Hinduism: The Practices, Customs, and Beliefs

1. What things do people want?

A: Pleasure, Worldly success, and path of renunciation.

2. Regarding pleasure, should we suppress desire? Does Hinduism require good sense and observing the basic rules of morality?

A: No, it says one should not suppress desire, but approach it with good sense. It is one of the four legitimate ends to life and there is nothing wrong with going after it.

3. What forms does the goal of worldly success take?

A: Wealth, fame, and power.

4. What four limitations does success take?

A: exclusivity and competition, the drive for success is insatiable, centers meaning around ones finite self, rewards are ephemeral.

5. What people really want: What is the forth, final and true want?

A: Moksha. To be, to know, to be infinitely happy. To liberate from everything that distances us infinite being, awareness, and bliss.

6. What is Atman? What is Brahman? Atman-Brahman?

A: The self, the god head, same level as god.

7. Where is the eternal in us? What is the human project?

A: buried deep within all of us 'sheaths'. The human project is meant to clean one chimney to let the light within radiate outwards.

8. The Beyond within: What imperfections is it possible to transcend? What are the three limits of joy?

A: Physical pain, ignorance, and restricted being. The three limits of joy are physical pain, thwarted desire, and ennui. (Emptiness)

9. Explain life's second limitation of ignorance and the effects of its removal?

A: Not knowledge, but it refers to an insight that lays bare the meaning of things at large.

10. How is restricted being, life's third limitation, to be approached? How is every moment of our lives a dying?

A: By asking how the self is to be defined. The I of the moment dies never to be reborn again.

11. Explain the Hindu notion of human nature that "posits a self that threads successive lives in the way a single life threads successive moments"

A: Hinduism considers the mind to be infinite, passing from body to body for several lifetimes.

12. Explain the idea that our minds are infinite in being, in awareness, and in joy.

A: although the body ages, the mind is infinite

13. How are we like the analogies used in the book?

A: we are blind and searching for something that is right in front of us.

14. Four paths of god: What is yoga, its meaning and is goal? What is the first step in of each of the four yogas?

A: knowledge "Juana", devotion "bhakti", work "karma", meditation "raja".

15. What is the personality type intended for juana yoga? What is juana yoga? What is the key to this yoga? What are the stages of discrimination, and how do they proceed toward self-identification with god?

A: Reflective, The path to oneness with god through knowledge. The stages of discrimination are: hearing, thinking, and shifting self identification.

16. What is Bhakti yoga and by what human faculty is it powered? What is the Bhaktas goal? What is the purpose of Hinduisms myths, symbols, images of god, and rituals? What is Japam?

A: Bhakti yoga is based on devotion and it is powered by human emotions and feelings. Bhaktis goal is to sense god not be god. The purpose of Hinduisms myths, symbols, images of god, and rituals are ideals for enlightment. Japam is repeating gods name over and over.

17. What is the relation between our love of loved ones and the love of god, and rituals? What is the ishte and what is its purpose?

A: All modes of love have their place in strengthening the love of god. Ishte is to worship god in ones chosen ideals and its purpose is to strengthen the relationship with god.

18. What is the third path to god and what type of person is it intended? How is karma yoga practiced for the jnana, as compared with the bhakta?

A: work is the third path to god and is intended for an active and energetic person.

Each task is sacred and done in god's glory.

19. If work is prompted by gods will and powered by gods energy, what is the effect on the ego?

A: Actions lighten the ego instead of encumbering it.

20. How does work proceed unselfishly, in the spirit of detachment, for a reflective person? If one cares 'nothing for the fruit of their actions' what effect does this have on the finite ego?

A: The deeds are performed by duty and the true self has nothing to do with them. This starves the finite ego by withdrawing interest from from the bearing of their work.

21. What is Raja yoga and for what type of person is this yoga designed? For this yoga, what is the hypothesis of the human self? What is the purpose and method of raja yoga?

A: meditation and is for the experimental person. The four layers of self : body, conscious mind, individual subconscious, and private subconscious. The purpose is to demonstrate the validity of the four fold estimate of the human self.

22. Outline and explain the eight steps of raja yoga?

A: personal life in order, 5 observances (cleanliness, contentment, self control, studiousness, and contemplation of desire.) 5 abstentions (injury, lying, stealing, sensuality, and greed.) lotus posture, control breathing, contemplation, concentration, object fills awareness, and suimdhi, the object disappears.

23. Does Hinduism encourage people to test the four yogas and combine them in ways that are most productive?

A: yes, Hinduism encourages people to test all four yoga to find their own path to god.

24. Name the four stages in life and explain them? What is the sannyasin and what characterizes this stage?

A: Students (8 - 12 yrs old learn skill), Marriage (Householder - family, vocation, and duty), retirement (time to find self), Renunciation -sannyasin

25. Stations of life: Name and explain the four castes that people fall into?

A: Outcast- untouchables, excluded from society

Brahmins / se'ers - intellectual and spiritual leaders.

Administrators / kshatrim - supervisors

Producers / vaisiyas - skilled labor, engineers, farmers, ect.

Followers / shudras - need supervising.

26. Speaking of god: What does neti-neti mean? What is the chief attributes of Brahman (God)? What are Saguna ans Nirguna brahmans? Is the world god dependant? Does god will the world? Is god affected by the world?

A: Not this, not this. God is being, awareness, and bliss. Sanguna- with attributes Nirguna- without attributes. Yes, unitentionally, no

27. Coming of age: What is jiva? What is reincarnation? Explain jiva for different forms of life? What does the doctrine of karma imply for personal responsibility? Explain the journey in terms of its wants. What happens when Moksha is reached?

What is the lesson of the fable of the kalpatana tree?

A: Jiva- soul, reincarnation is the process of a jiva passing through a sequence of bodies. Through life each wish will be granted with consequences attached. The individual soul passes through complete identification with god and loses any trace of its former separateness.

28. Many paths to the same summit: What is Hinduism's conviction about the various major religions and god?

A: Various religions are alternate paths to the same god.