Religion 101

Today (as I write, Wednesday, March 27, 2013), Hindus worldwide are observing the spring religious festival known as Holi, or the “festival of colors.”

Holi always begins on the final full moon of the lunar month of Phalguna on the Hindu calendar. However, that fixed starting date on the Hindu religious calendar does not always coincide with March 27 on the secular Western (Gregorian) calendar. Last year, for instance, Holi fell on March 8, 2012. Next year, by contrast, Holi will fall on  March 17, 2014.

Regardless of when it falls in relation to the Western calendar, Holi is a joyous celebration of the end of winter and the start of spring, as well as a commemoration of several different traditional Hindu tales involving divine goodness triumphing in various ways over demonic evils.

During Holi, ordinary social restraints are somewhat loosened, while boisterous fun and merriment become the order of the day. Recalling the newly emerging colors of the spring season, colored water is squirted and colored powder flung upon strangers passing in the street. Friends and families may paint themselves and each other with colorful paints. Bonfires burn, music plays, and revelers embrace, exchange sweets, and dance.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish my Hindu readers around the globe a very “Happy Holi!”

At sunset today (Monday, March 25), Jews worldwide will begin observing the eight-day festival known in Hebrew as Pesach, and in English as Passover.

Why at sunset? Because Judaism traditionally reckons a “day” as beginning not at 12:00 midnight, nor even at dawn, but instead at sunset. Pesach or Passover will therefore technically begin tonight at sunset. It will then last for eight days, before concluding at sunset on the evening of Tuesday, April 2. No work is permitted during the first two and the last two days of this eight-day period.

(In Israel, however, Pesach or Passover instead lasts for only seven days; no work is permitted on just the first and the last day of that period.)

Passover always begins on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Nissan. However, that fixed starting date of 15 Nissan on the Jewish religious calendar does not always coincide with March 25 on the secular Western (Gregorian) calendar.

The traditional Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, which means that it counts and calculates its lunar months somewhat differently from how the widely-used Gregorian calendar (which is a solar calendar) reckons its own months. This means that there is a certain amount of built-in “drift,” from year to year, between the two calendars.

Last year, for instance, Passover (always 15 Nissan on the Hebrew calendar) began at sunset on April 6 and ended at sunset on April 14, 2012. Next year, by contrast, Passover will begin at sunset on April 14 and end at sunset on April 22, 2014.

Regardless of when 15 Nissan falls in relation to the Gregorian calendar, Passover commemorates the ancient Israelites’ years of slavery in Egypt, and celebrates their subsequent liberation from bondage and departure from Egypt under the leadership of Moses (as described in the biblical book of Exodus, and as popularly depicted in Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood epic The Ten Commandments, often broadcast around this time of year).

The name “Passover” derives from the account in Exodus describing how, when God dispatched the angel of death to slay the firstborn children of Egyptian families (the last of ten plagues sent by God to force Pharaoh to free the enslaved Hebrews), the Hebrew slaves identified their own homes by marking their doorposts with the blood of a lamb. The angel of death “passed over” those homes so marked, sparing the Hebrew firstborn children. The death of every Egyptian firstborn drove Pharaoh to at last free the slaves, who fled Egypt for Sinai and the Promised Land.

The “main event” during Passover is the Seder (“Order”) meal, which ritually memorializes the above. Matzah, an unleavened bread made without yeast, symbolizes the hurry of the exodus or flight from Egypt, in which there was no time to wait for bread to rise; bitter herbs recall the bitter suffering of the enslaved Hebrews under the Egyptians; a lamb shank stands in for the lamb whose blood marked Hebrew doorposts. The Seder meal is observed on the first two nights of Passover by Jews outside of Israel, and on just the first night alone by Jews within Israel.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish my Jewish readers around the globe Chag Pesach Sameach (Hebrew for “Happy Passover Holiday” or “Joyous Passover Festival”)!

When encountering Hinduism for the first time, Westerners (including many of the students in my community college Eastern religions classes) find themselves faced with a major world faith which in many ways differs drastically from the major Western faiths with which most of them are familiar.

For one thing, unlike Judaism or Christianity or Islam (and as discussed in a previous blog entry), Hinduism has not just one holy book, but many.

For another thing, Hinduism also believes that individuals spend not just one lifetime upon this earth, but many.

For yet another thing, Hinduism believes that there is not just one path to salvation (understood as release from rebirth, and eternal union or communion with God), but many.

For still another thing, Hinduism believes in both polytheism and monotheism. Simultaneously.

Okay, hold on. The popular Hindu pantheon is comprised of Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma, Ganesha (the famous elephant-headed son of Shiva), Hanuman (the monkey god), Kali, Durga, and countless other deities. One traditional formulation states that there are in fact some 330 million gods. How can an assertion like that ever logically square with monotheism, or the belief in just one God?

Hinduism believes in (and worships) multiple gods. Yet behind or above or beyond that superficial multiplicity also lies a deeper unifying and singular divine Reality. In other words, Hinduism is both monotheistic (in theory) as well as polytheistic (in practice).

In a way which many Westerners find it difficult to wrap their minds around, Hinduism believes that there is more than one valid way of conceiving or conceptualizing of God or the Divine. And more than one of these ways may be “in play” at one time, even within the faith life of a single individual.

In other words, Hinduism simultaneously employs multiple “versions” or “public images” of God. Hindus revere a pantheon of multiple gods, yet ultimately affirm a single Supreme Reality.

Many Hindus conceptualize and worship God primarily in the guise of Vishnu. Other Hindus instead visualize and worship God primarily in the form of Shiva. Still other Hindus resonate more with worshipping God explicitly as Devi or Goddess (in any of a number of variant feminine manifestations — as Kali, as Durga, etc.). Yet other Hindus conceive of God or the Divine in nonpersonal or transpersonal terms, e.g., as Brahman, the impersonal Absolute, the Ground of Being, the Supreme Reality, or All That Is.

Many Hindus may worship any or all of these deities (or alternate forms of Deity), together also with any of a number of avatars or earthly “incarnations” of Deity (as Krishna, for instance, or as Rama) simultaneously, and without any sense of inconsistency or self-contradiction. They do so by understanding all of these many deities as being just so many variant forms, facets, aspects, masks, personae, or manifestations of the same single Supreme Being.

From the Hindu perspective, other (non-Hindu) religions merely extend this diverse variety of ways of conceptualizing and approaching God or the Divine. Consequently, in the Hindu view, all religions are equally valid, insofar as each in its own way serves as just another alternate route leading up the same Mountain; all such valid spiritual paths ultimately converge upon the same Goal.

As the Hindu Vedas put it so succinctly, “Truth is One; sages call it different names.”