The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Assemblies of God S 35

edicts outlawed the killing of most animals. They urged various religious groups and orders to live together in peace. They also promulgated the vir tues of dharma throughout the realm. Asoka is particularly remembered as a patron of B UDDHISM and its order of monks ( see SANGHA ). He is said to have called a Buddhist council at his capital, Pataliputra, to settle disputed questions. He is also said to have sent his son to Sri Lanka to promote B UDDHISM . Most Indians revere Asoka as an ideal ruler. For that reason, the lions atop Asoka’s pillar at Sar nath in north-central India are a widely used sym bol. They appear, for example, on Indian money. assassins Popular name for a medieval Shi’ite Muslim community more properly known as the Nizari Ismailis. The Nizari Ismaili community is a group within S HI ’ ITE I SLAM about which much imag inative lore has circulated. Europeans called them “assassins.” Arabs called them hashishiyah, that is, “marijuana smokers.” Travelers such as Marco Polo ( c. 1254–1324) spread rumors that the assassins were incited to murder by being drugged, taken to gardens, and thus given a foretaste of paradise. These rumors remain entirely unsubstantiated. The Nizaris broke away from the Fatimid Ismaili community of Egypt in the late 1000s. As so often in Shi’ite Islam, the dispute concerned who should be the next IMAM . They established a state in parts of Syria and Iran, which continued in existence until the 1250s. The rumors about them certainly derive from military and guerrilla actions taken in defending and extending this state. The Nizari Ismaili community still exists, but the name “assassins” is not associated with it. In the early 1800s, the community’s imam received the title of A GA K HAN . Assemblies of God An American denomina tion in the P ENTECOSTAL tradition. The church was founded in 1914 under the leadership of Eudorus Bell (1866–1923), formerly a Southern Baptist and then a Pentecostal preacher who believed, with

mystics of I SLAM , and the often more individual istic SADHUS or “holy men” of H INDUISM . All tradi tions have included both “normal” and sometimes very saintly ascetics, and “extreme” ascetics. All religions have also included devout lay men and women who, sometimes very quietly and pri vately, have practiced various forms of self-denial and asceticism in the midst of an “ordinary” life. What are the religious reasons for asceticism? First, it can be an aspect of the love or compassion that is the great virtue of most faiths, for what one denies oneself one can give to the poor. In this way it not only does good, it also sets an example to others. Second, it is a form of self-discipline, and to learn to discipline oneself is basic to following any spiritual path. It can be seen as a rejection of the physical body, viewed as the “lower” part of one’s nature, or even as a source of temptation and evil, in favor of the spiritual dimension of life ( see CELIBACY ). Third, it is seen as a way of doing repentance for one’s SINS , to work off the punish ment or “bad KARMA ” they have accrued, and so to set oneself right. Finally, asceticism is believed to enhance religious experience. Fasting can help one to see visions, and a light diet can lead to effective MEDITATION ; even pain can alternate with religious rapture. There are psychological and physiological reasons for some of this. Most importantly, though, asceticism always sends a religious message: G OD takes priority over the pleasures and entangle ments of this world. Asoka (early third century B . C . E .– c. 232 B . C . E .) the third and last great emperor of the Maurya dynasty in India He is known for propagating DHARMA (Sanskrit for “right order”) throughout his realm. Asoka distinguished himself early in his career by conquering the Kalingas, a people living in northeast India. The conquest of this people gave him sovereignty over almost the entire Indian sub continent and ushered in an era of peace. Asoka inscribed a series of edicts on pillars, rocks, and cave walls throughout his realm. A con tinuous theme runs through them all: dharma. The