Year 6 Hindus: how do Hindus see Brahman? worksheet

“Brahman in everything” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 6 religious education unit “Hindus: how do Hindus see Brahman?”, for children aged 10 to 11, and takes about 23 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 1 to 6 of the year, 6 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Brahman in everything

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 6 · Religious education · about 23 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can explain what Hindus mean when they say Brahman is present everywhere.

A Look back3 min

Warm up with questions about places of worship and holy books you have met before.

A flat illustration of a mosque with a dome and a tall minaret

A flat illustration of a gurdwara with a golden dome and a flag pole

A flat illustration of a church with a tall spire

A flat illustration of a synagogue with arched windows

1.
Join each place of worship to the religion that uses it.
MosqueGurdwaraChurch
SikhismChristianityIslam
2.
Which book is the holy book of Sikhs? Circle your answer.
Guru Granth SahibTorahQur'anBible
3.
Which building do Jewish people use for worship? Circle your answer.
SynagogueMosqueChurchGurdwara

B Watch me, then you4 min

Uddalaka, a wise teacher, is helping his son Svetaketu understand Brahman. He holds up a new clay pot. What is it really made of?

Watch me

A clay pot has a new shape.

Underneath, it is still the same clay.

In the same way, Brahman is at the core of everything.

Now you

1.
Now you. Uddalaka's salt experiment is mixed up below. Svetaketu tasted the water from the top down. Write 1 to 5 in the boxes to put the steps in order.
1. Taste from the top
2. Put the salt in the water
3. Taste from the middle
4. Leave it overnight
5. Taste from the bottom

C Your turn7 min

Uddalaka asked Svetaketu to find the salt in the water. He could not see it, but every sip tasted salty. Answer each question. Circle, join or write as asked.

A plain cloth with a large sacred symbol drawn in the centre

1.
Which sacred sound do many Hindus chant to feel connected to Brahman? Circle your answer.
AumShalomAmenHallelujah
2.
Many Hindus say the deities are like waves on one sea. What is the one ultimate reality they are all part of? Circle your answer.
BrahmanAumMurtiSvetaketu
3.
Join each word to its meaning. Clue: nir means without and sa means with.
OmnipresentNirguna BrahmanSaguna BrahmanAum
the sacred sound and symbol for Brahmanwith formpresent everywhereformless
4.
Why did Uddalaka put salt in the water? Circle your answer.
to make the water taste nicerto show that something hidden can be everywhereto clean the glassto test how cold the water was

Say it out loud: Each question asks about a different idea from the lesson. Which question was about a sound, and which was about waves on the sea?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Many waves rolling across one wide open ocean

Kit says: “Vishnu, Shiva and Lakshmi are three separate gods with nothing to do with each other.”

1.
Explain what is wrong with Kit's idea.

E Think deeper4 min

Think like a philosopher who studies Hindu Dharma.

A clear glass of water on a plain wooden table

1.
Ola says salt in water is a good way to explain Brahman, because you cannot see either. Do you agree? Give one reason and one thing the example does not show.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Brahman in everything · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. Mosque → Islam; Gurdwara → Sikhism; Church → Christianity

2. Guru Granth Sahib

3. Synagogue

B

1. 1 Put the salt in the water · 2 Leave it overnight · 3 Taste from the top · 4 Taste from the middle · 5 Taste from the bottom your child has tasted before the salt went in. The salt must go in first, then the glass waits overnight before any tasting. Ask what happened first in the story.

C

1. Aum

2. Brahman your child has picked a word for a sound, an image or a person, not the ultimate reality. Ask: which word names the one source that everything comes from?

3. Omnipresent → present everywhere; Nirguna Brahman → formless; Saguna Brahman → with form; Aum → the sacred sound and symbol for Brahman

4. to show that something hidden can be everywhere your child has thought the experiment was about taste. The salt was there to be hidden, not to flavour the water. Ask: why was the salt hard to see, yet still in every part?

D

1. Look for: Many Hindus believe the deities are forms or expressions of one Brahman, so they are linked, not separate. your child has agreed with Kit. Ask: if the deities are waves, what is the ocean they all belong to?

E

1. Look for: A view on the salt example that gives one reason and one limit, for example that salt can be tasted but Brahman cannot be tasted.

Words to use

Say“Tell me what Uddalaka wanted Svetaketu to learn from the salt. Where was the salt, and how did you know?”

Instead of“Tell them Hindus worship lots of gods, so they have no single belief.”

After the sheet

Fill a clear glass with water, add a little salt, and stir. Leave it overnight, then taste from the top and from the bottom. Talk about why the salt is hidden yet present throughout.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

5 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Brahman and the deities(with a plan)
Puja: many ways to worship(with a plan)
Murtis and puja symbols(with a plan)
Dharma in daily life(with a plan)
Samsara, karma and moksha(with a plan)

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