Cultures and Religions of the Himalayan Region

Mr. John De Lisa
Religious Studies Department
St. Joseph Hill Academy
Staten Island, New York

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Evaluation

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Having viewed one response to life through the religious optic of Tibetan Buddhism, and having broadened that optic through a visual representation of Christian monasticism, I want to move the class from this ostensibly negative polarity to the necessarily complementary pole. This will be accomplished by proposing the question: "How, then, does one conduct one's daily existence given the impermanence that undergirds life in this world?" To suggest a positive response, I will show a film entitled The Timeless Village of the Himalayas: A Pilgrimage to Deoprayag, India (Bhak T.V., catalogue library VID. VHS 5275), a film which Professor Lewis offered as one of his video resources to the institute participants. My prime reason for selecting this film is twofold: first, the film presents students with a vivid portrayal of Hindu culture in its aspect of meaningful interaction with its natural environment, an interaction that demonstrates superlative religious reverence as exemplified in the villagers' devotion to and acknowledged dependence upon "Mother Ganges"; secondly, the film dramatizes quite cogently the religious phenomenon of bhakti, an ancient grass-roots movement within Hinduism which emphasizes the centrality of love and personal devotion to a preferred deity.

Related Links:
1. Bhakti Yoga
2. The Path of Devotion
3. Bhakti (Columbia Encyclopedia)

During the film, students will have before them a handout whose questions they will answer in the course of viewing the film. The handout will read:
1) According to Hindu belief, what is the origin of the Ganges?;
2) What is the Hindu attitude toward the Ganges?;
3) What is the Hindu attitude toward cows?;
4) What role does singing play in Hindu religious practice?;
5) Describe one Hindu religious ritual depicted in the film and explain its significance;
6) What is your evaluation of Hindu religious life?

Subsequent to appropriate discussion of the film and presentation of the students' written responses, we will study the development within Hinduism of the trajectory fromVedic and Brahmanic ritualism to the unstructured and personal piety of bhakti. At this point relevant passages from the Bhagavad-Gita will be read and analyzed, highlighting the compassion and human concern of the avatar Krishna and the god's teaching of the Path of Devotion which he imparts to the young warrior Arjuna. To terminate this unit we will read the creation account from the Book of Genesis with an eye to the issues of stewardship of the material world and the nature of human relationships to the divine. The class will be given an assignment to construct parallels between Hinduism and the Judaeo-Christian tradition vis-à-vis the human person's relation to the natural world and personal intimacy with God. Again, it is my intention, not only to present my students with a valid depiction of the genuinely valuable and deeply philosophical visions of human existence as evident in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, but also to uncover within their own Christian tradition parallels of human commonality.