Sermon Tone Analysis

Hinduism continued

Approximately 700 million Hindus live in India, constituting 82 percent of India’s population.

And approximately 13 percent of the world’s population is Hindu.

More than one million Hindus live in North America alone, and that number is steadily growing

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was one of the more prominent gurus in the 1960s with his greatly popular Transcendental Meditation.

Other Eastern gurus that left their mark include Yogi Bahaman (who founded the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization), Swami Muktananda (a guru who taught Siddha Yoga), Sai Baba (who headed the Spiritual Advancement of the Individual Foundation), Sri Chinmoy (who taught various techniques of yoga), Bhagwan Rajneesh (who taught a veritable hodgepodge of Eastern ideas), and Guru Maharaj Ji (the “Lord of the universe” who headed up the Divine Light Mission)

All these gurus contributed to bringing the East to the West, especially in terms of the Eastern doctrines of monism (all is one) and pantheism (all is God).

These doctrines not only helped set aside the idea of a personal Creator-God (as taught in Christianity), but also contributed greatly to the growth of moral relativism in America.

Since “all is one” and “all is God,” the distinction between good and evil is blurred if not obliterated.

Hinduism is the most difficult to define.

It did not have any one founder.…

It has many Scriptures which are authoritative but none that is exclusively so.

Starting about 1500 B.C., Vedic literature was composed over a 1,000-year period.

Veda is a Sanskrit word that means “knowledge” or “wisdom.”

The Hindu Vedas (the Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, and Artharvaveda)14 are the earliest Hindu scriptures.

They communicate spiritual knowledge—mainly giving priests instructions for performing rituals and providing information regarding the mystical and symbolic meaning of these rituals

During this time, Indian society began to be segregated into classes according to a system of classification known as Varian, which means color.

These classes included the Brahmins (priests), Ksatriyas (warriors or rulers), Vaisyas (merchants), and Sudras (laborers/servants).

There were also “untouchables” who were forbidden contact with the other groups because they were regarded as impure.

This continual cycle of death and rebirth is known as samsara (transmigration), a word that literally means “to wander across.”

Scholar Lewis M. Hopfe tells us that “Indian religions believe that the life force of an individual does not die with the death of the body.

Instead it ‘wanders across

Every person is viewed as being on the wheel of life, and salvation essentially involves breaking away from this wheel of life via reincarnation.

The goal is to break the cycle of karma and samsara and be free from the burden of life.

Salvation comes when one realizes that one’s individual soul (atman) is identical with the Universal Soul (Brahman)

By the sixth century B.C., people could tolerate the abuse no longer, and they revolted against the spiritual tyranny of the Brahmins.

Out of this conflict, new religions were born, such as Buddhism and Jainism.

“Every aspect of the universe, both animate and inanimate, shares the same essentially divine nature.

There is actually only one Self in the universe

The big problem for human beings, according to Hinduism, is that they are ignorant of their divine nature.

People have forgotten that they are an extension of Brahman.

The big problem for human beings, according to Hinduism, is that they are ignorant of their divine nature.

People have forgotten that they are an extension of Brahman.

“Humans have a false knowledge (maya) when they believe that this life and our separation from Brahman are real.”

They have mistakenly attached themselves to the desires of their separate selves (or egos).

For this reason, people have become subject to the law of karma.

You reap (in the next life) what you sow (in the present life).

Hindus sometimes argue that the early Christian church—and even the Christian Bible (Jer.

1:5; Matt.

11:14; John 3:3)—taught reincarnation and the law of karma.

Paths to Enlightenment: 3 Paths

They are (1) karma marga (the way of action and ritual—involving prescribed ceremonies, duties, and religious rites); (2) jnana marga (the way of knowledge and meditation—one must dispel ignorance and come to experientially know that the only reality is Brahman); and (3) bhakti marga (the way of devotion—involving private and public acts of worship)

While the Vedas are said to contain the purest form of truth, Hinduism also advocates the idea that the various religions are all custodians of spiritual truth.

While all religions are said to contain truth, no one religion can claim that its teachings are exclusively true or are absolute for all people.

After all, truth is in flux.

It is not a concrete reality.

Truth is relative.