Welcome to our lecture on Hinduism and on the caste system, that is, on Ancient India's earliest organized religion and the social hierarchy based upon it, respectively. In this introductory section, I would like to highlight three things you should keep in mind regarding this lecture and its topic. First, Ancient India was the point of origin for two of the world's greatest religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. However, in this lecture, we concentrate solely on the former, Hinduism, which dates back to the age of the Aryan invasion of the Indian sub-continent ca. 1500 BCE. Hinduism is a blend of Aryan and Dravidian influences, and is both a religion and the basis for the continued social organization of India. Second, as a basic definition, I would like you to think of Hinduism as both a shared set of basic doctrines that Hindus all hold (although various variants may be found) and as a set of beliefs based upon the Vedas, hymns which I further discuss below. These doctrines were then expanded upon and explained in the Upanishads. Note that all Hindus agree that ultimate "Truth" lies in the precepts set forth in those hymns. Lastly, the history of ancient Hinduism can be divided into three main stages: the Vedic Period, the Classical Period, and the Medieval Period. However, in this lecture I only cover the first two, as it was during those first two periods that the character of Hinduism was crafted.
In this part of our lecture, I want to highlight five important characteristics of the first stage in the development of ancient Hinduism. First, the Vedic period is the period of the Aryan invasion which historians date to approximately 1500 BCE. Second, the period is named "Vedic" for the set of hymns that the Aryans wrote, in which they set forth their fundamental beliefs about the nature and order of the world and universe: the gods, the creation of the world, the role of man, etc. Originally these hymns were transmitted orally, but were eventually written down. They laid out various prayers to and songs about the gods and described various ritual practices that have come to define Hindu worship. The Vedas outline the Aryans' transition from the belief in a distant parent god to the belief in a group of more functional, anthropomorphic gods. Vedic religion was kathenotheistic, which means that Hindus believe in different gods but, when offering prayers or sacrifice to a particular god, they tend to treat that god as if it were the only one. For example, if the hymn was about Indra (the warrior god, described below) then Indra was spoken about as the most important or even the only god. But if the hymn was about Agni (the god of fire, also described below) then he was spoken about as the most important or only god. Third, the Vedas speak of many gods, but among those there were three major deities about which we will talk briefly: 1) Indra - Indra was a violent warrior god who was believed to have made possible human existence. Indra is believed to have killed a giant snake who encircled all the water in the world atop a mountain (making it inaccessible to the rest of the world). By slaying the snake and freeing the waters Indra provided humans with the water necessary for life. As he was believed to be a fierce warrior, he was often called to protect warriors when it came time for battle. 2) Varuna - Varuna was the god of moral and natural order, and was in some sense more important or highly placed than Indra. Varuna makes the world orderly without struggle, whereas Indra needed physical violence to liberate the waters. Laws that needed to be obeyed, whether moral or describing how the world works physically, were Varuna's responsibility. 3) Agni - Agni was the god of fire. Fire was central to the Vedic religion because of its cleansing power, and played a major part in Vedic ritual. Fire played a crucial role in the lives of primitive peoples, because it was responsible for all the most significant technologies (primarily weapons, whether made of bronze or iron) and the cooking of food. Also, fire can transform the physical world, and became a symbolic mediator between the human and the divine. Agni, as the god of fire, also became the god of priest (who also served as mediators between the human and the divine). The fourth characteristic of the Vedic period is that the Vedic religion was a religion of sacrifice. Sacrifice served as a way to placate the gods and keep them "happy". The centrality of sacrifice meant that priests held a particularly esteemed place in Hindu society, as we saw in the previous lecture, as they were the ones to perform the ritual sacrifices that kept the gods content (and therefore amenable to mankind). Sacrifice developed over time from blood sacrifice (of animals) to asceticism, or the ideal of self-sacrifice (that is, denying one self pleasures and luxuries, and sometimes even basic necessities, all in the name of the gods). Lastly, note that the beliefs set forth in the Vedas were later developed further in a second group of hymns, the Upanishads. The Upanishads are, in general, more "intellectualized" than the Vedas. Where the Vedas focus on ritual and prayer, the Upanishads concentrate on the meaning behind various rituals and prayers. It is in the Upanishads, then, that the basic tenets of Hinduism are explained.
By the time of the Upanishads (ca. 600 BCE) the basic beliefs of Hinduism had undergone a basic, incredibly important transition, influenced by local, non-Aryan culture (that is, these basic tenets which have blended with Vedic belief seem to have been developed by the original inhabitants of India, the Dravidians). Hindus now believed that all gods emanated, or came from, and were part of a single ultimate reality. This kind of religious belief is known as monism (not to be confused with monotheism!), and means that there can be many gods but all come from the same source and are part of it (that is, Hinduism remains polytheistic, but tops the gods with an ultimate being). Known as Brahman (The One or The Absolute), this single entity was everything; everything was of it, in it, and from it. A part of Brahman which has become separated from it is the Atman, or the individual soul of each human. In this view, the desire of the atman, its sole aim actually, is to be reunited with Brahman, to become The One again, to be everything again (since going back to Brahman necessarily means becoming part of the ultimate all). This reunion, the end-all and be-all of Hinduism, is called Moksha. How, exactly, is the individual soul to be reunited with The One? According to Hindu belief, the soul needs to escape Samsara, or the wheel of life. Samsara consists of many lives, and is a continuous circle which links all kinds of existence, from worms and insects to gods. Closely tied to the idea of Samsara is the concept of reincarnation, or the belief in recurring lives. Reincarnation is the returning of the soul to life after its death, in a different life: possibly a different social position, family, profession, even a different form altogether. The notion is that the soul progresses through different existences until it achieves reunion with Brahman. Do note that your next life can get you either closer or farther from moksha, depending on your behavior in the particular life, and that each life can better or worse in terms of earthly existence. We will discuss this in detail when we discuss the assigned selections from The Bhagavad Gita. The question remains: How can one break the circle of reincarnation, escape Samsara, and reunite with The One? It all depends on one's karma, a sort of moral law governing reincarnation. Karma is also defined as work. Based on one's actions, karma can be likened to a bank account (follow me here, and do not quote me because it's a somewhat silly explanation, even if it works): if you perform the right actions, you gain positive karma, like if you made a deposit in your bank account; if you perform the wrong actions, you gain negative karma, like if you made a withdrawal from your account. At the end of your present life, a balancing of the account is made: if you have a positive balance, you move on to a better life; if you are in the red, you are demoted to a worse life, and can even be reborn as an insect or something equally bad. What, then, are right or wrong actions? Actions are governed by Dharma, or the law. Basically, the law is one's duty in life. Each individual has a different duty, and thus a different law which applies to him or her. If you fulfill your duty in life, you have followed your Dharma and will gain positive karma (thus moving on to a better life). It is interesting to note that one's duty depended on one's social standing: each caste has a different duty to fulfill, and each caste's duty sets it apart from the rest, as you will notice in The Baghavad Gita. And yet, how does one ultimately escape Samsara and attain moksha? Through yoga, or spiritual exercises and disciplines that aim to unify our human endeavors. Hindus recognize three possible paths to moksha, or salvation. The first is the way of works or karma yoga. This is a very popular way to achieve positive karma and lays emphasis on the idea that liberation may be obtained by fulfilling one's familial and social duties thereby overcoming the weight of bad karma one has accrued. The second way to moksha is the way of knowledge, or jnana yoga. The basic premise of the way of knowledge is that the cause of our bondage to the cycle of rebirths in this world is ignorance. According to the predominant view among those committed to this way, our ignorance consists of the mistaken belief that we are individual selves, and not one with the ultimate divine reality - Brahman. It is this same ignorance that gives rise to our bad actions, which result in bad karma. Salvation is achieved through attaining a state of consciousness in which we realize our identity with Brahman. This is achieved through deep meditation, often as a part of the discipline of yoga. The third way of salvation is the way of devotion, or bhakti yoga. This is the way most favored by the common people of India. It satisfies the longing for a more emotional and personal approach to religion. It involves the self-surrender to one of the many personal gods and goddesses of Hinduism. These are explained in The Baghavad Gita. It is important to notice that not everyone can follow all of the yogas; rather, Hinduism offers different paths to the attainment of moksha, so that ultimately everyone can be reunited with Brahman. Of all the yogas, however, Karma Yoga (work and duty) is the path followed by most.
By ca. 200 BCE, the early influences which shaped Hinduism were solidified in the form of great epic poems, most importantly the Mahabharata, the longest epic poem ever created. The Mahabharata contains within it The Baghavad Gita (literally, the Song of the Lord). The Baghavad Gita elaborates upon the Upanishads, particularly in that it sets out and explains how it is that humans attain liberation from the cycle of rebirth which is first set out in the Vedas and Upanishads. Basically, Krishna, an avatar (which means a physical manifestation of Brahman), explains to Arjuna, an Aryan prince, the three yogas listed above. However, the concentration is on the first kind of Yoga, Karma Yoga or the yoga of work. Here it is that the concept of Dharma is best explained, because the whole point of Krishna's conversation with Arjuna is to convince Arjuna to fulfill his duty. The trick is that one must fulfill that duty not for one's own benefit, but to offer it to the gods - therefore renouncing thought of any reward, even when it goes without saying that doing your duty leads to the ultimate reward: moksha. When one does one's work on earth, one is ultimately doing Brahma's work. Thus one should do one's work without complaint and, most importantly, without wanting to do someone else's. This belief explains and justifies the caste system in a series of interconnected tenets: First, you were once part of Brahman, but have become separated from him and are now part of life, Samsara. Second, the "easiest" way to be reunited with Brahman is to do your duty in life, without question and without expectation of reward. Third, your duty is dependent on your social position; each caste has a different duty to fulfill. Fourth, doing the duty of the caste into which you were born influences the quality of your next life: if you do not fulfill it, if you question it, or if you desire to do someone else's duty, you will gain negative karma and be reborn in a lower state. Finally, on the other hand, if you fulfill your life-destiny without qualm, you will be rewarded with the ultimate prize: becoming one with The One. What better reason for doing your duty faithfully, without question, and without rancor could there possibly be?
There is one important point I have yet to make about the importance of the caste system in ancient Indian civilization. The caste system granted several important benefits to its members, two of which I want to expand upon here. To begin, one's caste served as one's ultimate system of social support. Should one fall on hard times, become a widow or orphan, or need assistance, one's fellow caste members would take you or your children in, educate your children in the ways of the caste and/or profession, and offer food and shelter as needed. Second, belonging to a specific caste also gave a solid sense of who you were and of what your place in society was. Many ancient Indians appreciated knowing their role and place, and felt a security not available in other societies. Although to many Americans this might sound anathema, since we are taught to dream big and always try to "better" ourselves, for many Indians such a life of constant striving would be undesirable. Regardless of these very real social benefits, the fact remains that the ultimate benefit of the caste system is its intrinsic ties to moksha through the "correct" following of the religion's precepts. To do one's dharma without question and without desiring another's is to gain positive karma, which in turn leads one closer and closer to moksha, the ultimate end of becoming one with The One again, becoming a part of the universal all from where everything, including man, originally came.