RELIGIOUS BEFIEFS
The origin of Hinduism can be traced to the Vedic Age when
the rishis and sages in their state of supranornal consciousness revealed the
divine Truth. The heart of the vedic culture was their religion which
manifested itself with the chanting of Vedic mantras. The fundamental
postulates of early vedic religious belief are as follows.
Nature Worship
The religious belief of the Vedic people was very simple in
nature. The Aryans led a. pastoral life and spent their time amid the bounties
of nature. The towering mountain peaks vast green fields, boundless seas
encircling the land, the splendour of seasons - all these produced a purifying
effect on them.
These lustrous natural phenomena inspired the Vedic Aryans
to worship nature with awe and reverence. Therefore, the gods worshipped by the
Aryans were generally the personified powers of nature. These Gods were
classified into three categories corresponding to three orders having eleven
Gods in each. Thus, the total number was thirty three. Following are the Gods
of three orders;
*Terrestrial
Sphere (Prithvi Sthana)- Prithvi,Agni, Soma, Brihaspati and the rivers.
*
Intermediate Sphere (Antariksha Sthana)- Indra, Apam-napad, Vayu-Vata, Prajanya,
Marut and Matarisvan.
*
Celestial Sphere (Dyu Sthana) - Varuna, Mitra Surya, Pushan. Vishn, Aditya,
Usha, Dyu and Aswini.
The Vedic sages conceived the existence of spiritual
principles behind the inert mater. For instance, Prithvi was mentioned as a
personification of earth. Usha was regarded as the Goddess of dawn, while Ratri
was the spirit of night. Aranyani was the Goddess of forest al deity of lesser
importance.
Indra was the most powerful God of Vedic Age who fulfilled
the dual functions of God of war and weather.
Marut was the God of
wind whose chief sphere of action was the ethereal middle region.
Sun was the destroyer of darkness. He embodied light, energy,
life and wealth.
Agni, the God of
fire, was the intermediary between Gods and acted like a coordinator among all
divinities. The offerings poured into the holy fire were supposed to be sent by
Agnil to various other deities.
Some was worshipped
as the God of wine but later on was identified with moon. Varuna was the God of
truth and no sinner could escape from his clutches. Mitra, a God with solar
characteristic was mainly connected with vows and compacts. In addition to
these divinities, others like Prajanya, Savitri, Saraswati, Brihaspati, yama
were also venerated by the Vedic Aryans.
A very simple mode of
worship was adopted by the Aryans for these gods and goddesses. Prayers,
mantras, hymns, yajna, offerings to these divine figures were made not only for
material gains but for enlightenment and knowledge.
Every Aryan family
had a special place of worship. All the members of the family gathered to
participate in the religious offerings and sacrifices in the form of milk,
ghee, grains, fruits and somarasa. Further, chanting of Gayatri Mantra was most
popular in this regard which was recited daily - a practice still in vogue in
India.
Monotheism
As discussed above, the Aryans used to worship various manifestations
of nature. The worshipping of various forces of nature as gods generally gives
the impression that Aryans were polytheists. However, that was not the real
case. Behind the worshipping of several natural phenomena, the Aryans sincerely
believed in a single Absolute truth permeating all of them.
Vedic religion had
attached profound importance to the Doctrine of Karma or Action. In other
words, a good soul who performed good deeds was rewarded whereas the evil soul
l was punished for evil deeds. So the concept of heaven and hell dominated the
Aryan's religious belief.
Further the Aryans
used to burn their dead and then consigned the ashes to the water because they
believed that only then would the soul rest in peace. For them, soul is
immortal and leaves the body which dies to be reborn elsewhere.
In this manner the
Aryans had established a strong base in social and economic life, political organization
and religion in the early phase of Vedic Civilization. The Aryan culture had
begun to take a concrete shape by manifesting its individual characteristics.
Then started the later vedic civilization with certain changes in the earlier
form.
Good
ReplyDeletewhat
Deletewhat
ReplyDelete