West Asian Belief
This is the homepage for the West Asian Belief category, a subcategory of Belief.
Buddhism
Siddhartha Gautama (fifth or sixth century BC), also known as the Buddha, was the founder of Buddhism. His mother Maya is said to have dreamt that a six-tusked elephant entered her right side, ten months before she gave birth to Siddhartha in Lumbini. The future Buddha grew up in a palace, but he adopted an ascetic lifestyle after he encountered a sick man, a corpse, and an ascetic outside his father’s court. Like Mahavira, the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment while meditating under a tree-in this case, the Bodhi tree. He learned the Four Noble Truths, which hold that humans are kept in samsara, the endless cycle of death and rebirth, by our attachment to impermanent things, and that the cycle can be ended by attaining nirvana.
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (Japanese, 1900s) was a Buddhist scholar
See Qwiz5’s article for more information
Hinduism
Bhagavad-Gita: Sanskrit for “The Song of God,” it is a poem found in Book Six of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Likely formalized in the 1st or 2nd century, the Bhagavad-Gita begins on the eve of a battle, when the prince Arjuna asks his charioteer Krishna (an avatar of Vishnu) about responsibility in dealing with the suffering that the impending battle will cause. Krishna tells Arjuna that humans possess a divine self within a material form, and that Arjuna’s duty is to love God and do what is right without thinking of personal gain — some of the main tenets of Hinduism.
Vedas: Consist strictly of four hymnbooks: the Rig (prayers in verse), Sama (musical melodies), Yajur (prose prayers), and Atharva (spells and incantations). Each Veda, though, also contains a Brahmana (interpretation), and the Vedas also incorporate treatises on meditation (Aranyakas) as well as the Upanishads. Written in an archaic form of Sanskrit by early Aryan invaders, possibly between 1500 and 1200 BC, the Vedas concentrate on sacrifices to deities, such as Indra (god of thunder), Varuna (cosmic order), and Agni (fire). The major gods Vishnu and Shiva appear as minor deities in the Vedas; their elevation, as well as the concept of karma, does not develop until the Upanishads.
Upanishads: Also called Vedanta, or “last part of the Vedas,” the Upanishads were written in Sanskrit between 900 and 500 BC. Part poetry but mainly prose, the earlier Upanishads laid the foundation for the development of several key Hindu ideas, such as connecting the individual soul (atman) with the universal soul (Brahman). Spiritual release, or moksha, could be achieved through meditation and asceticism. The name “Upanishads” means “to sit down close,” as pupils did when a teacher recited them.
Vishnu
One of the Trimurti (the holy trinity of Hindu gods). Vishnu is the Preserver, protecting the world.
When needed, Vishnu descends to Earth as an avatar, or incarnation. Nine have appeared so far:
- Matsya
- Kurma: tortoise
- Varah(a): boar
- Narasmha: man-lion
- Vamana: dwarf; he is most known for measuring the earth, heaven, and the space that separates them by taking three giant steps
- Parashurama
- Rama: The seventh avatar of Vishnu is hero of the Ramayana. Born as a prince to King Dasharatha and Queen Kaushalya, Rama wins the hand of his wife Sita in a competition held by Sita’s father, King Janaka; only he can string Shiva’s bow. When his aunt Kaikeyi schemes to deprive him of Dasharatha’s throne by putting her son Bharata there, Rama and Sita are banished to a forest for 14 years. During that time, the ten-headed demon Ravana kidnaps Sita, but Rama rescues her and kills Ravana. Bharata abdicates; Rama makes Sita walk through fire to prove that Ravana had not corrupted her.
- Krishna: This eighth avatar of Vishnu is born when Vishnu plucks two of his own hairs-one light, one dark-and uses the dark hair to impregnate Devaki. Her husband Vasudeva saves Krishna from evil King Kansa by carrying him across the river Yamuna to safety in Gokula. Krishna can be depicted as a child, adolescent, or adult. As an infant, he plays pranks such as stealing butter. As a youthful lover, he plays the flute and dances with the gopis (cow-maidens) in the Vrindavana forest. As an adult, he is a dark-skinned warrior with a light, angelic face, charioteer to Arjuna (in the Mahabharata). In the Bhagavad-Gita it is he who reveals the importance of dharma and bhakti. His consort is the cowherd girl Radha.
- Balarama/Buddha
Kalki is the name of the tenth avatar and will appear with a flaming sword so save humans from the darkness.
Some cult followers worship Vishnu as Narayana, the primal being.
Vishnu has darak blue skin, rides with the eagle Gardua, and sits on the snake Shesha. His symbols are the conch, disc, club, and lotus.
His chief wives are Lakshmi and Bhu (the Earth).
Kama, the god of love, may be his son.
Shiva
Also known as Lord Mahesh, Shiva is the Destroyer in the Trimurti.
Shiva developed from Rudra, the Vedic god of death.
Shiva is often shown sitting on a tiger skin and riding the bull Nandi. He is also associated with a lingam (phallus). He has three eyes, of which the third (in the middle of his head) is all-knowing; when it opens, the world is destroyed and regenerated. Lord of all underworld beings, he wears a necklace of skulls and other another made of a snake. He carries a trident as a weapon and has aa blue throat, the result of drinking poison while the ocean churns. Parvati, one of his several consorts, bears him two sons: Kartikeya (the god of war) and Ganesha.
See Qwiz5’s article for more information
Brahma
The third of the Trimurti, Brahma is the Creator. By dropping an egg into the cosmic waters, he hatches a younger form of Brahma that creates other beings. Also the chief priest, he has four heads that each point in a cardinal direction, representing the Four Vedas. Brahma has a fifth head until Shiva plucked it off; as punishment for that act, Shiva is forced to wander as a beggar and carry Brahma’s severed skull as a bowl. Brahma’s wife is Savitri, who curses him after he lets a cow-maiden stand in for her at an important ritual. Few people worship Brahma, either because of the curse or because he lost a power struggle to Vishnu.
Ganesha
This elephant-headed god of wisdom and learning is often shown riding a rat. Parvati “gives birth” to Ganesha by creating him from the saffron paste she scrubbed off of herself after bathing. When Parvati instructs Ganesha not to let anyone in as she took another bath, Ganesha prevents Shiva from entering, prompting Shiva to cut off Ganesha’s head. To calm Parvati, Shiva tells servants to take the head of the first baby found whose mother had her back turned; the servants bring back the head of a baby elephant. Ganesha has two wives (Riddhi and Siddhi), two sons, and a daughter. People pray to this remover of obstacles and bringer of good fortune before they commence business.
Indra
The god of rain, thunder, and war, Indra wields the thunderbolt (vajra) and rides Airavat, the four-tusked white elephant. In early Vedic times he was king of the gods who ruled swarga; many Rig Veda hymns are devoted to him. With the aid of both the Marut storm gods and his favorite drink, soma, Indra leads the Aryan conquest of India. He also defeats the dragon Vritra, who had stolen the world’s water.
Lakshmi/Sri
The last and greatest treasure born from the “churning of the ocean,” Lakshmi is the goddess of prosperity and patron to moneylenders. The epitome of feminine beauty, she sits or stands on a lotus flower and appears in her own avatars alongside Vishnu: Sita to his Rama; Padma the lotus to Vamana the dwarf; Radha (or Rukmini) to Krishna. A form of the mother goddess (Shakti, or Devi), she also represents virtue and honesty.
Shiva’s consort
Several incarnations of the “mother goddess” take this moniker. Parvati, the most benevolent form, is the reincarnation of Sati, who threw herself into the fire. Durga is a demon-slayer who rides a lion into battle and carries a weapon in each of her many arms. Kali is a black-skinned goddess of destruction, who defeats the demon leader Raktavija by drinking all of his blood. Although Kali’s dance can destroy the world, Shiva throws himself at her feet to calm her, turning her into Parvati.
Arjuna
The chief hero of the Mahabharata, Arjuna is the son of Indra and one of five Pandava brothers, who fight a bitter war against their 100 cousins, Kauravas, culminating at the battle on “Kuru’s Field.” Before the battle, Arjuna asks his charioteer (Krishna) why he must fight. Krishna responds that Arjuna must follow a devotion to god (bhakti), and that even as he slays his brethren, it is for a just cause. Along with the rest of the Pandavas, Arjuna is married to Draupadi.
Hanuman
Son of the wind god Vaayu and Queen Anjana, Hanuman has a human body with a monkey’s head. As a boy he swallows the sun (mistaking it for a piece of fruit); the angry Indra whips him with a thunderbolt. In response, the wind god Vaayu refuses to breathe air into the world, prompting Indra to apologize and the other gods to bestow immortality and shapeshifting ability on Hanuman. He figures prominently in the Ramayana, where he flies to Lanka to tell Sita that Rama will rescue her from Ravana.
Agni
Part of a trinity with Surya (the sun) and Vaayu (the wind), Agni can be brought to life by rubbing two sticks together. Since Agni is responsible for sacrificial fires, he is the patron of priests. He has a red body, two heads, three legs, four arms, and seven tongues; he often carries a flaming javelin. In the Mahabharata, Agni’s grandfather is one of seven great sages; with the help of Krishna, he devours the Khandav forest.
For more information
See mythology.net’s page on Hinduism and Godchecker’s page on Hindu Mythology
Jainism
Mahavira (fifth or sixth century BC) was the founder of modern Jainism. Jains regard him as the twenty-fourth tirthankara, or spiritual teacher, who revived and synthesized ancient traditions. His mother, Trishala, is said to have had either fourteen or sixteen auspicious dreams before his birth. In his forties, Mahavira is said to have achieved Kevala Jnana, or infinite knowledge, while meditating under a salah tree. He subsequently taught a number of principles, including ahimsa, the prohibition of violence against living beings of any kind.
There are two sects of Jain monks, “sky-clad” and “white-clad”.
The “sky-clad” sect, whose monks are also known as Digambara monks, practice nudity. They maintain that since women are not allowed to be naked, taking the vow of aparigraha will not help them attain liberation.
For more information, see the BBC’s page on Jainism or Qwiz5’s article on Jainism
To read the texts for yourself, see the Jain eLibrary
Sikhism
Guru Nanak (1469–1539) was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten gurus of Sikhism. Collections of his hymns formed the original basis for the Guru Granth Sahib, the primary scripture of Sikhism, which is regarded as the eleventh guru. Many miracle stories about Guru Nanak’s life are told in his biographies, which are collectively known as Janamsakhis. According to one such story, when he died, his body disappeared and was replaced with flowers, which were divided among Hindus and Muslims. According to another such story, he slept with his feet facing the Kaaba; when Muslims tried to move them away, the Kaaba moved so that his feet were still facing it.
For more information, see the BBC’s page on Sikhism