SOME DEFINITIONS CENTRAL TO UNDERSTANDING HINDUISM:
- “God”--In Hinduism the Supreme Being is the Impersonal, Nirguna Brahman, a philosophical Absolute, beyond all impediments, either ethical or metaphysical.
- “Man”--The human is an emanation or temporary manifestation of the Impersonal Brahman. The human is not inherently or permanently valuable nor is the human accountable to “god.”
- “The World”--The physical world is a temporary, worthless illusion due to the veil (or “maya”), which hides the Impersonal Brahman.
- “Reincarnation” or “samsara” is the belief in the transmigration of the soul. There is a cycle of rebirth after rebirth after rebirth of the soul that goes on and on. One could be reborn as a wealthy aristocrat or as an animal, a beetle, worm, vegetable, etc.
- “Karma” is the cause of what is happening in one’s life now. The Law of Karma (“karma” means “works, deeds”) is the law that one’s thoughts, words and deeds have an ethical consequence fixing one’s lot in future existences. “Karma” is what determines the nature of the next birth in the cycle.
- “Moksha” is the release from the cycle of reincarnation, the cycle of life. It is salvation from illusion and release into the true reality of Nirguna Brahman.
- “Nirvana” is not a place but a state in which self-awareness is lost and oneness with Brahman attained.
- The “Caste” system originated around 500 B.C. and constituted the fundamental social system of Hindu India. There were four main castes and a group called the “out-castes,” the “untouchables,” obviously outside the four main castes. As Hinduism developed, the Law of Karma was tied to the caste system. Today, the caste system is technically illegal in India, but its manifestations linger in the Indian social order.
Hinduism is a perverse worldview that has enslaved over 1 billion people. It is devoid of all aspects of grace and fosters a works-righteousness system of legalistic rules and restrictions. It is truly one of the most tragic religions of our world. Lisa Miller’s condescending caricature that “we are all Hindus now” ignores the true nature of this ancient religion. As I stated at the beginning of this Perspective, her observations have more to say about Postmodernism than they do Hinduism.
See Lisa Miller in Newsweek (24 and 31 August 2009), p. 70 and James P. Eckman, The Truth about Worldviews, pp. 27-32. |
