FOUR FACTS OF HINDUISM
KARMA, REINCARNATION, GOD’S ALL-PERVASIVENESS AND DHARMA ARE THE ESSENCE OF THE FOUR VEDAS AND THE FABRIC OF HINDUISM. LIVE THEM, ENJOY THEM AND TEACH THEM TO ALL WHO WILL LISTEN.§
KARMA
According as one acts, so does he become. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action.
—Yajur Veda, Br. Upanishad 4.4.5§
God’s cosmic law of karma governs all our experiences through cause and effect. Through karma, our thoughts, emotions and deeds—whether good, bad or mixed—return to us. Karma is not fate. We have free will. No God or external force is controlling our life. By applying the wisdom of the sages to the experiences encountered in life, we resolve our karma rather than create new karma. To be responsible for our karma is strength. To blame others is weakness. Therefore, remember God’s great law of karma and act wisely. Life is the classroom. Karma is the teacher. God Ganeśa is the Lord of karma.§
REINCARNATION
After death, the soul goes to the next world, bearing in mind the subtle impressions of its deeds, and after reaping their harvest returns again to this world of action. Thus, he who has desires continues subject to rebirth.
—Yajur Veda, Br. Upanishad 4.4.6 §
Reincarnation is the natural cycle of birth, death and rebirth. We are not the body in which we live, but the immortal soul which inhabits one body after another on the Earth during its evolutionary journey. Like the caterpillar’s transformation into a butterfly, physical death is a most natural transition for the soul, never to be feared. We are now the sum total of all our past lives. The actions and reactions we set in motion in our last life form the tendencies in the next. Reincarnation ceases when all karmas have been resolved, dharma has been well performed and God fully realized. This is known as moksha, or liberation from rebirth. §
THE ONE, ALL-PERVASIVE SUPREME BEING
Self-resplendent, formless, unoriginated and pure, that all-pervading Being is both within and without. He transcends even the transcendent, unmanifest, causal state of the universe.
—Atharva Veda, Mundaka Upanishad 2.1.2§
God is a one Being, yet we understand Him in three perfections. Paraśiva, Absolute Reality, timeless, formless, spaceless, is His unmanifest first perfection. His second perfection, Pure Consciousness or Parāśakti, is all-pervasive, infinite, and is found in every action and particle of His creation. His third perfection, Primal Soul, Parameśvara, is our personal Lord and Ruler of all three worlds. Pūjā, bhajana, prayer and meditation are all worshipful means of communion with God and the Gods, who are real beings dwelling in the inner worlds. They can and want to help us in every aspect of our life. The Gods have established many temples to allow us to communicate with them. §
DHARMA
There is nothing higher than dharma. Verily, that which is dharma is Truth.
—Yajur Veda, Br. Upanishad 1.4.14§
Dharma is God’s divine law prevailing on every level of existence, from the sustaining cosmic order to religious and moral laws which bind us in harmony with that order. It is piety and ethical practice, duty and obligation. Dharma is to the individual what its normal development is to a seed—the orderly fulfillment of an inherent nature and destiny. Hindu dharma is embodied in the ten yamas (restraints) and ten niyamas (observances). The yamas are noninjury, truthfulness, nonstealing, sexual purity, patience, steadfastness, compassion, straightforwardness and moderate appetite. The niyamas are purity, remorse, contentment, giving, faith, worship, scriptural study, cognition, vows, recitation and austerity. Noninjury, ahiṁsā, is the cardinal virtue, the mahāvrata.§
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FROM THE SACRED TEACHINGS OF SATGURU SIVAYA SUBRAMUNIYASWAMI§