Hinduism & The Essence of Vedanta

The Essence of Vedanta 1. God is all there is OR there is nothing but God. 2. God is all being – all that can be sensed, all that can be imagined, all that cannot be imagined. 3. God exists as the totality of Being, including the known, the unknown and the unknowable; God also exists in/as every instance of being. coque iphone 4. vente de coque iphone God perceives him/her/itself in different gradations of objectivity – leading to a continuum of Being with gradations of Consciousness. 5. God as Subject is absolute Consciousness. It is known as Brahman. coque iphone The power by which it perceives itself is known as Maya. The forms of objective self-perception have relative consciousness and are thus forms of Ignorance. 6. God as Object is Matter. All the gradations of consciousness leading to and including the Consciousness of Subject are latent in the Object, just as all the gradations of consciousness leading to and including the Inconscience of the Object are latent in the Subject. 7. God as Subject evolves towards greater and greater material perfection; Matter as Object evolves towards greater and greater spiritual perfection. These two evolutions are in fact one perpetual motion machine, an involution-evolution. 8. Consciousness implies Sentience and Will. 9. The sentience of God Consciousness is absolute Bliss. The sentience of relative consciousness is the duality of pleasure and pain. 10. God is thus absolute Being, absolute Consciousness, absolute Bliss (Sacchidananda), absolute Subject (Paramatman). 11. The will of God Consciousness is Divine Will. The will of relative consciousness is the duality of will-towards-consciousness and will-towards-unconsciousness. 12. Will-towards-Consciousness is called Good; will-towards-unconsciousness is called Evil. 13. Each instance of being is nothing but Being; but depending on its gradation of consciousness, it is relatively ignorant, relatively happy-and-unhappy and relatively good-and-evil. 14. God as absolute Being, absolute Consciousness, absolute Bliss, absolute Subject – is also absolute Instance or Individual (Purushottama). coque iphone 7 15. Thus, though each individual instance of being (jiva, purusha), depending on its gradation of consciousness, is relatively ignorant, relatively happy-and-unhappy and relatively good-and-evil; this is a form of self-perception by the absolute Instance or Individual (Purushottama). coque iphone en ligne Absolute Individual is thus the truth of the individual in the relative field, but is not realized as such by it. coque iphone 8coque iphone 8 Dr. Debashish Banerji, P.h.D.

What Are Core Beliefs of Hindus?

Author: Amrutur V. Srinivasan

Hinduism is not an organized religion and has no single, systematic approach to teaching its value system. Nor do Hindus have a simple set of rules to follow like the Ten Commandments. Local, regional, caste, and community-driven practices influence the interpretation and practice of beliefs throughout the Hindu world.

Yet a common thread among all these variations is belief in a Supreme Being and adherence to certain concepts such as Truth, dharma, and karma. And belief in the authority of the Vedas (sacred scriptures) serves, to a large extent, as the very definition of a Hindu, even though how the Vedas are interpreted may vary greatly.

Here are some of the key beliefs shared among Hindus:

  1. Truth is eternal.
  2. Hindus pursue knowledge and understanding of the Truth: the very essence of the universe and the only Reality. According to the Vedas, Truth is One, but the wise express it in a variety of ways.
    Brahman is Truth and Reality.
  3. Hindus believe in Brahman as the one true God who is formless, limitless, all-inclusive, and eternal. Brahman is not an abstract concept; it is a real entity that encompasses everything (seen and unseen) in the universe.
  4. The Vedas are the ultimate authority.
  5. The Vedas are Hindu scriptures that contain revelations received by ancient saints and sages. Hindus believe that the Vedas are without beginning and without end; when everything else in the universe is destroyed (at the end of a cycle of time), the Vedas remain.
  6. Everyone should strive to achieve dharma.
  7. Understanding the concept of dharma helps you understand the Hindu faith. Unfortunately, no single English word adequately covers its meaning. Dharma can be described as right conduct, righteousness, moral law, and duty. Anyone who makes dharma central to one’s life strives to do the right thing, according to one’s duty and abilities, at all times.
  8. Individual souls are immortal.
  9. A Hindu believes that the individual soul (atman) is neither created nor destroyed; it has been, it is, and it will be.
  10. Actions of the soul while residing in a body require that it reap the consequences of those actions in the next life — the same soul in a different body.
  11. The process of movement of the atman from one body to another is known as transmigration. The kind of body the soul inhabits next is determined by karma (actions accumulated in previous lives).
  12. The goal of the individual soul is moksha.
  13. Moksha is liberation: the soul’s release from the cycle of death and rebirth. It occurs when the soul unites with Brahman by realizing its true nature. Several paths can lead to this realization and unity: the path of duty, the path of knowledge, and the path of devotion (unconditional surrender to God).