Hinduism - Origins and Beliefs

Why this matters

The Kailasa Temple at Ellora was not built up from the ground the way most temples are. Around the 8th century CE, workers carved it downward out of a single mass of rock, removing stone instead of stacking it, on a scale that still stops visitors today.

Dharma is the word students most often reduce to a synonym for religion, when the tradition actually ties it to a person's specific role and stage of life. Reading Krishna's counsel to Arjuna only makes sense once that distinction is in place, since his whole argument depends on duty meaning something different for a warrior than it would for anyone else.

From one teacher to another

Which Hindu text is actually the oldest? Almost none of my students get it right on the first try, and that's exactly why I start here, because once the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita are sorted into their real order, karma, samsara, and moksha click together as one system instead of three vocabulary words. Reading Krishna's counsel to Arjuna on the Kurukshetra battlefield lands differently once they already know what dharma and atman are supposed to mean.