Life Stages
The first stage of life, spent studying the Vedas and other sacred literature under a teacher.
What is the student stage?
Material success, wealth, social power, and prestige, sought as a goal of life.
What is artha?
The path of study, philosophy, and meditation, suited to the person who enjoys learning and reflection.
What is jnana marga?
The oldest body of Hindu sacred literature, four collections in all.
What are the Vedas?
With more than a billion adherents, Hinduism holds this rank among the world's religions.
What is third largest?
The second stage: pursuing a career, raising a family, and supporting the community.
What is the householder stage?
Pleasure and the fulfillment of desire, sought as a goal of life.
What is kama?
A teacher. Knowledge and wisdom is pursued under one of these rather than alone.
What is a guru?
The oldest of the four Vedas.
What is the Rig Veda?
The technical term for nonviolence in Hinduism: the principle behind the veneration of cows and behind a key political method used in the quest for independence from Great Britain in India.
What is ahimsa?
The third stage, in which a person retreats from worldly bonds to give himself to the spiritual quest.
What is the forest dweller stage?
One who renounces physical pleasures and worldly attachments for the sake of spiritual advancement and growth.
What is an ascetic? (sannyasin is also acceptable)
A trancelike state of deep meditation in which self-consciousness is lost and the mind is absorbed into ultimate reality.
What is samadhi?
Ancient philosophical texts that form the basis of Hindu doctrine, which means "sitting down near."
What are the Upanishads?
He stood against oppression through nonviolence and civil disobedience and won Indian independence from British rule.
Who is Gandhi?
The fourth and highest stage: a wanderer who has given up property and social ties.
What is the sannyasin (wandering ascetic) stage?
A person's particular dharma is set by three things: gender, caste, and this.
What is stage of life?
According to Brodd, Vedanta, Yoga, and Sankhya are the three most important of these.
What are the schools of Hindu philosophy?
This Sanskrit phrase translates roughly as "you are that," and it compresses the claim that the self is ultimate reality.
What is tat tvam asi?
Beyond puja, Brodd names three aspects of Hindu devotional life: household and village rituals, veneration of cows, and this (which might include a dip in the Ganges River at Varanasi).
What are pilgrimages?
The Sanskrit term for a stage of life. There are four, and they come in a fixed order.
What is an ashrama?
Kama, artha, dharma, and moksha are known collectively as this.
What are the four goals of life?
Hindus usually follow more than one of these three paths toward liberation. Give the technical term names for all three.
What are karma marga, jnana marga, and bhakti marga?
The belief that one supreme deity embodies ultimate reality. Brodd says a slight majority of Hindus therefore qualify as this.
What are theistic?
In these years the Indian government forbade discrimination against outcastes, and a new constitution abolished untouchability.
What is 1948 to 1950?