Sri Deva Sthanam

The Religious Order: Sampradaya

admin — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 09:01:48 +0000

Hinduism, like other religions, has many religious groupings. The Sanskrit word for this is sampradaya, which comes from the verbal root “da” meaning to “give.” A sampradaya therefore is something that is “given” or passed down from generation to generation. Hence, the idea of a religious tradition. In Christianity the equivalent of sampradaya is denomination. In general terms Hinduism breaks…

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Vedas: the Sacred Writings of Hinduism

admin — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 09:01:25 +0000

What are the sacred writings of Hinduism? This question begs a more basic question, namely, what are sacred writings? In other words, before we can discuss the sacred writings of Hinduism, we should first come to an understanding of scripture. When we use the terms “sacred writings” or “scripture,” this implies written texts. As we have noted earlier, written texts are a part of a cumulative…

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The Importance of Sanskrit to Hinduism

admin — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 04:19:06 +0000

Hinduism and Sanskrit are inseparably related. The roots of Hinduism can be traced to the dawn of Vedic civilization. From its inception, Vedic thought has been expressed through the medium of the Sanskrit language. Sanskrit, therefore, forms the basis for much of Hindu civilization. As language changes, so religion changes. In the case of Hinduism, Sanskrit stood for millennia as the carrier…

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The Term Hinduism

admin — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 09:00:31 +0000

We have mentioned the Indus Valley Civilization, which seems to have existed over a vast period of time between 7000 BCE and 1700 BCE, and although the debate still rages over the nature of this great culture, whether it was Dravidian, Aryan or other, the Indus River has had a great effect on defining modern Hinduism. The Sanskrit name for this river is “Sindhu” and with the coming of Arabic…

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Hinduism and The Indus Valley Civilization

admin — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 08:58:35 +0000

The dating of ancient Hinduism has always been, and will likely continue to be, a difficult issue. Prior to 1923 the only means of dating the origins of Hinduism was through textual evidence found in the Shruti Vedas. The early Aryans left no cities or other major architectural remains, therefore, textual evidence alone could push early Hinduism back to only about 1500 BCE. In 1923 a great…

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The Origins of Hinduism

admin — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 09:00:01 +0000

In terms of its religious development there are now two basic theories that attempt to explain how Hinduism first developed within India, and they both draw on the famous ekam sat viprah bahudha vadanti verse for their effectiveness. One suggests that at some time towards the end of the Indus Valley Civilization (circa 1700 BCE) a nomadic people called the Aryans moved into northern India from the…

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Models of Religion and the Hindu Way of Seeing

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 08:59:10 +0000

Imagine a great tree. There is a large root at the base and a huge trunk that rises up from this central root to spread out into a network of main branches and then into a mass of successively smaller branches. Every part of the tree grows out of this one central root. Now imagine a river. A river is formed when a series of rivulets converge to form streams that in turn converge to form…

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The Nature of Religion

admin — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 09:33:06 +0000

Hinduism is perhaps the oldest living religion. In fact, the origins of Hinduism can be traced back to at least 2500 BCE and today there are close to a billion followers. It behooves us, therefore, to ask, “What is Hinduism”? and then to understand how this ancient tradition has managed to survive and even thrive in modern times. Before we do this, however, there is an even more basic question to…

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Introduction

admin — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 16:25:08 +0000

As I prepare this small volume, I do so from two perspectives: from one who has studied and teaches Hinduism academically, and as a priest who ministers to the needs of people. In university, I learned Sanskrit and read the ancient texts of Hinduism. It was the Hinduism of a thousand years ago, but now, as a priest, I experience Hindu religious life from a radically different perspective. Daily…

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