ALL INDIA INSTITUTE OD MEDICAL SCIENCE'S PAPERS ON RELIGIOUS

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ALL INDIA INSTITUTE OD MEDICAL SCIENCE'S PAPERS ON RELIGIOUS
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RF_RJS_1_SUDHA

BEHAVIOURAL

<2^ I

SCIENCES

Sociology

the relatedness of human beings

Psychology

human behaviour under controlled conditions

Social psychology

human behaviour under actual life conditions

Economics

subsistence behaviour, its form and processes

Political science

controlled behaviour, its form and processes

Anthropology

basic anatomical and cultural likenesses

and differences that exist in communities

of man.

ANTHROPOLOGY

Can be classified into three main divisions.
1.

Physical anthropology
- study of man, the biological entity or
- study of man's physical characteristics

2.

Cultural anthropology subdivided to include (a)
(b)
(c)

3.

Linguistics - study of man's pattern of speech
Archaeology - study of cultural history
Ethnology - study of man as a possessor of various
cultures - i.e. the way of life of societies still
living or only recently extinct

Social anthropology
- study of the workings of a society, including
social structures, social groups, kinship and
other relationships.

KINSHIP

- Geneological relationships
- Bonds of blood and marriage
Membership acquired through 'descent'
- ambilateral, patrilateral, matrilateral

Rank and privilege acquired through 'succession'
- bilineal, patrilineal, matrilineal
Material property acquired through 'inheritance'
- unilateral or bilateral.

CULTURE

- Sum total of socially inherited characteristics of a human
group
- comprises everything one generation can tell, convey or
hand on to next

- Social legacy as contrasted with organic heredity
- Way of 'thinking', 'feeling', 'believing' affecting 'behaviour'
- has to be learned, is shared with others, can be altered.

VALUES

- Criteria for 'goals, 'interests, or 'ends'.
- Part of culture is therefore learned, shared and can be
altered.

SOCIETY

- Group of people who interact more with each other than with
other individuals - who co-operate with each other for the
attainment of certain ends
- You can see and count the number of individuals in a society.

I.

Introduction

TT

History

- (a) Origin
(b) Modern period

III.

Religion

- (a) Believes
(b) Customs

Impact

- (•_)
(b)
.(c)
(d)

V.

cO^-ill# k?'v t • r
Old testamet & medicine
AJI
Impact or health
Judaism A Jews
Jews contribution to medicine

**

Summary

Introduction:

Judaism is the oldest religion of the west, the first
to teach monotheism ard the parent of two great religion viz.
Christianity & Islam. It is truely called an eternal religion
because it has survived more than 2,000 years of persecution..
Jews have a round face and either a dark-complexion and-a
fine nose or blonde with a coarse nose. There are about.12
million Jews in the world, today including 5 million in U.S.A.;- .
3 in U.S.S.R.; & 2 in Israel. Mostly they are well-to-do
.'.nd reside in cities. In U.S.A, more tharr 3/5th of Jews reside
in the first 10 cities and are engaged in trade commence or hold
shares ir industries like texitile, motion-picture, T.V.,
nextfspaper- etc.

First great leader of patriarch was Abraham, who settled
dowr ir Palestine. After him, his sen Isaac and his grandson
Jacob became patriarchs. Jacob, who is also called Israel, had
12 .sons who bec'.’.me heads of 1! tribes called Tsraelit-.s. Joseph,
the fondest son of Jacob, was sold as a slave co Egyptian
merchants by the other sons out of jealousy. A fex«r years latory,
famine occured ir Palestine. Jacob and his 11 sons went to Egypt
to purchase grain only to discover that Joseph had become the
ruler of Egypt. They were giver land and settled do.xm in Egypt
where their descendants lived and prospered for years. Egyptians
did not tolerate’ the prosperity of jews, made slaves of them
and put them to innumerable hardships. The Jews were finally
relieved of their misery by Moses who led them out of Egypt
towards the God's promisod-land-Palestine. This march to
Palestine, called exodus, took 40 years and was led after Moses'
death by his'most trusted lelutenant Joshua. It was during
exodus, that on Mount Sairai, God revealed the 10 commandments
to Moses,
.Bac> in Palestine, Jews were confronted with the strong'
ard civilized local tribes with whom they were constantly
- engag’ed ir war. Finally Saul succeeded in establishing a kingdom
of Jews in Palestine. He was followed by-David, a Shepherd
and Solomon, David's Son.' Solomon built the first temple at
Jeru^elam ard during hi£ reis-n Palestine reached its greatest
glory & prosperity. After Solomon, hbwever, internal economic
ard political strife, led to c-ivp.siob of Palestine. 10 tribes
invited to form a Nojshern Kingdom, called, Israel, with capital
at.’Samaru arcL the remaining two tribes formed -»a Southern kingdom
called^kingdom of Juda with.the capital at Jeruselam# 200 years
latCr Assari^ans attached the Northern Kingdom of Israel,

destroyed the capital and drowned most of. the people to slavery
and. put of history. The northern tribes are therefore reffered to
as the ”10 lost tribes.” The two southern tribes (consisting of
descendants of Juda and Benjamin - Sons of Jacob) remained’true to
the religious faith and inspite of slavery maintained their indepen­
dent identity. Jews of today are their progeny.
After formation of the kingdom of Judah till the disperal of'
jews to various parts of world (called as diapsora Jews). Jewswere
successively attacked & ruled by the following:i)

Babylonian King-Nebuchardnezzar

ii)

Alexander the.great ■

iii)

Syrians

iv)

Roman general pompey and

y)

Roma general, latter King, Titus

Dates are as follows

1900 B.C.
1200's B.C.
1200 B.C.
Early 1000's B.C.
1030 - 990 B.C.
990 - 937 B.C.
.586 B.C.
334 B.C.
63 B.C. )

Abraham
Exodus
Back in Palestine
Sant
David
Solomon
Attacked by Babylonias
Alexader Attacks
Pompery conquer
Diapsora Jewery
Great war: of- the Jews

j massacre by
66 - 70 AD)
Titus.
)
After diapsora, history of jews is one of a long succession
of murderous persecutions, deprivation of political, educational and
land-owning rights and flight, from land to land.

'Zoinist' movement started ir late 19th Century. This was a
demand for establishing of Jewish state in Palestine. On 14th
May 194Sar all-Jewish state was. created by division of Palestine
ard it was giver the historic name of Israel.
Bellefs:
Judaism breaks down to "Ethical monotheism practicable
by anyone anywhere.”

Ethics: Good conduct is to be followed from birth to death,
in the home as well as outside and is to be followed joyfully.

Mono - God is one. Also all things through atom, man to
star are one. Similarly all persons are one and therefore equally
entitled for pleasure and justice.

To put it differently, Judaism believes in a .brotherhood
of man under fatherhood of one God. It does not believe.in
Priests
Prophets

Propitiation by sacrifice
Picture or idol worship .and
Possibility of life after death

Their God is called Yahweh (Jehovah)^ God is the c'reater and
ruler of world. He is a friend and helper of man. He works
increasingly both with his Mind & Power. And lastly, He guides not
only nature but also human morals and history.

(3)
Judaism accepts converts but does not seek them. It
believes that anyone who follows a righteous path, car achieve
communion with God, and in this respect differs fundamentally
from Christianity.
Customs:

1.
Learning of scriptures viz ■ old testament and its interpre­
tation called Talmud.
2.
Prayers and. synagogue.' Every jew recites prayers thrice, a
day, which consist mainly of assertion that God is one. There are
special.prayers on such occassidns as the appearance of rainbow,
meteor etc.
Synagogue is the place''of worship of-Jews. Prayers' are held
three times a day,. Any 10 persons versed in scriptures can l-'ead theservice. Audience (males and females seat seuuj’. cely) a-epeats >
either in mind or Ipudly'. Synagogue also .serves as a schopl to ■
teach Hebrew language and as a centre of philanthropic, activity.

3.
Festivals:. Most important is Sabath or the rest day.
is from Friday to'.\3aturdoy evening.

This

4.
Circumscion: Done on the 8th>day after birth. Previously
father used■to perform. Now performed by "Mahola" an experienced
Jew. Induction to’adulthood takes place at 13 years.

5.
Food: Pork.,- Oysters, scale-less fishes, winged insects,
creepers: areforbidden .' . Meat".and Milk are required to. be.- p_ e pared,
served or eaten' separately., '
Only healthy living, animals are slaughted by one experienced
in this line. Lacerated meat is never■eaten.. Meat from the
slaughtered animal is. soaked for -j-hour. in water' and' then in ' salt
water for. another hr-ur- .after which. It is thoroughly rinsed■in water.
6.
During ard 7 days after metises, till 40 days after birth
of a male child and 90 days after.a femalephysical union of .
woi-ur. with husband is forbidden .

7.
Bodily cleanliness is very important as Jews think that '
.God resides amidst them.
8.
Good conduct is of paramount importance so is peace in the
house. The 7 sins that are absolutely banned are murder, cruelity
to animals,- robbery, sexual promiscuosity, civil injustice, idol
worship and blasphemy.

9.
It is the father's duty to educate his children & bring
them upto trade.
10.
All those who can are required to help the needy.
of the income i,s 1'-'be spent as charity.

l/10th

Impact: Impact of Judaism is seen in philanthropic' institutions
tackling health problems ard ir the, weekly day of rest and recrea.tion. Jews regard charity as justice and do it without expectation
of reward. On Sabath day the^ rest both, physically ard mentally
ever mourning is prohibited on sabath.

Tlifc practice of ancient Hebrews of isolating, person with
skin diseases (leprosy) left its impact till 17th certv.ry.

Like other religions, Jud.ais--’ collaborates with Medicine
in enforcing the rules of ucisonal hygiene. The para’r-lss' r !•>•:=<) by
religious leaders in. explaining the comr.: anomer is to the laity nay
have influenced the shaping of nooern techniques of preventive

Judaisms and Jews.;
1.
Gircvnscion affords partial immunity tn cancer pctris .and cancer
cervix uterus.,

Avoidance of pork, oysters, scaleless fish and .healthy rules
regarding slaughtering of anim^Ts reduce the risk of transvissior..of
disease connected therewith.
3.
Judaism & mental health. In studies carried out in U.S.A.
Jews were found to have-neurosis 144 ’times and maniac, depression
69 times more than, the average persons’. "This"increased risk of
mental ill-health may be partly due also to the indirect"effects
of religion-those of being wealthy people• & forming a minority
group. Again, this increased risk is rather due to religiousity
■than to following any particular religious faith. In this connection
the,following statements are significant.
"Ritualistic religion is a kind of obssesional neurosis,
both arising from the ' same, dynamic -‘mechanism ." - .Freud."

"You will not find a, religious leader of any kind, in whose
life there ■■ s no record of..automatismWilliam James.
4.
Jews & Crime. Studies in U.S.A-, reveal trw.J
have the
lowest crime £ suicide rates. The-crime most often committeed was
nothing, graver than "fraud."
5.
Jew# Sex. Kinsey’s report revealed that Jews were least
active in the sexual field . They were least habituated to
masturbation, homosexuality and sex-crimes.
Jews contribution to Media: Ancient Hebrews have not'produced any
physician of repute but Moses is notable. • He is. regarded as the
greatest sanitary engineer". He; formulated laws regarding
provision of pure water, protection-of well's^ pure air,- pure food
and pure dwellings and he appointed'officers'to execute these laws.
Second, there were rules .for isolation, of persons with urethral
discharge for 7 days, segregation of lepers & burning of their
clothes and killing.of such of those captive women who -had known meji
by lying with them (in the prevention of syphilis).

Thirdly", Moscc introduced ’"census taking, birth certification &
encouiaged fecundity of race" punishingy-willful -abortion. & coitus.
interrupt-'-. .
. ' - ,

Lastly the emblem, o the .yhysic ■.an,, is related to the
following incident. "Lord sent fiery sejtents among the people.
Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make
thee, a fiery serpent & set it upon a pole and it shall come to
pass, that every one‘that is "bitten when he looketh upon it shall
live." Modern Jews who have contributed to Medicine include Shick, Ehylich, Wasserman, Kahn, Waksman (Streptomycin)
Aschen, Zondek, Freud Funk (Vitamin) Burger, Sa’iketc.
To conclude "No people has endured greater suff<^rints and
■misfortune and no people in proportion. to its size can boast
of higher achievements than the Jews."

Summary:
1.
... .Interesting reading

Historically

Theologically

br"i 1

* feA st.o Y^r ?n ahfrther er.) sod*e of.

3.

Reason for survival made them,cling to
. religion of faiths
. -/Juda
3.
Sons of .. ’
Benjamin
4•

■ ; *■ ■■■■■'

i ) subjugation
i’i ) particular’nature
(Grandsons of Abraham)'

Practical religion.

One God',- everlasting good behaviour and charity and tolerance
of* other religionNo intermidiary between God & Man.
No fanatirf.sim like idols or life after death.

5.
Revolutionary Jews who.-are less attached to all the customs.
Only two are. iiniv.ers.al '
Circumsipn & Sabathi •

Signific,ance

6.
Philathropyj'rest-day, personal hygiene, health education.
Low incidence of cancer, Low crime, sucide & sexual crime rate.
7.

Moses

.

Salk, Schiek, Freud.’
Funk •
Eine.ste in also was’a Jew.

. ,■ ' .

Bibliography^

■

1.

Encyclopedia f’rittan’iea.

2.

Encyclopedia American

3.

Book of knowledge

4.

Encyclopedia of-religion & ethics (T. T.‘.Clark)

5.

The New Schaff Herzog'Encyclopedia of Religious knowledge'
(Baker).’

(standard literate CoCalcutta).-*

6.

Jews in' the world, of' science- - '. (Monde, publication, . New York)

7.

Religion in human.-experience. (Henry Hat & Co.) i

8.

History of-Medidiri’e'-, 2 Vol; M. Ralph (1956).

Old.. .tesjament & Medicine • ■
of disease were.- attributed tp Yahweh’. Magic* &
sap^STi vior oluyed .significant /ole in'hea".h All Lose retarded
growth of ipedicine as.,, natural-. causes werp- not looked-for. ■
On thek q-ther---hand. .they hadr’surgeons & physicians and each
-cc-r_-nuni'ty was suppled to .have fcoih of them'. Physician was called*p-ophe* & unlike Egyptian-physician .who -was a specialist, rophe
•was an internist, dental-man etc. and’Physician were-held in
este cm 'by■Jews.
. -

Old testmeatsmentions reeeips fqr certain diseas®, including
CH - restriction i:i diabetes, baths in skin , affection. -Ehere were';-'
directions tp .diagnose some of the diSeases.like leprosy, bubonice •
plague, epilepsy, mental.defacts etc.

RT-&- I-T-,

J 2M

ALL INDIA INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES
Department of Preventive and Social Medicine

Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 16

Judaism

September I96I

COMMUNITY HEALTH CELL
47/1.(First HoorJSt. Marks Road
BANGALORE - 5S0 001

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The term Judaism was named by Greek-speaking Jews to designate
their religious way of life in contrast to their neighboring religion

Hellenism.
'Yahudut' .

The script is Hebrew.

Judaism is Hebrew equivalent of

Judaism may be defined as strictest form of monotheistic belief.

But it is more than a mental belief. It is the effect where such a
belief exerts on life — i.e. thought and conduct with all its logical
consequences.

It is a religion which was first preached by Abraham

and was symbolized by the covenant of circumcision and is being still
practiced.
It is the oldest existing religion and is the original of two
mighty religions which have spread in most part of the world —
Christnianity and Islam.

These religions have diffused the principles

of Judiasm in modified form.
Two main principles of Judaism is unity of God and the choice of

Israel.
God.

It denounces idolatry and polytheism.

It believes in universal

It believes that this world is good and man is capable of perfe­

ction. He possesses free will and is responsible for his actions. It
rejects any mediator and cosmic forces of evils, Man is free and is
not subject to satan, nor are the material gifts of life inheritedly
bad, — wealth may be a blessing as well as a curse.

Man is made in

the image of God; that is why it is noble like the rest of the devine

works.

For this reason all men are brothers.

Just as they were united

in the beginning so will they be drawn together again at the end of
time.

The function of Judaism is to spread peace and goodwill through­

out the world.

The sole aim and purpose of Judiasm is to render the

world that now is a devine kingdom of truth, and righteousness. This
aim is pursued by the insistence on the belief of unity and practice

of commandments.

It lays more stress on works than on faith though

the former are of no avail without the latter,

two

Judaism is strongly earth-centered religion.

It looks to an

after-life but its practice is not so much to prepare man for the
next world as to guide him in this.

guiding passion are

ethics

Its supreme preoccupation and

— the never-ending attempt to ascer­

tain God's will in all the things.

The Jews scriptures open with ’Torah’ or law laid down in five
books of Moses.

based on it.

Torah stands for all scripture and for all the law

In Judaism, as God is one so is life, every part of it

must be sanctified.

As life is one so is man, there is no division

between body and soul.

Ideally the table must be an alter, the home

a house of God, the market place an expression of blessings.

There

are blessings also over food, drinks, for new clothes, sighting the

sea, seeing any beautiful object.

That is why the ’Torah' ranges

frcm minute instructions to sublime teaching.
down the Ten Commandments.

The book of Moses set

They also set dcwn the right way to pre­

pare food, to give, to charity, to pay for damage.

Central to the

concept of Judaism is the doctrine of 'Mitzvah' a word that means

’Commandments’.

In ancient time rabbis listed 613 Mitzvah.

They

range from visiting the sick, burying the dead and sparing another

man's feelings to prayer and above all teaching and studying the
'Torah'. When Jews boy first starts 'Torah' studies a drop of
honey is placed on the page to indicate that this duty is also a
great joy.
Judaism sees man as a paradox.

also carries a devine spark.

He is handful of dust but he

He is fashioned in the image of God

and this means above all that he has freedom, he lives in perpectual
crisis of free-will faced at every moment with the choice between

good and evil.
sin.

Judaism holds that man being man is not immune to

Through loving God and striving' to imitate Him man must also

love his fellow-beings.

Whether love goes beyond the law, mercy

beyond justice in ancient arguments, the strict Jewish answer is

: three :

that love and law must be one and the same.

Jewish people today

numbers an estimated 11.8 million throughout the world.
5 million in U.S.A.; 1.5 million in Israel.

black skinned Ethopian Jews, Mexican Indian Jews,
worship still consider themselves Jews.

More than

There are Chinese Jews,

Jews who do not

In Jewish law a Jew does

not cease being a Jew' simply because he lapses from religious obser­
vances.

It holds any one born of a Jewish mother to be a Jew, Jews

believe that when God selected them as 1 chosen people' He gave them

special responsibility than privileges.

He appointed Israel to be

his suffering servants to bring His word to all people of the world.
They were against idolatry; against man made gods which are fashioned
not only of stone and bronze but also of false ideas.
At the door of every Jewish home there should hang a small box
called 'Mezuzah' which.holds 15 verses from scripture. Often as

family members come and go they kiss this box (which means door post)^
It proclaims that house is Jewish and also marks the facts that home
is center of Jewish faith equal with the house of God.
To raise a family is a sacred duty of Jewish and through family

loyalty they express loyalty to Judaism.

thing is touched by religion.

In orthodox family every­

Meals are prepared according to the

strict dietry law which is based on certain food practices and prohi­

bition which are declared unclean. This indicates sound hygienic
basis. Pork and Shell-fish are forbidden foods. All meats must be

from healthy animals, slaughtered quickly so as to prevent too much
blood from staying in the flesh. They observe sabath on the day
they refuse to travel, use the telephone, write, touch money,
marketting, etc.
by prayers.

This is the day of complete rest and is utilized

Growth and Development
The faith of Abraham was moulded into the religion of people
to become ultimately the source of ideal for a world, monotheism

: four :
purity, righeousness and justice had developed under the impetus of

law givers, priests and prophets, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew God
and served Hirn. But the real transformation is summoned by Moses to
whcsn God issued the Commandments,

Mose’s vision of monotheism over­

whelmed the Jewish people with bhe revelation of one Living God and
His Torah.

It was not an easy revelation to live by. In those centuries bet­

ween Moses who led his people from Egypt around 1200 B.C. and the
founding of Israelitic monarch by Saul in 11th Century B.C. the Jews
faught not-only with foreign invaders but with their soul. There was
continuous rebellion also against human authority. The rigns of David
and his son Solomen ended in depotism and divl'ion— the realm splitting

of Israel in the north and Kingdom of Judah in the South.

Yet out of

these struggles emerged a group ofamen who renewed Moses’ vision —
the prophets. The prophets stood behind the throne casting warning
shadow over pomp and power.

They stood in the temple courtyard hurl­

ing faith against mere forms of worship. They stood outside the rich
man's house bringing the protest of poor. They were impris.oned,
stoned but they could not be silenced.
of God.

They were revolutionaries

The great age of prophecy came in eighth and seventh century
B.C.

In 722 B.C. the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by Assyrians

and its people vanished.

In 586 B.C. the Babylonians conquered the

Kingdom. Soloman's great temple was destroyed, the leading Jewish
families were carried into Babylonian captivity, The exile raised
the overwhelming question of how to face the God when He brings

disaster to His 'chosen people'. Many of homeless, home sick Jews
were tempted to accept the Gods and magic of captors. Babylonian
exile ended with the destruction of Babylone which was conquered
by the Persians. The Jewish State was reestablished and temple was

rebuilt by 515 B.C. But before long Jewish nation faced the inroad
of Greek thoughts. However, in the main the dominant Jewish
tradition remained

apathetic

to Greek

culture.

This remarkable resistance was due to the devotion to the law of
Torah, While the Jews gained much from Hellenism and was influenced
to a very great extent, they were however unable to resist the Hellen­
istic army and Judah was swept by successive conquests — in 332 B.C.

Alexandra the Great came and in 198 B.C. the Syrians.

In 63 B.C.

Palastine became a Roman province ruled by Roman kingj Titus came

in AD 70 and destroyed the second temple, and later jews were for­
bidden to live in Jerusalem.
There was no longer a Jewish king who must be recalled to

righteousness. The place of prohets was taken by the law - the
Torah and its teacher, the Rabbis.

The modern era began with the enlightenment in Germany under the
leadership of Moses Mendelssohn.

This moment spread to Eastern Europe

and renovated the cultural life of Jewish people. It is a period of
assimilation of Jewish and renascence of Hebrew as a spoken language
and Yiddish literature.

science of Judaism.

Its outstanding spiritual expression are

This gave rise to conservative Judaism which

recognizes the authority of Jewish religion and ritual law.

That

law of necessity is subject to the universal changes must accord
with inner logic and essential character of law. The Hebrew language

occupies a place of permanent importance.
Conservative Judaism neither eshews modern thought nor accepts
it as a final authority on. matter of faith and tradition. It studies

modern thoughts and accepts and incorporates it into framework of
Judaism when the truth has been proved beyond any doubt. This brings
us to the present period. Recently in last half century numerous

Zianish organization and since the establishment of State of Israel
in 1948 they increased their activities to a great extent. Many who
may have lost ary intimate contact with synagogue and its Hebrew

services have discovered a reawakened interest not entirely devoid

of spiritual aspects in working for the building up of a revived

Jewish State,
-zooOoo:-

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§

All India Institute of Medical Sciences

§

Department of Preventive and Social Medicine
Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 16

i
I5c

II
I§

s

i

1,

Importance of study of religion in general,
Christianity in particular

1

2

life of Jesus Christ - as not only the
founder of the Christian Religion but as
the very essence of it

2

Definition of Christianity - with a
comparative study of the other two
great religions, viz., Islam and Buddhism

3

i

3.

I

4.

53

§3
x
§
i

I

Chracteristics of the Christian Religion,
its doctrine, morals, worship, polity
5. Christian Church through the Ages —
with pointed but passing reference to
its establishment, Reformation, Counter
Reformation, Crusades, Papacy, to the
present era of the Unity of Christian
Churches

6.

Christian Missionaries and Christianity
in India

7.

What the future has in store for
Christianity — 'Future of Christianity'

-

s

6

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10

§3

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$

1
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September 1961

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n'(F;rst ;:^or)St. Marksaoad
Baras ., o 1£ . 5W001

Christianity
Importance of study of religion in general, Christianity in particular

Religion is one of the characteristics which can be used with

advantage to describe differences among societies because no society is
without sacred beliefs and because these beliefs and practices usually

permeate all parts of a culture.

Religion is a set of beliefs and expla­

nations of those spheres of life which man cannot control or about which

he does not have, or cannot obtain knowledge.

Since every human being,

in order to be happy, must have satisfactory explanations for his past,

present existence and future, religion has an important function.

In

addition to being a group of ideas and concepts which give logic, consis­
tency, and meaning to life, religion also includes rules of conduct which

guide behavior.
"People from all civilized countries of the earth have consulted me.

I have treated many hundres of patients.

Among my patients in the second

half of life — that is to say over thirty five, there has not been one

whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious out­
look on life. It is safe to say that everyone of them fell ill because
he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given their

folloivers and none of them has been real~ly healed who did not regain his
religious outlook"

= Dr. Carl Jung.

We should know Christian religion better because it is the religion

of about one third of the world1 s population.
It diagnoses man's disease more accurately, so it provides the remedy

more adequately.

Sole Qualification
TOKYO, May 21 - A 37-year old Japanese has earned
a doctor's degree for the study of human soles, wri­
tes AP. Ovaichiro Hirasawa of Shizuoka University
has put in 15 year's study on the subject.
"You can judge a person's personality and health by
looking at his sole", he says.
A person in top condition has his body weight equally
distributed over his sole, while in a troubled person
the distribution is unequal, ^irasawa theorizes.

-: 2
life of Jesus Christ
Ever since its birth almost 2,000 years ago, Christianity has

enchored its beliefs on two forceful convictions that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God, and that God sent Christ to earth to live as humans live,

suffer as humans suffer, die for mankinds’ redemption and gloriously rise

again.

These two interlocked ideas separate Christianity from all other

religions.
To Christians Jesus is not just the ’founder’ of Christianity but

the essence of it,

Adam and Eve, by disobeying God sinned.

In his wrath

God expelled them from Paradise and thus they and all prosterity came to

know death, which is not a condition of nature, but the result of sin. At
the same time God foretold the coming of a Redeemer. This Redeemer and
Saviour was Jesus, sent to bring salvation, to atone for the sins of all

mankind, and thus to open to all mankind the door to eternal life.

was, as the Son of God, divine.

He

But he was also truly human, though He

had been conceived by the Holy Ghost and born to the Virgin Mary, and Him­
self was free of the stain of original sin. The early years of Jesus

Christ which began in the stable at Bethlehem were in the main uneventful.
Then when he was about 30, the carpenter of Nazareth emerged and began to
unfold His message.

In this climatic period of His earthly life, vhich

may have lasted no more than three years, Christ revealed Himself as a man
of simple speech but profound wisdom, as a story-teller, who could enthral
multitudes and as a being of all embracing compassion and love. It was

His lot as a Redeemer that He should suffer. He was born poor. He toiled.
He was tempted by the devil. He knew hunger. He thirsted. He shrank from

pain, and in the Garden of Gethsemane He asked, "O’ My Father, if it be
possible let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as

thou wilt."

As He suffered on the Cross, he cried: "Jfy God, My God, why

hast thou forsaken me?"

He died in agony.

Not until after His death

and Resurrection did Christ's life reveal its true purpose.

Then His

Words, "Because I live, ye shall live also" took on their full significance^

Ever since through changing times and succeeding generations, the impact

of His life and words has lifted men to unexpected heights and illumined
their lives and works with beauty.

-t 3

The most famous of all Christ's discourses was the Sermon on the

Mount. Among many other notable passages, it includes the Beatitudes
(Blessed are the poor in spirit, etc.) and the Lord's prayer. It is a
wonderful exposition of the message of Jesus as Teacher and Saviour.
Throughout his relatively brief ministry on earth, Jesus worked
an outstanding number of miracles.

He did not perform them to win

followers, or to impress important people but in compassion and in res­

ponse to simple faith in Him.

Even among Christians, attitudes toward

His miracles have varied greatly, but these stories have played a large
part in the spread of Christianity.

Christ, the founder of Christianity was of the Jewish race and was

brought up under the teachings of Jewish laws.

His teaching by parables

was a Jewish inheritance; many of His Rules for human conduct had been
uttered by the Hebrew Prophets, e.g. the Ten Commandments, before him.

His great work was to reinterpret, humanize and illumine Jewish teachings;
to reveal God to man as He had never been before revealed; to give an
old and tired world new faith and hope, or in his own words, a more

' abundant life' .

The Last Judgment
Jesus Christ in all his glamour will appear again on the day of

the Last Judgment, seated on a heavenly throne, flanked by his apostles

and saints, when the Cherubim will summon the dead to judgment.
Definition of Christianity
We may define Christianity as the ethical, historical, universal,

monotheistic, redemptive religion, in Which the relation of God and man
is mediated by the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This defini­
tion needs further clarification.

a)

op

Christianity ethical,not natural religion: Religions may first/all

be distinguished according to the goods, or good which they offer to man.

Where prayers and offerings are made to spirits or Gods to obtain such
earthly boons as Food, Health, safety, etc., the religion may be described
as natural.

Where, instead of these or along with these, the Gods or

4 in­

spirits are conceived as capable of bestowing the moral and religious

blessings of forgiveness of sin, strength in temptation, their own

fellowship with their worshippers, etc., the religion may be spoken of
as 1 ethical' .
As Christianity is above all concerned about the inner life of man

in God, it is ethical.
b)

Christianity historical, not spontaneous; Again religions may be

distinguished as spontaneous or historical; spontaneous religion grow up
along with the evolution of the tribe or the nation, without the predomi­
nant action of any individual teacher or law-giver.

Historical religion

begins in the life, teaching or work of a religious genius, who so impre­

sses his personality on what he transmits as to give it a new character

and influence.

Confucius in China, Gautama Buddha in India, Zoroster in

Persia, Mohammed in Arabia, may be mentioned as such founders of histori­

cal religions.

In no religion are the person and work of the founder of

such significance and value as in the Christian.

c)

Christianity Universal, not national; Among the historical religions

we may make a further distinction into: National and Universal. The
beliefs and customs of a religion may be so bound up with characteristics
and national peculiarities as to impose, by its very nature, a limitation
in the practicable expansion of the religion, e.g. Hinduism in India and
Confucianism in China,

Buddhism and Islam both claim to be universal in character, and so
have shown themselves missionary in effort as rivals to Christianity. But

on closer examination neither proves itself as suitable for a world reli­

gion as Christianity does.

Buddhism, a monastic system, reflecting in its

purpose and method alike the pessimism of the Indian temperament is un­

fitted for the role of inspiring and directing any progressive society.
Islam too, is both in creed and code so bound up with the peculiarities
of Arab thought and life, that unless it should undergo a thorough trans­

formation, it could not be expected to win acceptance in any highly
cultured and civilized society.

5 :■

Christianity has shown that on the one hand, it meets the needs of

the soul of man as no other religion does, and that on the other hand,
it can adapt itself in so doing to varying conditions as no other can.

It appears now as the only religion that can properly claim uni vers ali ty ~
d)

Christianity monotheistic: One reason for this universality of
This it shares with Judaism

Christianity is its monotheistic character.
and Islam but with some reservations.

Although in popular belief and

speech the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, or preferably tri-unity
i.e. God as Father, Son and the Holy Ghost has often come previously

near triethism, yet Christianity is essentially monotheistic, maintain­
ing the unity of God as a Cardinal Doctrine.

e) Christianity redemptive: Man is even in his earthly life con­
scious of the reality of physical evil in manifold forms, from vhich he
desires protection and deliverance. As his moral development advances,
he becomes aware of evil or sin in himself, and feels his need of being

saved from it.

Although this sense of his danger cannot be regarded as

the sole motive of religion, yet there can be no doubt that no religion
can satisfy the whole mean unless it offers him redemption from evil­

physical or moral, whichever he may feel most keenly.

Christianity emphasizes moral evil as the root of man's unhappiness,
insists on loving fellowship with God as Life's highest good, premises an
immortality of glory and blessedness with God, offers the forgiveness of
sin and the renewal of the soul of man by the grace of God received by
human faith, and reveals and realizes that Divine Grace in the sacrifi­
cial death of Christ and His continued living presence in His Spirit, It
diagnoses man's disease more accurately, so it provides the remedy more

adequately.

f)

Christianity centers in Christ's mediation :

In Christianity,

on the one hand, God is conceived as moral perfection, and on the ether
hand man is regarded not only as morally weak but as morally blame-worthy .'

The fellowship between God and man is admitted to be interrupted by sin,
and man must be redeemed to be resotred to this fellowship.

redemption, Christ alone is the Mediator.

In this

As Founder of the Christian

6 :■

Community, He holds in this religion an unique position.

He is not only

teacher and example but in His death He offers the sacrifice by which men
are saved, and in His life by the Spirit, He is Himself ever saving than
who come to God by Him.

Characteristics of the Christian Religion
DOCTRINE - The Doctrine of God in Christianity is monotheistic.

The doctrine of man is that he is a reasonable, responsible being,
free to choose right or wrong but sinful and guilty because he has chosen
wrong. (Man as viewed by Christian theology is made in the image of God

and as such is rational, moral and free).
The Christian gospel offers man. salvation from sin and guilt through

penitence, a renunciation of sin, and faith, accepting the Grace of God
in Jesus Christ, in which not only is sin forgiven, but man is cleansed

renewed and made holy by God* s own spirit.
The Christian Doctrine of Christ is that He was truly Divine and
really human (unity of Divine existence).

Evil - in the light of Christianity, is a multiform demoralizing,
corrupting force, arising wilfully, "from within out of the heart of man"
and becoming a sinister organized destructive power which assumes the

guise of a parsorali ty (Satan) but will be overcome by the greater power
of Good,
Morals - Christian morality has been influenced at least as much

as, if not more than, Christian belief at each stage of the history of
the Christian Church, by the total conditions, economic, social and
political.'
Morality is determined by the Christian conception of God and man.

Men as children of God, and thus members of one another, have one duty absolute love to God, and an equal love to self and neighbor.

This love

is grateful surrender to God, and sympathetic service of man, even unto

sacrifice of self, hence the life for God, and others is found in losing
the life for self.

This makes morality, not a code of laws but an in­

ward disposition.

Morality had developed as tribal or national, now it

7

becomes universal.

The neighbor is not fellow-countryman but follow-

man, and fellow-man conceived as the child of the one Father over all~

Worship - Love towards God expresses itself and must express itself

through love to man in whatever form it can be most effectual)
cannot be its only or full expression.

But this

The relation of God and Man is personal and personal relationship
involves mutual communion, the expression of affection. This communion
with God may be individual or social.
The Sacraments make the key stages of a Christian's worship)

For an overwhelming majority of the world's Christians the essence

of religious experience is summed up in the Sacraments.

From infancy

to death the sacraments mark the key stages of Christian Worship and
sustain the individual worshipper. Sacrament is an outward act, derived
from something Christ did or said by whose performance and observation

the individual receives God's Grace.
by various Christian groups.

Sacraments are observed differently

Catholics and many Anglicans count seven —

Baptism, Conformation, Communion, Marriage, Unction, Penance and Ordination)

Protestants accept only Baptism and Communion.

A minor!ty,e.g) Quakers

accept no sacraments as such, saying no external act should come between
God's will and the believer)

Baptism - The individual formally enters Christ's Church. It pre­
sents the individual's first act of faith and it seals him as a follower
of Christ, washing away previous and original sin (derived from Adam' sin)'
Confirmation - completes the work of Baptism and permits the indivi­
dual who is usually between 7 and 14 years old to assume greater spiri­

tual responsibilities.

The soul receives the Holy Ghost,

Communion - Man partakes of the sacred presence and it
His sacrifice for mankind.

commemorates

It is the noblest of sacraments.

Marriage - The union of man and woman is blessed. Whether it is per-

-formod as a sacrament or a simple religious ceremony, Marriage is one of
the most beautiful of all Church occurrences)

8

Penance : A thorough confession helps sinful mankind to sanctity
the soul^

Piercy and compassion, stemming from the life and character

of the Saviour himself, have always distinguished Christian faith. These
qualities are embodied in the sacrament of Penance, in which the Chri­
stian confesses his sins and is granted, absolution and forgiveness.

Penance is compounded of two enternal acts — (i) the confession which
must be accompanied by contrition or sincere repentance, and (ii) the
absolution.

Catholics, confessions must be made indivirtually to a

priest because the priest has to know what sins .. have been committed

before he can decide whether the Lord! s forgiveness should be conferred

and what restitution, in the form of extra prayers or contributions, the
penitent should make.
screened partition.

The priest hears the confession through the

Devout Catholics usually confess once a

week.

Under no circumstances may priest use knowledge gained in confession
outside the confessional enclosure.

Unction: The sick and dying are reassured of salvation.

Among Roman

Catholic unction is administered only when there is danger of death and

is called extreme Unction.

This service has often helped to alleviate

physical suffering.

Ordination: As a sacrament bestows something spiritual, the power
to administer sacraments is sacred.

This power is conferred through the

sacrament of ordination by which bishops/prelates make ministers or
priests.

Festivals : Christians observe the following religious festivals Christmas

Good Friday

Easter
HOLY SCRIPTURES

1)

Bible<^

a) The Old Testament deals with the creation of the world etc.
b) The New Testament tells the beginnings of Christianity,

9

2)

The four Gospels,: Mathew, Mark, Luke, John - narrate the birth,
teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ

3)

Acts of the Apostles - a history of the early Christian movement

4)
5)

The Epistles or letters to the Church groupes
The book of Revelation - a visionary Portrayal of the final
triumph of God’s purpose.

Church's view on Family Planning

Archbishop on Birth Control
London, May 22, - Dr, Geoffrey Fisher, retiring Archbishop
of Canterbury, said in a BBC interview tonight, according
to Reuter, that "family planning, properly interpreted,
means that parents must not commit themselves to having
as many children as they physically can produce".

He said: "They have got to exercise restraint and respon­
sibility and, to that extent, plan their family. On that
matter the Church of Rome and ourselves are completely
agreed.
"Only, unfortunately, they by family planning, mean
adopting a certain method of family planning. We think
certain methods are legitimate, and can be used in a
Christian manner and they think they can't be.

"Well, that's a dispute about ways and means. But if
you analyse it there's no difference of principle bet­
ween us.".,,
Dr. Fisher, an Anglican, was referring to the Catholic
and Anglican differences on the question of birth con­
trol;

Retiring on May 31 after 16 years of Archbishop of
Canterbury, he also described the manent when he came
nearest to breaking down.
He said it was at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth
at Westminster Abbey in 1953 when he performed the
age-old rite of annointing her with oil.'

10 :Christian Church through the Ages

The Christian Church is about 2,000 years old. It was established
by Peter, one of the Christ's apostles, the death of Jesus Christ. Jests

is reported to pun on the name and its meaning: "Thou are Peter, (a name
derived from the Greek 'PETROS' meaning 'Rock') and upon this rock I

will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it;

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven; and whatso-ever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven". In subsequent
career he preached and taught in many places, finally reaching, in some
unknown fashion, Rome where he is believed to have laid the foundation of

the Church andsubsequently suffered martyrdom under Nero about AD 65. He
was a fisher by profession.

Jesus said unto him, 'Follow me and I will

make you fisher of men' .
When the apostle Paul preached in Greece and then Rome, Christianity
passed out of Asia the continent of its origin, into Europe; the conti­
nent of its destiny,

Europe has been the main spring of world Christia­

nity ever since. Christiandom was long anonymous with Europe. The
spiritual impact of Christianity has powerfully influenced western
civilization.

The history of Europe is the history of Christianity. The

History falls into three eras: The Ancient Era embraces the first eight

centuries; the Mediaeval the next seven, and the Modern the last five
centuries.

In the first, the Christian Church spread from Jerusalem

to Rome and from Rome to the borders of the Ronan Empire, and, on its

fall, to the Germanic Nations.

In the second, the Papcy grew in power

until it held full sway in Western Europe; but its decline already

began in the 13th century and various movements towards reform antici­
pated the third era.

This strictly speaking began in 1517 with Luther's

posting of the Theses against indulgences and may be regarded as not

yet closed, for no change of such importance has since occurred as to
mark the commencement of a new era.

Reformation
At the Renaissance height of its ecclesiastical pomp and power,
Roman Catholicism was challenged by a wide spread, urgent call for a
return to early Christian simplicity.

The Protest and Reformation,

which resulted has more than 200 million followers - one fourth of
the world’s Christians.

The reformation began in 151? when the German monk Martin Luther
posted his 95 theses attacking papal authority.

Luther felt the essence

of Christianity lay not in an elaborate hierarchy headed by the Pope
but in each believer’s humble direct communion with God seeking that

righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us

through faith.

Within 20 years Luther saw a strong German Lutheran

Church established, the first Protestant University chartered and a

host of other reformers flourishing,some of them far too radical for

Luther's own taste.
Among these were the Ana Baptists who believed that only those old
enough for a heartfelt experience of grace, i.ei adults, should be bap­
tized;

John Calvin in Switzerland called his Church, "the most perfect
school of Christ that ever was on earth since the days of the Apostles”.
It became a model for reformed and prebyterian churches in most Europe

and later throughout the world.

John Knok took it over and became Scot-

-land’s most dramatic Reformation figure.
The Church of England, broke with Papcy under Henry VIII declaring:
"The Bishop of Rome hath not by scripture any greater authority in

England than any other foreign Bishop’ .

Its doctrines have remained

Catholic as well as Protestant.
Equally defiant of authority was George Fax whose vision from
Pendle Hell in 1652 led him to found the society of Friends also known

as Quakers because a derisive judge thought Fox quaked before the Lord.
Fcx and his followers were persecuted in England.

The inspiration for the last large Church that emerged fran the

Reformation came from an Anglican Clergyman, John Welsley, who never
intended to break at all.

Inl738 attending a meeting he suddenly felt

his heart "strangely warmed" whereupon he embarked on a preaching cam­
paign throughout England that lasted until his death. Welsley remained
an Anglican but his followers began a Church called 'Methodist' for its

methodical organization, that stressed the personal approach to religion^
Counter Reformation

The reformation provoked the Roman Catholic Church, in self defence
to a counter Reformation. Roman Catholicism set itself to remove the
worst abuses which the reformers had exposed and condemned, but its main
purpose was to define its doctrine and practice alike in antogonism to

Protestanism.

The old orders of monks, who had failed to give the Papcy

adequate support in the assault of the Reformation, had to give place

in Pope's favor to a new order, the Jesuits, whose object was to streng­
then the Papacy and to drive back the advances of Protestanism in Hun­
gary and Poland. It won back to Papal allegiance much of Gemany and
most of France. All but wiped out the feeble beginnings of Protestanism
in Italy, spread excellent schools over Europe and thrust Catholic
missions into Indi?., Japan, China and the New World.

Ignatius Loyola

is the founder of the Society of Jesus - the Jesuit order.

Christian Missionaries and Christianity in India
a) Foreign Missions : There has been, as a result of the missionary

efforts of the last century, a great expansion of the Christian Church
and an incalculable increase of its finfluence. The gospel has been

carried throughout the whole world and multitudes of converts have
been won.

Dr. Zeller, of the Statistical Bureau of Stuttgart (West

Germany) gives the following estimates for the number of adherents

of the various religions: of the 1,544,510,000 people in the world,
534,940,000 are Christians, 175,290,000 are Muhammadans, 10,860,000

are Jews and 834,280,000 hold other beliefs.

Of the last class

300,000,000 are confucianists, 214,000,000 Brahmins and 121,000,000

13

are Budhists.

In every thousand there are 346 Christians, I44 Moha­

mmedans, 7 Jews and 533 adherents of other religions.

But the influence

of Christinaity reaches much further than the bounds of the Christian

Church. The ancient civilization of the East, as well as barbarism in
all parts of the earth, have been brought into contact with Christendom

by conquests, colonization, and commerce.

European civlization, in the

making of which Christianity has been a potent factor, is beginning to
affect the thought and life of all minkind.

In India, China and Japan

especially the old religions are being undermined and the Christian
leaven is working even where there is hostility to Christianity as to

foreign religion.
On the other hand, the Church as an institution has not the same
hold on the bulk of the population that it had a century ago. Probably
the connection with the Church was in many cases only a tradition and
custom and not due to any personal conviction.

Secularism, Socialism,

etc., are offering modern society a guidance which claims'to be better
than the cutdown Christian.

To meet this situation, there have been

attempts to adapt Christianity to its modern environments as ’by modern­
ism in the Roman Catholic Church, and by Liberal Protestantism.

In

some circle of social reformers all the stress is thrown on the social

aspects of Christ's teaching and example, and Christianity is repre­
sented as if it were exclusively socialism with a religious sanction

in God's Fatherhood and a moral motive in devotion to Christ as the
first and best socialist,

b) Christianity in India:

Tradition says that after witnessing

the risen Christ, Thomas, the Apostle preached in India and founded the

Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar which still exists there. The Jesuit.
Francis -Xavier led a mission to India in 1542 and the first Protestants,
two young men from Denmark arrived in 1706. The first missionaries from

the United States reached India in 1812 and others from many countries
have followed. Despite this long, devoted evangelism, Christians remain

a tiry* minority of the Indian people. The evangelism has been most
successful among the Hindu 'untouchables'. India's national goverrment
* Christianity constitutes only 2% of India's population today.

14

pressed by Hindu Extremists, has restricted entry of missionaries.
Seme State Governments have taken stern steps against Christianity

and individual- Hindus sometimes burn the homes of Christian Indians,
Future of Christianity
If the Christian Church is not only to hold its own, but to win

the world for Christ, as its aim and hope, there are four main tasks
which must be discharged.

It must realize the present opportunity in

the Foreign Mission Enterprise; it must recognize the urgent necessity
of social reform; it must accept the sacred obligation to seek the

unity of the Christian Churces; and it must venture on the theological

restatement of the Christian Gospel which the age demands.
As a step towards unity the world council of Churches formed at

Amsterdam in 1948.

One hundred and sixty three churches from 48 coun­

tries belong to the World Council.
Church, Moscow are not its members

Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox

Dr. Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury met John Pope XXIII at
Vatican in Rome on 2nd December i960.

It was a historical meeting, a

step to dicuss unification of world churches.

This was the first meet­

ing between the two heads since King Henry VIII of England broke away
from Papacy in the 16th Century.
The latest on the unity of the Christian Churches is Dr. Fisher's

last sermon as Head of Anglican Church:

DR, FISHER'S LAST SERMON AS HEAD OF CHURCH

Canterbury (England), May 22 - Dr. Geoffrey Fisher, preaching
his last sermon as Archbishop of Canterbury, said that the
Anglican Church was "as catholic and apstolic as any particular
church can even hope to be", reports Reuter.
Dr. Fisher added: "It has erred, and errs, as every particular
church always must err in its applications of that faith to
the life of its members and of the world.
"But taught by scripture and warned by the tradition of
Church history, it is always reforming itself nearer to
that robust holiness which Christ imparts in sane manner
to every part of his Church.

15
"It is always reaching out to promote in its own members;
and now among all the churches, a true unity of spirit,
faith and order in the one universal church cf Christ".
The 74-year-old Archbishop, spiritual leader of the
Anglican Church, is due to retire shortly.

LIST OF REFERENCE BOOKS
USIS Library

1.

Christian Ethics -

2,

Christian Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Ramsey Paul..

""

3".

Psychiatry and Catholicism - James Herman

""

4.

Christian faith and social action A symposium by John A. Hutchinson & others

""

5.

Christian Values and Economic Life -

6.

John C. Bennett & others
The History of Christianity - Scott

..

7.

Christ and Culture - Biebuhr Helmut Richard

..

""

8.

A short history of Christianity - Mary Martin E

..

n"

..

AIIMS Library

Ramsey Paul

.,

9.

An Encyclopaedia of Religion

10.
11.

Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics - James Hastings
Encyclopedia BrittartLca
..

- Peter Owen

""
""

""
""

USIS Library

12.

Readings from Bible

13.
14.

The Great Religions of the World Life
The Illustrated Weekly of India, Christmas Issue, Sunday Sept.25 I960

15.
16.

The Statesman
The Psychologist

peb:

..

HINDU RELIGION

1, Purpose of presentation,
Historical Development, and
its evolution
2. Principles, Changes
3. Impact on Society, Summary

November 1?61

DEPARTMENT OF PREVENTIVE AND SOCIAL
MEDICINE
ALL INDIA INSi'ITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES
Ansari Nag ar, New Delhi 16

COMMUNITY HEALTH CEU
47/1,(First FlooriSt. Marks Road

HINDU RELIGION.

Purpose of Presentation:
For a medical personnel engaged in the study of the Preventive
and Social Medicine, the knowledge of the principal religions of the

world is desirable to understand the impact of religion on the life
and behavior of the patient and community.

Therefore, Hinduism being

the predominant religion of the people of India deserves a careful
study from all its aspects.

Definition:
Hinduism is very difficult to define.

It is somewhat vague and

elastic with a wide range of practices and ceremonies. Thus Hinduism
is not a particular creed confined within fixed doctrine and set dog­
mas .

It is rather an assemblage or collection of creeds, represent­

ing different schools of thought.
hensive in its outlook.

As such, it is catholic and compre­

Historical Development and its Evolution:

The word "Hindu" carries us back to the period of invasion of
Indian Peninsula by the Aryan tribes from North to North West. Aryans
first settled themselves on the banks of the river Sindhu (modern

Indus); these settlers later on came to be known as Sindhus or Hindus.
These Aryans had their own forms of worship, faith and belief which
were quite distinct and superior to those of the original inhabitants
of the land, i.e. Dravidians, etc. The original inhabitants of India
lived in Caves and natural surroundings and were thus influenced by

the awe and Vagary of nature. So naturally they worshiped mountains,
rivers, plants, snakes, etc. The Aryans had their own Godsand Goddess

for worship.

Being conquerors they largely influenced the social,

religious, political,economic, and cultural life of the original
inhabitants. When these different races began to live in harmony
and peace, a fusion of their religion and culture took place about
3000 B.C. A composite race of Aryan Hindus in faith and belief was
thus evolved. 'This represents the Vedic era. We can thus put the

evolution of Hindu religion in the following distinct phases:

- 2 -

1. Vedic period
2. Brahmanic period
3. Philosophic period
4.Revival period
5. Devotional period
6. Reformative period
7. Heretical period

Vedic period as briefly touched before relates to 3000 to 1500 B.C,
when prayers and hymns as found in Vedas were sung and invoked by the

Aryans to bring them relief from their primary wants and needs.
In Brahmanic period, the authority and supremacy of the Vedas

though not questioned, yet strict observance of sacrificial practices
by the priesthood came to fore-front. It gave rise to social evils,
caste prejudices and efficacy of mantras in the treatment of physical

ailment.
In the next phase of Hindu thought, i.e. philosophic Hinduism
beginning from 1500 B.C. to about 400 B.C. we find a great change in

the attitude of Hindus towards rigidity in observance of Hindu religion
rights and ceremonies. People had become more philosophic and advanced

in outlook the authority of Vedas was retained but philosophic inter­
pretations there on began to be exaplined. This relates to the evolu­
tion and origin of Upnishads which contain elements of higher metaphy­
sical philosophy. The rise of Buddhism and Jainism as a reaction

against tyranny of priesthood can also be traced to this period as a

reformative subsection of Hinduism.

Buddhism and Jainism, these two offshoots of Hinduism questioned
the supremacy of Vedas and priest-craft while retaining the spirit of

basic principles of Hinduism.

Later on degeneration of Buddhism and Jainism into dogmatic faith
of forms and rituals brought about repulsion in Hindu society.
Shankaracharya said to be the pioneer of this age of revival,
fought tooth and nail against external observances of forms and
ritual as ordained by Buddhists Bhikshus about 700 A.D. and brought

back the Hindu society to pin its faith on Vedas.

He gave most

philosophical and rational interpretation of Vedic doctrines.
The theism of the Hindus was described by him to be the same

manifestation of "One Supreme Absolute" in different forms.

menoism of Shankaracharya appealed to the intellengentsia.

This

- 3 -

After Shankaracharya, India fell a prey to foreign invasions
on a larger scale.

Hitherto the effect of invasions of Greeks and

Huns from 400 B.C. onwards was negligible on the life of the people.
But invasion of Arabs from 900 A.D. to 1200 A.D. greatly influenced
the Hindus and brought about a considerable change in their social

and religious outlook.

In protecting honor and sanctity of Hindu

womenhood from foreign invaders social evils like child marriage,
Sati Pratha, and Pardah systems crept into Hindu society.

To further

guard against the proselytizing activities of the conquerors, who
by then had established themselves as rulers of India, bhakti (devo­

tional cult) in Hinduism as preached by Hamanujacharya in order to

inculcate and awaken instinct of self-preservation. This devotional

phase of Hinduism gave rise to bigtory and separate social existence.
Now Hindus and Muslims began to live side by side as inheritors of
two distinct systems of religions.

By now social evils of caste and creed, untouchability, caste

marriages and pradah system had gained deep roots in Hindu society.
To purge Hinduism from these social evils reformers like Nanak,
Kabir, etc., came on the field who made the lew caste and the down­
trodden conscious of their rights and strength.

Next we ccme to British rule in India.
Heretical period in Hinduism.

This is known as the

The Britishers brought with them

Western civilization and culture for their own benefit; they spread

education on Western lines and thus created a class of Westernised
Indians in towns and cities, leaving rural India quite uneffected.

Hindus were foremost in taking to English education and Western way

of life, the material prosperity of the West attracted them most.
They rebeled against social evils in Hinduism, they thus considered
Hinduism as the soul cause of their economic and social backwardness.
Their faith in Hinduism was shaken and they became non-believers or

so called heretics.

other respect.

Thus English education proved to be a boon in

Free life of the Britishers awakened the dormant

spirit of freedom among the Indian educated, who fought against
British Imperialism and ultimately succeeded in ending British rule

in India after the dawn of Indian independence.

The secular character

of the present Indian Government has done much by law and statuette to
purge Hinduism of its many aforesaid social evils.

Principles:
The following broad principles of Hinduism emerge for acceptance.
Belief in theory of Karma and transportation of soul, Ahimsa, i.e.

non-violence or non injury to life practice of certain virtues as

fare bearance, forgiveness suppression and control of internal and
external enemies e. g. passion, anger, attachment, avarice, truthful­
ness attainment of salvation as ultimate goal of life.

Death is con­

sidered as the reward of life. Hindu religion includes the whole
social conception of law and conduct and worship the ethic of Hindus

is based on three fold scheme of spiritual life comprising the stages
of socioality subjective morality and the life absolute and transce-

dental.

Hindu ethics is thus social ethics and psychological ethics

and culminates in philosophy of the absolute whichis the consummation
of the spiritual life.
Changes:

During its whole course of development and evolution Hinduism as

seen from its elasticity and vagueness has always been changing and
adjusting itself to social, political and economic order in society
from time to time. The educated class among Hindus has become more
critical of blind faith, social evils of unhygienic way of life, which

were prevalent in ancient India.

Taboos, mores, are no longer tolerated.

Exclusiveness of the caste is giving place to inter castes inter
community dinners, gatherings, inter caste marriage are also no longer

prohibited, untouchability is vanishing.

Observance of Pardah among

the educated Hindus no more exists. Child marriages are prohibited
by law. Faith in village witch craft charms, magics in order to bring
relief for ailing human beings is gone and people are becoming more

health conscious scientifically and observing realistic views towards
life than idealistic views.

- 5 Impact on Society:
Hindu Society as a result of new developments in Hindu religion
has undergone a great transformation both intra and extra. Externally

modern Hindus devoid of all external forms and rituals of Hindu religion
of old, appear in looks as the rest of the Indian residents, They dress
up and behave as others do,

Hindu society has thus become progressive

and dynamic and no more conservative and orthodox ideas prevail in the
minds of people.

Internal.ly Hindu Society has become stronger than

before it can withstand the criticism of its former critics.
SUMMARY:

Hinduism the oldest religion of the world has survived because of
its vagueness and elasticity, adaptibility and rational outlook.

Its

Catholicity has made it possible to accommodate the religious needs,
tastes and apptitudes of people who differ widely in race,language,
culture and social conditions, traditions and interests according to

the climates and geographic conditions.

Hinduism as we have seen is

based on traditions and customs and forms of worship handed down from

generation to generation. The social customs, faith, belief which have

hindered the progress of Hindu society were discarded by people when
better knowledge and civilization dawned on them . Literacy thus has
played an important part in eradicating social evils and removing the

blind faith and prejudices from Hindu society. It is, therefore,
optimistic to observe that, with advancement of scientific knowledge
and literacy in rural India, the remenants of social evils as found
there now will be removed and India as a whole will emerge a stronger

and more enlightened nation.

November I96I

BUDDHISM

From the Islands of Ceylon to the Islands of Japan, and throughout
in large sections of the Asian mainland, (perhaps) as many as 500 million
believe in a gentle and peaceful religion called ’Buddhism1. It is one
of the noblest edifices of thought ever created by the human spirit. Un­
like some other great religions, it preaches a system of human conduct
based primarily on rationalities and relying very little on the supernatural,
In its History, which stretches back 2500 years, Buddhism has been
one of the greatest civilizing forces the Far East has ever known. Today
it is the dominant religion of Burma, Thailand, Tibet, Cambodia, Laos and
Ceylon and has a vast spiritual influence elsewhere in Asia.
Buddhism has two great schools of doctrine: (i) Hinayana Buddhism
(followed by southern Asians) literally means the lesser vehicle. It exalts
individual austerity and salvation by personal example, (ii) Mahayana
Buddhism or ’the greater vehicle'stands for salvation by faith and good
works. Both these doctrines owe their basic teachings to one of history's
great religious leaders, a man named Siddhantha Gautama who was born near
the town of Kapilvastu in what is now Nepal, near the border of India in
about 563 B.C. Buddha's life became a profound example to millions of
his fellow men in the countries that followed.

Gautama was brought up in princely luxury and splendour. The life
of luxury and domestic happiness, however, was not enough for Gautama.
The spectacle of human suffering - an old man, a sick man, a dead body,
and an ascetic - troubled Gautama. Then one night in the spirit of India
renunciation, he left his sleeping wife and child and departed from his
luxurious home to take up the life of a wandering mendicant.
Gautma at this time was a young man of 29 and he made up his mind
to solve the riddle of life. For 6 years Buddha tried various methods
of meditation and tried mortification of the flesh but it did not teach
him anything. Finally he seated himself under a tree — the sacred Bodh
tree — to find out the secret of enlightenment.

After 49 days of meditation under the tree, Sidhantha Gautama achieved
the enlightenment he was seeking and thereafter became known as the 'BUDDHA'.
or the Enlightened One.

After preaching for 45 years Buddha passed on to the Nirvana which
his religion describes as the ultimate end of all aspjrat-i on. The last
words of Buddha — emphasize impermanence of all things, and preach as
to work out our salvation with deligence.
What the Buddha learned during his long meditation under the Bodhi
tree and later taught as the basis of his doctrines must be considered
against the background of traditional Hindu belief that surrounded him,
for Gautama was born a Hindu, and itself was a protestant revolt against
Orthodox Hinduism. From Hinduism Buddha inherited and accepted certain
age-old concepts and these were taken for granted in Buddhist thought,

two

One of these was the idea that all living things go through countless
cycles of birth,death and rebirth. Another was the doctrine of Karma,the
cosmic law of cause and effect by which virtuous conduct is rewarded in
future reincarnations and bad conduct leads to retribution. Another was
the conception of the world as an abode of ignorance sorrow from which
wisemen should seek release. Still another was the idea of renunciation
that the path of wisdom lay in taming the appetites and passions of flesh.

But while he agreed with the Hindus on these concepts and objectives
Buddha disagreed about the methods of which the objectives were to be
achieved. His experiments with violent austerity had convinced him that
the spectacular mortifications of the body practised by many Hindu asce­
tics of his TIME WERE VAIN AND USELESS. He preferred what he called ths
middle way between asceticism and self indulgence and
. believed that
a wise man avoided with these extremes in a life of calm detachment. He
also disapproved of the Hindu Caste distinctions believing that all men
were equal in spiritual potentiality.
The kernel of his teaching is explained by his Four Noble Truths
and the Noble Eight fold Path. The truths deal with the cause and cure
of human suffering and the Path is the practical technique of action the
detailed prescription, by means of which the cure can be achieved.
The Four Noble Truths are;

(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)

Suffering is universal
The cause of suffering is craving, or selfish desire.
The cure for suffering is the elimination of craving.
The waste achieve the elimination of craving is to follow
the Middle way, the technique of which is described in the
Noble Eieht Fold Path which consists of:
(i) Right knowledge
(3) Right speech
(5) Right means of livelihood
(7) Right mindfulness

(2) Right intention
(4) Right conduct
(6) Right efforts
(8) Right concentration.

Practical code as explained by the 5 precepts is:
(1) To abstain from the talcing of life.
(2) To abstain from the taking of what is not given
(3) To abstain from all illegal sexual pleasures
(4) To abstain from lying.
(5) To abstain from con-sumption of intoxicants because they
tend to cloud the mind.
NIRVANA is the spiritual goal. Buddhists unique doctrine is about
'self1. The self is not as many Hindus believe, part of an aid.-pervading
entity or absolute which Hindus call Brahman. It is impermanent and made
up of states of mind and matter which are in a continual process of change.
If a man frees himself from all worldly cravings physical desires, he comes
to a true realization of self and can turn toward the ineffable of nirvana.

- three -

The road is hard, and one is bound for many lives to the cosmic
merry - go - round which is called the wheel of rebirth, — the Buddhist
believing in reincarnation, as distinguished from the Hindu belief in
transmission.
Renounce all attachment to the passive phenomenon of the world. Even
Buddha himself is not worshipped as a man or a God but as the embodient of
a principle of enlightenment. There were as they believe many Buddhas
before Gautama, and there will be many more after him until the end of
the Gautama was merely one human vehicle for an eternal spiritual concept.
Buddhism generally shows aloof from the affiars of the world. It has
no overall authority, no hope, no elaborate ceremonies of conversion. One
can become Buddhist by practising the principles of the Eight Fold Path.
It demands no adherence to legalistic requirements, as does orthodox Judiaism, and no act of submission as does Islam. Buddhism is not so much set
of rules as a technique of actions.
Because the practice of Buddhism in its ideal form demands detachment
from the turmoil of daily life, it has become to a great extent a monastic
religion. The Buddhist monk lives a life of utmost simplicity and spends
much of it in meditation. The three essentials for the Buddhist monk are:
poverty, un-offensiveness and celibacy.

Reflections on the Buddha's teachings: The teaching of Buddha is a
teaching of actuality. It leads to the comprehension of actuality we are
told that repentence, which implies living in the past is an unhealthy
mental state. The capacities for repentence is seen in Buddhism as a state
of morbidity which paves the way of expiration, prayer and sacrifice.
The Buddha's teaching is not one for the further life, for it does not
as many religions do, make of this life a preparatory school for a future
life. Buddhism does not believe in virtue as a means to happiness.
Certainly the Buddha does not deny either the past or a future, but
they are of interest in so far as they are related to the present. For
in the present we relieve the past, in the present we mould the future.
Responsibility for the past is in brief the message of Lord Buddha. Buddha
was not content with pointing out the evil in existence, his concern was
rather the deliverance therefrom. The solution of the problem of conflict
is obviously in the solution of the 'I' complex. Begin with the self,
for, the family, society, the world, are but extensions of the self. Thus
it is through understanding of the nature of self, of society, of good and
evil of the world that all conflicts are solved and disolved. The Buddha's
teaching of no-self or the Middle Path is unique in the world history of
religion and philosophy.

The Buddha's message is not one of hope, not one of good tidings,
not of salvation, but of self reliance and self-understanding. The teach­
ing of non-violence (Ahimsa) is the natural consequence for a mind which
has no conflict. Peace, happiness, security, are all very relative terms
and will never constitute true and lasting peace if the individual seeks
his own happiness at the cost of others.

four-

Buddha's message, then may be summed up that as long as man is
a problem of himself, as long as he has his conflicts within him, as
long as he remains the complex he is and refuses to be dissolved in the
single stream of life; all his actions will be resisting his own nature,
disturbing his own peace of mind and his peaceful coexistence in the
family, in society and in the world at large.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.

Evolution, the ages-and tomorrow by G. M. Murray Mekinly
The World’s great Rcligions by the Editorial staff of LIFE
Ancient India by Tripathi, R.S.
Symposium: The religions of India organized by
the Illustrated Weekly of India.
Hindu View of life by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.
Media
RF_RJS_1_SUDHA.pdf

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