REL 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Vedas, Upanishads, Monism
Document Summary
Notes gandhi - as hindu and as a reformer life cycle rituals (especially marriage and death) problem of life - impurity solution: purity how to improve purity: fulfillment of varna, ashrama, dharma purity: sacrificial rituals. Marriage purity rituals religions rituals of home. Food: offered to a deity, major religious significance arranged within caste, serves the husband. Sati: wife jumps on cremation fire of husband. If husband dies before wife does, sign of bad karma. Women are to be honored and adorned. When women grieve, the family perishes; when they don"t grieve, the family flourishes. Patrilineal: name and property run through the father. Matrilineal: name and property run through the mother. More of an inner self marga problem: ignorance. solution: knowledge. Involves a transformation of the self, from ignorance to knowledge. Atman: that which is eternal in you - unchanging. Monism: school that teaches everything is brahman.
