Some modern schools of Hinduism, such as Gaudiya Vaishnavism, have developed the doctrine of expansions – separate hypostases of the deity reflecting a particular aspect or property of the deity.A special aspect of the concept of the hypostases of gods is the teaching of avataras – full or partial incarnations of the deity in human form. The concept of avatars is most consistently developed in Vishnuism, where some of the avatars of Vishnu (such as Rama and Krishna) are venerated on a par with Vishnu himself, and sometimes even more than Vishnu himself. According to Vishnuist conceptions, an avatar differs from an expansionship in that his incarnation is always associated with the fulfillment of a specific mission. Thus, for example, Vishnu incarnates as Parashurama to protect the Brahmans from oppression by the kshatriyas; as Rama he wages war against the Rakshasa kingdom on the island of Lanka; as Krishna he saves the kingdom from the tyranny of his uncle and acts as a teacher of God and liberation on the threshold of the Black Age; finally, as Kalki-avatar he will incarnate at the end of the Black Age to purify the world of evil and renew the world.

A special role in these directions is played by the divine consorts of the supreme gods, Lakshmi (in Vishnuism) and Devi (in Shivaism). The vision of the images of these goddesses, each in her own direction, is quite specific. For example, Lakshmi is venerated in Vishnuism as the goddess of happiness, while her human incarnations in various Vishnuist sects are considered to be the spouses of Vishnu’s avatars (Sita, the wife of Rama, Rukmini and/or Radha, the wife of Krishna). Devi, like her husband, is represented as a goddess with many guises, ranging from Parvati, who symbolizes fidelity, to militant Durga and Kali, the destroyer. According to the teachings of some Shivaite sects, Devi is the goddess of the feminine, while her hypostasis represents some of her qualities, either good or destructive.

Two gods revered in Hinduism are also associated with Shiva. These are the sons of Shiva, Skanda, the god of war, and Ganesha, the god of wisdom. The cult of the latter is very popular in India. Ganesha is presented not only as the patron of wisdom and writing, but also as the creator and at the same time the remover of obstacles. The veneration of Ganesha is associated with the custom of beginning any important literary work with a dedication to this god, as well as the recitation of prayers, which express a request for the removal of obstacles to the happy resolution of all affairs and undertakings. Skanda is revered in Hinduism as the god of war, and in Shivaism also as the god of protection, guardian of faith and patron of yoga.

Otherwise the pantheon of Hinduism is very diverse. Going back to the Vedas, the Hindu tradition has thirty-three major deities, divided into three classes of gods-twelve Adityas, eight Vasu, eleven Rudras, and two Ashvinas. In addition to the deities brought into Hinduism from the religion of the Vedas, however, the pantheon also included pre-Aryan deities, such as Murugan, the Dravidian deity of war, or deified characters from epics like the ape-like Hanuman, revered even today as the divine guide and protector of rural life. A special role in the pantheon of Hinduism is played by the four lokapalas, the guardians of the world. These four include Indra, god of thunder and ruler of the eastern side of the world; Yama, god of death, lord of the realm of the dead and ruler of the south; Varuna, god of waters and ruler of the west; Kubera, god of wealth, guardian of underground treasures and ruler of the north.

A separate class of sacred beings associated with the gods in Hinduism are deified animals or zoomorphic characters. The best known are two classes of such characters: vahans and diggadhis. Vahanas in Hinduism are the riding animals of the gods, and each god has his own vahana. Some vahanas are nameless, such as Brahma’s swan, Durga’s lion, or Ganesha’s mouse. Some, on the contrary, have names, such as Shiva’s bull Nandin or Garuda, the bird-like deity on which Vishnu rides. Diggaji, the four world elephants supporting the earth, are directly related to the Lokapalas.

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During the period from the sixth century B.C. to the beginning of the first millennium A.D., Indian religious culture underwent strong changes. At the beginning of that period the crisis of the Vedic religion broke out, which resulted in the emergence of the nastika-Darshan, of which Buddhism and Jainism, which entered into an ideological competition with Brahmanism, became the most significant. In the third century BC Buddhism, under the patronage of King Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty, becomes the state religion in India and is widely spread from the territory of present-day Afghanistan to Sri Lanka. However, many basic ideas of Buddhism proved to be too revolutionary for the national Indian consciousness of the time. For example, for Vedic religion, the performance of rituals in honor of the gods was important; Buddhism denied the significance of these rituals, declaring them meaningless to the one who seeks “true liberation,” i.e., the attainment of nirvana. Brahmanism regarded the gods as supreme beings; Buddhism regarded the gods as beings who, like other beings, including humans, find themselves in samsara and are subject to the law of karma. Brahmanism regarded social inequality and the division of society into varnas as something sanctified by world order; Buddhism proclaimed the achievement of liberation by a Buddhist irrespective of caste, and regarded the division of society into varnas as a convention.

During the period of Hinduism’s formation, it underwent a serious and diverse development. The system of cults is created, the pantheon and the main religious trends are formed; the formation of Hindu religious philosophy is completed; the system of social relations, sanctified by religious injunctions, is established. Thanks to the latter, a caste system of social organization, reminiscent in some respects of the Vedic Indian system, is established in India. At the top of this social hierarchy were traditionally the brahmins, who acted not only as cult servants but also as philosophers and mentors to kings and dignitaries. At the next, more “lower” level were the kshatriyas, and this varna, as before, included the warriors themselves, the rajas and their advisors: ministers, commanders, court officials, etc. Even lower were the merchants and artisans, the vaishyas. A curious aspect of the organization of this varna was that it was a system of castes organized along professional lines; for example, there were the castes of merchants, the castes of merchants of certain goods, the castes of artisans engaged in a particular kind of craft and the castes of artisans whose craft consisted in providing certain services (for example, the caste of barbers). Even lower were the Shudras, but unlike the Vedic varna of the Shudras, which included only slaves, it now also included peasants. Below the Shudras on the social ladder of Indian society were the Chandals, the “untouchables. This “caste” included beggars as well as those who performed “unclean” jobs, such as street sweepers. This division of society, somewhat reminiscent of the ancient division into varnas, was declared by the doctrine of Hinduism to correspond to the laws of the world order. Thanks to this setting, the caste system of society persisted in India throughout the Middle Ages and the New Age; its vestiges were strong in India in the twentieth century and persist to this day. Hinduism also influenced the medieval art of India, particularly the art of theater.

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In the 19th century, when India was under English rule, the process of modernization of Hinduism began. At the head of this process became the Indian intellectual elite, concerned about the growing pressure on the national culture of the European culture. An interesting fact is that many of this elite had in their time a serious familiarity not only with Islamic culture but also with European culture, so that they could combine this familiarity with knowledge of the best achievements of their native culture. Such were, for example, Ram Mohan Roy, founder of the Brahmo Samaj Society, and Ramakrishna, whose teachings formed the basis of Neo-Vedanticism.

The main trends in the modernization of Hinduism in the 19th century were: reinterpretation of Hinduism in a monotheistic spirit, criticism of the caste system of social organization and advocacy for abolition of some ancient customs, such as the custom of early marriage or the custom of sati, and a broad educational popularization of the spiritual heritage of Indian culture. Characteristic was the emergence of public organizations engaged in propaganda of the above views. The most famous of them were Brahmo Samaj (founded in 1828), Arya Samaj (1875, founder Dayananda Saraswati) and Ramakrishna Mission (1897, founder Vivekananda, Ramakrishna’s closest disciple).

The special features of the modernization of Hinduism were the opening of a dialogue between Hinduism and other religions (Islam, Christianity) and the search by prominent religious figures in nineteenth-century India for some kind of universal religion that incorporated the spiritual experience of other religions. This search and dialogue was realized, in particular, in the teachings and activities of Ramakrishna and his followers. Ramakrishna himself put forward the concept of unity of all religions; his disciple and colleague Vivekananda brilliantly spoke at the International Religious Congress in Chicago (1893), introducing the general public to the basics of Indian religious philosophy, and he made the presentation himself understandable and close to people of Western culture.

The processes of modernization of Hinduism continued into the twentieth century. For the most part, they retained the trends that had emerged in the nineteenth century. These trends, in addition to culture, also influenced the social and political life of India in the last century. For example, the reformist demands for the abandonment of the rigid caste division of society, the abolition of a number of ancient customs (sati, early marriage), and the calls for the equalization of women’s rights with men made by such 19th century figures as Keshobchondro Sen and Dayananda Saraswati were realized in the domestic political course of India after its independence in 1950. A special phenomenon for Hinduism in the twentieth century was the export of some of its elements to the cultures of other countries, in particular such as the United States and the Soviet Union.

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According to the Hindus, karma, on the one hand, is an abstract law of cause and effect that determines the laws of fate of the whole universe and of each individual being. On the other hand, karma is the totality of all deeds and actions of a single individual as well as of various human communities, beginning with the family and ending with the state and the nation as a whole. In this second sense, karma is seen not only as the totality of deeds themselves, but also as the totality of their causes and their consequences, since, according to Hinduism, no human act passes without a trace. With this view of human action, a distinction is made between good and bad karma. Understanding this distinction is quite simple, and fits into a simple formula: “bad (evil) deeds produce bad karma; good deeds, on the contrary, produce good (good) karma.”

Closely connected to the notions of karma are the notions of Punarjarma – reincarnation, reincarnation of the soul after death. According to these concepts, after death an immortal soul is reincarnated in a new body. However, the quality of this new life as well as its circumstances are determined by the quality of the previous life, in other words, by the karma accumulated in the previous life. Hence, Hinduism is characterized by the concept of happy and unhappy rebirths, that is, those in which a person, depending on his karma, will enjoy happiness or, conversely, suffer misery.

The notions of karma and Punarjarma are generalized in the concept of samsara, a constant process of alternation of lives and rebirths, governed by the law of karma and occurring on a universal scale. An interesting aspect of the Hindu view of samsara is the belief in the possibility of one’s rebirth (due to karmic circumstances) into another living being. Such a being, according to the Hindus, may be an animal, a plant, a demon, or a demigod. Also in these beliefs the local factor plays an important role: the rebirth of a person can, depending on the karma, occur both on earth and in other worlds such as places of gods or in hell worlds. Some modern versions of Hinduism also consider the possibility of reincarnation on other planets as their inhabitants.

Finally, associated with samsara is the Hindu concept of moksha, the liberation of the soul from the process of endless rebirths and existences. The various currents and schools of Hinduism offer different views on the realization of moksha and its essence; but they all agree that moksha is the result of one’s aspiration for liberation from samsara and the following of specific religious practices. They are also unanimous in recognizing that through the realization of moksha, the soul ceases to be reborn and attains a special, beyond rational comprehension, state of co-divinity and bliss.

In conclusion, it is worth mentioning the Hindu view of the three main areas within which human life takes place. These are dharma, artha, and kama. Dharma, in the Hindu sense, is the set of rules and duties imposed on a person by his belonging to the human race as well as by his social status. Dharma also serves as an ethical system whose requirements a person must follow throughout his life. For example, a priest’s dharma is to conduct rituals and religious piety; a king’s dharma is to rule the state with justice; a warrior’s dharma is to fight wars, be brave and generous to the vanquished; a merchant’s dharma is to conduct trade and be honest; a worker’s dharma is to work hard and diligently; a family man’s dharma is to create and maintain a family and raise children with dignity. The circumstances of the next rebirth depend upon whether one has followed or neglected one’s dharma. Following the dharma plays an important role in the accumulation of good karma according to Hindu concepts, while neglecting the dharma creates bad karma.

Artha is the sphere of human social activity – politics, trade, economy and so on. One aspect of these activities is recognized as one’s pursuit of social success and prosperity, but the benefits themselves are seen here as the result of a combination of dharma in one’s social activities, one’s personal qualities and abilities, one’s sense of purpose and good karma.

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