Brahman (AQA GCSE Religious Studies A (8062))

What is Nirguna?

Introduction to Hinduism

• Hinduism is the oldest world religion and originated in India

• Approximately, 1.7% of people in the UK are Hindu, making it the 3rd most popular religion in the UK

  • Some Hindu families came to England from India after the partition of India in 1947 when British India was split into India and Pakistan

  • Other Hindus came to the UK from Uganda in 1972 when the president of Uganda (Idi Amin) exiled Asian Ugandans giving them just 90 days to leave

• Hindus worship in a Mandir but also worship in the home

  • The word puja means worship

  • Hindus worship at a shrine with a murti of a god or goddess

• Many Hindus do not eat meat; they are vegetarian

• Hindus are monotheists, they are not polytheists

  • The gods and goddesses in Hinduism represent different parts or aspects of the one God, Brahman

• Hinduism teaches that human minds cannot fully understand Brahman

  • The Hindu scriptures have two ways of thinking that help with this understanding

  • There are different Hindu understandings of Brahman

    • Ultimate reality as divine consciousness (nirguna)

    • And also the manifestation of God in form (saguna)

Nirguna

• The term Nirguna Brahman refers to the concept that Brahman is beyond time and space

  • It is the idea that Brahman has no particular form and is present within all living beings and everywhere

  • This allows Hindus to focus on Brahman’s eternal qualities rather than getting distracted by different names and forms

  • One of the ways Nirguna Brahman is represented is by the Hindu aum or om symbol, which is used in meditation

    • Hindus believe that aum is the sound that began the universe

What is Saguna?

• A second way in which Hindus think of Brahman is as Saguna Brahman

  • In this representation of Brahman, the thousands of gods and goddesses that are worshipped by Hindus across the world are seen as manifestations of Brahman

  • There is no god or goddess that is wholly Brahman, but each of them has qualities of Brahman

• Hindus believe that by worshipping the forms of Brahman, they can begin to understand Brahman and gain spiritual insight into the nature of Ultimate Reality

  • Murtis are images or statues that Hindus worship as representations of Saguna Brahman

  • Devotion to the image enables the worshipper to see Ultimate Reality more clearly

  • Shiva Nataraja, the Lord of the Dance, is an example of a murti

    • In one hand he carries a drum to beat out the rhythm of time

    • It is a reminder that Brahman, seen here as Shiva, is in charge of time