OVERVIEW of HINDU THEOLOGY

By Rajiv Malhotra

The Infinity Foundation

Email: Rajiv.Malhotra@att.net

1. Ultimate Reality:

There is ONE omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient Ultimate Reality that is simultaneously:

1. Transcendent, as in Abrahamic religions; AND
2. Immanent, whereby the universe is the manifestation of the Ultimate Reality -the body of God. (Yet God remains transcendent and unchanged at the same time.) The relationship between ‘a’ and ‘b’ has been the basis of multiple Hindu worldviews. Compared to the Christian notion of immanence, there are important differences:

Ø In Hinduism, the Ultimate Reality and its body (the universe) are with no beginning. This manifestation is cyclical: a universe comes into being and passes away according to a regular pattern, like inhalation and exhalation. In Christianity, there was one unique Creation (with a capital ‘C’) with nothing prior to it.

Ø In Christianity, the created universe is separate from God and has its own self-existence. In materialistic science, creation is a ‘big bang’ out of nothing. In contrast to both these worldviews, in Hinduism the universe is a manifestation of, and form of, the Ultimate Reality. It arises out of the being of the Ultimate Reality, not for any reason, but as a natural process simply because this is the nature of Reality; it is maintained for a while as the form of the Ultimate Reality; and then dissolves back into the unmanifest state within the Ultimate Reality. There it lies dormant in potential form until it emerges again at the commencement of another cycle.

Ø In Christianity, God was not immanent in the universe prior to Jesus, and the unique significance of Jesus is that his historical arrival turned the universe into the Body of Christ, i.e. made God immanent. In Hinduism, immanence is the very nature of Reality and not the result of a historical event. This is why Hindus can and do accept Jesus as God’s intervention, but (i) not historically unique, and (ii) nor one that changed the nature of Reality. (See 4a)

In mainstream Judaism and Islam, God is transcendent but not immanent. There have been popular claims that Sufism is non-dualistic and hence consistent with immanence, but this needs to be qualified in two ways: (i) Sufism has been a very tiny percentage of Islam throughout Islam’s history. (ii) Even more importantly, Sufis experience union with God but clarify when asked that this is not an ontological unity and merely a temporary experience of unity. Mainstream Islam considers claims of ontological oneness with God as blasphemy.

2. Representations of the Ultimate:

Religions believing in God’s transcendence only do not consider images of God as legitimate, while religions that believe in God’s immanence regard images as central to their practice. Hinduism is both. The Ultimate Reality may be represented in many ways, theistic and non-theistic, and accessed through many paths. The theistic representations are conceptualized and worshipped in many ways. Yet all theistic and non-theistic representations are mental images of the Ultimate Reality apart from which there is nothing else. All paths lead to the Ultimate Reality. Thus Hinduism is pluralistic, but not polytheistic. Each representation by humans is merely an approximation, and helps humans to perceive the transcendent Ultimate Reality through their limited senses and mind.

3. Gender:

Hindu theism is capable of being understood through either gender. It has both the Fatherhood and the Motherhood of God. Only within the Hindu traditions is there such an elaborate theology worked out on the conception of the Supreme as God-as-She. She is not the mother of God, but Mother God! (See 4d.)

4. Humanity’s Access to the Supreme:

The ultimate Reality communicates with humanity in many ways, including:

1. By entering the world: Manifesting as personified incarnations called avatars in some Hindu theologies. This allows Hindus to accept Jesus within their system, but NOT as the exclusive avatar. Rama and Krishna are the two most commonly worshipped avatars.
2. By sending messages: Sages and saints (who are not avatars) are ecstatic humans with a transformed consciousness, and receive messages of inspiration from God. (Imagine a radio station perpetually broadcasting divine inspiration, and sages are specially tuned receivers capable of experiencing the inspiration.) They are capable of facilitating a transformation of others through transmission of grace.
3. Rare human potential to rise into the Ultimate Reality: While (a) and (b) are ‘top down’ communications initiated by the Supreme, every human also has the potential to attain an extraordinary state known as the ‘rishi’ state, through spiritual meditation and esoteric practices.

Ø A rishi (seer) is in a state of non-difference with God, and the limits of human representation mentioned in paragraph 2 are transcended.

Ø Yoga’s very fine and subtle physiology and psychology are discoveries in the clear mind of the rishi state, which alone can understand trans-personal (and therefore trans-psychological) reality. 

Ø A rishi teaches the first principles of truth from direct experience. But given the conceptual nature of language, his disciples receive his teachings in their own relative contextual framework. Buddhism and Jainism, while not using theistic language, are based on similar notions of jina, arahat, and bodhisattva.

4. As the forces of nature: In the Vedas, "Ekam sad vipra bahuda vadanti" refers to the many deities as the attributes of the One Reality. These represent various cosmic processes and energies, and are vehicles leading to the Ultimate Reality. They are not Gods and Goddesses in the western sense.

Ø These cosmic processes and energies are either feminine devis (such as Lakshmi, Durga, etc.) or masculine devas (such as Agni, Vayu, etc.). They are loosely translated as ‘gods’ or ‘goddesses’.

Ø All goddesses are forms of the one Goddess, each form being one aspect of her.

Ø The Goddess is not subservient to God but is God herself in the form of ‘shakti’ (energy), and hence a devotee’s direct link to the Ultimate Reality. Devi is simply the feminine equivalent of Deva, and not a derivate as ‘goddess’ is to ‘god’.

5. Perennial not Historical:

Hinduism is perennial dharma, which is an abstract concept of an ever evolving engagement with Ultimate Reality:

1. Religious history is therefore not critical, and hence not the nexus for religious truth or serious contention. You can be a perfect Hindu without knowing or believing in any historical event whatsoever, or in any theory of history.
2. Modern Hinduism, is a temporal enactment or version of this evolving engagement with Reality.
3. Hinduism has no limit to the number of historical engagements of God with humanity via avatars, prophets, and rishis. Hence, there is no privileged tribe, culture, place or time for such communication from God. God is a very prolific communicator, very accessible, and did not grant anyone the exclusive franchise to represent him.

6. Pluralism:

Hinduism is inherently pluralistic within itself, and its lack of hard-edged identity keeps it alive for fresh interpretation and regeneration. At the same time, without doubt, diverse practitioners think of themselves as Hindus, and its variety of ideas can be seen as part of a coherent tapestry:

1. Numerous incarnations, prophets, saints, and spiritual methods have emerged over several millennia.
2. Rather than one absolute book, Hinduism therefore has a library of scriptures of enormous diversity (with thousands of texts), each documenting the spiritual experiences in some context. It is an open rather than a closed body of knowledge, in that there is no finality and completeness of knowledge expressible in human language, thereby giving room for new ideas and experience.
3. Hinduism does not have one church, one pontiff or one central authority. Its knowledge is classified into ‘shruti’ (revealed knowledge), ‘mat’ (opinion or theory) ‘vad’ (argument or view) ‘siddhanta’ (proven theory), ‘shastras’ (systems of thought or well-established view points to guide us), and ‘smriti’ (sociological constructions).
4. A Hindu is free to pick and choose, and to adapt these ideas and practices.
5. Hinduism’s spiritual know how is cumulative, as an encyclopedia, as opposed to substitutive: new revelations and spiritual discoveries get added, but previous ones do not get eradicated.
6. Hindu texts include the empirical experiences of the rishis, with centuries of peer debates and cross fertilization amongst hundreds of sects. This confluence included Hindus, Buddhists, Jainas, and Sikhs. Pluralism was the accepted norm.
7. There are hundreds of religious sub-groups within Hinduism. Had Jesus been born in India, he would have been assimilated as another great avatar, along with Rama, Krishna and others. Already, Jesus is often included in the Hindu pantheon of ‘gods’ and worshipped in many temples.
8. The immense variety of yoga signifies that different people need different paths and practices. For the Hindus, to say 'One Lord, one church, one way', is excessively and somewhat naively exclusivist, as to try to fit every person into the same size shirt is to ignore the human situation.

7. The Individual:

The nature of the individual is seen as follows:

1. Each individual, including every sentient being, is in a relation to God as a drop is to the ocean. All these drops are part of one coherent divine play/dance called ‘leela’.
2. Karma is the ethical framework of responsibility and accountability of one’s choices made under a system of free will. Karma is not fatalism, but a system of merit-based consequences.
3. Reincarnation is the system of rebirth into another life, based on one’s cumulative karma. This explains why different persons are born into different circumstances – it is not God playing dice or arbitrarily assigning fate. In practice, karma theory’s main use is not as an explanatory model for present circumstances, but as a guide to good action.
4. As the consequences of one’s karma get played out, the karma gets erased, but the record gets replenished with fresh karma being accumulated since the individual is always making choices.
5. There are infinitely many individual ‘souls’ in the dance, each making free choices and receiving the consequences.
6. Liberation is the state of freedom in which the very entity accumulating karma and bound by its causation radically transforms/dissolves, and the ‘individual’ is non-different than the Ultimate Reality. Heaven is therefore not a physical place but such a state of existence.

8. Nature of Good and Evil:

Hinduism is based on original purity rather than original sin. There is no Devil or Hell in Hinduism, and the notion of evil is as follows:

1. Evil forces are also part of the same cosmic dance, as there cannot be a separate reality or any realm ‘outside’ of the all inclusive Ultimate Reality.
2. As the source of suffering, evil is personified as asura, rakshasa, etc. It is not Devil or Satan in the Abrahamic sense, but a multitude of powerful intelligences capable of wreaking great harm, for in reality, evil is all around us in different shapes and forms. More importantly, in the Hindu world view, these tendencies are also present within each of us. We must recognize this evil potential within, learn to control it and deal with it, and eventually to transform it – and this is the purpose of yoga or inner alchemy. There has been no Inquisition or witch hunting in the Hindu world, as evil cannot be externalized and sent into exile away from 'us' to 'them'.
3. Heaven and Hell are states of existence within reality itself, pictured as complex transcendental realms called svarga and naraka, respectively:

Ø Stay in svarga or in naraka is temporary. Heaven is a place of rest and recuperation, not our final destination; after exhausting our good karmas, we return to earth to strive once again.  Hell, likewise, is a place of torment or suffering for those who do evil, but they too eventually return to earth. There's no eternal hell or heaven, and the time span in either experience can vary from brief to extremely long.

Ø There are many kinds of heavens and hells, these realms being known as lokas.  These correspond to our own psyches.  In other words, there are as many lokas as there are states of mind! Each deity has his/her own heaven where they live with their devotees--vaikuntha, kailasa, etc. 

Ø Earth is the unique evolutionary realm, where we take birth out of our own volition for our spiritual growth and eventual enlightenment. Ultimately, we realize a state of non-difference with Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, from which all have sprung and unto which all return.

9. Diversity and Choice of Practices:

Hindu practices are very diverse, eclectic, and adaptable by communities, families, and individuals, and for specific circumstances:

1. Hinduism organizes the pursuits in life into four categories, and prescribes ethics for each:

Ø Dharma - righteous and ethical living, including one’s relationships with family, society, and ecology.

Ø Artha – material wealth and prosperity by ethical means.

Ø Kama - fulfillment of desires.

Ø Moksha - self-realization and liberation.

2. Numerous technologies of inner transformation or alchemy include a variety of meditation, yoga, and tantra techniques, whose object is to accelerate spiritual growth. Yoga is a spiritual practice wherein all the deities are internalized, and not just a mind-body fitness fad. Many westerners do not know that Dhyana, a technique within yoga, is called Zen in Japanese.
3. Human-like images can be used to represent deities. These are images and not ‘idols’. Images are akin to an artist’s rendering of an abstract idea, and hence the same idea may be represented in thousands of variations.
4. A given deity or divine power may also be accessed via images that are not personified, as in geometric diagrams, or without any images at all, as practiced by certain sects.
5. Besides visuals, divine powers may also be accessed through sacred sounds called mantras. AUM is the primordial mantra on which all others are built.
6. Rituals are a form of sacred theater. All five senses are used in the performance, including visual objects, sounds, fragrances, actions and touch, and taste.
7. A ritual may engage various levels of being, from devotional emotion, to intellectual commitment and reinforcement of concepts, to paranormal access of higher intelligences.
8. Pooja is a common kind of ritual, which is a form of guided imagery where devotees imagine that they have invited their ishta deva in front of them and they are treating their ishta deva as an honored guest with utmost love and devotion.
9. Prayer in the same style and sense as is performed in Abrahamic religions has also been a common practice in Hinduism. Prayer may be individual or collective as a group. Prayer may be either direct with God, or via a deity. It may be at home or in a temple.
10. Most Hindus believe in a direct private communion with their chosen representation of God (‘ishta deva’), i.e. without any intermediary, in an atmosphere of perfect peace and tranquility. For this, most Hindu families set aside a place in their home for daily worship. Hence, there is no requirement to join a religious institution. Most Hindus are not formal members of any religious organization.
11. Sanskrit is considered to have arisen from the Ultimate Reality, so that each sound in its alphabet corresponds to a specific divine intelligence/energy. Indian Music is sacred and in accordance with principles of ‘sonic theology’. Indian Dance is sacred and in accordance with a grammar of movements.
12. Despite the plethora of images, Hinduism is not polytheistic, but respects poly-representation.

10. Ecology and Nature:

a. Hindus look upon nature as sacred, honoring the rivers and mountains as homes of deities. They stress the protection of Mother Earth, which they worship as a Goddess.

b. Hindu scriptures prescribe vegetarianism and protection of all forms of life, including animals and trees. Hinduism classifies food as satvic, rajasic and Tamasic. Satvic (pure), which is conducive to health, peace and spirituality, is essentially vegetarian, including milk which is the first food of humans.

c. Rivers, forests and cows are held to require special protection because of their importance in sustaining life on Mother Earth. Hindus believe that animals too have a soul.