Brahman

this very well "One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman." (Pg. 587) And this quote states that this is the only way to achieved the absolute truth through the mode of goodness in which a person isn 't led by their…

Hinduism is most likely the oldest and most complex religion in the entire world. Traces of the religion go back as far as the third millennium B.C.E. The possible religious views of Hinduism are effectively infinite due to the number of gods both major and minor, priests and temples. Nearly 80 percent of the India population consider themselves Hindu and there are at least 30 million practitioners outside of India making this religion the third largest after Christianity and Islam. The word…

Ancient Death and The Afterlife Death is a natural process that occurs to everybody, in one way or another. The afterlife is best defined as the place your soul goes after death. While seeming most plain and obvious, the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Hindus all believed different, yet similar things happened when a person passed away. Beginning with the Mesopotamians, they saw death as a sinful process. Although, the afterlife was glorious and your spirit would live on. Death for the Egyptians…

the experiencer of the fruits of action, as Atman, always near and the Lord of the past and the future will not conceal himself from others. C) He verily knows Brahman who knows the First−born, the offspring of austerity, created prior to the waters and dwelling, with the elements, in the cave of the heart. D) He verily knows Brahman who knows Aditi, the soul of all deities, who was born in the form of Paraná, who was created with the elements and who, entering into the heart, abides…

The problem that I have chosen to tackle is the fraudulent manipulation of religion and religious values among the illiterate population in India by self acclaimed “god men (and women)” and other “godly” people. These words usually represent people who either have godly powers or can talk to God. They are often referred to as ‘baba’, ‘maharaj’, ‘pandit’, etc. I have chosen Krishna and Dante to deal with this problem. Since the majority of the population in India follows the religion that is…

The statues of Shiva Nataraja, also known as Shiva as the Lord of Dance, came from the sculptors of the south Indian Chola dynasty. These statues, from the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, are some of the most significant icons from the Hindu religion. This important symbol bears all of the characteristics that Shiva represents: creator, preserver, and destroyer of the universe. This religious piece of art, made using the ‘lost-wax’ method of sculpting, has gotten a lot more prominent…

The Bhagavad-Gita is an ancient Hindu scripture that encompasses seven hundred verses and conveys how we are attached to the pleasures, desires, and duties that distract us from our true self. Slightly older, the Daodejing is an ancient Chinese text that is comprised of eighty-one brief chapters. As the fundamental text of Taoism, the Daodejing expresses how we must be in a state of “Wei Wei,” in order to be synchronized with the ever-changing universe. The author of the Daodejing was a sage…

The physical world in Dante’s Alighieri coexists with the physical world of the Bhagavad Gita in the matters as actions affect the personal standing of the world to come afterwards. These two literary works are different in terms that those terms of cowardice or betrayal to one’s kingdom by surrendering the throne is punishable in the different levels of Dante’s hell. The levels of Dante’s Alighieri in which one is sent is determined by their internal, external conflicts and actions in the…

Devu Mahesan, 14510013 The Jain Darsana Introduction Spiritualism and naturalism are the two most important ancient streams of Indian thought. The naturalistic stream is systemized into two major systems, theVaisesika and Jaina. In these systems the naturalistic theory of the external world is combined with a non-naturalistic theory of the human soul, which is the “spiritualistic eschatology” and I feel that this combination of naturalism and nonnaturalism is a uniquely interesting trait and…

The Bhagavad-Gita is a rather small section in the overall massive text of the Mahabharata. However, the size of this passage had no effect on its ability to influence. The likes of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Annie Besant, and Mohandas K. Gandhi were all inspired or influenced by this text. The Bhagavad-Gita wouldn’t be the inspiring text is it today if it hadn’t been influenced by many other religious texts that came before it. The Bhagavad-Gita takes ideas from other religious…