(Re)thinking Order and Chaos: An Introduction to Hinduism

Catalog description

This course introduces Hinduism through the concepts of order (dharma), chaos or disorder (non-dharma), and ethic of responsibility (karma), and their relationships to the pursuits of pleasure and material well-being and the quest for liberation. It makes sense of chaos and discovers the lurking irrationality of order, and thereby suggests a creative role of chaos in order. This course also challenges the category of religion and the universalism associated with Western religious mythologies.