Year: 8 Introduction to Hinduism Aims: To develop an awareness of the basic beliefs of Hinduism; to explore origins and truth, beliefs about the nature of God, about life, religious practices. It is essential that students can make comparisons to their own traditions and understand the brotherhood of faith in God, have an awareness of other important religious traditions in Britain today and explore a variety of beautiful cultural and religious difference. Lesson Title & Learning Aims 1. HINDUISM AO1: A journey to How did India Hinduism begin? AO2: Why is Hinduism so varied a religion? Teaching and learning Starter:  Guess the topic, pupils to guess what the unit of study is – clues on power point slide. Tasks: 1. Introduction to India and the birth place of Hinduism from the Indus Valley Civilisation and a founder unknown.    Hinduism has its roots in an ancient civilisation known as the Indus Valley Civilisation which flourished between 3500 and 1500BCE. The civilisation ended around the same time a nomadic people called the Aryans arrived in India. Hinduism developed from the religious ideas of both peoples and therefore there is no one founder. Hinduism is the oldest of the world’s living religions and there are over 750 million Hindus in the world today. Hindus do not call their religion ‘Hinduism’, but refer to it simply as sanatana dharma. This means ‘eternal teaching’, ‘eternal law’ or ‘eternal truths’.  Resources PowerPoint 1 – Introductions to India Act out or experiment with different truth perspectives through the story: Mystery bag of items. PowerPoint presentation of the Elephant/ Blind men story and questions. Six Blind Men – YouTube clip http:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=iBqgr5xZLz0  p6 or 34– Introducing Hinduism, Sue Penney Text Book   PowerPoint Act out the salt into 2. Hinduism is a varied religion. Assessment - Reflection Q: Is the elephant like everything around us, what truths do you have? Q: Do different people see things in different ways, why? Q: Is what we learn at school only one version of a story? What have you learned? 1. About your own thoughts? 2. About different people in your class? 3. About different people in the world? Hinduism was not founded by an individual person and it developed slowly over a long period of time. For these reasons it is a varied religion. - Reading on ‘The blind men and the Elephant’.     Think / Pair / Share Odd one out True / False What if? All the men are right but only in part; they were telling part of the whole truth. Like the elephant, Hinduism too is made up of very many different parts. For Hindus, though beneath all the variety there is one unchanging reality. This is called Brahman. Plenary: 2. HINDUISM Beliefs about AO1: Who is God, Starter:  Review lesson 1; important ideas about truth Q: How can our ideas God what is the Trimurti? AO2: Why are there so many Gods? Why do people believe in different gods, what do they know? perspectives. Q: What is God? Ideas bank – describing words, imagery, experience. Tasks: 1. What is God like? 2. Brahman (gods and goddesses or avatars) Images of God. Brahman most commonly refers to an unchanging ultimate reality which many Hindus believe exists beyond the everchanging, everyday world of appearances. Legend has it that a wise man taught his son about Brahman by asking him first to put some salt in water and then to take it out again. Of course, the salt dissolved and the son could not take it out. His father told him that the presence of Brahman in the world is like the salt in the water; invisible but everywhere. 3. This is the sacred symbol and sound “Aum” or “Om” which is Brahman. There are many explanations of its meaning but they all lead to Brahman. 4. Who are the Trimurti? There are three gods which Hindus believe are most important collectively called the Trimurti.. Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Shiva (the destroyer). They work together in a never-ending pattern.     water in groups for further reflection Sue Penney Foundation Issue: Hinduism books p8 11 Encyclopaedia of Religions: Hinduism p14-15 Hindu Top Trumps: Hindu Gods game about God be so different and so similar? Brahman is likened to salt dissolving in water; Q1: Why do you think this is a particularly useful illustration? Q:2 Can you think of your own ‘word picture’ to illustrate this idea? Class Clips 3632 – Hindu beliefs about God http://www.bbc.co.uk/ learningzone/