Hinduism

Hinduism Focus Group

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This group is following Pi as he explores Hindu faith. They will relate words, phrases, quotes, symbols, etc. to the nature of god and how faith translates to life.

 Pd. 2 @http://bollygrounds.com/images/videosongs/ramayan_drama.jpg

Pd. 1 -“If Lakshmi, goddess of wealth, one day favors me bountifully, Oxford is fifth on the list of cities I would like to visit before I pass on, after Mecca, Varanasi, Jerusalem, and Paris.” (Martel 7)

"It's true that he had all new animals blessed by a priest and there were two small shrines at the zoo, one to Lord Ganesha and one to Hanuman, gods likely to please a zoo director, what with the first having the head of an elephant and the second being a monkey, but Father's calculation was taht this was good for buisness, not good for his soul, a matter of public relations rather than personal salvation." (Martel 83)

"I am reminded of a story of Lord Krishna when he was a cowherd. Every night he invites the milkmaids to dance with him in the forest. They come and they dance. The night is dark, the fire in their midst roars and crackles, the beat of the music gets even faster --the girls dance and dance and dance with their sweet lord, who has made himself so abundant as to be in the arms of eahc and every girl. But the moment the girls become possesive, the moment each one imagines that Krishna is her partner alone, he vanishes. So it is that we should not be jealous with God." (Martel 62)

"There is Brahman, the world soul, the sustaining frame upon which is woven, warp and weft, the cloth of being, with all its decorative elements of space and time. There is Brahman nirguna, without qualities, which lies beyond understanding, beyond description, beyond approach; with out poor words we sew a suit for it -- One, Truth, Unity, Absolute, Ultimate Reality, Ground of Being -- and try to make it fit, but Brahman nirguna always bursts the seams. We are left speechless." (Martel 61)

PERIOD 2

Pd. 2 - "Social rank is central to how it leads its life. Rank determines whom it can associate with and how; where and when it can eat; where it can rest; where it can drink; and so on" (Martel 55). In the Hinduism culture, you are born into a caste. You can't move out of the social class that you are born in, in this life. You must marry and remain in your caste until you die. The only hope to move out of a caste is through reincarnation. The only way to move up in the caste system is to better yourself so you will be reincarnated in a better caste. This quote discusses how similar the animal world is to the Hindu caste system. (Hindu 2)

"We caught a man with a knife climbing into the pen for mouse deer; he said he was going to punish evil Ravana (who in the Ramayana took the form of a deer when he kidnapped Sita, Rama's consort)" (Martel 37-38) The man with the knife believed that the deer was Ravana, and he believed it was his responsibility to avenge Sita and punish Ravana. (Hindu 2).

"We had a mouse that lived for several weeks with the vipers. While other mice dropped in the terrarium disappeared within two days, this little brown Methuselah built itself a nest, stored the grains we gave it in various hideaways and scampered about in plain sight of the snakes. We were amazed. We put up a sign to bring the mouse to the public's attention. It finally met its end in a curious way:a young viper bit it. Was the viper unaware of the mouse's special status? Unsocialized to it, perhaps?" (Martel 107). This quote can describe how people who don't know about a certain religion, can jump to conclusions. The uneducated people being represented by the young viper. The younger viper wasn't educated in the social ways of the other vipers and bit the mouse, thinking that it was meant for food, not realizing the social status the mouse had with the other vipers. People tend to base their opinions upon first glance, and they don't always understand the concepts or stories that lie beneath the surface. They may tear a religion or idea apart without seeing the whole picture, or greater idea behind it. They jump to the conculsion that that religion is "bad" because it goes against their beliefs where if they were to look deeper into the religion, they may see that it actually goes along well with their beliefs. (Hindu 2) Pd. 2 @http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2063/2287314494_23a6b8bd9d.jpg?v=0

-- Period 2 --  “It seems orange – such a nice Hindu colour – is the colour of survival because the whole inside of the boat and the tarpaulin and the life jackets and the lifebuoy and the oars and most every other significant object aboard was orange” (Martel, 174) In the Hindu faith saffron (a bright orange- yellow color) is a color that represents holiness and religion. Saffron is the color of abstinence, purging and resultant purity. The color also resembles the color of flames. Hindus believe that all evil is removed by casting objects into a fire. This conects to what Pi is saying because survival in the hindu faith has alot to do with casting the evils out of this world and the color saves the people from those evils. Hindu priests' robes are the saffron color.

(Pg. 184 & 189) ". 1 God...Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu!" I thought this was really wierd because Pi went from saying there was only one god to crying out to four different ones. It's impossible to be four different relitions but still only think that there is one God. If he knew everything about his four different religions, then he would know that you have to believe in four totally different gods.

[] (pd. 2)

(Pg. 178) "That moment of material revelation brought an intensity of pleasure--a heady mix of hope, surprise, disbelief, thrill, gratitude, all crushed into one--unequalled in my life by any Christmans, birthday, wedding, Diwali or other gift-giving occasion." Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights, celebrated as a religious holiday throughout India in mid-November. The Hindu Diwali is just like the our Christmas where it's a big holiday and there are gifts being given everywhere.



(Pg. 208) "Was there any reward greater than life? Any punishment worse than death?"

(Pg. 209) "TREEEEEEE! TREEEEEEEE! TREEEEEEEEEE!...He backed off and dropped to the bottom of the boat. The first training session was over. It was a resounding success. I stopped whistling and sat down heavily on the raft, out of breath and exhausted."