PHILOS 2120 Lecture 4: 8.29.2018
28 Jan 2019
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Document Summary
Hinduism: arguably the oldest of all the world"s surviving organized religions, a tremendously diverse set of traditions, the vedas (~1500-1000 bce) Aranyakas: texts on rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices. Brahmanas: commentaries on rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices. Upanishads: philosophical discussion, meditation, and spiritual knowledge: u(at)pa(foot)nishad(sitting down, about 200 of them, but about 12 that are really influential, the katha upanishad. Dialog between yama (god of death) and nachiketas (a mortal man) Nachiketas ends up in the land of the dead, goes to visit yama. Yama is unavailable and nachiketas has to wait for three days. As a form of reconciliation, yama offers three boons (wishes: reconciliation with his father, learn how to do the fire ritual, the answer to one question: what happens after death? . What is the ultimate destiny of us all? . Yama hesitates, and cautions that the answer to this question is something that not even the gods truly understand.
