Meditation and Ritual in Religion

Every religion involves some underlying conflict between the demands of meditation on the one hand and ritual on the other. While both may be shaped around a similar religious motif, they involve different aspects of religious performance. Ritual is public and communal, while meditation is personal and private on its deepest level. The nature of the required ritual and the manner of the necessary meditation will differ from one religious belief to another, but both serve similar ends in bringing the individual on the one hand closer to the community of believers and on the other closer to God, the central deity, or the central tenet of the religion.

Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world and ranks as the third largest today, with 650 million Hindus worldwide, the majority in India where the religion was born. Hinduism was not founded by any one individual but is rather the result of the coming together of many religious beliefs and philosophical schools. Hinduism was regarded as the religion of all non-Muslims. Early Hinduism combined the religions of the Indus Valley in northwestern India with that of Aryan invaders from Persia. Hinduism later developed a more solid foundation through the writing and interpretation of the great Hindu scriptures (Wangu 6-8).

The doctrines of Hinduism are found in the four primary vedas in the vedic literature. The oldest are the Yajur-veda, Rig-veda, Sama-veda, and the Atharva-veda. There then follow the Brahmanas

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secluded place so one can concentrate. It is not meant merely to keep the body in shape but to get free of the body and to transcend all forms of temporary material happiness and distress. This is important because the body is subject to birth, death, old age, and disease, the cause of all the living entity's suffering. Otherwise, in the spiritual position of the entity, the living entity is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge. Foolish people forget the problem and fail to see that death is quickly approaching and may strike at any moment and that at that moment all their assets will not help them. Yoga helps focus the mind at the time of death (Nanda-nandana 193-194). Yoga is the element of meditation which involves its own variety of ritual, a personal ritual leading to understanding. Works Cited Nanda-nandana, Sri. The Secret Teachings of the Vedas. Detroit, Michigan: The World Relief Network, 1986. Wangu, Madhu Bazaz. Hinduism. New York: Facts on File, 1991. In the poem "Speaking of Siva," Basavanna addresses "this thing called bhakti." Bhakti is the devotion to a deity that constitutes a way to salvation in Hinduism. The way to salvation as depicted in this poem is not a way devoid of danger but is in

Category: Philosophy - M