1. Ahimsa (non-injury)--the principle of nonviolence

2 Karma and Reincarnation

3. Yoga--proto-Shiva in the lotus position.

4. Worship of Great Goddess--goddess figurines from the Indus cities.

5. Cults of trees, waters, animals, e.g., the fig tree, the most famous being the Buddha’s Bo Tree.

6. Phallus worship connected with the proto-Shiva.

7. Bhaktism--devotion to a savior god. I personally have seen no evidence of this.

8. Village deities, demons, ghosts, spirits

9. Third Eye--the mind’s eye, the eye of introspection and meditation. Perhaps seen on the forehead of nobleman/priest of Indus seals.

ARYAN INVASIONS (1500 BCE to 1200 BCE)

Aryas = the free born ones

Ar = valiant

Aris = warrior

Aryaman = name of planet mars, the war god.

They spoke Sanskrit, which literally means "elegant, well formed"; a "divine" language of 56 letters.

Feudal distinctions not really broken until the French and American revolution, whose leaders proclaimed that all humana beings are "free born." Classical liberalism claimed that all people were liberi not servi.

Eight tribes:

Aryan is primarily a linguistic term. Eire (Ireland)--Iran--Arya--all from the same root. The only non-Aryan are Basque, Finnish, and Hungarian. By linguistic analysis we can tell where these people came from. Root word for tree=birch, fish=salmon, just like some people call a camera a Kodak or a photocopier a Xerox. Built houses with fireplaces, even in India. They did not live in cities until about the 8^th Century BCE.

Nomadic warriors and cattlemen. A great drought may have forced them down out of Central Asia. Later had iron weapons and horse-rigged chariots. The chariot is the most predominant military image in Indian literature as well as Greek literature. The Aryans has superior tools and weapons. The ridged arrow and spear point, while the Harrapans still had stone-tipped arrows.

Organized in tribes with a social organization now preserved in the saga Beowulf. Male gods and male dominated society. The sacrifice of animals and humans (earlier practice), male clubs, gambling, and drinking soma. Taking of the soma (the fly agaric mushroom) before going into battle. Warrior god Indra, just as many other gods, may have been actual warrior, glorified and deified.

The Four Castes (varna lit. "color")

Brahmin - priests - "to teach"

Kshatriya - warrior-kings - "to rule

Vaishya - artisans and farmers - "to cultivate"

Shudras - laborers - "to serve"

Outcastes

Some Aryans turned back. Occupied only a limited part of Pakistan and Northwest India. Only later did they go into the Ganges valley. 1200-800 BCE constituted the "dark ages" in ancient India. Organized city life came to an abrupt end. Cities did not reemerge until 700 B.C. Similar dark age in Greece after the destruction of the Minoan civilization. Return to pastoral life in small villages.

Theism (Greek theos = god): belief in god

Atheism (Greek "a" - no, not + theos): rejects theism

Agnosticism (Greek a + gnosis): no knowledge to decide one way or other.

Polytheism (Greek poly = many): belief in many gods

Monotheism (Greek monas = one, unity): belief in one god only

Personal Theism: belief in a personal God who elects and saves by the bestowal of grace, i.e., an unearned release from sin.

In the early Vedas we find polytheism, but later we find henotheism, where one god rules over the other gods. See examples in Hebrew religion in Deut. 32:8 and Ps. 82. (For more on Hebrew Henotheism read this article.) Varuna, Agni, and Indra as "king" of the gods; also Vishvakarman, although his hymns tend towards monotheism proper with his creation of unnamed gods.

Upanishadic monism: One ultimate, impersonal realty--all the gods are personal expressions of this reality.

Hindu theism: highest reality is a personal deity--Shiva, Vishnu (Krishna), and the Goddess; or,

the Goddess as the ultimate reality and Shiva and Vishnu as expressions of her reality.

The Veda from vid = to know. Danish vide = to know. Video = to see. Rishis are the sages or see-rs. The Hindus both see their gods (darshana) and hear the sacred syllables.

1800-1500 BCE composed;1000 BCE canonized (fixed); 600 BCE actually written down.

1) Rig-veda - earliest - 1028 hymns

2) Sama (song) - veda - songs to initiate sacrifice Only 3 originally

3) Yajur-veda - instructions for sacrifice

4) Atharva-veda - named after a priest.

Originally heard and written down by an ancient sage called "Vyasa."

Shruti - "to hear" direct dictation from the gods to the Rishis. Vedas and Upanishads

Smriti - "to remember" represented by the Mahabharata (including the Gita), the Ramayana, and Puranas (the latter a huge collection of myths).

Aditi, Mother of the Gods ("pregnant with divinity"): a + diti "to bind" or ad - iti "to eat" lit. "unbounded" or power to unbind. "We stand sinless before Aditi" (Rig-veda (RV) I. 24. 15). Aditi can unbind our sins; or, as in the Christian Mary image, one is automatically sinless in the eyes of the compassionate mother, but judged by Christ (Vedic Varuna).

Aditi may be related to 'apeiron - "the unbounded" source of all things in Anaximander, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher (6th Cent. B.C.E.)

Tapas - lit. "to brood" "heat" "hatching heat" incubating the Cosmic Egg! Primary vehicle of creation. Latin Bible(Vulgate) mentions "incubation" in Gen. 1. Prajapati brooded and the sacred syllable OM was the result.

Lower tapas - desire, including sexual - fury of the warrior. (RV X, 7, 11.)

vs.

higher tapas - ascetic fervor, meditative, and spiritual. Freudian sublimation?

The Purusha hymn: a Primal Man who is dismembered. Norse Odin slays Ymir and the cosmos is made from his body. Marduk slays Tiamat and the cosmos is made from her body. (Gen 1:1 demythologized account of this Babylonian myth: tehom ("the deep") = Tiamat. Osirus is dismembered and his mother-wife Isis searches for his pieces. Christian Eucharist (re-membering) has prototype in religion of Osirus. Zoroastrian Gayomart slain by demons and dismembered. Chinese Panku, a cosmic giant--see The Spiritual Titanism for comparisons between Chinese Panku (208-211) and Purusha and pp. 104-109 for an analysis of the Purusha hymn.

Varuna: king of the gods, a god of judgment. Sends people to the house of clay. Administrator of Rita, cosmic law.

Rita: cosmic law. Greek equivalents are logos and dike. Torah for the Hebrews.

Indra: warrior god of the Vedas. Norse god Thor, Zeus, and Indra share the thunderbolt as weapon and symbol. Mentioned most often in the Rig-veda.

Soma: principal drug of the Aryan warriors, but a god in his own right. Most likely the fly agaric mushroom.

Surya: the sun god. Savitri is his consort?

Agni: the fire god. Present at all Hindu rituals and sacrifices.

Aditi: mother