The Way of Devotion Assignment
Order ID 53563633773 Type Essay Writer Level Masters Style APA Sources/References 4 Perfect Number of Pages to Order 5-10 Pages Description/Paper Instructions
The Way of Devotion Assignment
Three sannyasins, or renouncers, pose for a photo outside the Pashupatinath Temple in
Kathmandu, Nepal. These holy men continue the Upanishadic tradition of leaving worldly life behind in order to dedicate themselves full-time to achieving moksha.
means “sit down near,” which may refer both to students sitting at the feet of teachers and to the hard work of bringing competing ideas into connection with one another. It also carries the connotation of transferring secret teachings or making “hidden connec- tions.”12 Among the concepts and concerns introduced in the Upanishads was the master metaphor of samsara. As has been noted, samsara literally means “wandering through,” but here it refers to the flowing together of creation and destruction. The universe was created and will someday be destroyed, as will the various heavens and hells described in the Vedas. Human beings are also subject to samsara, their souls propelled from birth and death to rebirth and redeath by the fuel of karma.
In Vedic religion, karma referred to ritual action, but as classical Hinduism emerged it started to take on ethical import, referring to moral action and the consequences (good or bad) that flow from it. According to karmic theory, the circumstances of one’s birth were a result of the sum of the debits and credits of one’s moral actions in a prior life. Moreover, karmic logic dictated that everything one did eventually had to be rewarded or punished• Both good and bad actions produced bad karma, which needed to be experienced. If we died with a surplus of bad karma, we had to be reborn in order to be punished. If we died with a surplus of good karma, we had to be reborn in order to be rewarded. Through this endless cycle of moral recycling, the fuel of karma propelled individual souls from rebirth to redeath and back again. Doing good was not a way out. The way out was jnana’ or wisdom.
Among the wandering renouncers seeking this liberating wisdom around the fifth tury BCE were Siddhartha Gautama and Vardhamana Mahavira. These men, who would go on to found (or revive) what we now refer to as Buddhism and Jainism, distinguished
Hindu History 49
themselves from Hindu renouncers by rejecting the authority of the Vedas. Many other
renouncers remained in the Hindu fold and devised their own techniques for achieving
spiritual liberation.
The word yoga, a cognate of the word yoke, means “to unite”—in this case to unite
oneself with the divine. This union can be achieved only through discipline, however, so
this term also connotes the discipline required to yoke with the divine. One such discipline
is hatha yoga, a body posture practice that has been reborn in the modern West as “yoga.”
But ancient Indian renouncers used a variety of “yogas” to achieve their goal of spiritual
liberation. Instead of using the soma plant of Vedic times to conjure up altered states of
yoga (“union”) popular embodied posture
practice loosely rooted in ear-
lier Hindu mental and bodily
disciplines designed to unite a
human soul to the divine
guru personal spiritual teacher
consciousness, they disciplined their bodies through breathing techniques, meditation
strategies, fasting, and abstaining from meat. Through these “interior sacrifices,” ascetics
clairned to be able to generate inside their own bodies the spiritual heat that priests during
the Vedic period had generated on the sacrificial fire. This achievement made spiritual
power portable. So it should not be surprising that these renouncers also cultivated the
yoga of wandering—leaving behind homes, jobs, and families in order to work full time
to cultivate liberating wisdom.
But what was this wisdom? And how was it to be won? One of the most famous sto-
ries in the Upanishads tries to answer these questions in a convenient shorthand. A son,
Svetaketu, has just come home to his father, Uddalaka, after years of hard study in Vedic
texts and rituals. Svetaketu is proud of what he has learned at the feet of his guru, but
his father wants to know whether he possesses true wisdom. He asks Svetaketu whether
he has learned about subtler things, such as how that which is not heard becomes heard
and how that which is not known becomes known. Confused, Svetaketu says no. So his
father asks him to put some salt in water. The next day Uddalaka asks his son to give him
back the salt. But the salt has dissolved into the water. So Uddalaka tells his son to taste
the surface of the water. “How is it?” he asks. “Salty,” Svetaketu replies. Uddalaka tells
him to taste from the middle of the water. “How is it?” he asks a second time. “Salty,”
Svetaketu again replies. Finally, Uddalaka instructs his son to taste from the bottom of
the glass. “How is it?” he asks. “Salty,” the son replies again. Uddalaka concludes his
lesson with one of the most famous passages in the Hindu scriptures: “Here likewise in
this body of yours, my son, you do not perceive the True; but there in fact it is. In that
which is the subtle essence, all that exists has its self. That is the True, that is the Self,
and thou, Svetaketu, art That. 13
The Sanskrit formula that concludes this famous lesson in the Chandogya Upanishad
is “tav tvam asi,” which has been widely translated as “That thou art.” 14 In other words,
the essence of the individual soul (atman) and the essence of the divine (brahman) are
equivalent: You and God are one. If this sounds puzzling, that is because it is, and Hindu
philosophers have puzzled for centuries over precisely what it might mean.
Inspired by the Upanishads, many Hindus came to view samsara as the human prob-
lem and moksha as the human goal. Advocates aimed not to wrest order out of chaos
in this world, as Vedic priests had done, but to unlock the secrets of the next. Together
they sought to cultivate, through various spiritual disciplines, the liberating wisdom that
would allow them to escape samsara and reach moksha. Of that wisdom, the Chandogya
Upanishad observes, “When someone knows it, bad actions do not stick to him, just as
water does not stick to a lotus leaf. “15
This way of wisdom was an extraordinary path. In Vedic religion, a patron could go
to a priest and ask for a sacrifice to be performed on his behalf. Once performed, the
Yoga is an ancient Indian
RUBRIC
QUALITY OF RESPONSE NO RESPONSE POOR / UNSATISFACTORY SATISFACTORY GOOD EXCELLENT Content (worth a maximum of 50% of the total points) Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. 20 points out of 50: The essay illustrates poor understanding of the relevant material by failing to address or incorrectly addressing the relevant content; failing to identify or inaccurately explaining/defining key concepts/ideas; ignoring or incorrectly explaining key points/claims and the reasoning behind them; and/or incorrectly or inappropriately using terminology; and elements of the response are lacking. 30 points out of 50: The essay illustrates a rudimentary understanding of the relevant material by mentioning but not full explaining the relevant content; identifying some of the key concepts/ideas though failing to fully or accurately explain many of them; using terminology, though sometimes inaccurately or inappropriately; and/or incorporating some key claims/points but failing to explain the reasoning behind them or doing so inaccurately. Elements of the required response may also be lacking. 40 points out of 50: The essay illustrates solid understanding of the relevant material by correctly addressing most of the relevant content; identifying and explaining most of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology; explaining the reasoning behind most of the key points/claims; and/or where necessary or useful, substantiating some points with accurate examples. The answer is complete. 50 points: The essay illustrates exemplary understanding of the relevant material by thoroughly and correctly addressing the relevant content; identifying and explaining all of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology explaining the reasoning behind key points/claims and substantiating, as necessary/useful, points with several accurate and illuminating examples. No aspects of the required answer are missing. Use of Sources (worth a maximum of 20% of the total points). Zero points: Student failed to include citations and/or references. Or the student failed to submit a final paper. 5 out 20 points: Sources are seldom cited to support statements and/or format of citations are not recognizable as APA 6th Edition format. There are major errors in the formation of the references and citations. And/or there is a major reliance on highly questionable. The Student fails to provide an adequate synthesis of research collected for the paper. 10 out 20 points: References to scholarly sources are occasionally given; many statements seem unsubstantiated. Frequent errors in APA 6th Edition format, leaving the reader confused about the source of the information. There are significant errors of the formation in the references and citations. And/or there is a significant use of highly questionable sources. 15 out 20 points: Credible Scholarly sources are used effectively support claims and are, for the most part, clear and fairly represented. APA 6th Edition is used with only a few minor errors. There are minor errors in reference and/or citations. And/or there is some use of questionable sources. 20 points: Credible scholarly sources are used to give compelling evidence to support claims and are clearly and fairly represented. APA 6th Edition format is used accurately and consistently. The student uses above the maximum required references in the development of the assignment. 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The paper has slight errors within the paper. This can include small errors or omissions with the cover page, abstract, page number, and headers. There could be also slight formatting issues with the document spacing or the font Additionally the paper might slightly exceed or undershoot the specific number of required written pages for the assignment. 10 points: Student provides a high-caliber, formatted paper. This includes an APA 6th edition cover page, abstract, page number, headers and is double spaced in 12’ Times Roman Font. Additionally, the paper conforms to the specific number of required written pages and neither goes over or under the specified length of the paper. GET THIS PROJECT NOW BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK TO PLACE THE ORDER
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