In the year 563 B.C., the principal religion of India was Brahminism. Brahminism was a modified version of an older religion still, Vedism, whose “scriptures” are considered to have been the work of poets living between 2000 and 1000 B.C., and came into being round about the year 1000 B.C. as the result of the increasing number and the growing influence of the Brahmins, or priests.
Vedism was a religion which provided for the worship of a very-large numbers of gods, for, strictly speaking, every aspect of Indian life and every act performed by a man was considered to be religious, and had to be accompanied by a prayer of religious right. Nevertheless, all the different gods were regarded each as one aspect of the one Supreme Being.
Vishnu with Lakshmi, on the serpent Ananta Shesha, as Brahma emerges from a lotus risen from Vishnu's navel
The gods of Vedism were chiefly personifications of natural objects and forces, and while Brahminism retained the concept of the one supreme God, the One All Brahma, worshipped in all his many forms, the great difference between the ancient religion and Brahminism was a striking one.
In Vedism the gods were worshipped, feared and conciliated by prayers and sacrifices; while in Brahminism they were considered to be controlled by the sacrifices offered or by hymns chanted by the Brahmins.
This was a very important distinction, and one that was chiefly responsible for the development of the religion, for, as will be seen, those who wielded the supreme power were no longer the gods, but the Brahmins who controlled the gods. On the proper performance of the Brahmins’ priestly duties everything, even the acts of the gods themselves, depended.
The principal teaching of the religion was that it was a Way of Life. The good man was the virtuous, upright, honest man, who achieved this state by the strict observance of religious rites and ceremonies. But the Brahmins also taught that these rites and ceremonies had to be performed according to stringent regulations, which were so intricate that only the priests could perform them properly and therefore effectively. So the ordinary man had to engage the services of a priest if he was to attain the Way of Life. The priest was absolutely essential as the channel of communication between men and the gods, and from this it followed that the priests attained a power scarcely before or since acquired by the priesthood of any religion.
This priestly superiority over ordinary men was established even more firmly by the introduction of a caste system, in which the priests represented the highest caste.
The teaching of Brahminism was based on two classes of religious literature, one regarded as inspired, the other as uninspired. The inspired literature embraces the Mantras, or Vedic hymns, and the Brahamanas. The latter are prose or liturgical treatises intended primarily as manuals for the Brahmins, and they lay principal stress on ritual, not, as do the Vedas, on theology and ethics.
Adi Shankara Bhagavadpada, expounder of Advaita Vedanta and commentator (bhashya) on the Upanishads
Attached to the Brahamanas are theosophic discourses called Aranyakas, and also Upanishads. The Upanishads are collections of philosophical obiter dicta uttered by many men living at different times, and they constitute for Brahminists (and for modern Hindus) the principal authority in philosophical matters. They conceive Brahma, the Supreme Entity, as
(I) an absolute impersonal being,Vedism was a religion which provided for the worship of a very-large numbers of gods, for, strictly speaking, every aspect of Indian life and every act performed by a man was considered to be religious, and had to be accompanied by a prayer of religious right. Nevertheless, all the different gods were regarded each as one aspect of the one Supreme Being.
Vishnu with Lakshmi, on the serpent Ananta Shesha, as Brahma emerges from a lotus risen from Vishnu's navel
The gods of Vedism were chiefly personifications of natural objects and forces, and while Brahminism retained the concept of the one supreme God, the One All Brahma, worshipped in all his many forms, the great difference between the ancient religion and Brahminism was a striking one.
In Vedism the gods were worshipped, feared and conciliated by prayers and sacrifices; while in Brahminism they were considered to be controlled by the sacrifices offered or by hymns chanted by the Brahmins.
This was a very important distinction, and one that was chiefly responsible for the development of the religion, for, as will be seen, those who wielded the supreme power were no longer the gods, but the Brahmins who controlled the gods. On the proper performance of the Brahmins’ priestly duties everything, even the acts of the gods themselves, depended.
The principal teaching of the religion was that it was a Way of Life. The good man was the virtuous, upright, honest man, who achieved this state by the strict observance of religious rites and ceremonies. But the Brahmins also taught that these rites and ceremonies had to be performed according to stringent regulations, which were so intricate that only the priests could perform them properly and therefore effectively. So the ordinary man had to engage the services of a priest if he was to attain the Way of Life. The priest was absolutely essential as the channel of communication between men and the gods, and from this it followed that the priests attained a power scarcely before or since acquired by the priesthood of any religion.
This priestly superiority over ordinary men was established even more firmly by the introduction of a caste system, in which the priests represented the highest caste.
The teaching of Brahminism was based on two classes of religious literature, one regarded as inspired, the other as uninspired. The inspired literature embraces the Mantras, or Vedic hymns, and the Brahamanas. The latter are prose or liturgical treatises intended primarily as manuals for the Brahmins, and they lay principal stress on ritual, not, as do the Vedas, on theology and ethics.
Adi Shankara Bhagavadpada, expounder of Advaita Vedanta and commentator (bhashya) on the Upanishads
Attached to the Brahamanas are theosophic discourses called Aranyakas, and also Upanishads. The Upanishads are collections of philosophical obiter dicta uttered by many men living at different times, and they constitute for Brahminists (and for modern Hindus) the principal authority in philosophical matters. They conceive Brahma, the Supreme Entity, as
(II) as the ground of being,
(III) as the personal God, the one creator and ruler.
On the whole, it is the first conception that predominates, the second following it at no great distance.
The uninspired writings include the code of Manu, which teaches Brahminic doctrine. This code, besides containing a system of theology and philosophy, gives minute directions for the regulation of the individual life from the cradle to the grave.
Others are the two great epics, the Mahabharata and the Rama-Yana, in which the outstanding doctrines of Brahminism are taught. Embedded in the Mahabharata, the Iliad of India, it has been called, is a poem in praise of Krishna, one of the chief Hindu gods, called the Bhagavad-Gita, the Holy Song, generally regarded as one of the most exquisite specimens of religious poetry.
Such then was the religious situation in India when, round about 563 B.C. a certain Maya, while on a journey from Kapilavastu, the capital of the Kshatriya caste of the Sakya clan, whose country lay along the southern edge of Nepal, gave birth to a son in the Lumbini Garden of Nepal.
The uninspired writings include the code of Manu, which teaches Brahminic doctrine. This code, besides containing a system of theology and philosophy, gives minute directions for the regulation of the individual life from the cradle to the grave.
Others are the two great epics, the Mahabharata and the Rama-Yana, in which the outstanding doctrines of Brahminism are taught. Embedded in the Mahabharata, the Iliad of India, it has been called, is a poem in praise of Krishna, one of the chief Hindu gods, called the Bhagavad-Gita, the Holy Song, generally regarded as one of the most exquisite specimens of religious poetry.
Such then was the religious situation in India when, round about 563 B.C. a certain Maya, while on a journey from Kapilavastu, the capital of the Kshatriya caste of the Sakya clan, whose country lay along the southern edge of Nepal, gave birth to a son in the Lumbini Garden of Nepal.
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