GAQ BP 101 - 8th January 2012 (Sunday)

• 5000 BC to 3000 BC Pre-Buddhist Indian Thought
• Aryans from Europe and Iran had the God and Creator God concept
• They brought religious beliefs to India
• No definite time frame
• The Latin word “Devs” means god
• “Diu” is the Sanskrit term for god; meaning of “Deva” is “to shine”
• Godhead i.e. CEO of the Gods is a concept in Europe
• Mitra is a Vedic god
• There are 4 Vedas
• People use “yaj” to respect gods.
• India use “mithra” while Europe use “mitra”
• Out of fear and insecurity and respect of natural phenomena -> this is the origin of religion
• Sky Gods – Varuna (creates everything; his eye is the sun), Mitra
• Midair Gods – Indra, Marut
• Earthly Gods – Agni (fire), Soma
• The politician at that time created so many gods i.e. 33 Gods and ascribed everything to gods.
• Indra is the War God and Varuna is for moral values and is responsible for morality. Indra however has no moral responsibility.
• Gods arise from man-made concepts and natural phenomena.
• The rituals to gods has simple beginnings but later became more complex
• Parjanya is the god of clouds
• This religion gradually developed into a philosophy.
• R.ta is the natural order of things and systematic rituals to gods are important
• Anr.ta is in Aryan language and means untruth, while r.ta means truth
• If people have righteous behavoiur, they believe that gods will be happy
• Varuna is omniscient and knows everything
• Gods wanted to relate to humans and vice versa
• Humans relate to gods and thus the soul concept came to existence. To connect humans to god, they believe that god gave them a soul for that purpose
• Faith turned into a belief
• There are 4 Vedas (book of knowledge) – Rig, Yajua, Sama, Atharvan
• The 3 Vedas are when Atharvan is omitted from the above listing 
• At first it was an individualized religion, later it became an organized religion
• Pathavi is Pali for earth, while Pratavi is Sanskrit for earth
• The Trimurti is – Brahma (Create), Vishnu (Maintain) & Esuara (Destroy) – the world
• Important to remember Indra and Varuna
• There are instances of paired up gods e.g. – Sky & Earth, Day & Night, Sun & Moon, Dawn & Dusk etc…
• Visvakarman is the God of world architect and planning.
• Pajapati is lord of creator
• Saddha is Pali for faith, while Sraddha is Sanskrit for faith
• Apsaras are nymphs
• Gandharva are forest gods
• Enemies of gods are Asuras a.k.a. demons