What do Hindus profess. Hinduism is an incredible religion

Hinduism is a religion practiced by more than 80% of the population. Temples and sacred altars are obligatory attributes of any city in the country. The organization of space in Hindu temples is of particular importance. Believers must reach a higher state of consciousness in order to communicate with their gods. The location of each room, its proportions and colors, should express love for the absolute. Architecture is designed to capture the vital forces and direct them towards the statue of the holy spirit. In order to maintain this delicate balance and not disturb this mysterious harmony, often, representatives of another religion (non-Hindus) are not allowed to enter the temples. The role of a priest, mostly a brahmin, is to serve in the temple. His duties include the preservation and transmission of sacred texts, culture and everything that is dear to people.

Hindu religion refers to the appearance on the territory of India of the first Aryan tribes who came here about 4 thousand years ago. Hinduism is not only a religious cult, but also a philosophy of the life path. The religion of Hinduism is exceptionally rich in its symbolism.

Hindus worship over 10,000 gods, who are similar to people - also get married and have children. Foremost god is brahma he is the creator of the world. Then follow Vishnu(guardian) and Shiva(destroyer). Brahma, one of the three highest gods of Hinduism, symbolizes the idea of ​​creating the world. He is often depicted sitting on a lotus flower, the stem of which grows from the belly of the god Vishnu. Shiva can be recognized by the weapon in his hands, he is often depicted with a sword or a trident.

Two fundamental Hindu principles are dharma and karma. Dharma is the universal law of the reincarnation of life and death, which determines the place of man in the universe. Karma is the law of action, according to which, all the actions of a person will reverberate in his afterlife. It is believed that the conditions of a person's life are determined by his past. To get out of this vicious circle, a person must strive for a virtuous life. This kind of spirituality is still influential in India today. This belief, which has deep roots, has remained unchanged for centuries.

main religion of india which has a very rich history and traditions. Hinduism is believed to be over 4,000 years old. Often it is called not just a single religion, but a combination of various Indian beliefs and traditions. Since all the traditions and philosophies that have rallied under the common name "Hinduism" originated precisely in India, they are all very similar and are related, having one common ancestral basis. This basis refers to the most ancient ideas of people about the universe and, perhaps, is one of the very first beliefs on earth.

In Sanskrit, Hinduism sounds like Sanatana Dharma. In literal translation it means as "Eternal religion", "eternal way", "eternal law". As the name implies, the Indians honor their religion as the only true, eternal, strongest and indestructible. The very term "Hinduism" arose from the Sanskrit word "Hindu" - this is how the people living across the Indus River were called in Persian. Hinduism also includes such religious movements as Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism.

Most likely, Hinduism, unlike many other religions that we can observe today, there was no founder. By analogy with the paganism of many other peoples, Hinduism is an ancient belief that originated in folk wisdom for natural reasons. Here there are no ancestors and bright prophets, from whom the countdown of the time of religion begins. However, it has its own gods, its own saints, sacred books, scriptures and teachings. Also in Hinduism, unlike many other religions, there is no organized central authority that would govern all communities and organizations.

Hinduism is practiced over 1 billion people in the world, which makes it the third largest religion in terms of followers right after Christianity and Islam. Most of the Hindus live in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, many Eastern countries, as well as the UK, USA, and some European countries. A very small proportion of followers, but still taking place, belongs to Russia.

Hinduism as a religion, faith, philosophy, worldview became international only in the second half of the 20th century. Prior to this, few people had an idea about Hinduism outside of India and some nearby countries. After Hinduism became public, the world was simply absorbed by the ideas, concepts and perceptions of the world that are characteristic of India. Things like karma, yoga, vegetarianism and other aspects have become very popular and are now taken for granted by us, as always present in our lives, but until the middle of the 20th century they were simply unknown to people outside of India.

As discussed above, Hinduism is a family of teachings and traditions. Despite this, it surprisingly retains its integrity, common features and forms. For a better understanding of this phenomenon, the carriers of religion offer for allegory banyan tree which constantly puts forth new roots and branches. Each branch, each root has its own distinctive features, however, they are still based on a banyan tree and in their structure, in their nature, they are all related.

Indologists divide the history of Hinduism into three important eras: Vedism, Brahminism and Hinduism. Vedism appeared, according to some assumptions of researchers, 5500 BC. and ended 2600 BC. Vedism is the era of the formation of Hinduism, the period of writing the main Vedas. The oldest Veda is the Rig Veda. In addition, the Mahabharata and are considered the oldest scriptures. It is also believed that these Vedas existed long before they were written and for many centuries were passed down from generation to generation orally.

Researchers of Hinduism consider six types of this religion: the oldest form (pagan, polytheism), Vedic (based on the Vedas), Vedantic (based on the Upanishads), yoga, Dharmic (following certain moral principles and Hindu ideas, the most widespread form among the ordinary population of India ) and Bhakti (devotional service to God, most often found as Vaishnavism). Hinduism is also divided into four main areas: Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism and Smartism.

The four directions of Hinduism differ in what God or Gods the followers of one or another movement serve.

Vaishnavism- worship of Vishnu and his avatars (incarnations of God on earth) - Krishna and Rama. Vaishnavism, as the most ancient form of all, is also the most widespread. Vaishnavism Hinduism has more followers than other denominations. It is also believed that the idea of ​​Hinduism in Western countries and countries where Hinduism is not so widespread is most of all based on Vaishnavism. Many followers of Vaishnavism or Vishnuism, equal to Vishnu, also give preference to Lakshmi, the female hypostasis of the supreme God.

Shaivism- Worship of Shiva. Along with Vaishnavism, there is also the worship of the female form of the supreme God - Parvati. According to research, the history of Shaivism goes back over 3500 years.

Shaktism- worship of Shakti or Devi (original Mother Goddess).

Smartism- the name comes from the "smriti" of the sacred Hindu scriptures. worship of many gods. The main school of Smartism is Advaita Vedanta.

In addition to these directions, which are considered the main ones, there are less popular forms of Hinduism: Ganapatya (worship of Ganesha), Saura (worship of Surya - the God of the Sun), Dayananda Saraswati's Arya Samaj, Advaita, Krishnaism, Bhakti, Sikhism and others.

Despite some differences in the forms, types and directions of Hinduism, as mentioned above, a clear foundation is always traced in their structure. Most often this the basis rests on certain concepts which are now known to many. Among such fundamental concepts: Dharma (moral duty, life obligations), Samsara (circulation of reincarnations of souls), Karma (dependence of the quality of life, the quality of new reincarnations on actions performed or committed in past lives), Moksha (liberation from Samsara), Yoga and others.

Hinduism is a faith that is very diverse and multifaceted. There is both polytheism and monotheism, and this combination often goes hand in hand in Hindu terms. This is due to the special worldview of the Indians and can be explained by the fact that Hindus believe in one God, who manifests himself in various guises, in various Gods, avatars, manifestations and even things. At the same time, every Hindu has the right to choose the manifestation of God that is closest and most understandable to him. Having made a choice, he should not be in conflict with or be reprehensible to other forms of Hinduism, since in other directions people believe in the same God as himself, only in his other manifestation. This explains why for many, many centuries, various forms of worship of different Deities have been preserved in Hinduism, and at the same time they peacefully coexist and almost never quarrel.

In addition to the main Gods, a significant role in the religions of Hinduism is occupied by Gods with a "rank" below the main ones - demigods, creatures, demons, spirits, and so on. Statues of Deities in Hinduism are called Mruti. Mrutis are a way or mediator of communication between Gods and people. These are manifestations of God on earth, although some Hindus and even whole movements reject mruti, believing that God cannot be represented in a visual humanoid or animal-like image. In addition to the statues of mruti, Hindus use "icons" - images of the Deities and numerous symbols.

As for the scriptures sacred to Hinduism, there are a very large number of them in India. The texts are divided into Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas and Agamas. The most important texts for India are such as Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita and some others. Until now, disputes have not subsided regarding what is described there, and who wrote them. By the Hindus themselves, the bearers of the ancient faith, the Vedas and other ancient texts are called real revelations.

The main achievement of any soul, according to Hindus, is complete self-awareness and liberation from Samsara and endless reincarnation. At the same time, in Hinduism there are also the concepts of hell and paradise, although they do not look the same as in some other religions. Often such places are described as heavenly or hellish planets, or subtle realms of being, where the soul is either rewarded or punished. Achieving self-awareness is achieved in various ways that are characteristic of Hinduism, but still the main ones are service to God, traditional rituals, ascetic existence, meditation, yoga.

Hindus regularly, and sometimes even several times a day, commit rituals turning to the Gods in order to improve oneself and honor higher beings and ancestors: Puja (sacrifice in the form of a lit lamp, incense or food at sunrise), reading scriptures, Kirtan and Bhajan (prayers, mantras, songs), meditation and much more. In addition, in Hinduism there are many holidays dedicated to deities, and which are becoming popular all over the world as large-scale festivals: Holi, Kumbh Mela, Maha Shivaratri, Navaratri, Diwali, Krishna Janmashtami, Rama Navami. Typical for Hindus and pilgrimages to holy places: Kirtan, Puri, Tirupati, Katra, Rameshwaram, Dvaraka, Badrinath and others.

One of the most famous, and for some even shocking, rituals is the cremation of the dead. Cremation or burning of the body is not done in a crematorium at all (although this is also present in modern India), but right in the open air and in front of everyone. To do this, the body of the deceased is wrapped in a shroud and burned on a large fire. This way of parting with the body of the deceased existed in almost all traditions of the ancient peoples. In Hinduism, as in other beliefs of the past, the cult of ancestors is very strongly developed.

It is worth talking about the concept of ashrams in Hinduism. In India, a person's life is divided into four ashrams. The first ashram is Brahmacharya, that is, the period of study. The second, Grisatha, is family and work life. Vanaprastha is a departure from everyday and worldly affairs, the time when a person begins to devote himself to spiritual quests, pilgrimage to holy places, rituals, and so on. Sannyas is full dedication to spiritual practices, renunciation of the material world.

characteristic of Hinduism is class division. So, according to Hindus, all people are divided into four "varnas": Brahmins (priests, teachers), Kshatriyas (warriors, rulers, high-ranking people), Vaishyas (merchants, farmers, merchants) and Shudras (servants, workers, people of lower estates). The belonging of a person from birth to one or another class is considered the legacy of karma, that is, merits in past lives.

In the modern world, Hindu forms of belief are accepted not only by the indigenous people of India, but also by people from other countries. Hindus are not at all against this and willingly accept foreign citizens who wish to join the ancient faith in Indian Gods, follow the teachings of the Vedas, and follow the path of self-improvement.

HINDUISM

Hinduism is the oldest national religion of India. According to the number of adherents, it is one of the most widespread religions in the world. Hindus make up approximately 83% of the country's population. It is also common in other countries of South and Southeast Asia: Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka. Followers of Hinduism (migrants from India) live in Indonesia (Bali), on the islands of Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana, South Africa and some other places.
By the end of this century, Hinduism has transcended national and regional boundaries. It became popular in a number of countries in Europe and America, claiming to be recognized as one of the world religions (along with Buddhism, Christianity and Islam).
In India, numerous religions and beliefs are represented, including all the world's, however, it is predominantly a country of Hinduism. It was around him that the cultural, political and social unity of the country was built in all ages.
As a religious phenomenon, Hinduism is complex and controversial. The very definition of the term is a considerable historical and cultural problem. Until now, there is no satisfactory definition and even explanation of what belongs to Hinduism proper, what are the content and boundaries of this concept.
Both Western and Indian scholars have written about the impossibility of giving a precise definition of this religion. "Hinduism as a faith is vague, amorphous, multifaceted, everyone understands it in their own way. It is difficult to define it or even say definitely whether it can be called a religion in the usual sense of the word. In its current form and even in the past, it covers many beliefs and religious rites, from the highest to the lowest, often opposing or contradicting each other," Jawaharlal Nehru wrote about Hinduism in his book The Discovery of India.
There are two most common points of view regarding the time of occurrence of the term "Hinduism". According to one of them, it appeared during the formation of religious and philosophical systems - darshans and later texts - shastras in the 10th-14th centuries, when opposition to Buddhism, and then to Islam, became a conscious ideological fact. Those who hold a different point of view argue that the word "Hinduism" was introduced by Europeans as a religious term in the 19th century. In this sense, Hinduism (Skt. - indumat, indusamaya; hindi - hindu dharma, sanatana dharma) is usually understood as a set of religious, mythological, philosophical, legal and ethical ideas, formally most often associated with the cults of the main Hindu gods Shiva and Vishnu .
Historically, the term "Hinduism" means beliefs that originated in India in ancient times and, changing in some features, have survived to this day.
The essence of Hinduism is not limited to its religious and ideological content. An organic, integral part of it is a number of social institutions, legal norms, social institutions, cultural phenomena. All this diversity is superimposed by a complex social hierarchical structure and numerous local features, since adherents of Hinduism belong to different social strata and live in different geographical regions.
Such a synthesis of social organization, ritual and magical activity, theological views, mythological symbols and philosophical systems has been developing for more than one millennium in a variety of natural and historical conditions, developing into a complex complex consisting of many interpenetrating layers.
It is not surprising that with such a historical development, Hinduism is distinguished by extreme polymorphism, which is expressively illustrated, for example, by its pantheon, numbering more than one thousand divine, semi-divine and demonic characters with diverse and colorful features. Among them, along with common Indian deities important for each region, there are many secondary, often hybrid figures, and many of them duplicate each other. In terms of the degree to which the idea of ​​a deity is endowed with an independent essence, the characters of the Hindu pantheon form a wide range, from the spirits of tribal beliefs to the extremely abstracted images of gods in theological treatises, personifying absolute and impersonal reality.
An equally complex, motley and confusing picture is presented by other components, concepts and doctrines of Hinduism, on which the social organization of certain Hindu communities is based, as well as practical morality, labor and economic activity of the Hindus. Hinduism permeates all spheres of life of its adherent - ideological, social, legal, behavioral. In this sense, it is not only and not so much a religion, but a way of life and holistic behavior, which may have its own specific spiritual practice.
These characteristics show that Hinduism does not fit into the usual stereotypes developed by the Judeo-Christian systems. First of all, it is not a single confessional system, the peculiar features of which can be easily enumerated and thereby reveal its specificity. Hinduism is a conglomeration of a wide variety of ideas, currents, sects and directions, and all of them coexist within a single holistic entity and are not in radical contradiction with the main worldview core. In Hinduism, there are not and cannot be heretical forms (in the Christian sense of the term) that oppose the true orthodox faith. There are no doctrinal heresies in it either, since there is no clearly fixed single central doctrine. Every form and every cult has a certain ethical value. An adherent of Hinduism can choose among the many objects of worship and many ways of honoring him, that which is psychophysiologically closest to him. This is another striking feature of Hinduism: as a religious worldview, pluralism is inherent in it. It manifests itself not only in spiritual differentiations, but also in social (caste system), as well as in spatial and temporal (many local traditions; special rites for each age). Various pluralistic characteristics nevertheless exist in the general mainstream of traditional culture and are linked into a single whole by common worldview attitudes and principles of life, which are obligatory for most Hindus.
The polytheistic character of Hinduism was reflected not only in the variety of cults, objects of worship, the abundance of mythological and ritual complexes, but also in the very special relationship of Hinduism to other cults. He, like quicksand, absorbed and integrated them, thus providing himself with a wide distribution in space and time, practical unity and exceptional stability. Another feature of religion, its extreme tolerance, is connected with this property.
Hinduism appears logically unorganized and unsystematic only in terms of the usual European standards. From the point of view of traditional Indian culture, of which he is the spokesman, he is characterized by a systemic nature of a very special kind, connected with the mythological basis and preserving the flavor of the archaic era. Hinduism, thus, can be interpreted as a system of signs and symbols of culture, carrying a tradition from ancient times, continuing and developing it in other historical conditions. Hinduism, as it were, preserved in itself the principles of organization of archaic culture with its main emphasis on the ritual and magical side. This feature of Hinduism manifested itself, in particular, in its bright playful beginning.
For this reason, Hinduism still retains an inextricable link with the mythopoetic and folklore tradition, and even philosophy in Hinduism forms a combination with mythology that is closer to organic unity than to compromise.
The symbols of Hinduism are ambiguous, they allow for many shades and give room for different interpretations. As a result, the religious tradition is flexibly and organically associated with traditional norms of behavior, ethics, as well as with economic, social and political institutions.
In Hinduism, there was and is no church or any other single centralized organization, either on an all-India or even on a local scale. Brahmins or members of other castes who perform priestly duties have lived and live an ordinary life in the world, run a household and have a family, if they do not take any special vows. Their role is not identical to the role of Christian priests, for whom ordination to the dignity is obligatory. Brahmins perform their priestly duties by the right of the "twice-born", that is, by the right of belonging to a certain higher caste. In South India, in the Dravidian-speaking area, members of other, non-Brahmin castes may also perform priestly functions. In the role of priests and mentors of kings, individuals, families, clans and sects, acharyas and gurus (teachers, mentors) can also act. But all of them, neither in the past nor now, are organizationally connected. There is not even a remote semblance of a church hierarchy in Hinduism. Hindu temples have always existed autonomously, while communities, sects and other associations acted independently. Organizational principles, bodies or higher spiritual hierarchs and authorities that are common and uniform for all are unknown to Hinduism. All-India councils have never been convened to codify the doctrine and develop common guidelines, rules of conduct, etc. In the foreground in Hinduism, there has been and remains the observance of ritual and behavioral norms sanctioned by myths and confirmed by authoritative sacred texts.
Proselytism is also completely absent in Hinduism: one cannot become a Hindu, one can only be born one.
Existing for more than four millennia and in contact with different cultures, traditions and religions during this period, Hinduism demonstrates extraordinary vitality, suppleness and resourcefulness, the ability to combine the incompatible and the ability to put on the most bizarre forms. He has an amazing ability to constantly give rise to new sects and currents and, as it were, to be reborn from himself.
For European and Western understanding in general, Hinduism remains largely alien and incomprehensible. For most people who first get to know him, he appears as a huge and chaotic labyrinth of buildings that are piled one on top of the other in the most bizarre way.
It is best to start your acquaintance with Hinduism from its origins. The genesis of the earliest stage of Hinduism, as well as of all Indian culture, is associated with the proto-Indian civilization and with the relics of other, pre-Aryan, cultures, which by the time the Aryans came to India were at different stages of evolution.
Proto-Indian civilization was one of the major links in the chain of early agricultural cultures (4th-3rd millennium BC), which formed the so-called "fertile crescent". Created by the Dravidian-speaking population, it was a highly developed urban-type civilization with a complex religious and mythological system of views, typical of the entire early agricultural zone, but at the same time distinguished by a bright local color.
R. N. Dandekar and other Indian and Western religious scholars see the ancient origins of Hinduism in the religious views and mythological complexes of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro and characterize them as proto-Hinduism. So, in the image of the many-faced horned god on the throne, they see a distant image of the proto-Shiva and elevate to his cult the whole range of ideas associated with yogic practice and asceticism. His divine wife, the buffalo goddess, the supreme mistress and the Great Mother, was reflected in the subsequent tradition in numerous cults of mother goddesses, which also absorbed local features. The distant predecessor of the Hindu "young god" was, in all likelihood, a Harappan mythological figure with a spear, called the proto-Skanda. Cults of trees and animals, sacred rivers and stones, snakes and lunar constellations, the practice of ritual sacrifices and ablutions - all this is attested in the deep archaic and has been preserved up to the present day.
Archaic elements more than once "surfaced" from prehistoric depths and came to the surface in various cults, sects and directions, demonstrating another expressive feature of Hinduism: the old is not canceled by the new, but continues to live in it.
Approximately from the middle of the II millennium BC. e. through the mountain passes in the north-west of Hindustan, the warlike nomadic tribes of the Aryans began to invade, speaking the ancient language of the Indo-European family - the predecessor of Sanskrit. An inevitable consequence of the migration of the Aryans to India and their advance into the depths of it was the interaction of cultures. It took place in different spheres of life and with varying degrees of intensity, but one of the main arenas of contact was religion.
With the Aryans, a completely different world of religious beliefs, ideas and mythical characters invaded India. Aryans own the earliest of the monuments of ancient Indian literature that have come down to us (even earlier proto-Indian texts are only brief inscriptions on seals, vessels and other archaeological objects). These monuments are usually united under the general name of the Vedic literature or the Vedic canon. The texts included in it are heterogeneous not only in time of creation, but also in structure, semantic orientation, and function in culture. Nevertheless, they represent a single whole, since in Hinduism they have always served as an authoritative sacred text.
Monuments of the Vedic canon are classified on various grounds. The most common is a two-term classification, dividing ancient Indian texts into two groups: shruti (literally, heard) and smriti (literally, memorized). The whole set of actually canonical sacred texts (shruti) is opposed to additional texts (smriti).
The Shruti tradition is opened by four Vedas: Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda. They are collections (samhitas) of hymns, ritual chants, sacrificial formulas and magic spells, that is, texts that differ in volume, composition, time of creation and role in the ritual practice of sacrifices. The first three Vedas refer to "sacred knowledge". They capture the entire body of knowledge of the ancient Aryans about the world around them and the place of man in it. Adjacent to the Vedas is a whole class of texts based on them and developing their individual aspects: the Brahmins, the Aranyakas and the Upanishads.
Each Veda-samhita has its own brahmanas. They contain commentaries by learned Rshualist Brahmins, which explain the essence and origin of the Vedic rituals, the rules for their performance, their interpretation, etc. The elements of the rituals are built in them into complex classification systems and are shown as identical to the phenomena of the surrounding world (the law of magical equivalence).
Bringing the paradigms of the most ancient rituals and giving them interpretations, the texts of the Brahmins represent an independent stage in the development of religious and philosophical thought in ancient India. The final part of the Brahmins, adjacent to one or another Veda, are Aranyakas. These esoteric texts were apparently intended for study by forest hermits or people who periodically retired to the forest to perform special rites. They contain symbolic and metaphorical explanations for rituals and constitute a transitional step between the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. Thus, the Aranyakas adjoin the Brahmins, and they end with the Upanishads - texts of a philosophical and speculative orientation.
The Vedic corpus of texts is closed by an extensive circle of non-shruti auxiliary works called vedanga (members of the Vedas): phonetics (shiksha), prosody (chhandas), grammar (vyakarana), etymology (nirukta), ritual (kalpa), astronomy (jyotisha).
The second tradition, smriti (which includes the Vedangas), differs from the first first of all semantically, and only then - chronologically. The most extensive section among them is the Kalpasutras, which continued and developed in detail the ritual prescriptions of the Brahminical texts. Some of them are devoted to solemn public ceremonies (shrauta-sutras), the other - to everyday household rituals (grhya-sutras). The latter are adjoined by dharma-sutras and dharma-shastras - monuments of law.
Subsequently, independent branches of sciences (shastras) developed from the Vedangas. The most impressive among them are the sciences of language. Their special development was stimulated by the tasks of careful preservation of sacred texts in the oral priestly tradition.
The Smriti tradition also includes epics and Puranas.
The religious and mythological views of the inhabitants of the proto-Indian cities and the Vedic Aryans formed that deep and solid foundation on which the entire grandiose building of Hinduism was built. Period from III-I I millennium BC. e. according to the VIII-VI centuries. BC e. can therefore rightfully be considered formative. Already at that time, one can attest to the existence of those main components from which the worldview system of Hinduism subsequently developed.
The lowest layer is formed by the most ancient beliefs and tribal cults (the cult of ancestors, leaders, family and tribal patrons, funeral and agrarian cults), as well as magical and shamanistic ideas. At the same time, cults of deities associated with agriculture (dying and resurrecting gods, patrons of fertility, deities of thunderstorms, rain, earth, and vegetation) were established. The vast majority of these beliefs, the cults of deities in a transformed form, have survived to this day.
The cult of ancestors still occupies one of the leading places in Hinduism. The idea of ​​reincarnation is connected with funeral rites - one of the main dogmas of dogma. Shamanic cults were plastically and subtly integrated into some Hindu trends (Shaivism, Tantrism). Magic has been and remains one of the most essential parts of Hinduism. For the majority of believers, one of the most important aspects of religion lies precisely in the magical significance of rituals that affect everyday everyday needs. In emergency cases (crop failure, epidemic, famine, drought, fire, loss of livestock, etc.), the Hindus turn primarily to magical means of influencing nature.
In the Vedic texts, the dominant is the religious-mythological system of views with increased and close attention to cosmogony. It could not be otherwise: a person of a traditional archaic society saw and felt himself inextricably linked with the cosmos, with cosmic rhythms, in contrast to modern man, who is primarily associated with history.
The Rigveda offers several variants of cosmogonic schemes. Some of them are connected with the concept of the first embryo - the Golden Egg, which arose in the primordial ocean and in which the gods and prototypes of all living beings were enclosed. This idea was further developed in the Brahminical texts, and the general scheme was inherited by other texts and was elaborated in the cosmogonic parts of the Puranas.
A different answer to the question about the origin of the world was given by the hymn to Purusha. He painted a picture of the creation of the world from the body of some primordial being, the first man. The image of Purusha also firmly entered Hinduism and was picked up by the Upanishads and religious and philosophical systems. Over time, he lost his anthropomorphic features and turned into an abstract symbol of the original substance.
Vedic cosmogony operated with the concepts and terms "yajna" (sacrifice), "tapas" (heat, heat), "maya" (illusion), etc. The idea of ​​sacrifice, central to the Vedic texts, outlived the Vedic time for a long time. In subsequent Vedic ritualism, she was assigned a dominant position among all sacred actions, and her connection with the world-creation and cosmogonic symbolism were preserved. Tapas, associated with heat and warmth and associated with sunlight, later became identified with the ascetic's willpower and denoted one of the creative principles. Maya, the magical power that the Vedic god Indra used in duels with demons, in subsequent texts began to denote a cosmic illusion, with the help of which the primordial spiritual principle creates the material world. The cardinal idea of ​​the Vedic worldview remained to exist in Hinduism: the subordination of people, gods and the whole world to the universal impersonal force. It expressed itself most fully in the idea of ​​karma.
Finally, from the Vedic mythology, superimposed on the pre-Aryan basis, the entire subsequent mythology of Hinduism grew, which retained a successive connection with its deep sources. Throughout the foreseeable course of its existence, Hinduism has remained a mythological religion with a complex pantheon of gods and no less complex mythological and ritual complexes. Mythology still penetrates into all areas of traditional culture and all forms of knowledge of the world. Many ancient mythological models and symbols retain their significance in modern India.
Thus, the entire subsequent culture of India was formed around Hinduism, and it reflected and continued the ancient worldview of the Vedas.
The next period (approximately from the 8th-6th centuries BC to the 4th century BC) was the era of the Upanishads. They entered as an essential part of the system of Brahmanism and marked the post-Vedic period in the development of religious and philosophical thought. The Upanishads, totaling over 200, were created over a long period and constituted the final part of the Vedas - Vedanta ("the end of the Vedas") - a name later transferred to the philosophical school, the main source of which they were.
Unlike the Vedas, the attention of the Upanishads to ritual rituals is minimized, and mythology serves only as a starting point for philosophical speculation.
The most ancient and authoritative Upanishads are Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya (VIII-VI centuries BC). The central concepts of the Upanishads are Brahman and Atman. They also develop ideas about Purusha, dharma, karma, samsara, expound the doctrine of two paths (the path of the gods and the path of the ancestors), formulate the ultimate goal of human existence in a new way. The Upanishads contain elements of the doctrine of the three gunas, prakriti, prana and its varieties. All concepts serve not only as an object of abstract speculation, but also as a starting point for quite specific discussions about the phenomena of the surrounding world, their origin and interconnection. The texts of the Upanishads also contain various cosmogonic theories. They do not give a single cosmogonic legend or scheme, repeating mainly variations on the themes of the Vedic hymns and continuing to develop the ideas of self-existing creativity and its various manifestations.
The presentation of the natural-philosophical concepts of the Upanishads is not an end in itself. They are given mainly in order to lead the adept to comprehend this or that idea expressed by the teacher in instruction to the student. Unlike the Vedas, the emphasis here is not on cosmic plots and their consistency, but on their symbolic rethinking.
Of great interest are the views of the Upanishads on the physiological and psychological activity of man, on his functions, abilities, state of the human psyche and the whole organism. The texts also give programs of proper behavior and proclaim certain ethical norms, and ethical views are in close connection with cosmological, physiological and psychological teachings.
The Upanishads thus demonstrate the rich complex of philosophical ideas that have been the fruit of the creativity of many sages over several epochs. It is in the Upanishads that the origins of most of the later philosophical teachings of Hinduism lie.
The religious and mythological concepts of the Upanishads originate in ancient mythological and ritual representations, but develop them on a different level. Thus the Upanishads made a radical revolution in the development of archaic magico-ontological traditions.
The texts related to the smriti tradition reflect the next important period in the development of Hinduism. Conventionally, it can be called epic and classic. In the general chronological framework (IV century BC - VI century AD), it approximately coincides with the period of the final development of northern India by the Indo-Aryans. By this time, the Indo-Aryan culture had spread over a large area and came into contact with local cultures.
Among the smriti texts, some of the Puranas, the epic works of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, and some of the dharmashastras received the greatest popularity and distribution among the Hindus. Of the latter, perhaps the most important for most adherents of Hinduism were and remain the "Laws of Manu" ("Manu-smriti", or "Manava dharma shastra") - a collection of laws on righteous behavior.
The Hindu standard of conduct was associated with four stages of life (varna-ashrama-dharma): disciple, householder, hermit and ascetic. Traditionally, he belonged to the conservative aspects of human life and constituted one of the distinctive and striking features of Hinduism.
The doctrine of the four ashrams correlated with four life goals or principles: dharma (moral duty), artha (activities aimed at achieving material well-being), kama (love, pleasure) and moksha (spiritual liberation from the bonds of being). For each period of life, not only a special program of behavior and setting of activity was proposed, but also a preferred circle of reading: for the student - the Vedas, for the householder - the Brahmins, for the hermit - the Aranyakas, for the ascetic - the Upanishads.
The transition from one period of life to another was marked by special rites. The most important among them was the rite of passage - upanayana, which marked the entry of the Hindu into a socially active phase of life.
The ritualistic character marked the whole way of life of the Hindu in traditional society. Ritual was the most important "instrument" that included a person in society. It was also one of the most effective ways of socio-cultural regulation of behavior, an emotional and psycho-regulatory mechanism. The Hindu fell into a dense network of rituals even before his birth, and was far from being freed from it immediately, even after his physiological death.
Birth and death in Hinduism were not considered at all as the limits of individual existence. The correct growth and formation of a person, according to Hindu principles, is not only and not so much a physiological as a mystical process and therefore requires constant sanctification. It is achieved through a system of sanskaras - rituals of the life cycle.
The meaning and significance of sanskaras will become clearer if we recall the worldview idea expressed in ancient Indian texts: a person is a sacrificial vessel, his life is a closed cycle of sacrifices, and sanskaras are cleansing actions that consistently purify him before the last sacrifice - death.
In different Hindu texts, a different number of sanskaras is called, from 10 to 48. Their main set is usually reduced to 12-18. The traditional order of presentation is from the wedding and the conception of a child following it to the funeral rites.
True knowledge of the stages of human life and the obligatory adherence to prescribed behavioral standards were seen as a guaranteed path to the highest goal - breaking the chains of endless births and deaths.
The specificity of the perception of a person in Hinduism lies in the fact that he is considered not as a separate individuality, but as a special form of existence of a thinking being in the earthly world, and this form is subject to general hierarchical laws, due to which it arises, develops and ceases to exist as a result of actions, committed in correct sequence and properly. This perception of a person determined specific ethical principles in Hinduism.
In their most general form, they boil down to the following. A Hindu from birth has karma - a certain energy potential and destiny, which he must follow as a member of his family, clan, caste, village and, finally, the country. This is his religious duty - dharma, and he will best fulfill it if he follows the existing ritual scenario and the rules of the four ashrams.
The sociocultural space in which a Hindu goes through all the stages of his life path is determined not only by the traditional Hindu ideology, but also by the traditional social structure of society. Each person is deeply integrated in a kindred, clan, caste community and cannot fully exist outside of it.
Hinduism introduced a high degree of ritualization into the caste system as well. Each caste and, accordingly, each of its members has a certain ritual status - a place traditionally recognized for the caste (it is determined primarily by the sacred opposition "pure / impure").
Returning to the smriti tradition, it is important to note the special place of the Puranas and the epic in it. In fact, they are an encyclopedic description of different aspects of life, shown through the prism of the main principles of Hinduism.
The Puranic codes imprint the traditional ideas about the origin and development of the world - from ancient cosmogonic myths to the facts of real history. They also describe the deeds of the gods, the establishment of cult practices, lists of temples and places of pilgrimage, astronomical, geographical and other knowledge, as well as behavioral and social prescriptions addressed to members of different age groups and social statuses.
The epic works "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana" are unique in many respects: in the composition of the monuments, in the history of their creation and existence, in their subsequent fate. They are revered in India as sacred books. The epos greatly contributed to the formation of the national cultural tradition. It was not without his influence that the further development of the religious and philosophical principles and ideals of Hinduism took place.
The epic existed in an environment of authoritative sacred texts, and their influence could not affect it. He remains faithful to the Vedic cosmogony, but in many parts it has been superseded by the Puranic. The epic texts include mythological fragments, philosophical and ethical doctrines, closely related primarily to the doctrine of karma. It reveals the postulates of orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, and also mentions unorthodox ones (Lokayata, Buddhism).
The Mahabharata includes the Bhagavad Gita, a key text for understanding Hinduism. It is designed in the traditional form and is an instruction in the form of a conversation between Krishna (the great god Vishnu is hidden behind his charioteer appearance) and Arjuna (one of the main epic heroes).
"The Bhagavad Gita for the first time introduced into Hinduism the theme of love as the main link between God and his adept. She also proclaimed love and boundless devotion to the deity as a way of salvation from the hardships of life, giving him preference over the path of disinterested action (karma-marga), and before the path of knowledge, i.e. philosophical comprehension of the truth (jnana-marga), and before yoga.
The Puranas and the epic testify to the changes that the Vedic-Brahmin tradition had undergone by that time. The Vedas still retained the status of the most authoritative texts, but were the property of only a narrow circle of educated priests. Brahmins themselves often interpreted them metaphorically in the spirit of new teachings. Unlike brahminical texts, epics, puranas, and dharmic texts could and did reach a wide audience, including members of the lower castes and women.
In the era of the Guptas (4th-6th centuries), Hinduism turned into a powerful religious movement, which had an extremely wide cultural and ethnic base. Despite the blows dealt to Hinduism by the Muslim invasion and rival Buddhism, he persevered and won an impressive victory over them. Islam remained to exist in India, forming in some regions a kind of synthesis with Hinduism, and Buddhism was almost completely driven out of India by the end of the ancient period, having had a certain influence on Hinduism. The latter occupied a strong dominant position, having established itself as the state religion, and has not given up to this day.
In the clash and confrontation with Islam and Buddhism, Hinduism once again showed its character traits- extraordinary flexibility, openness and tolerance. He absorbed both the religious traditions brought by the conquerors and local cults, and recognized the new deities as incarnations or manifestations of his ancient gods. Thus, not only pre-Aryan deities, but also Muslim and Christian beliefs and cults, and with them new strata of the population, were drawn into his sphere.
Hinduism of that period was able to oppose the closed and overly complicated ritualism of the Brahmins and the abstract-speculative approach of Buddhists and late Vedic thinkers with its new democratic form - bhakti, which presupposes, first of all, emotional devotion to a deity who is ready to bestow grace in return and deliver from the hardships of life and the fear of death.
The main objects of devotional worship and at the same time the central deities of Hinduism were three gods (trimurti): Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, but the first soon faded into the background, retaining a negligible number of adherents.
Each of the supreme gods of Hinduism - both Shiva and Vishnu - had origins in ancient times and absorbed a number of images and ideas that were included in common system cult either as various manifestations (Shiva) or as avatars or vyuhas (Vishnu).
The emotional side of religion has become dominant. The change in emphasis was associated with a change in socio-economic relations that took place in the early Middle Ages (frequent conflicts between powerful kingdoms, the destruction of former social structures, and with them the former ethical norms, the instability of many significant values). All the social realities of that time contained the prerequisites for the formation of bhakti as an ideological trend. The earliest evidence of it dates back to the 6th-8th centuries. and come from the Dravidian south. In other parts of India, similar currents arose later, but in their essential features they show complete similarity.
Among the various sects, currents and trends that at different times originated in the bosom of Hinduism, bhakti seems to be the most widespread geographically and ethnically and the least organized socially. This is a long stage in the development of Hinduism. The "explosion" of temple construction and the establishment of regular temple worship, which the Vedic cult did not know, is associated with it. Temples became places of pilgrimage; rituals and festivities were performed in them, temple households were formed.
An important aspect of cult practice was hymn creation, therefore, an extensive corpus of texts in local languages ​​is associated with bhakti. Many of these works are among the vivid and expressive monuments of religious poetry. And although the poetry of bhakti was predominantly cult and in the center of it was the intimate side of worship, nevertheless, many general philosophical and theological ideas are expressed in it. Most of them arose in connection with the development of Vedantism in Indian philosophy.
An essential factor in the Hindu ideology was Tantrism, associated in its origins with the ancient cult of the Great Mother Goddess (Devi). This life-giving mythological image has always influenced the non-Brahmin masses of the population and was popular in many parts of India, especially in Bengal and the Dravidian south. The mother goddess had a noticeable influence on the Sanskrit-speaking tradition during the period of the formation of the Puranic codes, into which Tantric ideas merged in a wide stream.
The goddess entered the official Hindu pantheon as the wife of Shiva. Together with her, ideas about shakti as the energy of God and the true basis of his power also joined his cult. In the teachings of Shaktism, she becomes the mother of the world and the personification of the feminine, indisputably dominating her divine spouse. Like Shiva and Vishnu, the goddess has her devoted devotees who use a special ritual technique to achieve final liberation.
The system of Hinduism also includes six philosophical teachings-darshan, the theoretical formulation of which took place in the first centuries of the new era or even earlier: nyaya and vaisheshika, sankhya and yoga, vedanta and mimamsa. They pursued different goals, but were considered as equally effective ways to achieve the ultimate goal - liberation from the cycle of samsara. Along with the six orthodox, there were also non-orthodox (i.e., not recognizing the authority of the Vedas) directions: ajivika and lokayata.
The basis for various philosophical views was laid in antiquity, and all subsequent activity of philosophers was reduced to the development of these ancient ideas. Unlike European thinkers who criticized and rejected their predecessors, Indian philosophers were primarily concerned with strengthening the arguments of the ancient teachers and developing their system in one aspect or another. Therefore, the religious and philosophical systems of Hinduism are successively connected with the ancient sources of thought set forth in the sutras, and do not completely outlive mythological syncretism. Subsequent philosophical works were commentaries on the source sutras; they, in turn, were commented on by their followers, and so on.
The formation and development of philosophical systems took place in stormy public disputes, which were a striking feature of ancient and medieval India. The struggle of ideas, which was constantly going on and sometimes reached a dramatic intensity, was reflected in the style of philosophical works, setting out different points of view, arguments and counter-arguments.
It is legitimate to begin the modern period in the development of Hinduism from the 18th-19th centuries, when its revival began in the activities of reformist and educational organizations, primarily Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj. It took place under the strong influence of European colonization and was brought to life by a number of reasons (the clash of traditional Indian culture with Western European civilization, new socio-economic and political relations, complex ethnic processes, etc.).
Being a flexible worldview system, Hinduism has once again adapted itself to changing conditions. Rammohan Roy, Keshobchondro Sen, Dayananda Saraswati, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Aurobindo Ghosh and other prominent enlighteners not only revised the conceptual foundations of Hinduism, but also tried to modernize it, linking it with the development of the national idea.
Hinduism retains a strong position at the present time, despite a noticeable simplification of the ritual and cult practice in urban areas. Everyday life, to change the role and status of the Brahmin class, to destroy some of the traditional values ​​of religious life.
In certain sections of modern society, God-seeking tendencies are observed, which are expressed in attempts to create a new universal religion that reconciles all contradictions. They are marked by a critical attitude towards traditional Hinduism, but most of the followers of the new religion belong to the Hindu community.
The roots of the Hindu worldview still remain alive and strong. Moreover, since the second half of the 70s. 20th century there is a rise of a new religious wave in Hinduism. New places of worship are erected, mass pilgrimages are made, and Hindu festivals are held; Numerous books on Hinduism are published. New gurus who declare themselves the incarnation of this or that deity are very popular. In the appeals of the figures of modern Hindu organizations, the ideas of the spiritual community of religions and the Hindu messianism, expressed at one time by Vivekananda, Aurobindo Ghosh, Mahatma Gandhi, and others, once again sound. Having existed for several millennia, Hinduism successfully adapts to modern conditions. As already noted, the "export" of Hinduism to the countries of the West, where it began to actively manifest itself in religious life, is increasing.

Hinduism. Jainism. Sikhism: Dictionary. - M.: Republic. M. F. Albedil, A. M. Dubyansky. 1996 .

Hindu scriptures have been written over thousands of years, and the theology and philosophy they expound provide an opportunity for spiritual realization and guide the spiritual life and practice of dharma. Among all the texts of Hinduism, the Vedas and Upanishads enjoy the greatest authority and are considered the most significant and ancient. Other important scriptures include the Puranas and the ancient Indian epic poems Mahabharata and Ramayana. It is often said that the main essence of Vedic knowledge is set forth in the Bhagavad-gita, which is a philosophical conversation between Krishna and Arjuna.

The Aryans mingled with the local tribes, called Dasa in the Rig Veda. As a result, the composition of society became more complex, which led first to the varna and then to the caste system, which became the social base of Hinduism. In the new system, the primary role was assigned to the brahmins - experts in the Vedas and the main performers of rituals.

Brahmanism became widespread in India in the 1st millennium BC. In the second half of the 1st millennium BC. the positions of Brahminism began to weaken, and for some time it was pushed aside by other religions, mainly Buddhism and Jainism. By the end of the 1st millennium BC. In India, a complex of heterogeneous religious ideas developed, which did not come into direct conflict with the Vedas, but were more in line with the new conditions of life.

The period of "mixing" ideas about the world of proto-Indian culture and the Aryans is called the period of Brahmazism. The picture of the world offered by the Brahmins was extremely ritualized. She divided the world into two levels, sacred and profane; they corresponded to the world of the gods and the world of people. The symbolic side of the ritual was noticeably intensified and the main active principle of all ritual procedures stood out. It also began to be understood as the substratum of all things in the world. In the pantheon, the creator god Prajapati came to the fore. He became a personified creative force and the fundamental principle of all things, generating the world and preserving it. This idea received further mythological development in the concept of the Hindu triad (trimurti): the gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva performed the functions of creating the world, its preservation and destruction, and were thought of as a single whole, embodying the trinity of divine forces.

In the epic (VI-II century BC) and subsequent Puranic periods, the first versions of the ancient Indian epics "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata" were written down, although they were transmitted orally for many centuries before and after this period. These epics describe the stories of the rulers and wars of ancient India, which are presented in combination with religious and philosophical treatises. The Puranas describe the stories of various avatars, as well as devas, their relationships with people and battles with demons.

This was followed by such a period of development of Hinduism as the period of the Upanishads. According to the deep worldview of the Upanishads, the relationship of the deity to the world is seen through their unity. The Deity can appear in many personifications, but from the point of view of the ultimate truth, it is the highest objective reality and the impersonal absolute - Brahman. It is inexpressible, cannot be described in terms of differential features, and is incomprehensible within the framework of any logic. Most precisely, it is defined apophatically.

As you can see, as a religious phenomenon, Hinduism is different extraordinary complexity and inconsistency, to say the least: to many it seems confusing, chaotic and difficult to comprehend. Until now, there is not even a satisfactory definition of the concept of "Hinduism" and a clear explanation of what to refer to it, what is the content and boundaries of this concept.

To summarize what has been said, here is an interesting example: legal definition of Hinduism was given by the Supreme Court of India in 1966. With clarifications made on July 2, 1995, it includes 7 main features:

1. "respectful attitude to the Vedas as the highest authority in religious and philosophical matters";
2. the presence of a spirit of tolerance towards a different point of view, arising from the recognition that truth is many-sided;
3. recognition of the cosmic "great world rhythm" - huge periods of creation, preservation and destruction of the universe, following one after another in an endless sequence, the idea of ​​which is shared by all six major systems of Hindu philosophy;
4. belief in rebirth (reincarnation) and the previous existence of the soul (individual spiritual entity);
5. recognition that liberation (from the "wheel of reincarnation") is achievable in various ways;
6. awareness as "equal" possibilities of "idolatry and denial of veneration of the visible image of the gods";
7. understanding that, unlike other religions, Hinduism is not associated with the recognition of a certain set of philosophical postulates.

Thus, although Hinduism is a huge conglomeration of theories, views, practices of more or less early, common features are still very, very clear.

Despite the contradictions between the various versions of Hinduism, all of them are based on several certain fundamental provisions.

Beyond the ever-changing physical world, there is a single universal, unchanging, eternal spirit, which is called Brahman. The soul (atman) of every being in the Universe, including the gods, is a particle of this spirit. When the flesh dies, the soul does not die, but passes into another body, where it continues a new life.

The fate of the soul in each new life depends on its behavior in previous incarnations. The law of karma says: no sin goes unpunished, no virtue goes unrewarded; if a person has not received a well-deserved punishment or reward in this life, he will receive them in one of the next. The behavior of a person determines the higher or lower status of the subsequent incarnation, it depends on him whether he will be born in the future as a man, a god, or, say, an insignificant insect.

For most Hindus, an important element of religious beliefs is the host of gods. In Hinduism, there are hundreds of deities, from small gods of local importance to great gods, whose deeds are known in every Indian family. Most famous are Vishnu; Rama and Krishna, two forms or incarnations of Vishnu; Siva (Shiva); and the creator god Brahma.

Holy books play a big role in all varieties of Hinduism. "Philosophical Hinduism" emphasizes such classical Sanskrit texts as the Vedas and Upanishads. Folk Hinduism, honoring both the Vedas and the Upanishads, uses epic poems as sacred texts. Ramayana And Mahabharata, often translated from Sanskrit into local languages. Part Mahabharata

The universe and ultimate reality. Hindu sacred books contain several different descriptions origin and structure of the universe. According to one theory, in the beginning, the god-demiurge Brahma formed the world from primary matter. According to another, the world appeared ready-made from a golden embryo. According to the third, everything in the world is created from the essence of the universal spirit, Brahman. Physically, the Universe is shaped like an egg and is divided into 14 regions, with the Earth being the seventh from the top.

The universe exists in cyclic time. Every event has happened before, and it will happen again in the future. This theory concerns not only the series of reincarnations of an individual, but also the history of society, the life of the gods and the evolution of the entire cosmos.

The smallest unit of the Hindu cosmic cycle is the yuga, or world age. There are four yugas, each shorter than the previous one, corresponding to the decreasing dharma of the moral order in the universe. Krita yuga, the era of perfection, lasts 1,728,000 years; treta yuga, in which dharma

Every Hindu belongs to a certain caste from birth and cannot change his caste. He must take a wife from his own caste; his occupation will also be traditional for this caste. All castes occupy a certain place in the caste hierarchy. The upper rung of this ladder is usually occupied by the castes of priests, brahmins, below are the castes of merchants, farmers, artisans and servants.

In one of the later hymns Rigveda, the most revered of the sacred books of Hinduism, describes the emergence of four main social classes (varnas): at the creation of the world, the first man was sacrificed to the gods, while priests and spiritual teachers (brahmins) appeared from the head of the dismembered body, warriors (kshatriyas) appeared from the hands of warriors ,

According to Hindu beliefs, divinity is an extension of Brahman, the universal spirit. Like Brahman, it is infinite and is in every particle of the universe, manifesting itself in a multitude of various forms. Thus, although there are many gods and Hindus, they are all one in Brahman and represent one divinity. God Krishna speaks in Bhagavad Gita: "Whatever form[Deities] no man worships with faith, I strengthen his faith. In Hindu families, they prefer to pray either to Vishnu and Shiva, or to one of the Shakti, spouse or feminine god.Vishnumost often appears in the role of the Protector, in contrast to the Creator Brahma and the destroyer Shiva. According to the beliefs of his devotees, the Vaishnavas, Vishnu repeatedly took earthly incarnations, avatars, each time in order to save the Universe from catastrophe. Images of Vishnu are usually dark blue in color, he has four arms and holds a symbol in each of his hands: a sea shell, a disk, a mace, a lotus. Sometimes Vishnu is depicted reclining on the rings of a huge many-headed serpent, Ananta, along with his wife Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, sitting at his feet, and a lotus with Brahma grows from Vishnu's navel. In other cases, Vishnu is depicted riding Garuda, the bird that serves as his vehicle. Vishnu's avatars are Fish, Turtle, Boar, Lion Man, Dwarf, Rama with an axe, Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalkin (the latter has not yet appeared). The inclusion of the Buddha among the avatars of Vishnu is typical of Hinduism, with its tendency to assimilate all religions: sometimes Hindus add the avatars of Christ to the list.

The most revered avatars of Vishnu, especially in northern India, are Rama and Krishna. King's son of Ram, hero Ramayana, is the embodiment of the image of a perfect ruler, and his wife Sita is an ideal Hindu wife. Krishna, the object of love and veneration of bhaktas, is worshiped as a playful child, endowed, however, with great strength, as a dark-skinned lover who plays the flute, enters into love games with shepherdesses, the most beloved of which is called Radha, and also as a mature hero of the epic Mahabharata and a clergyman from Bhagavad Gita

Although Hindus gather for temple prayers, Hinduism is not a communal religion. Religious rites are performed at home, either alone or with the participation of a few friends or relatives.

The most common type of religious ceremony is puja or worship. In almost every Hindu home there are sacred images or statues of beloved gods, in front of which prayers are read, hymns are sung and offerings are made. In poor dwellings, the puja takes place modestly. The mother of the family reads prayers at dawn and rings the bell in front of the colorful market pictures of the gods hung in the corner of her room. In the homes of rich people, puja is performed with offerings of delicious dishes and flowers, burning incense sticks in a special room that serves as a family temple, where the sacred fire never goes out. In such houses, on special occasions, the family priest, the purohita, is invited to the puja. Religious services of this kind are most common among the followers of the bhakti cult. Followers of various Hindu cults often show their affiliation with them through colored signs on the forehead, and sometimes on the body. For example, Shaivites draw three white horizontal stripes on their foreheads, Vaishnavas - white Latin

Hindu sacred texts fall into two main categories: shruti, or texts of divine revelation, and smritis, traditional books of famous authors. All Shruti literature is written in Sanskrit, the language of ancient India, Smriti literature uses both Sanskrit and regional languages.

The most important shruti texts are the Vedas ("knowledge"), which developed between 1500 and 900 BC. IN Rig Veda, the first of four books, contains hymns addressed to the gods revered at that time in India. Other Vedas contain various ritual formulas, spells, incantations and chants. Between 800 and 600 BC A series of prosaic interpretations of the four Vedas, known as the Brahmins, was created. They examine in detail all the details of the complex rituals of sacrifice, on which the cult of the Vedic gods was built. Around 600 BC new commentaries appeared, called aranyakas, which explore the symbolic meaning of Brahministic rituals, and the emphasis becomes more on understanding the essence of the ritual than on its exact performance. For a long time, covering the period before the creation of the later Brahmanas and well after the creation of the last Aranyakas, a series of works called the Upanishads were written. They highlight concepts that are still dominant in Hinduism to this day: the omnipresence of Brahman, the unity of Brahman and atman, karma and the transmigration of souls and liberation from a series of births. This entire body of Vedas, Brahmins, Aranyakas and Upanishads is considered sacred. In many regions of India, sacred texts are considered the exclusive privilege of the Brahmins, while members of the lower castes do not even have the right to look at these books.

Unlike shruti literature, smriti texts can be read by anyone. Most of them are either sutras, laconic aphorisms meant to be memorized, or shastras, treatises on various topics. Hindu life concepts: artha, kama and dharma presented Arthashastra Kautilya, a treatise on the duty of a ruler and on the exercise of power, Kamasutra Vatsayana, a treatise on erotology, and numerous Dharmashastrami codes of laws and moral rules attributed to Manu, Baudhayana, Yajnavalkya and other characters.

The most popular works of Smriti literature are epic poems. Mahabharata And Ramayana. Both evolved over time and are a combination of folklore legends and philosophical reasoning. IN Mahabharata tells the story of the dynastic struggle and great war. IN Mahabharata enabled Bhagavad Gita

Hinduism is one of ancient religions peace. The peoples of the Indus Valley Civilization professed diverse cults of the mother goddess, worshiped sacred trees and phallic-shaped columns. On a number of stone tablets discovered during excavations, a god is depicted in a yogic pose, which is the prototype of Shiva. ( see also INDIA; ANCIENT CIVILIZATION.) In the middle of II thousand BC this civilization was destroyed by conquerors who invaded the Indus Valley from the northwest. The conquerors, called Aryans, spoke an Indo-European language close to ancient Iranian. These were patriarchal tribes, revering mainly the gods, personifying the forces of nature. Among the gods was Indra god of storm and war, Vayu god of wind, mountain god Rudra, god of fire Agni, sun god Surya. Aryan priests, the Brahmins, performed sacrifices and composed hymns, which form the basis of the Vedas.

By 98 centuries. BC. Brahmins occupied dominant positions in Indian society, and sacrificial rites became very complicated. Already in the 7th c. BC e. a reaction began to the excessive ritualism and the ever-increasing power of the Brahmins. Texts such as the Aranyakas began to explore the meaning of sacrifice, while the Upanishads questioned the fundamental cosmological concepts of the ancient Aryans. The earliest Aryan hymns say that after death the soul goes to hell. New thinkers put forward the concept of the transmigration of souls, which over time was reinforced by the law of karma.