Lesson video

- Hello, I'm Mr. Hutchinson and welcome to our RE lesson, where we're learning all about Hinduism.

In our last lesson the first lesson, we learned all about how Hinduism originated and we learned that Hinduism isn't really one religion.

It's a name that we give for a collection of beliefs, a collection of beliefs that go back thousands and thousands of years originating in the Indus Valley region.

And this religion now that we call Hinduism, is followed by hundreds of millions, perhaps almost a billion people.

Over 80% of people in India following this religion, but across the Indian sub-continent and Southeast Asia Hinduism influencing many beliefs.

In today's lesson, we're going to deepen our understanding of some of these common core beliefs, that were first uncovered by the many sages later written down into the Vedas or the text, the scripture of.

But not confusing Hinduism with some other religions that have perhaps like one prophet or a few different prophets or once of like holy scripture.

Remembering that Hinduism has that oral tradition and some of those oral teachings and songs have been written down into the Vedas, but those sorts of beliefs have a diversity in terms of how they're interpreted, how they're set out and the importance that's placed upon them, that's fine.

It's just interesting to learn about all of this stuff.

So, today's lesson we're going to focus on something called Dharma and how Dharma influences how Hindus live throughout history and still today.

Our lesson will look, oh sorry.

The first thing that you will need is all of your equipment to make sure you're well organised, so that you can focus on today's lesson and absorb lots of new knowledge about the religion that we're learning all about.

Make sure you've got something to write with, something to write on, that your brain is focused and ready to complete the whole lesson.

No breaks, we're just gonna go straight through, you can have your break at the end.

Any distractions can go away, that will be your reward at the end of the lesson.

Today's lesson will look something like this.

So, first of all we're going to learn about something called the Purusharthas, which we'll get to and then we're just going to look at one of those called Dharma.

We're actually going to go really deep into Dharma and learn about how there's different types of Dharma and how those different types of Dharma influence how Hindus have lived and how they continue to live today.

So first of all, the Purusharthas.

So, this really is a term.

Is actually a.

Purusha means like man or human and arthas means a aim or goal.

So, Purusharthas when you put it together, it's kind of like the aim of people and there are four.

So, one is the Dharma, the subjective of living within the power that supports the universe.

The other is Kama, not to be confused with karma, with an R that you might have heard of.

Like, if you do good things good things will happen to you.

That's quite common, sort of understanding of karma.

Well, we'll talk about karma in more detail in a future lesson.

This is different, this is K-A-M-A and it's all to do with pleasure.

Bodily pleasure, mental pleasure, that's Kama.

It's one of the aims of people.

Artha which is this of livelihood that you do, the job and the wealth that you so obtain.

And then finally Moksha, which is the kind of final goal for Hindus.

It's breaking away from the cycle or wheel of birth and rebirth and all of the pain and suffering that comes along with that.

Realising that you are one with the whole universe and can be at one with Brahma, which is the name given to God, which we'll learn about in the next lesson.

But by God, we don't mean a personal God here we mean, the entire universe.

So, we talked about aims of people within Hinduism.

We said how they have this name, Purusharthas.

How many Purusharthas are there within Hinduism? One, two, three or four? You could write that down as a full sentence if you'd like to.

Make sure you've got really great notes.

There are mmh Purusharthas or aims within Hinduism, or if you want to you can just point at the answer you think is correct.

So, I have to pause the video and write out or point to the correct answer now.

Three, two, one.

Well done if you said four, there are four Purusharthas And we're just going to focus on one today, which is Dharma.

So, we talked about how Dharma means the source of power, that supports the universe.

It's got lots of different translations.

So, Sanskrit is the language that was used around the region at the time, written in Sanskrit.

Translations vary but it sometimes translated to as duty or virtue or morality or even religion.

But it's this power or force that supports the whole universe.

So, let's see if we can first of all, just make sure we've got a clear definition, when we use this word Dharma, what do we mean? So, there's a few blank words from this sentence.

Dharma means the mmh, that mmh, the mmh and your words to plop into those blanks are supports the universe and power.

Can you write out that sentence with the correct words in the correct place? Pause the video and do that now.

Great work, let's see if you are correct, you should have written down.

Dharma means the power that supports the universe.

Well done If you've got that right, give yourself a tick, awesome work.

Quickly correct it if you got it wrong, no problem.

So, what does that mean? Well, it means Dharma is the force that makes grass grow, that makes the sun shine and also the force that makes people help each other and people support the universe.

And it can get broken down to different types.

We can break it down into different types of Dharma.

The ancient sages broke it down to different types of Dharma.

So, one type of Dharma that we might talk about is sometimes known as, sva-Dharma or self-Dharma.

And really that's talking about you yourself, your rights, your duties, your nature, your role, how you interact with the rest of the cosmic order, the whole of the universe, how you live your life.

So, sva-Dharma is about living a good life.

Living in a way that supports the universe and how you interact with the universe.

There's also an idea of what's sometimes called, sanatana Dharma which is like a more social Dharma, which is the sorts of places that people.

The sorts of duties and jobs and places in society that people have and their responsibilities that they hold.

So, that's sometimes known as the eternal law or the eternal duty to God and fulfilling your place, fulfilling your parts in the cosmic order.

So, sva-Dharma has controversially been put into what's sometimes called a caste system, which is a kind of like social order.

Now, this can be understood in lots of different ways.

It goes back thousands of years, and still influences how many people live in India today.

Although, the idea of a caste system has been outlawed within India.

It still inferences how people live however, which means that there might be some restaurants that say, "We don't want certain types of people coming in." It can also be understood as just sort of people being suited to some sorts of jobs.

So that some people are suited to labour jobs, some people are suited to ruling.

They're just naturally good at that.

Some people are suited to farm work.

Some people though say more people are born into those roles and so that's what they should stick at and you can't move and you shouldn't mix between the caste.

And so, people still disagree about this today and like I said, it's still very controversial.

Perhaps the most controversial, is the order of people known as the Dalits or Untouchables or outcast, out of the caste system.

And these are people that are seen to be impure, dirty, physically dirty because the jobs that they do, like cleaning up rubbish or cleaning toilets, but also sorts of psychologically impure in a way that might taint other people.

So, the Outcast system's still very controversial in terms of some people being excluded from society and there are still today in India, there's different sorts of strategies to try to reverse this.

If somebody's born into a group that's been known as a Dalit group in the past they will perhaps have opportunities to go to study at university to show that anybody can do that.

So, there are those different types of.

Within sva-Dharma and the sort of like self duty.

There are these different orders, these different castes.

The top caste is known as Brahmins, which often is associated with the head of a body, and these Brahmins are people who are priests or intellectuals.

Underneath, there's the.

In fact, I'll get back to the previous slide to show you.

Underneath, there's the Kshatriyas, which are the rulers or the Kings and also the warrior class.

Underneath the priests, you'll see there, underneath the intellectuals, the rulers, the Kings.

There's the Vaishyas, which are the traders underneath that.

And then the Shudras, which are the labourers, the farm workers.

And then right at the bottom, the Dalits, the caste system.

So, I've jumbled up all the different types of castes here.

What I'd like you to do, is see if you can remember which is which.

So, they're in order here from top to bottom.

I haven't jumbled up the order, but have jumbled up the jobs that are associated with that caste.

So, can you match up, write out the name of the caste and then the job that is seen to be associated with that caste.

So, pause the video and do that now.

Great work, let's see if you are correct.

So, it should look like this.

The Brahmins were the priests, the teachers, the intellectuals, the Kshatriyas, apologies for pronunciation if I'm getting that incorrect.

You might know, difficult words to pronounce.

I'll give it my best shot.

Warriors or rulers, the Vaisyas, the traders, perhaps people that own the farms and trade the farm goods and the merchants.

The farm workers, and the labourers on the other hand is the Shudra and right at the bottom, the Dalits or the Untouchables, the street sweepers and the toilet cleaners.

Those lowest of jobs it's seen within the caste system.

Now, we also have the.

So that was sva-Dharma, we also have sanatana Dharma, and this is today usually taken as much more influential within Hinduism and how people live.

Because this is more to do with the ethical code, that you as an individual live by within society, but also how you lead a good life.

And so, there are various different kinds of virtues or rules that's seen as important to be a good part of the cosmic order.

For example, think honesty.

Refraining from injuring or hurting anything living, which means that lots of Hindus will be vegetarians for that reason.

Having a sense of purity, making sure everything is clean with water for example, showing goodwill towards other people, showing mercy towards others, having patience, showing self-control and generosity.

And in some traditions or this idea of asceticism, which means denying yourself any kinds of pleasure, especially any kinds of physical pleasure or material pleasure or material wealth.

And so, you may see sorts of Hindus in India wearing just like a very basic robe, having no belongings and perhaps just a sort of begging bowl for a bit of food, wanting to deny themselves any types of sort of bodily pleasure or material wealth.

That incredible self-discipline, showing that the bodily world is not the important world, is known as asceticism.

So, let's see if you can define these different sorts of virtues within sanatana Dharma.

There's honesty, refraining from injuring living things, purity, goodwill and mercy.

So, I've got seven different definitions up here.

Could you write the name of the virtue, with the definition on this side here, right next to each other? You can see they're jumbled up, so pause the video and do that and you can restart it once you've finished.

Awesome work, let's see if you were correct.

So, honesty being truthful, being sincere, refrain from hurting living things, treating all living things with respect and care.

Purity, clean with water, practising your prayers, treating people well and living a pure life, goodwill, being friendly, being helpful, being cooperative and mercy, showing compassion, showing forgiveness.

What about patience, self-control, generosity and asceticism? Can you define each of these, match them out with the different definition.

These are the sorts of things that really drive and influence how Hindus have lived throughout the thousands of years and still influence how Hindus live today.

So, it's important to get a good idea of them.

So, write out the names of those types, those sanatana Dharma driving virtues and then the definition next to them.

Pause the video and write them up now.

Great work, let's see if you're correct.

So patience, the ability to accept or tolerate difficult situations, without becoming annoyed or anxious.

Self-control, the ability to control oneself in particular your emotions, your desires, especially in difficult situations.

Generosity, being a giving individual, showing willingness to give more than expected and that idea of asceticism, denying yourself luxuries, and just committing yourself to God.

I wonder how many of those virtues you thought, "Oh, that describes me.

I'm very good.

I have very good self control, I'm very patient individual." Perhaps you were reading some of those and thinking, "Hmm, I can actually show that a little bit more or I'm really good at that already." Well done if you are, they are good virtues to have.

Which Dharma do most Hindus live their lives by today? Well done if you said sanatana Dharma.

That idea of sva-Dharma especially the idea of the caste system meaning being born into a particular social class, quite outdated now and rejected by many followers of the Hindu faith.

That is our lesson finished for today.

You've worked extremely hard.

We've delved into some of the core beliefs, including the main aims of Hinduism.

There's four main aims, touching on a few of them, which we'll look at in more depth in future lessons.

Also looking at in depth of this idea of Dharma, this power that's driving the universe and how we, as part of the universe or Hindus as part of the universe, can live in accordance with Dharma.

Well done for working so hard.

As always, if you'd like to share your work, then your parents or carers can take a photo and share them on social media and they just need to take a photo, pop them onto Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, tagging @OakNational, #learnwithoak.

I'd love to see your work, you've worked hard.

You've got lots of great definitions.

I'm sure that you had some interesting ideas.

So, please do feel free to share it and get lots of praise that you deserve.

That is the end of today's lesson, the only thing left for you to do is complete your quiz, it's important to do.

It will lock in those key points, make sure that you remember them much longer, in the longer term.

Well done for working so hard, I'll see you on our next lesson where we're going to learn even more about some of these key beliefs, that were understood by the sages thousands of years ago, later written down in the Vedas and still drive the belief system of hundreds of millions of people, around the world.

I can't wait to see that.