The Hinduism area is divided into different sections:
1. The Hinduism Tree, which is a Sita Ashoka tree. This tree signifies a state of being free from Shoka or Sorrow. Its the tree under which Sitaji sat in the Ashoka Vatika in lanka. The essence of Hinduism is to live a life of Supreme Happiness & Fearlessness. Pradakshina can be done around this tree to signify that may our lives revolve around Fearlessness and Happiness alone.
Hinduism & Tree Analogy
“Before any of the great cultures existed, Hinduism was there. We attended to the birth of the Egyptians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Babylonians, the Mesopotamians; we rocked their cradles, we applauded their achievements; we tended them in their oldage and when they died, we performed their funeral rites. How have we the Hindus been able to survive when all other great cultures have risen and fallen? It was the wisdom of our Rishis, their adaptability. Hinduism is like the bark of a tree. As the tree grows, the bark expands along with it. Other cultures were like wires wound around the trunk; as the tree grew the wire got absorbed into it and disappeared. Yet in Hinduism only the non-essentials change. The essentials – The Sanathana Dharma – the Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram – always remain intact.
Hindu religion is elastic like the bark of a tree and always throws up men who can show the common man how the non-essentials can be adapted to prevailing circumstances without destroying the purity of the essentials of the religion.”
Hence we are using the huge tree in this area and calling it as the Hinduism Tree. In the Video section there is a talk of Swami Chinmayananda on Hinduism using the analogy of a Tree.
Let Us Be Hindus
(First Talk given by Swami Chinmayananda on 23rd December 1951 as a part of the Gangotri Plan)
A Hindu swami to talk. A Hindu temple for the background. A crowded hall of Hindus audience, and the subject for discussion: “Let us be Hindus.” Strange! It sounds like a ridiculous paradox and a meaningless contradiction. I can very well see that you are surprised at the audacity of this sadhu.
It has become a new fashion with the educated Hindu to turn up his nose and sneer in contempt at the very mention of his religion in any discussion. Personally I too belong in my sympathies to these critics of our religion. But when this thoughtless team begins to declare we would benefit ourselves socially and nationally by running away from our sacred religion, I pause to reconsider my own stand.
At the present state of moral, ethical, and cultural degradation in our country, to totally dispose of religion would be making our dash to ruin the quicker. However decadent our religion may be, it is far better than having none at all. My proposal is that the wise thing would be for us to try and bring about a renaissance of Hinduism so that under its greatness-proved through many centuries-we may come to grow in to the very heights of culture and civilization that was our in the historical past.
No doubt, in India Hinduism has come to mean nothing more than bundle of sacred superstitions, or a certain way of dressing, cooking, eating, talking and so on. Our gods have fallen to the mortal level of administration officers at whose alters the faithful Hindu might pray and get special permits of the things he desires; that is, if he pays the required fee to the priest!
This degradation is not the product of any accidental and sudden historical upheaval. For two hundred years Hinduism has remained an encouragement of the rich. Once upon a time, the learned philosophers were rightly the advisers of the state. But then the quality of the adviser-class [Bhramin] and the ruler-class [Kshatriya] deteriorated. By slowly putrefying themselves in the leprous warmth of luxury and power, the have taken us to the regrettable stage in which we find ourselves now. The general cry of the educated class is really against this un-religion. However, it is only the thoughtless, uninformed leaders who call this Hinduism.
Certainly, if Hinduism can breed for us only heartless lalas [shopkeepers], corrupt babus [clerks], cowardly men, loveless masters, faithless servants; if Hinduism can give us only a state of social living in which each man is put against his brother; if Hinduism can give us only starvation, nakedness, and destitution; if Hinduism can encourage us only to plunder, to loot, and to steal; if Hinduism can preach to us only intolerance, fanaticism, hardheartedness, and cruelty; then I too cry, “Down, Down” with that Hinduism.
And yet the above is a realistic picture of the sad condition and plight into which the Hindu people as a nation have allowed themselves to fall. This is the tragic picture of the great Hindu disaster in present-day India.
But Hinduism is not this external show that we have learned to parade about in our daily life. Hinduism is a science of perfection. There is in it an answer to every individual, social, national, or international problem. But unfortunately the religion, which we have come to follow blindly, is not the grand true Hinduism. It is only the treacherous scheme thrust upon us sometime in the past by the selfish, arrogant; power mad priest caste whose intention was to make us slaves of their plans and our own passions. The present day Hindu ignoramuses prove the tragic success of these religious saboteurs. With their guidance we overlook the fundamental tenets in sacred scriptures that are the very backbone of Hinduism. True Hinduism is the Sanatana Dharma [Eternal Truth] of the Upanishads.
The Upanishads declare in unmistakable terms that in reality, man-at the peak of his achievement- is God himself. He is advised to live his day to day experiences in life in such a systematic and scientific way that, hour by hour, consciously cleansing himself of all the encrustation of imperfections that have gathered to conceal the beauty and divinity of the true eternal personality in him.The methods by which an individual can consciously purify and evolve by his self-effort to regain the status of his True Nature are the content of Hinduism. Hinduism in its vast amphitheater has preserved and worshiped, under the camouflage of the heavy descriptions contained in the Puranas, shastras [scriptures], and their commentaries of thousand different interpretations. This overgrowth has so effectively come to conceal that real beauty and grandeur of the tiny Temple of Truth that today the college-educated illiterates, in their ignorance of the language and style of the ancient Sanskrit writers, miss the Temple amidst its own festoons!
To inquire into the very textbooks of our religion with a view to knowing what Hinduism has to teach and how its message can be used to serve us as we face the problems of our daily life is the aim of the One Hundred Day’s Upanishad Jnana Yagna, which is now proposed to commence on December 31, 1951, here in Poona.
Religion becomes dead and ineffectual if the seekers are not ready to live its ideals. For that matter is there any philosophy-political, social, or cultural-which can take us to its promised land of success, without our following its principles in our day-to-day living?
However great our culture might have been in the past, that dead glory, reported in the pages of history books, is not going to help us in our present trails. If the barbarous cavemen of the unexplored jungles want to become as civilized as the men of modern nations, they cannot achieve this total revolution through mere discourses, or even through an exhaustive study of the literature describing the ways of modern civilized nations. They will have to know and then live the civilized values of life. A mere knowledge of it will not help them. They can claim the blessing of their knowledge only if they are ready to live what they know. In order to live as civilized men, they will have to renounce completely their ways of uncivilized thinking and acting.
In fact without renunciation no progress is ever possible. We must renounce the thrills of our childhood games in order to grow to be young men of noble actions. Again, unless we renounce our youthful spirit, we cannot come to the reverence of old age.
Unless we are ready to renounce the low animal values of material life and replace them with the noble values of the truly religious life, we cannot hope to gain the blessings of religion. A study of a cookbook, however thorough it might be will not satisfy our hunger. No matter how long we may meditate upon and repeat the name of a medicine, we cannot get the cure we need until we actually take the medicine. Similarly, the blessings of religion can be ours only when we are ready to live the recommended values. To condemn unpracticed religion is as meaningless as those cavemen sitting around their open fire and querulously decrying advanced civilization.
During these on hundred days of the Upanishad Jnana Yagna, we shall be trying to discover the eternal happiness and bliss that is the succulent essence of all true religions. In the light of the principle of Truth declared in the Upanishads, we shall be trying to get at the scientific significance of the various practices that are considered part of our religion. In a spirit of communal living for these one hundred days we shall come to discover the Science of Perfection, the true essence of Hinduism.
Let us know what Hinduism is! Let us take an honest oath for ourselves, not only for our own sake, but for the sake of the entire world: That we shall, when once we are convinced of the validity of the Eternal Truth, try honestly to live as consistently as possible the values advocated by this ancient and sacred religion.
Let us be Hindus, and thus build up a true Hindustan [home of the Hindu] people with thousands of Shankara, hundreds of Buddhas, and dozens of Vivekanandas!
OM OM OM
Vision for Hindu Culture
“Ours is not a programme of political and economical revival. Cultural revival is our goal. Our speciality is to discover in each Hindu an integrated inner personality with courage to live its Rishi Culture.
This work needs Hindus of conviction, faith, experience, knowledge, purity, courage, heroic daring. They must have endless, all-giving, un-demanding, self-effacing love for man – the divine creation of the Creator. Those who see Him in His Creations alone can have all the above qualities – and they alone can now help the people to come back into a saner world- order, rebuilding life upon the enduring values of life.
Culturally renascent India cannot but express her new birth in all her activities-political, economic, social and artistic. In scientists and literary men, it must necessarily bring a clean spirit of love. And a chaste sense of aestheticism. In the ordinary people it should engender an irreplaceable sense of heroic goodness, leading the whole nation into an era of creative goodness. Such a total evolution, without any outer revolution, is the goal for which the Chinmaya Mission is silently working.
We must double up our energetic activities. We must plan vigorously, visualize clearly, act tirelessly, and serve constantly. The world needs you. You, the Hindu, alone can give this help to the world. Come! Everyone of you is needed. Conscript yourself voluntarily into movements of the world towards the better order of peace, love, tenderness and joy.”
Who is a Hindu?
Whoever strives to live the higher values of life.
What should a Hindu do? “Learn to live in concurrence with the Eternal. Not to live in a little shell of your own personal ego, communal ego or even national ego…..learn to identify with the community. Identify with the total and be responsible for every sorrow in the world, every joy in the world. Try to live wiping tears, wherever it is and replacing a smile however temporary it may be. Try to do as much as possible – a service, that’s the way of life.” - Swami Chinmayananda
30 Salient Features of Hindu Culture
1. Based on the Eternal Principles revealed in Vedas
2. Subjective Science. Not authored by one person
3. Adaptable and Flexible
4. Essential Oneness of Creator, Creature & Creation. Divinity of all living beings
5. All accommodative and secular by nature
6. Balance of spiritual and material life
7. Freedom to choose, to question and not to follow
8. One Formless Truth and Many forms. Organised into 6 major systems of worship
9. Understanding of God as Consciousness
10. Yagna – Spirit of Togetherness & selflessness, Daana – Charity, Tapa- Austerity.
11. Varna system - 4 types of mental temperaments
12. Ashrams – 4 stages of human life – Student, Householder, Retired, Renunciate
13. 4 Pursuits of human life – Righteousness, Wealth, Enjoyment, Freedom
14. Rituals – 16 Samskaras of human life and 5 Maha-yagnas
15. Yoga & Meditation
16. Festivals – Celebrating Life.
17. Practical Spiritual Sadhanas
18. Prayers, Temples and Pilgrimages
19. Theories of creation
20. Respect, freedom, education and empowerment of Women
21. Concept of duties and strong family bond
22. Highest goal- Oneness-Self Knowledge
23. Different Sadhanas and paths for different temperaments of students
24. Sages and Saints – Jivanmukti – Liberation while living
25. Devotion to the Guru Parampara
26. Law of Karma, Destiny & Self-effort
27. Life after death, 14 worlds and rebirth - Punarjanma
28. Avataar - Incarnation of the Lord
29. Ignorance is the root cause of suffering & Self-knowledge its cure.
30. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – Global Family
Why Do We?
1. Namaste
The spark of life in me and the spark of life in you, the Spiritual essence in us is Divine & same. To that Almighty Divine Lord in you my Namaskaar(Salutations).
2. Tulasi
That which is incomparable in its qualities (tulanaa naasti athaiva tulasi) is Tulasi. Antioxidant, anti-microbial properties of Tulasi help in treating respiratory problems, asthama, diabetes, stress etc. Tulasai is an adaptogenic herb which rejuvenates the body and increases vital energy. Tulasi is also a symbol of supreme devotion.
3. 108
We breathe 21600 times in a day. Considering 12 hours of active work, it is 10800 breaths. One should remember the Lord with every breath. Hence 108 is symbolic of devotion throughout the day. Vedantically it’s the movement from 8(creation) to 1(Infinite Reality) crossing over 0(Maya) Astronomically it is 27 Constellations x 4 directions each in our Galaxy. 108 Suns is the distance between Sun & Earth. 108 moons is the distance between moon and earth. Chanting 108 times is to be in tune with the Universe within & without.
4.Pradakshina
We cannot draw a circle without a centre point. The Lord is the centre, source and essence of our lives. Recognising the Lord as the focal point in our lives, we go about doing our daily chores.
5. Aarti
The sanctum sanctorum is generally dark, like our hearts. The only way to have the vision of the Lord is to do the Aarti. Our minds are focussed on each limb of the Lord, as the lamp lights it up. It is akin to silent open-eyed meditation on the Lord’s Beauty. At the end of the aarti we place our hands over the flame and then touch our eyes and the top of the head. It means – May the light that illumined the Lord light up my vision and may my vision be divine and thoughts, noble and beautiful. Our nervous sytem, pituitary & pineal glands, circadian rhythms are affected by different wavelengths of light.
6. Kalash/coconut
The Kalasha(pot) represents our body. The water from the sacred rivers in the Kalasha symbolises purity of mind, devotion and detachment. The leaves represent prosperity & simplicity. The coconut symbolises selfless service. Every part of the tree – the trunk, leaves, fruit, coir etc. is used in innumerable ways. Taking in salty water it converts it into sweet nutritive water. The thread represents the love that binds all of us in creation. The Kalasha is placed in a plate of Akshata(rice) representing the Knowledge of the Imperishable Truth that is the basis of this whole creation. Thus a kalasha is a symbol of auspiciousness. It also represents the Goal OF life, its means and the realised one who has discovered this Goal OF life.
7. Bells
Ringing the bell or Ghanti/Ghanta, produces an auspicious sound of OM, the Universal name of the Lord. It invokes auspiciousness within and without. It produces a sharp, reverberating, deep and a lasting sound which can empty all thoughts and one can become ‘Silent’. Before we enter the temple – to awaken us from our preoccupation with thoughts and to prepare us for the Higher, a bell is used.
8. Lamps
Fill the heart with the oil of love, place in it the wick of a single-pointed mind, light it with the Knowledge of the Truth, protect it from winds of desires and remove the darkness of ignorance with this luminous lamp of Knowledge which reveals the Self within & without.
9.Flowers
Flowers have fragrance(vaas). Flowers are offered to the Lord signifying the offering of our vasanas(inherent tendencies) in an attitude of devotion. When we act in the world in this spirit, our existing vasanas are exhausted and no new vasanas are created. This way we purify the mind. Floral essence is used in healing. Flowers invoke happiness, love and heightens the feelings of satisfaction.
10.Yagna
A yagna is the symbol of co-operative endeavour for a selfless cause. Everyone comes together, sheds their differences in the fire of inspiration and works in a team spirit for the cause, which is greater than any individual. It also represents fulfilment of desires through single-pointedness. With every offering one chants – idam na mama (this is not for me), which is symbolic of the selfless attitude of Giving. The whole creation lives in the yagna-spirit of service & selfless giving.
Design Notes
Hinduism Tree This exhibit depicts the meaning and salient features of Hinduism along with the Vision of Swami Chinmayananda to revive Hindu Culture. Excerpts from His first talk - “Let us Be Hindus” are also displayed on a sail material. The tree signifies the tree of Hinduism, constantly growing upwards while being rooted in our ancient culture. Ceramic plaques in shapes of various leaves are hung from the tree that displays 30 salient features of Hinduism. There are lotus pods describing the significances of various practices of Hindu Culture.