Frigga’s Day, February 8, 2013: Hinduismo EQ: What are karma, dharma, nirvana, and the major gods?

Welcome! Gather paper, pen/pencil, wits!

Opening Freewrite: Instant Karma

Lecture/Presentation: Hinduismo karmao dharmao nirvanao Major Gods

CLOZE: Hinduism

ELACC12RI3: Analyze and explain how individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop ELACC12W6: Use technology to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing ELACC12W9: Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysisELACC12W10: Write routinely over extended and shorter time

frames ELACC12SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions ELACC12L4: Determine/clarify meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrasesELACC12L6: Acquire and use general academic and domain-specific words and phrases

Freewrite: Instant Karma!Tuesday you imagined that someone had treated you very badly – bullied or beat you, for example. You thought about a very specific thing you’d like to have happen to repay that person, and about whether that was likely to occur.

Most of you wrote something like this: you wished something awful would happen to the offending person, but doubted anything would happen because, as some people wrote:

o “Because we do not know how the other person feels”

o “No one is going to treat him like he deserves because no one else is that mean”

o “Anyone in any sort of power … says they are, but they really don’t”

o “what you may think happened to you is bad may be normal to another person; and things just are not always going to go your way”

SO – 100 words – design a system that would take care of this problem automatically – that is, evildoers would immediately “get what’s coming to them.”

Review: What is “The Orient”?Remember that, early in the semester, we said we’d study only literature and ideas from the Northeastern Quadrasphere, also called Eurasia. This of course combines two continents:

Europe: “Occident” Asia: “Orient”

Medieval Europeans drew a sharp distinction between what they considered to be the “civilized” West and the “pagan” East:

“Occidental” = Latin for “Western”: Europe, the Americas “Oriental” = Latin for “Eastern”

o “India” – India, Pakistan, Afghanistan

o “Far East” – China, Japan

Indo-European languages spread from Mesopotamia 5000 years ago – north and west to Europe, east to India.

Example of the link: English star = Hindi sitara Indo-European did not cross Himilayas – Chinese,

Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese etc. a different language root

We will be concerned first with the literature of India.This will require basic knowledge of Hindu religious belief.

We will start with dharma, karma and nirvana.

To repeat: I will never ask YOU to BELIEVE in a religion we

study. I will, however, DEMAND that you UNDERSTAND

what THEY believe, and UNDERSTAND what that has to do with what they WRITE.

“Hinduism”

What we call “Hinduism” is just one of many religions which originated in India

and are practiced widely there today.

The word “Hindu” was invented by British Army officers reporting to England about the Hindi people,

the largest ethno/language group in India.

But the people we call “Hindu”do not call their religion Hinduism

but rather Sanātana Dharma: “The Wise, Pure Law.”

Nevertheless, we will use the term Hinduism for convenience.

The goal of Hinduismis to escape karma

by gaining complete knowledge of dharma and achieving nirvana.

To understand what that means, let’s look more closely at those terms:

karma, dharma, and nirvana.

Karma is the energy produced by the motives and consequences of every action a soul performs during an incarnation, or bodily life.

Good and bad effects of a soul’s actions and choices create karma for a soul’s current life and, especially, for its next incarnation.

Dharma – “Law” – is a system of spiritual energy connecting all life and all karma in a complex web of action/reaction, cause/effect.

oThe dharma is affected by the motives and consequences of every choice or action taken by every one of the billions of souls that have ever been incarnate in an Earthly body.

oThese souls’ actions, motives and consequences feed karma (good or bad) into the dharma; this karma then streams back out again to individual souls.

So –

In any incarnation, a soul’s actions and choices (unintentional and intentional) create karma:

“good” acts create “good” karma; “bad” acts create “bad” karma.

A soul carries its karma from one incarnation to the next as it is continually reincarnated.

“good” karma – soul reincarnated as higher life form “bad” karma – soul reincarnated as lower life form

This cycle of reincarnation continues until a soul reaches the highest life form – human – and then as a human lives a life without bad karma.

A soul which ascends through many incarnations may reach nirvana – a final state of blessedness and enlightenment, when the soul has risen as high as it can, breaking the karmic cycle.

Hinduism is a polytheistic religion.Here are the major Hindu Gods and Avatars(An avatar is an incarnation of a god, i.e., a god in a body)

Brahma: Creator of the Universe

Vishnu: Preserver of Universe Krishna: Avatar of Vishnu

Ganesh, Servant of VishnuThe “Elephant God” of Good Luck and Fortunewho breaks down obstacles for Vishnu’s servants

Shiva: Destroyer of the UniverseNot “evil” – just as necessary to the karmic cycle as Vishnu

TURN IN TODAY:oOpening Freewrite: Instant karma

oCLOZE: Hinduism (with gods/avatar on back)

CLOZE: Hinduism1. True or False: Hinduism is the only major religion to have begun in India.

2. True or False: the people we call “Hindus” call themselves “Hindus.”

a. Okay, the answer is “false.” So who called them that?

3. The goal of Hinduism is to escape ______________ by gaining complete

_______________ of the __________________ and achieving ___________________.

4. ___________________ is the energy a soul produces as a result of its actions and choices

in a particular _____________________, or Earthly life.

5. A soul’s actions and choices create good and bad ______________.

6. ____________________ is a system of _____________ energy connecting all life and all

____________ in a complex web of action / ________________, cause / ____________.

7. If one has produced mostly good ____________, one will be ________________ as a

higher life form. If one has produced mostly bad ____________, one will be

_______________ as a lower form.

8. This cycle continues until one reaches ______________ -- the final state of enlightenment.

9. Define: polytheistic

10. Define: avatar

Hindu Gods and Avatars

Brahma What does this god do? Describe appearance:

Vishnu What does this god do? Describe appearance:

Krishna He is not a god; what is he? Describe appearance:

Ganesh What does this god do? Describe appearance:

Shiva What does this god do? Describe appearance: