Religion Vishnu

Live in Nepal is very spiritual. The Gods influence every act and relationship.

Hinduism is the official religion of Nepal;  the state claims that 90 % of the population believes in Hinduism, but this seems uncorrect. Nepalese often combine Hinduism with Buddhism and Shamanism believes and vice versa. The Buddhists live mainly in the Himalayas.


Hinduism                      go to Buddhism
 

Essence:

The daily life of a Hindu is influenced by a pantheon of deities, the endeavour of acting in a way his cast demands to climb up the ladder in the cast system at the next rebirth.

There is one God, that can appear in various incarnations, mainly as Shiva, Vishnu and Brahman. This Gods can appear also in many other incarnations.

The whole universe is an everlasting circulation. After death the soul is reborn. Good or bad life determines, if a Hindu will be reborn in an higher or lower case.

The essence of Hinduism is worship to gods (puja), the cremation of the death and the rules and regulation of the case system.

Hindus are born in a special case, they cannot change in life. But the can leave the religion by adopting another religion or by violating of purity rules.
This was taken by missionaries in past centuries that had dirty wells with cow blood.
Though Hinduism is not a proselytizing religion, foreigners can´t convert to Hinduism. Neither is a foreigner casteless (but often considered as), he is just out of the system.

The soul (atma) is a lost fragment of the universal soul (Brahman). Brahman is the genuine reality, while everything real is only an illusion (maya). A Hindu strives to climb up the case ladder by circle of rebirths (samsara) and cast off  the illusion by achieving salvation from the circles or rebirth (moksha) and reunification with Brahman.

Dharma is the law of the universe (first dharma), the correct Hindu behavior in a particular case (second dharma) and the the moral code (third dharma) which an individual should follow. Karma is fate and also the result of following the Dharma. The rebirth is the result of the karma, a good Hindu will be born in a higher class the next life.
 

Religious Books

These books are the important Hinduistic literature:

Old Hindu literature and Western ideas : Bhagavad Gita and Management (A treatise offered from M.P. Bhattathiri) 
 

History

Hinduism had been evolved by the Aryan invaders from the central Asia after 1600 BC that brought several nature Vedic gods an goddesses. All are described in the book Vedas (book of wisdom), that are still important, for example Indra (sky and rain), Surya (sun), Agni (fire) and Yama (death).

The Aryans, who had fairerer skin than the native population, created a caste system to establish their supermacy. The word "case" means in Sanskrit "varna" (=color). For example intermarriage between Aryans and natives were not allowed. Also today the higher castes have fairer skin.

The Upanishads, a collection of religious discourses, later established the foundations of the Hinduism.
 

Case system:  to the top

There are four cases, but many sub castes exist:

Brahmans ( priests, teacher )
Kshyatriya ( warriors, rulers)
Vaisha ( farmers, traders, craftsmen)
Shudra ( menial, servants, craftsmen)
Harijans (casteless Hindus)
In Nepal it is more complicated, because non-Hindu folks were wrongly treated as lower casts. As a foreigner you are not a Harijan, but theoratical out of the system.

The name gives away the affiliation of the case, but it is only a local rule; Indian Hindus can´t predict the case of a Nepal name.

The case system was banished officially in 1963, but case determines still the live in Nepal. Bank clerks are almost higher-class people. To marry a lower caste means trouble, but happens. It also could happen that a new manager of a foreign agency changed the staff, because he didn´t like to work with lowest cast people. Staffs are hired to do the low menial work, which is usually done also by normal staff in Europe (cleaning  machines or rooms after work for example).

India has established a quote system of hiring harijans for avoiding such problems.

The Hindu Pantheon  to the top

There are three main gods, that are Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. These gods exist in several incarnations of gods (avatar), for example "Vishnu" appears in nine incarnations and as sixteen different gods. The ninth incarnation of Vishnu is the Buddha, so the Buddhism is adapted to the Hinduism.

Each god has an animal carrier or "vehicle", a consort

Brahma:  the creator of the universe with four heads

Brahma impersonates all the gods, also Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma is the universe and its creator, but isn´t important in the daily life of Hindus one could expect. Only a few temples are devoted to Brahma.

Vehicle is Hamsa -the brant- ; his wife Saraswati (see below) rides on a white swan

Vishnu  often Narayan in Nepal:  the preserver and fighter for the Dharma (sincerity)

Vishnu helps people in the incarnation of many gods. His main vehicle is Shesha, the world snake Ananta. Another vehicle is the birdman Garuda that he shared with his wife Lakshmi (see below)  his symbols are discus, shell conch, lotus flower and coil. He is often shown with four hands, as the other gods also.

Vishnu appears in nine incarnations (manifestations) as

Rama described in the Hindu epic Ramajana as seventh incarnation   to the top
 
 

 
Ramajana  -The story of Ramah, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu

Ramah was born as a noble son of the amicable king Dasharata. Sita was his wife. Because of a intrigue (some tell infertility) she was banished for fourteen years. After the fourteen years Ramah rambled with Sita through wilderness and protected hermits from demons. The biggest demon Rawana abducted Sita to Lanka (Sri Lanka). After years of searching Rama and Hanuman- the allied monkey god- freed  Sita and destroyed the Empire of the demons. But despite his love to Sita, Rama is faith to his karma and banished Sita, because of living together with another man. Sita asked the earth to devour her and Rama sacrificed himself to the god of the deaths. But there is still a version with an happy end.

 

Krishna: eighth incarnation

Krishna is shown normally in blue color of the skin. He is the fighter for Darma (sincerity). He is in the epic Bhagawadida evinced as a ceaseless warrior and faith comrade, whereas he could be wayward, ruthless and deceitful. Krishna is also the incorporation of love.

Krishna teaches the threefold path, the just way of action (Karma Yoga), the discipline of knowledge by means of mediation, asceticism and devotion to God. He says that the soul is indestructibly. People should devote their work to God Vishnu and not to own desires. Each act has to be done in honor of god without any purpose of success.
 
 

 
The seduction of the dairymaids (Gopis) 

Krishna played the flute in times of the moon of November and beguiled the Gopis. The Gopis were fascinated by the music and began to dance so passionately that even the gods and deaths were watching. Krishna was so full of love to the dancing Gopis that he divested himself of his clothes and seduced in thirty three days all of the 900.000 Gopis, while holding his favorite Gopi Rhada in his arm. 

the ninth incarnation is Buddha, so Buddhism was adapted to Hinduism

the tenth incarnation will be Kalkilavatar, who intiated the destruction of the earth   to the top

Shiva:  benign destroyer and creator , God of  proliferation, Erotic and  Asceticism,

Shivas vehicle is the white bull Nandi, worshipped because of its fertility. Shiva was fighting the battle against the demons, sitting up on Nandi. He is protected by the snake Cobra, like his son Ganesh. He is shown with a trident in his hands.

Shiva is the god of antagonism.

He stands for power, the symbol is the phallus Shiva Linga, which is always in erection but never spill its semen.

Shiva stands also for destruction that breaks fresh ground for the new.
 
 

 
The worship of the animals - especially cow and snake -

The cow is the symbol of fertility and nutrition. It impersonates the preserve of life and is together the symbol of mother India. The antagonism is the bull that stands for aggressiveness. But also the snake is an antagonism like Shiva. The snake can kill but also protects Shiva, Shiva Linga and Ganesh. 
 

Shiva exists  in 64 manifestations of gods among others as Pashupatina (God of the animals), Natajar (God of dance) or Bhairab (God of destruction).

Shiva is worshipped from holy men "Sadhus" as Shiva Yogin (God of yoga), sitting on a Himalayan peak with a hashish pipe (chillam) in his hand.

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Sadhusfollow Shiva as the ascetic master of yoga who sits motionless on a Himalayan peak smoking ganja (marihuana). They refuse normal human life as a illusion (maja) and devote to asceticism and penance, to reach enlightment. Often they are beggars in a more sophisticated way, but normally they are men who had reached a conclusion of family and business and had decided to follow their spiritual search. After being taught in spiritual exercises and yoga by a guru, they wander around, because a steady abode means also spiritual stagnancy. Most Sadhus devote to Shiva, wearing the trisul (trident), a necklace of rudraksha seeds, and a shell conch for blowing calls across the cosmic ocean.  They smear themselves with ashes, as a symbol for the destroyer Shiva, who reduces all thinks to ashes to create something new. Sadhus announce the arriving at new place with drumming of the two sided drum (damaru), then ignite a holy fire and pluck the trident in the holy earth. Sadhus refrain from alcohol, but smoke ganja. They perform diverse contortions and mortifications to suppress sensual passions like sexuality. Sometimes they impose themselves exercises like standing on leg for some years or pluck the head into sand for days. Sadhus live from donations and taking money from Tourists for a photo model is not out of character to their beliefs. 

The colours have following meaning:
white=purity, yellow=devotedness, orange=sun, red=fire  V= Vishnu 
Ashes is the symbol for transformation and overbearing the death 
 

Shivas wives are Sati and Parwati, as well as demon-slayer Durga and bloodthirsty Kali.  All goddesses embody the one goddess Dewi .

Parwati is said as the perfect spouse of Shiva. She is the daughter of Himalaya and has with Shiva two children: Ganesh the god of luck and Skanda ( Kartikkaya) the god of war.   to the top
 

  Shiva Linga (the red paint symbolizes sacrificed blood)
Phallus Linga juts out of the female Joni. Shiva Linga  is a symbol of amalgamation of male and female, heaven and earth, means fertility and power of life.

When Brahma and Vishnu disputed, who is the greatest god, the Linga appeared as a pillar of fire from the water. Vishnu surveyed as a boar the bottom of the Linga and Brahma the top as a swan. But the Linga and its power had proofed as infinite. Hindus don´t interpret the Linga as a sexual symbol.
 


 
 

More Gods:

Mahadevi: Mother God  to the top

The female counterpart of Shiva, but more capricious. As Kali she is the counterpart of Bhairab, labelled by a necklace of skulls and a red bloodthirsty tongue. As Durga she is the slayer of demons and as Bhagwati she embodies creative women power. In all this forms the mother goddess is appeased by blood sacrifices of fertile male animals..

Hanuman: Monkey God

Hanuman is the faithful and clever warrior. He destroyed with his monkey army the demon empire of Lanka (Sri Lanka) and liberated with Rama his wife Sita. To show his character of subservience he had torn open his heart where was found a picture of Rama and Sita.

Ganesh: God with the elephant head,  the most popular Hindu God

Vehicle is a rat, the symbol for energy in a small animal, which even can carry an elephant

Many Hindus worship Ganesh, who is the God of wisdom and remover of obstacles.  He must be worshipped first before the worship of other gods is effective.

 Parwati created Ganesh in the bathroom from leg, earth and ointment. Ganesh should guard the door of the bathroom, therefore he is also the god of entrance, but was killed by the jealous Shiva. After he noticed that he killed his own son, he ordered to his demon servant Ganas to bring the next available head, which was a head of an elephant. Ganesh was revived and affiliated to the god family.

Lakshmi Wife of Vishnu

Goddess of beauty, wealth and money, in an incarnation also Annapurna, goddess of grain and abundance. Lakshmi gives rain and gold coins from her hands.

Saraswati:

Goddess of learning and culture. Saraswati is riding on a white swan holding the stringed musical instrument Vina in her hand. Consort is Brahma.

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please mail any unaccuracy, thanks!!

Buddhism

Buddhism in Nepal is mostly believed in the Himalayas.

Buddhism doesn't devote to a god but want to strengthen the power of oneself to pursuit enlighten in the Nirvana, a state of felicitousness, where greed, hatred and delusion is banished and (wo)men are redeemed from suffering.

Live is determined by four noble truths:

existence is suffering
suffering is caused by sensual desires
suppressing desire is a way to nirvana
Desire is only illusion and can be extinguished by following an eight-fold path. It is the Middle Way which avoids the extreme means of asceticism or sensual indulgence.

The eight guidelines are:

just faith
just mind
just speech
just act
just live
just strive
just thinking
just meditation
Buddhists have ethic rules: not to kill, not to steal, not to lie, no adultery and no drugs!

After going through some series of rebirths and by following the eight-fold path Buddhists will eventually reach the Nirvana and the dissolving from rebirth in the world of suffering.

This colours symbolize following meaning:
white=substance, body;  grey=espirit ; red=teaching od Buddha
 

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