Hinduism

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Rig Veda

Back 1

oldest and most important of the vedas

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Purusha

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Creation itself was pictured as the sacrifice of a primordial being called Purusha. The gods offered Purusha as a cosmic sacrifice. When Purusha was dismembered in the sacrifice, his mouth became the priests, his arms the warriors, his thighs the producers, and his feet the workers. This is the first allusion to the four-fold class (varna) system that would evolve over time into the complex caste system in India.

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Four basic castes or varnas:

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- the brahmins (priests and sages)
- the kshatriyas (warriors)
- vaishyas (producers, that is merchants, bankers, farmers)
- shudras (workers or servants)

Front 4

Brahman

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Brahman applied to the ultimate reality of the world. Brahman is the underlying One. Brahman is one supreme reality from which all other reality comes.

Front 5

Upanishads

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The four Vedas end with later works, called the Upanishads (the term means “to sit near by”). The word Upanishad embraces the idea of the devoted disciple sitting down by the teacher to receive private spiritual instruction about the highest reality.

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atman

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inner self; soul

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jiva

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transcendental self

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karma

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means action and the consequences of an action in Sanskrit

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samsara

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Cycle of death and rebirth

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moksha

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liberation from cycle of death and rebirth

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karma yoga

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a way of works

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bhakti yoga

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a way of devotion

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jnana yoga

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a way of knowledge

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Laws of Manu

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prescribe four stages of life for young men of the three higher varna:
- student (brahmacarin). After a an initiatory rite of passage in which they symbolically experience a “second-birth,” a young man is to study the Vedas under the guidance of a teacher.
- householder (grihastha). The man gets married, produces sons, performs the daily sacrifices, and provides for his family welfare.
- forest dweller (vanaprastha). After the children are grown, a man devotes himself to a simple life, studies the Vedas, withdraws from the desires of earthly life. His wife may accompany him but they remain chaste.
- renunciant (sannyasin). This is the final stage. Here he lives alone, without possession. The purpose of this kind of life is to reach moksha (complete freedom from all attachments).

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dharma

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duty according to one's caste and life stage

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Puranas

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stories about the exploits of the Trimurti

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Trimurti

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Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer). Know the names of their consorts.

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puja

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worship

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Ganesh Chaturthi

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festival of the elephant bitch where they drown her ass in the sea