Religions Panel

Whether you follow a religion, or faith, cultural and religious awareness is very important for every individual to possess. Interfaith Religions Panel gives the members of the University of Texas community a chance to learn about various faiths, religion, and irreligion. This is a chance to get misconceptions cleared without feeling embarrassed and to learn about the backgrounds of your various peers. Not only do the panelists and the audiences learn about various faiths, but they also learn about their own faiths. Questions focus on a range of topics such the basic tenants of one’s faith and a possibility of amalgamation of religion and science in one’s faith. This year, Judaism, Sikhism, Islam, Baha’I Faith, Christianity, Secular worldview, and Hinduism will be represented on the panel

Some questions that were asked: 

Is there a generalization, assumption, stereotype, or criticism about your respective faith that you would like to address? Or What is the greatest misconception about your faith that you can think of? Please clear it up.

Who founded your faith? What is the central message of your faith? 

What are the basic tenants of your religion?

Most religions have a text(s) that they base their beliefs on. What is the particular text in your religion and what role does it play in the way people live their lives?

Movie Night Meeting

During this meeting we talked about two different concepts seen in Hinduism.  We started off the meeting asking members what the significance of om was!  After that we showed this clip to jumpstart further explanation and discussion of this concept: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwSKkKrUzUk

When Om is written in its original form it indicates three morae or syllables:  ओ३म् or a-u-m(a).  Each syllable represents one of the three elementary aspects of Shakti or devine energy. A is for creation, U is for preservation and M is for liberation or destruction.  Here the circle of life represents that cycle.  As an expansion of that, here is another clip from the lion king that we looked at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW7PlTaawfQ.  In Mufasa's explanation, creation is essentially when a lion is born, preservation is the lion's appetite for the antelope and destruction/ liberation is the death of the lion.  It comes in full circle when the lion's become the grass for the antelope, thus the circle of life is om.

Before we talked about maya, we gave everyone a maze. You can find that maze online at http://www.weirdly.net/artwork/mazes/maze-1.png. The point of the activity was to show that the maze represents an illusion that stands between the start and the finish.  From there we go into maya.  

In the simplest form maya can be described as an illusion of distinction or separation.  To clarify the concept further, we told a story about Krishna and a friend.  The friend asked Krishna what maya was.  Krishna told his friend to get water and he will tell him.  On the way to get Krishna water, the friend met a woman, fell in love, got married, had kids and began his life.  Soon enough a flood came and washed everything away and took the friend's family and home away from him.  The friend ended up waking up next to Krishna.  At this point Krishna said told his friend that the family, wife, kids and home he had were all an illusion.  With that said we showed the part of the Wizard of Oz where the wizard was unveiled by the dog Toto after Dorothy, the scarecrow, the tin man and the cowardly lion returned from killing the witch.  The unveiling of the Wizard shows Dororthy and the others, that the Wizard was just an illusion, that her journey to the wizard was her maya.  To emphasize this point further, we showed the part of the movie where Dorothy misses her chance to return to Kansas with the Wizard and Glinda the Good Witch tells Dorothy that she had the ability to go home all along and that she did not have to take the journey.  

In conclusion, Hindu concepts are universal; thus they appear in a lot of movies.  These were only a few examples.  We encourage you to search for others.  What other movies can you see Hindu themes come up in?

Bhagavad Gita Meeting

We have talked somewhat extensively about Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Jnana Yoga, and their prevalence in the Bhagavada Gita. We have understood how the Bhagavada Gita is split up into three sections with Shree Krishna essentially detailing the differences between the three yogas. That said, as an oversimplification, the three yogas are as follows: 

Karma Yoga: Yoga of action. Perform actions every day according to your dharma, and as if you are performing them for [God] or even as [God]. 

Bhakti Yoga: Yoga of devotion. There are many devotional practices that can be performed that allows for a close connection with [God]. These can be explained as the attitudes of: 1.Santa Bhava (the attitude of peaceful adoration), 2.Dasya Bhava (attitude of servant towards the master), 3.Sakhya Bhava (attitude of a friend), 4. Vatsalya Bhava (attitude of a parent to the child), 5.Madhurya Bhava (attitude of the lover towards the beloved).

Jnana Yoga: Yoga of knowledge. This is the accumulation of knowledge throughout life to eventually end with philosophical knowledge which helps understanding a distinction between different metaphysical concepts. 

Knowing what we now know about these complex concepts, is it possible to acheive Moksha (self realization) through just one of the yogas explained by Shree Krishna? If not just one, then which one(s) are necessary? Which one(s) are not necessary?