Hinduism

Hinduism

Pantheism is the religious world view of the East. It includes Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. In its Westernized form, pantheism is the basic assumption of Transcendental Meditation and some aspects of New Age mysticism. Pantheists view reality like naturalists in the sense that both are monistic theories. Monism means that reality has one dimension. In contrast to the Western perspective, Hinduism rejects the existence of matter. Hindus believe only the spiritual dimension exists and according to R.C. Zaehner"nothing, however in the Veda or Hinduism is nicely cut-and-dry."(Zaehner 19) Since this is such a difficult concept for us in the West, we will need to explore Eastern religious worship in comparison to Western religious worship a bit further.

While subtle differences exist between Eastern and Western religions, they are unified in the view that ultimate reality is spirit. But it would be a mistake to interpret the Eastern concept of the spiritual in Western monotheistic terms. Eastern pantheists believe spiritual reality is ultimately impersonal and unknowable. Spirit is more like energy than a personal God as we conceive him in the West. Strange from our perspective, is fact that most of the Hindu religion involves devotion to a host of gods. The practice of Hinduism, for example, consists of devotion to three hundred million nature deities. Hindu scholars recognize that devotion to these deities is simply an attempt to explain the unexplainable, and to make Hinduism accessible to the popular, uneducated masses. Ritual and devotion to nature gods is to be understood wholly in light of the philosophical categories of the Upanishads (Hindu scriptures), not in Western monotheistic terms. As D.S. Sharma, a noted Hindu scholar states, "The particular name and form of any deities are limitations which we in our weakness impose on the all pervading spirit which is nameless and formless. The supreme being is a person only in relation to ourselves and our needs....the highest theism is only a sort of glorified anthropomorphism, but we cannot do without it." Sharma means that all attempts to personalize the ultimately impersonal are the product our human propensity to ascribe to reality attributes that we observe in ourselves. Because we are persons, we personify the cosmos. ( Internet)

Nothing is more foreign to us in the West than the denial of the material realm. But it is equally strange from the Eastern viewpoint that Westerners deny the spiritual realm. Materialism and pantheism seem to be complete opposites. On one level this is true. Yet, there is actually much similarity in outlook between them. Pantheists refer to the perception of a material reality as Maya, which means illusion. But according to Louis Renou author of Hinduism Truth is found beyond the phenomenal; but maya is also conceived of as a positive force, at least by those who admit a pluralism of qualities if not of substances. (Renou 40) Illusion is the same term often used by materialistic intellectuals in the West to describe our awareness of the spiritual realm. For example, Western thinking is that in the realm of ultimate reality, both hold reality to be impersonal and indefinable. What, after all is matter? Matter can no more be defined than absolute impersonal spirit. Both pantheism and naturalism teach that illusion is grounded in ignorance. For the Westerner, as the illusion of a supernatural nature to man is based is somewhat based on ignorance. One day, when we gain sufficient knowledge of neurophysiology and environmental determiners, the belief in the supernatural realms of our own person will evaporate. In the pantheistic tradition, the reverse is the case. When we overcome the illusion of duality (distinct spiritual and physical realms), and experience oneness with the universal spirit, we will recognize the material as illusory.

The pantheistic view of reality applies to human nature in much the same way as it does in naturalism. What is true of the whole of reality is true of the individual. If ultimate reality is impersonal, indefinable spirit, then so is man. The Hindu term for the human essence is atman. Since only Brahman exists (impersonal spiritual reality), atman is also impersonal, indefinable, spiritual reality. That is, "atman is Brahman." No ultimate distinction exists between individuals and ultimate reality. All things are one. Reality is unity without individuality. But this raises a further question. Human experience tells us that we are individuals, that there is a difference between