THE FUTURE OF CASTE AND POSSIBLE REMEDIES

If my argumentation in Part Four is in any way valid, this means that the caste system as a concept will take decades or more before it can be expunged from the Indian Constitution and from Hindu life and politics. Too many Hindus in India and in the diaspora have developed deep vested interests in keeping the caste system alive.

However, there are remedies that may be available to those who wish to make changes, so that those who are Hindus, as well as Muslims and Christians (who also are cursed by the caste system in India) may no longer be criticized and “cancelled” by “Outsiders” regarding the caste system. (By “Outsiders’, we mean those who, in other words, are Westerners, Hinduphobic academics and intellectuals, and other critics of Hindu civilization from outside the Hindu community.)

These remedies are as follows.

A. Education regarding the colonial roots of the caste system.
B. Recovering the Vedic roots of varna
C. Recovering the positive dimensions of jati
D. The recentness of the terms “Caste” and “Hinduism”
E. The modern passage of time

REMEDY #1 – EDUCATION REGARDING THE COLONIAL ROOTS OF CASTE

The first remedy is to educate both academics and the general public regarding the true origins of the caste system. The caste system was imposed from above by the British, who borrowed it from Portuguese and Spanish colonizers of the Americas and adapted it to the Indian subcontinent. Courses like HSF-4000 need to be taught, and scholarly books written, that lay out how the British co-opted the jati system and superimposed the British-devised caste system of rigid immobility and hierarchical disdain upon the much more mobile and thriving jati system of 18^th Century Hindu society.

Let the Hinduphobic British and American academic intelligentsia be re-educated so that their ire and disdain is directed at the British inventors of caste rather than the Hindu victims of British mercantile oppression.

REMEDY #2 – RECOVERING THE VEDIC ROOTS OF VARNA

The second remedy is also an educational one. Both the academic world and the general public must be educated as to the original meaning of varna in pre-British and pre-Islamic times.

Varna had nothing to do with caste. Varna did not mean the rigid categorical imposition of a brahmin class, a warrior class, a mercantile and agricultural class, and a laboring class upon Hindu society. This is a distorted misinterpretation of varna, tied to the myth of the Aryan Invasion of India.

Instead, courses must be taught, and books written that show that varna was a brilliant insight into the general organization of every society, whether primitive or modern.

Every society needs a just and wise governing body as well as a warrior class for defense and a policing and justice system that ensures justice and mercy for the people. This is the warrior varna.

Secondly, every society needs its brahmins, its mandarins, its scholars and knowledge keepers, who can help educate and wisely counsel the general population, so that they may find happiness and prosperity in an enriched and intellectually satisfying life.

Thirdly, society would disintegrate and die without a prospering economy. This means both merchants and farmers, shop owners and blacksmiths, or their modern equivalents.

Fourthly, every society needs its “real workers”, the laborers, the clerks and shopgirls, the factory workers, the artisans and craftsmen, to produce the goods and services. These are the four varnas, and are assigned by genetic make-up and ability and temperament, and not by birth or lineage or by parentage. Varna is as far from the rigid and imprisoning caste system as the British are from India today.

REMEDY #3 – RECOVERING THE POSITIVE ROOTS OF JATI

In Part Two, we covered the sociological roots of jati. Here, we simply wish to expand on what was said there, stressing the fact that jati has a positive dimension in that jati is a cooperative means of benefiting its members and those of other jatis through mutual cooperation and mutual respect for each other’s customs and traditions. One remedy, therefore, is to disentangle the superimposition of the caste system over the jati system by working toward a cooperative and respecting model of cooperation among jatis and the lowering of suspicion and disdain between jatis.

REMEDY #4 – RECENTNESS OF THE TERMS CASTE AND HINDUISM

Many will be surprised to learn that both the term “Caste” and the term “Hinduism” are of recent vintage. Before the British took possession of the Indian subcontinent, neither term existed as common currency within India. Both “Caste” and “Hinduism” are recent inventions.

According to Wikipedia, the word “caste” has its origins in Latin (castus), which means chaste or pure. Caste made its way into the Indian lexicon with the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1700s.

And according to Wikipedia, the use of the English term “Hinduism” to describe a collection of practices and beliefs is a fairly recent construction. The term Hinduism was first used by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in 1816–17. Therefore, to criticize the Hindus for the caste system becomes totally moot when one realizes that the question wasn’t even possible before the modern age.

REMEDY #5 – THE MODERN PASSAGE OF TIME

In the end, the long-lasting remedy for the Caste system and its ultimate disappearance is the passage of time in the modern age. In a few more decades, when India has risen to become the most prosperous country on the planet, caste will be seen as antiquated and irrelevant.

We see evidence of this everywhere.

For example, I read a study by a team of anthropologists, sociologists, and ethnologists, which published some very interesting and revealing results in this respect. Back in the 1960s or so, a village in Latin America was studied at length, and it was found that the most important value was communal harmony and conformity. The greatest good was peace and tranquility and the economic good of the whole community. Individual ambition and greed were reigned in by communal customs and norms.

Many decades passed, and a new team returned to the village, and what they found was startling. What they found was that the emphasis had totally shifted from communal identity and harmony toward individual satisfaction and achievement, including the accumulation of wealth and possessions. It was no longer “united, we stand, divided we fall” (as Benjamin Franklin was quipped). Now, it was “every man for himself”.

If we look at a second example in China today. In previous generations, young people always took care of the old. Now, in the 2020s, it is becoming more and more difficult to find children who are willing to make the sacrifice to take care of their aging parents. Why is this relevant to the questions of caste? It is because the caste system is very much tied to kinship and communal identity. What we have learned from the passage of time in almost every modern society that attains a high level of prosperity is this: the number of children born falls below replacement level, and individuals begin to value individual happiness and nuclear family cohesion over the “old values” of clan, extended family ties, and kinship relations.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste#Etymology
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism#Etymology
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raja_Ram_Mohan_Roy

Therefore, we can predict with a high level of confidence that as India, or Bharat, becomes the nation with the highest populace, and as India rises to the most prosperous nation in the world by the second half of this century, due to its demographics, number of young people and the high birth rate, the old cultural values and adherence to caste will slowly melt away, replaced by the odious Western values of self-centered individualism and nuclear family loyalty alone.Similar changes are taking place in my native Philippines and in Nigeria, for the same reasons.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

To summarize. The criticism directed at the Hindus due to the caste system has been shown to be misdirected. It is the Portuguese with their “casta” system, and the British with their diabolical caste system superimposed over the Hindu jati system, which is the root cause of the still existent caste system of India. It is the British who should bear the brunt of all this misdirected criticism.

Indeed, the very terms “Caste” and “Hinduism” never existed in India or in Britain until the 1700s and 1800s. Caste was unknown in its modern form as rigid immobility and oppression.

The remedy for caste lies in education, education, education. Academia and the general public must be re-educated into the causes of the caste system as being firmly rooted in British mercantilism, British greed, and British malevolence.

In addition, the original meaning of varna and jati must be recovered and shown to have glorious roots in the Vedic wisdom traditions of old, rooted in ancient Bharat and the wisdom of the Rishis of old.

Varna is not caste. And neither is jati. Jati in its original meaning and incarnation as cooperative and natural alliances of families and kinship groups, which in coordination and cooperation with all other jatis in its neighborhood, ensured both prosperity, peace, and happiness for the entire community of people – this is the original meaning of jati that must be recovered.

Then, with time, and indeed, with the long passage of time over the next few decades, we may hope that the curse of the caste system as embodied in the Constitution of India will itself pass away, and the new and revived India and Bharat, rooted in the old and wise traditions of the Vedas and the Rishis, will prosper even higher and better than we can even imagine.

Endnotes

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste#Etymology
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism#Etymology
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raja_Ram_Mohan_Roy

The post Varna Jati & Caste – Part 2 appeared first on Hindu University of America.

Whenever I mention anything about Hinduism to people, the first thing that comes to mind is the topic of caste, and it is usually judged as something negative. They think of castes as something rigid, both in terms of marriage and occupation. Men are stuck in their line of work, whether as street sweepers or farmers. The young are restricted to marrying within their castes. Lastly, there is lack of social mobility, consigning many to lack of opportunity and a life of poverty. Societies of castes are seen as societies frozen in time.

The problem of varna, jati, kula and caste is a difficult one, and a wide-ranging one. When I started this course, I knew little about the caste system. Now I must answer the question:

How do we deal with criticisms directed against the Hindu community, centered on caste?

VARNA ACCORDING TO THE VEDAS

We begin by starting with the word “varna”, which means “color” in Sanskrit. Why do we begin with the word “varna” – Because this word appears in Vedic literature, and in the Bhagavad Gita, in particular.  We begin by identifying the shlokas of the Bhagavad Gita which talk about Varna.

In shloka 4.13, Krishna says:

The four categories of occupations were created by Me according to people’s qualities and activities.

In shloka 18.41, Krishna continues by listing the four Varnas:

The duties of the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras—are distributed according to their qualities, in accordance with their guṇas (and not by birth).

Shlokas 18.42-44 then list the natural qualities of work for the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas, and the Shudras. Each of the four varnas has its own unique set of qualities for work.

In Shloka 18.44, in particular, we find that:

Agriculture, dairy farming, and commerce are the natural works for those with the qualities of Vaishyas. Serving through work is the natural duty for those with the qualities of Shudras.

In shloka 18.45-46, Krishna talks of fulfilling one’s own unique set of duties:

By fulfilling their duties, born of their innate qualities, human beings can attain perfection. ….

By performing one’s natural occupation, one worships the Creator …. and …. easily attains perfection.

In shloka 18.47-48, Krishna says:

It is better to do one’s own dharma, even though imperfectly, than to do another’s dharma. ….

One should not abandon duties born of one’s nature, even if one sees defects in them ….

Why do I quote these shlokas at length? Because a close reading of these shlokas reveals that qualities are distributed according to one’s own inherent combination and balance of gunas, and not by birth. In other words, varnas are not inherited by lineage but rather by one’s own unique genetics and temperament at birth. Being born into a particular family (kula) is not what determines varna. One’s inherent abilities and predispositions determine one’s varna. Therefore, if one is born into a family with two doctors as parents, one is not automatically a doctor. If one does not have the inherent capabilities and talents to be a doctor, then that will not be one’s varna. Caste, on the other hand, is the rigid “casting” of one’s dharma according to the varna of one’s parents. The child of those parents has his or her own unique varna, determined by the “random distribution” of one’s genetic make-up.

JATI AS A SOCIOLOGICAL PHENOMENON

We now examine the word “jati”. “Jati” is a Sanskrit term that refers to one’s membership within an extended family kinship group. As an individual, one is a member of a family, with certain parents and perhaps some siblings. This family, in turn, is a member of an extended family group, composed of aunts and uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces, and perhaps other related members. This extended family group may then belong to a larger cluster of extended family groups that form a clan, or a kinship group. In all pre-modern societies, community was more important than the individual, and one’s identity was defined by one’s kinship group and its rules and obligations, its expectations and anticipated benefits. The jati is not confined to Hindu society but occurs in every society that is traditional and pre-modern. In my own Filipino culture, we have the equivalent of jatis, in which, within our town, everyone was related to everyone else, and kinship groups imposed certain expectations and obligations on everyone. Therefore, jati is not the same as caste. Instead, jatis are much more fluid, and the walls between jatis are permeable, whereas in caste systems, the walls are rigid, difficult to penetrate and at great peril, with much shame and condemnation accompanying even minor transgressions. Therefore, we can conclude that jatis are not the same as caste.

CASTE AS BASED ON JATI

When the original European colonizers came upon the South Indian subcontinent, they found a thriving and prospering set of communities, ruled by a combination of Moghul and native rulers.

India was among the richest and culturally diverse economies in the world. The colonizers also found a social structure based on the cooperation and mutual benefit of jatis.

Jatis promoted the health and prosperity of all the members of the group. The various jatis, of whatever set of occupations and customs, existed to mutually interact and support each of the other jatis, so that every jati could get its own fair share or cut off the proverbial “economic pie”, to everyone’s and every jati’s mutual benefit.

The British, who eventually became the “winner take all” beneficiary of the wars among the various colonizers, soon had the “entire pie” of India. They subsequently sought to impoverish India and make all of India into a unified client state under one administration, first under the East India Company, and later, under the governance of the Raj. The British soon discovered that they could use the sociological structure of the jati as a means to gain absolute administrative control of the entire Indian subcontinent by turning the jati system into a caste system. They froze all the jatis in place and anchored all its members into the prison of a caste system. By subverting the prosperous and thriving jati system and freezing it in place so there was no longer any mobility between jatis, the British were able to subvert the entire native political and economic system and bring it to heel by its British overlords. Therefore, the jati system of the Hindus was subverted by the British and deliberately turned into a caste system.

ENTOMBING THE CASTE SYSTEM INTO CONCRETE

Once the British were able to subvert the Jati system into an imprisoning caste system, the next step in the diabolical scheme was for the British to “cast” the caste system “in concrete”, so that it would become almost impossible to overturn. It did this by instituting the first census in India, which took place in 1865. The first “all-India census took place in 1872. This was regularized in 1881, and a census was taken every ten years from that time forward. Its effect was to enable the Raj to classify the entire population of India and to implement methods for tracking the entire population of India.

With the independence of India in 1947, the caste system was officially embedded into the constitution, and the number of castes, and the membership of each caste, was easily tabulated, although there were many challenges, especially in the definition of what constituted a caste and who really was a member of each caste.

Scheduled castes and tribes were defined, privileges and affirmative action programs were instituted. There were also the effects of reverse discrimination as collateral damage. As a result, the caste system is so embedded in the politics of independent India, such that the political realities of India became deeply defined by caste, and the various caste alliances began to play a decisive role in contemporary Indian politics.

Endnote

All translation passages above are from https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org.

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There is no single solution to the challenge of cultivating better narratives, methods, and paradigms to  improve and expand the understanding of Hinduism and Hindus.

“Do you speak Hindu?” 
“Are you Shia or Sunni Hindu?” 
“What caste are you?” 

These questions, unintentionally frustrating as they might be, are a feature of being Hindu in America. They are also the reason why my answer to the importance for Hindu Studies in academic environments is an emphatic yes.

In spite of being practitioners of the third largest religion and one of the oldest surviving family of philosophies and traditions, a survey by Pew Research Institute found that Americans as a whole know little about Hinduism, and those who know something or think they know something, have ambivalent impressions of Hindu Americans. At the same time, the popularity of Hindu practices like yoga and ayurveda continue to skyrocket, but are intentionally delinked from Hinduism. And scientific inquiry in quantum physics or cognitive psychology are increasingly converging with Vedantic understandings of reality and Consciousness, yet acknowledgement of Hinduism is all too often missing.

There are some 3.5 million Hindus living in America, several million across other diasporas, and over a billion  in the Indian subcontinent. We live in diverse and pluralistic societies across the globe. The world is  becoming smaller as a result of mass communication and globalization. Considering all of these realities, it becomes imperative that who we are as a people and how we engage with the world is understood. 

One way to do that is through the academic study of Hinduism. Unfortunately, the current state of Hindu  studies, built as it is on the foundation of Christian frameworks about religion and history, rather than provide accurate and nuanced understandings of Hindu history, teachings, and traditions, perpetuate outright  fallacies and harmful stereotypes. 

There is no single solution to the challenge of cultivating better narratives, methods, and paradigms to  improve and expand the understanding of Hinduism and Hindus. But here are a few that I believe are  feasible: 

1. Support through academic grants scholars committed to the study of Hinduism as a lived tradition who:

• highlight emic understandings; 
• explore lesser known aspects of Hindu history, philosophy or traditions; 
• expose biases in dominant paradigms and methods;
• develop new paradigms and methods to study Hinduism; or
• engage in the comparative study of religion. Given that we do not want, appreciate, nor find constructive oversimplifications or broad brushstrokes about the Hindu traditions, Hindus must gain more nuanced understandings of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. which can pave way  for deeper understandings of Hinduism through thoughtful comparative studies.

2. Call out bias and advocate for higher standards in the various academies engaged in the study of religion, history, etc. For example, see my call to the American Academy of Religions to adopt a code of academic integrity: Academic Integrity: It’s What’s Missing at the AAR

3. Build bridges between academics, activists, and communities with other previously colonized civilizations or countries working through their own decolonizing processes to exchange ideas, share best practices, do comparative work, and cooperate constructively.

4. Encourage more second and third generation Hindu Americans to pursue the academic study of not only religion, but history and other humanities and social sciences. This cannot be done in a vacuum. It will require investment in our own svadhyaya, sadhana, and positive identity building as contributing members of our respective families, communities, and sanghas, sampradayas, or mathas.

5. Encourage more second and third generation Hindu Americans to pursue the academic study of not only religion, but history and other humanities and social sciences. This cannot be done in a vacuum. It will require investment in our own svadhyaya, sadhana, and positive identity building as  contributing members of our respective families, communities, and sanghas, sampradayas, or  mathas.

References

1.    “What Americans Know About Religion.” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (July 23, 2019)
2.    Shukla, Suhag A. Web log. Academic Integrity: It’s What’s Missing at the AAR (blog).

This blog is an adaptation of a term paper submitted for the Fall 2020 quarter of  Orientation to Hindu Studies (HSF 5000)

The post Better Understanding of Hinduism Requires a Multi-Pronged Approach appeared first on Hindu University of America.

With the knowledge of Bhagavad Gīta in mind, let us bravely make our way through the Kurukṣetra of this pandemic and emerge victorious not only against the virus, but also against our unsteady mind.

COVID-19 and The Bhagavad-Gīta

When I heard the news that my younger uncle’s mother-in-law and my grandfather have left their bodies hours apart due to COVID, I was left in shock. Three days later my older uncle abruptly left his body. Four days after him, my grandmother left her body. Admitted to the hospital around the same time, each did not know that the other had passed away. As we received each piece of news around 3AM EST, our family fell into a deep state of grief and depression. Completely helpless, there were no words to explain this suffering – the loss of four lives all in one week. Even today, it is mentally difficult to grasp what transpired. All I can still think of was how gentle these beings were. This was my mother’s family. The fact that she couldn’t be there in person to bid them goodbye left her devastated. 

When the dust settled and reality set in, I could feel the absence of our loved ones in our lives; I no longer have grandparents to play chess with or share life’s celebrations. I found myself fighting a battle within – my heart and mind were trying to find answers to some fundamental questions: what is the nature of this world? If someone leaves their body, are they really gone? What is death? Where do we go from here? As my heart plunged into grief, all I could do was ask questions. When my heart regained its strength and the mind regained its capacity to contemplate the answers to these questions, I found that it is tragedies like these that are the real teaching moments in life.

I took this tragedy as an opportunity to really dive into Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa’s dialogue with Arjuna in the Gīta. In moments of joy and sorrow, I have always found refuge in the Bhagavad-Gīta. I found a few verses on the nature of the body, the soul, and the mind that slowly lifted me out of my sorrow. As I have found comfort in these verses below, I hope they come to your aid in your time of need as well.

The Body and The Soul

In Chapter 2 verses 13 and 22, Kṛṣṇa talks about the nature of body (deha) and soul (dehī). The key teaching here is that when a loved one leaves their body, they are no longer confined to the limitations of their body and this world. No longer bound by a physical barrier, they remain with us at all times. As all material objects in this world are reduced to ashes at one point or another, so is the body. Our body and the bodies of those we grow attached to and possess with intensity as our own will come to an end. But it is important to understand that while the material body is lost, the soul is not. The soul only possesses a body for a finite amount of time after which it journeys on to its next destination – be it another body or absorption back to the unchanging Reality. The soul experiences the world through the body; it experiences both pain and pleasure, and when the body can no longer function due to the conditions of this world, the soul leaves. Whether or not we believe in rebirth or reincarnation, which is what this verse indicates, take your life as it is in this very moment. We know our body changes in various ways depending on the input we give it through our senses – from birth to youth, middle, and old age, to death. Yet, do we not perceive that there is an unchanging Reality, an immortal being, within us that experiences this world? 

In Chapter 2 verses 23 and 24, we learn about the unalterable (sthāṇuḥ), immutable (achalaḥ), and primordial (sanātanaḥ) nature of the soul. While the bodies of our loved ones are reduced to ashes, their soul is not (nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ). The soul is neither destroyed nor subject to any destructive force like the wind (mārutaḥ); it is not impacted in any way by the elements of this world. In other words, the body is mortal, but there exists within the encased body an immortal being within all of us, including the loved ones we lost in this world. That immortal Reality continues to exist without the body and is utterly unaffected by the world. We can then take comfort in knowing that all beings have within them this unchanging Reality, and it is to that unchanging Reality that we bow down to when we approach each being when we are alive. Realizing this Reality is within all beings and knowing that the physical bodies of those beings are finite, we develop a sense of higher love, reverence, and deeper appreciation for all living beings. With this knowledge, we can arrive at a state where we no longer grieve over our lost ones because they continue to exist in their immortal form. They are more liberated than we are because of this. Thus, Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna repeatedly to remain steady in this wisdom.

Death and Rebirth

In Chapter 2 verse 27 we learn death is inevitable so is rebirth. We often talk about rebirth but we seldom examine critically the nature of death. We accumulate, consume, and discard as if we are going to live forever, and we cause harm to many beings along the way. But we do not take a second to grasp the impermanence of this world. Death seldom comes up as a topic of discussion. Now Kṛṣṇa gives us an opportunity to examine it very closely. Although we do not know how or where we will be reborn, consider death in this life here and now because it is certain – it is coming for you, for me, and all those we love. We can choose to ignore death and confront it at an uncertain time in our lives when we (our minds) are utterly unprepared to face it, or we can decide to accept, understand, and embrace it here and now. When we know we cannot overcome death, we learn to accept and embrace it. When we embrace it, we start looking within, and deeply look within others as well. It is only then that we really start living and treat others with respect.

If death is certain for us, what should the mind do now so that at the actual moment of death we are in a state of ease and peace? Here lies a profound insight: we can use our lives to prepare our minds for death. When death arrives, our minds can whole-heartedly be ready to accept it because we have prepared the mind to meet that moment. No one had expected COVID to happen the way it did; I certainly did not expect my family to pass the way they did. Naturally then knowing death is certain, this moment or next, we must strive to attain a peace of mind.

Mind: Friend or Foe?

How do we attain peace of mind? Consider Chapter 6 verse 6. When tragedy strikes, our mind experiences a variety of emotions. One moment it is in deep sorrow. The next, anger at God, at the circumstances, and at the utter helplessness of the situation. Does the relentless acquisition of wealth and power bring back a lost life? So how do we make use of a difficult moment to turn a turbulent mind around? At the core of the mind is a thought. These thoughts can benefit us or they can harm us. The question is, how prepared is your mind to face a difficult situation?

In a tragedy like this, lots of exchanges take place. Some of these exchanges are unpleasant and cause great pain. We do not take a moment and give ourselves the time and space to say, “the mind is grieving, it cannot make sense of the situation, let me give it some time to settle down before it says something or makes me do something harmful.” Once this settling down of the mind happens and it regains its composure, the mind then has the potential to become our friend and work for our benefit. Each thought can be controlled and turned to benefit us. Naturally the mind will react to moments of tragedy in terrible ways, but with each tragedy the mind, with careful choices and efforts, can be prepared to bring about a deep friendship. This wisdom may then heal us and help others too. In this way, we may move from one difficulty to the next established in steady wisdom where the mind becomes our friend rather than our enemy.

So what is the point of suffering? Is suffering an opportunity to transform the mind? What active steps can we take to turn the mind into our friend and rise above this world of pain and pleasure? It is clear that an innate characteristic of this existence is suffering – dukkham. The circumstances leading to the death of my family members during COVID made this very clear. Now what causes suffering? Take my grandparents. I was extremely close and attached to them. When they ceased to exist in this world, all I was left with was suffering. No doubt we must let our hearts weep because they are tender enough to feel pain and compassion, but we must also be established in knowledge. This experience has taught me that attachment results in suffering. 

Towards Mental Equanimity

Now, how can we put an end to this suffering? Consider Chapter 2 verses 54, 55, and 56. The primary teaching here is to attain a mental state of steady intellect or equanimity (sthitaprajña). See also 12-18 and 19. Arjuna asks Kṛṣṇa about the characteristics of those established in such a mental state. How do they talk? Sit? Walk? Kṛṣṇa answers that when, through constant effort and deliberate choices, cravings or selfish desires (kāmān) come to end, that person is said to have attained a mental state of steady intellect or equanimity. Such a person whose mind was previously affected by pain or pleasure, praise or insult, heat or cold, now having perceived the immortal soul within, becomes unaffected and transformed.

To become free from selfish desires or cravings requires constant effort. We can slowly use every moment to overcome the agitations of the mind by adopting a certain path. Based on our mental proclivity, we may adopt Karma mārga, a path where each action is performed without attachment to the results – ultimately culminating in work solely for loka-saṅgraham. 3.20-21 and 3.25. We may adopt the path of Bhakti mārga, a path of loving devotion towards any personal deity – ultimately culminating in complete surrender (sharanagati). We may adopt the Jñāna-mārga, a path of contemplation and self-inquiry – ultimately culminating in the realization of true Knowledge. Then there is the path of Dhyāna, where the mind remains on an object of meditation, be it “OM,” a deity of your choice, or the formless unchanging Reality – whatever is easier for our mind – ultimately attaining the state of absorption (Samādhī). These are a few paths Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa advises Arjuna. These paths help the material being, full of selfish desires, turn into a spiritual being, completely selfless in thought, word, and deed. The ordinary mind is then transformed into a Divine mind free from sorrow (ātyantika-duḥkha-nivṛtti). The finite, mortal being then slowly perceives oneself to be an infinite, immortal being and attains the ultimate state of peace and bliss. This is one way to put an end to our suffering.

In conclusion, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, step by step, reveals this knowledge to Arjuna and convinces him to fight and do his duty. He tells Arjuna that he has nothing to fear because nothing is lost in this world. He stresses the point that every being has a spark of the Divine within them, and just because the body is lost, it does not mean that the Divinity that resides within each is lost. He helps Arjuna arrive at a mental state of steady intellect or equanimity where the mind is firmly established in this knowledge. In many ways, we are all Arjuna. With this knowledge in mind, let us bravely make our way through the Kurukṣetra of this pandemic and emerge victorious not only against the virus, but also against our unsteady mind. As Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says towards the end of the Gīta, yathechchhasi tathā kuru – ponder over this [knowledge], and then do as you wish. 18-63.

Cover Image Source: Creative Commons

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A personal reflection of a seeker from Brazil, who found answers in Hinduism.

My Journey Towards Hinduism 

It has been a nice surprise to learn from the Orientations to Hindu Studies (OTHS) lectures. To give a little background, I have recently become more active in terms of looking for both spiritual and Hindu (or Sanātana Dharma) knowledge. In 2020 January, I experienced one month in an Ayurveda College near Coimbatore, in Tamil Nadu, India. Then my life changed completely. I experienced a sense of well being as I never knew was possible. When I arrived back in Brazil, I looked for i) possible ways to return and very soon, arranged a pilgrimage to do in Himalayas in April (that trip was cancelled because of coronavirus), ii) how to retain that sense of well being while still trying to improve, (I’ve already quit eating meat, drinking beer, eating sugar and similar stuff). I started to look for any kind of knowledge about Hinduism, Vedic Culture and Yoga (not in a western way or from its perspective, but from an Indian point of view). In the beginning it was a very challenging journey since I did not know anything about – where to look for knowledge, who to follow as spiritual guider, who not to, where to study Yoga in a serious manner, how to learn things in an authentic form that does not bring the western view into all the richness of that culture that I had experienced for a whole month with the best body and health balance ever reached. 

Then, the world kind of stopped (due to corona), and I could search, research, look for, enroll into courses and learn so many things during last year. I would say it was a kind of spiritual fast track, when what I did not do in the previous 30 years, I could and I did during last one-year-journey, especially because of the online opportunities that came about. In the middle of all this, I found Hindu University of America (HUA for short). Immediately it drew my attention. On one hand, it had the word “America”, a thing that I instinctively mistrust (I really do not know if Indians still have any issue with the English – as their previous colonizers; but anything that has to do with “America”, I know at the very first sight that it is correct not for Brazilians, because our interests are usually not the same. PS: I know that I am a minority around here). Therefore, I thought that HUA would be about some western point of view on the Vedic-Hindu culture. To my total surprise, I found that at HUA, people really engaged in the transmission of knowledge in the best way possible, including many criticisms about all the issues that arose during and because of colonization, especially the British Raj.

It was quite a surprise, that Indians also have trouble and issues in understanding their own History. This is because a false History was sold to them, as stories, by the colonizers with great efforts, and also due to capitulation by the colonized. It is truly sad that Indians have given up on their true History, and that their tradition, which is the key in that entire subject of History, was not kept safe, at least within the country. It has been inevitable for me to trace some parallels with Brazilian History, which incidentally does not start with the “discovery” in the 1500s. Instead, we, Brazilians, also have a very ancient culture of indigenous people with huge wisdom about nature and natural medicines, and ancient customs. This seems even more prominent when we talk about Indians or their descendants that live or were born abroad. 

When I began listening to the OTHS course lectures, I did not know what to expect. Earlier, I had read some western authors referring to the  Vedic Hindu Cultures. One such example was Friedrich Müller, who in one small book compiled three lectures he gave with some parallels about western thinkers well known to everybody. I needed to go back there and check for some improprieties, but I did not yet have the knowledge about the purity of the message or the correct message, which comes clearer. The multiple texts which can be studied in  Vedic Hindu Culture are so rich, with such beautiful explanations some of them about things that I do not know myself and do not know anyone else who satisfactorily explains the matter or the subject). That is why the teachings are so precious! In addition, they existed for thousands of years since they appeared in a written way, and for even longer when they were transmitted orally. 

In the texts we learned of and read during the course so far, there were some striking points that called my attention. i) Even though it is quite imaginable that the colonizer needed, as strategy, to divide to conquer, or belittle the colonized, it was a huge surprise to learn that the holy relationship between a disciple and the Guru, e.g., Swami Vivekananda and Swami Ramakrishna, could be subverted in the way that was described in one of the texts. Moreover, it came as an even bigger surprise that the “author” was awarded with a prize for his research and for “quality”. It wasn’t just enough to encourage the spreading of the misunderstanding and misinformation, but there was a need to also increase its value and reward it. For what purpose? ii) Then came the questions about what we know now as general knowledge of all things that were “discovered” or “developed” by some European scientists in the last few centuries, when in reality, these were already mentioned in ancient texts in  Vedic Hindu culture. E.g., About the Universe and the relationship between it and our own body and the smaller organisms and matters, it was amazing that this was already mapped and described in detail in ancient Hindu texts. 

It was quite amazing to see that when we look at different religions in a comparative way, we observe that Hinduism was always around the India and Himalaya regions, while all other religions came from abroad from farther places around the world. This can be easily explained as in the last millennia India was suffering with outsiders ruling it. Once I had asked a meditation teacher here at home why India is the nest of so much culture and spiritual evolution and yet lives in a full misery nowadays. He answered that India’s history has many millennia, and only in this last one, it fell down in disgrace. If we really recollect the official reasons justifying ‘the Great Navigations’ from Europe, from the end of 15^th century onwards, it was to find new routes to get Indian spices and silk. If just spices and silk, which at that time were so much of a thing, were capable of leading to the discovery of new routes,, imagine what could be done if all efforts come together in today’s time, with all that scientific knowledge with funding coming from western countries, such as US, Germany, France, England and much more. We probably would have reached a lot more enlightenment in a few years of nice and frank cooperation, than in the last centuries., I say so because all “discoveries” that have happened recently, go on to confirm many of the insights or teachings already into ancient texts of Hindu Cultures. 

In this context, we find that leads to not only theoretical answers, but fully practical answers to questions like who are we, where have we come from, where are we going, what are we doing here, and so on. So much effort has been put by the west in “discovering” things which have been mentioned (and even explained to some extent) in the ancient Vedic Hindu texts. Such texts, where knowledge is already known to complement the researches of the past two centuries, could have been used to reach further ambitious goals and look for outcomes that are more complex. On the contrary, the west has put in double (or even triple) the efforts to (re)study the subjects from scratch and to learn much, before the scientists could discover or bring a subject or a concept into light within the western paradigm; a subject on which there often is much already written in Vedic Hindu cultures. Also, we have a huge difficulty with respect to the language (Sanskrit). Only when we learn it would we be able to start thinking about meaning and what it could bring to our personal journey, in spiritual as well as material fields, depending on our search. Obviously, distortion can happen in any written material because it is subject to human interpretation. As a lawyer, I know that we would be able to interpret a text in as many different ways as the number of people who read it. I remember that the Bhagavad Gita was the most wise book I had ever read, and only one that was perfectly capable of answering the very difficult question that arises when starting one’s own journey into the spiritual path, which is; is it possible and how to balance the material life and the spiritual efforts? In western approaches, I always felt as if there were two different and opposing ways that could not coexist. Nothing can be farther from truth. There are so many contributions from ancient texts to different fields of life, including our perception to see ourselves and all things around us. That is really a pity that the studies in western paradigm does not approach it in a “pure” manner to look into all these already existent and produced materials to push more up and go further with knowledge as a whole. 

I would very much like to search and research to write. I am looking forward to finding stimulating topics that interest me in the next few months to start some quality productions. I may shine light on aspects that are already brought to light and often misunderstood by western writers, in order to clarify them. There are many difficulties and learning issues to be faced ahead, but I think that it is the need during these pandemic times, when the human suffering is so high because various small things such as staying locked inside homes for some weeks together. I am already enrolled in some courses for the next quarter. I cannot wait to see all the new approaches and ways to learn about such interesting subjects.

Fábio Martins de Andrade

Cover Picture Credit: Tom Swinnen from Pexels

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Considering that there are so many facets to Hinduism, wouldn’t it suffice for one to practice one or more of them? If so, why is there a need to embark on an academic pursuit of the Sanatana Dharma?

I practice Hinduism; then why do I need to study Hinduism?

Many amongst us are keen believers of Hinduism and its philosophy – only, we express it in different ways. Some of us follow rituals and traditions; others focus on their Gods and places of worship; a few delve deep into scriptures and read them regularly; some are vocal about the role of Hinduism in today’s society; and some have embraced a certain community under the guidance of a Swami or a Guru. For many, Hinduism is purely the joy of celebrating festivals and holy days; for a few, it is a spiritual experience that leads them to dhyāna and dharma, and there are those who are very particular about their beliefs and practices.

Considering that there are so many facets to Hinduism, wouldn’t it suffice for one to practice one or more of them? If so, why is there a need to embark on an academic pursuit of the Vedas and Sanatana Dharma?

Just as all other aspects of practising Hinduism have their place in our lives, so does structured and supervised learning of the great tenets of this ancient religion. Imagine practising yoga without being formally trained in it – we are constantly at risk of injury or health risks because of incomplete understanding of the science, or because we have failed to learn the intricacies of each asana. While each asana comes with its own health benefits, there are clear guidelines about who can perform them, and when, and how they need to be performed. Hence the need for formal training and a guru.

The need to engage in an academic pursuit of Hinduism is equally important, for the following reasons:

1. The need to know: How is the ātman different from brahman? What does the Bhagavad Gīta tell us? What is the significance of vegetarianism in Hinduism? Why is yoga not an end in itself, but merely the means to the path of spiritual enlightenment? Why is the knowledge of Sanskrit paramount to understanding Hinduism better? What is the truth behind the much-maligned caste system that is attributed to Hinduism? Is the suffix of -ism justified when Hinduism is slotted with other world religions despite the fact that it is thousands of years older than any of them? There are many more questions to which we need the answers. We need to know, because it is this knowledge that will propel us on our spiritual journey. And this knowledge cannot be obtained by casual research on the internet. It takes an academic resolve to explore, study, introspect and find these answers. It takes the guidance of the experts who become our gurus in this journey.
   
2. The need to lead: Many of us follow or practice certain aspects of Hinduism because we were initiated into it by our elders, and we obeyed them unquestioningly. However, when it comes to encouraging our next generation to follow in our footsteps, we need to be able to address their questions and satisfy their need to understand before they accept. How many of us can put our hands up to claim that we know the nuances of Hinduism, what they mean, why they must be practised and how they benefit us? Contrary to popular Western belief, every aspect of Hinduism, be it tradition or practice, belief or worship, is built on the strong foundation of a rationale. Everything can be explained, but only if we have the answers. That can happen only when we open ourselves to learning and being guided through an exercise that broadens our horizons of what we know about Hinduism. An academic study makes this exercise possible.  
   
3. The need to uphold: Hinduism has been subjected to a long, endless phase of discrimination, because of its ‘majority status’ in India and because of misconceived notions about it in the West, resulting in it being called polytheistic, idolatrous and pagan. This has resulted in a dilution of its core values amongst a majority of Hindus, who have been deviating from its original path of spirituality and instead have been choosing the hybrid route dictated by Western practices. There is a long-standing need to clear the fog that has obfuscated this path and show the way for those Hindus who have been led to believe that their religion has riddled society with discrimination and superstition, which is again, a colonial narrative that needs to be disproved. This can be done only by a detailed study of Hinduism and acquiring Vedic wisdom. Only an academic pursuit can help fulfil this objective.
   
4. The need to protect: When the colonial powers left India, they unfortunately left behind a legion of sceptics – Hindus who were critical of their own religion. Rather than question the beliefs, practices and ancient scriptures in an attempt to seek answers, they ended up questioning their religion more to voice their disagreements and flaunt their Western mindset. This continues to this day with the growing liberal voices that have been indoctrinated into the colonial perspective of believing that the West is the ultimate source of knowledge and authority and that everything in the world must meet their acceptance to exist.
   
5. The need to correct: For centuries, the written word on Hinduism has mostly come from the pen of the outsider. Theirs is deemed to be ‘more objective’ and their interpretation of Hinduism is upheld as the world view, which is considered ‘more informed’ and more ‘in line with’ the colonial narrative that has been forced on us. If we need to respond and offer the right narrative, which is the insider’s perspective, we need to be better equipped to do so. That requires an in-depth knowledge of our own past, our ethos, philosophies and our scriptures. It also requires a working knowledge of the wonderful language in which all our scriptures have been presented to us – Sanskrit. A casual reading or internet research wouldn’t suffice. Chances are, such endeavours may lead us back to the colonial perspectives that may appear as search results. Or we may end up reading Westernized versions of our epics because we choose to study them in English. That is why we need to undertake a formal academic journey into Hinduism.

There could be many more reasons why one needs to undertake an academic study of Hinduism to discover various aspects of it. And there is one place of learning that nurtures such studies, offering several courses at various levels to both entrants and experts.

This could be the opportunity you have been looking for – to find the answers, to set right what’s gone wrong, and to reinstall the dormant values in future generations. An entire world of Vedic wisdom awaits, to be explored, revered and understood. All it takes to begin this fascinating journey is for you to get in touch with us.

So, when is the best time to start? Now! And where does one begin? Right here!

Cover Image created in Word Art by JS.

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The footprints of Hindu philosophy (on America) are so subtle that even today, a common American person may not be aware of anything with regards to Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma.

How Hindu Dharma Transformed America: A Reflective Essay 

I have been teaching Yoga for over 15 years, and over that period of time I observed a huge increase in the number of people practicing Yoga. While it was wonderful to see that more and more westerners were interested in the ancient Hindu philosophy and practice, the awareness of any philosophy behind the asanas, or Yoga’s origin being from Hindu Dharma, was very absent. This was really puzzling and disturbing for me, so I started looking into it from any and every source available to me. 

When I attended HUA’s free webinar with Dr. Philip Goldberg on how Hinduism has transformed America, it felt like a good source for my ongoing quest. That is how I came to attend the “How Hindu Dharma Transformed America” course at Hindu University of America. It was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot from the course, as well as from fellow attendees. 

This course made me aware of the deep impact that the Vedic Hindu philosophy has made in America. Starting from the 19^th century, the influence of Hindu philosophy can be seen on many prominent individuals, from philosophers to writers, to poets, to musicians, to movie makers, to doctors, and can now be seen on every American! Ralph Waldo Emerson, a prominent writer and popular philosopher of the 19^th century, was profoundly impacted by reading the English translation of the Bhagavad Gīta. He could feel Brahman, the universal consciousness in nature, and he felt the need to preserve nature so much that his efforts ended up causing FDR to make a law for the preservation of forests.

The chronological presentation of Gurus coming to America was also very interesting: Starting with Swami Vivekananda coming to America in 1893, followed by another very influential Guru Yogananda, many others followed suit all the way to the 1960s and 70s; then there were others like Shri Arobindo, Ramana Maharshi, and Neem Karoli baba, who never came to America but had a tremendous impact nonetheless; and then gradually seeing the trend shift to western gurus like Alan Watts. The way Yogananda’s language changed over time in order to bring more westerners into understanding Hindu philosophy by keeping “Hinduness” discrete was surprising for me. This helped me make a connection to the trend I had been seeing with an increase in the number of yoga practitioners, but very little to no awareness of the Hindu connection to Yoga. I am not sure what would have happened if earlier Gurus had kept strong Hindu connections while preaching the philosophy. Who knows if it would still be as influential like it is today.

Learning of the way physicists like Tesla and Schrodinger, among others, got attracted to Advaita Vedanta’s philosophy of all pervading one consciousness, and connected that to quantum physics, was a wonderful way of understanding the impact of Hindu Dharma on the sciences. I was amazed to find out that the famous nuclear science lab CERN has a statue of Nataraja on its campus. Hindu philosophy has impacted other scientific fields and prominent scientists besides physics. To name a few science professionals who were particularly impacted, e.g. psychologists like William James, and doctors like Dr. Herbert Benson and Dr. Dean Ornish (who started Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California). The philosophical yogic language got translated into medical language by doctors like Dr. Sandra Mclanahan. Once the benefits of meditation got validation in the modern scientific world due to experiments using modern devices and the publications of it in famous medical journals, meditation became extremely popular. The health benefits of meditation are so incredible that more and more people wanted to try meditation to reduce high blood pressure or cholesterol or stress. Sadly, people were not interested in the philosophy or spiritual importance of meditation and it got watered down to a mere technique without Sanskrit mantras or poojas in order to become secular. The same trend seems to be following Ayurveda, which is firmly rooted in Samkhya philosophy of Hinduism.

The way Hindu culture and music influenced the west was a big takeaway for me from this course. Being brought up in India and having English as my second language, I was not exposed to English literature and western music a whole lot. So it was indeed awesome to learn that Ravi Shankar and his sitar made a huge impact on the Beatles, and the Beatles impacted masses in the western world. As Dr. Philip Goldberg explained, the songs written by the Beatles after visiting India and staying in an Ashram in Hrishikesh were quite reflective of Hindu philosophy. Additionally, poets like Walt Whitman, Alan Ginsberg, and authors like Somerset and J.D. Salinger were greatly impacted by Hindu philosophy, which was reflected in their work. I was blown away to find out that the Star Wars movies had so much of Hindu philosophy in them. George Lucas, the producer of Star Wars, was influenced hugely by the writings of Joseph Campbell, who specialized in religious traditions of the world, with Hinduism being one of them. (You can explore more here.)

All through the 10 weeks of the course, it became very clear to me that the impact of Hindu philosophy has been more widespread in America than I had previously thought. It has slowly but surely trickled down into the day-to-day life of the average American, although, sadly, they continue to remain oblivious to it. The footprints of Hindu philosophy are so subtle that even today, a common American person may not be aware of anything with regards to Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma. It could be a result of the uniqueness of Hindu Dharma’s adaptability to the changing times, or the reluctance of some influential Hindu gurus to preach Hindu philosophy without emphasis on its Hinduness. However, it’s now up to the people who hold Hindu Dharmic values in high regards to be the torch bearers in spreading the awareness of Hindu roots in American society.

Cover Image Credit: Erik Brolin – Unsplash

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Hindudvesha perpetuates a state of disharmony and conflict, leading to systemic discrimination and violence against the Hindus.

Hindudvesha – Systemic Hinduphobia

This article seeks to define and differentiate “Hindudvesha”, a relatively new term, from its more popular cognate “Hinduphobia.” First, each term will be defined, then compared, and finally, it will briefly look at the impact of Hindudvesha on the Hindu world and make suggestions on the way forward.

“Dvesha”is a Sanskrit word meaning “aversion”, “repulsion” or “hatred” – a deep-rooted emotional response that negatively influences one’s perception of the world, or something or some phenomenon in one’s world. Hindudvesha, like systemic racism or anti-Semitism, is an ambient, all-encompassing discourse that denigrates and delegitimizes Hinduism and the Hindu people as it relentlessly problematizes, dehumanizes, and demonizes them. Its accusatory rhetoric treats Hindus as objects or patients to be examined and diagnosed. It presupposes and concludes that Hindus and Hinduism are unacceptable because something about them is irredeemably bad and wrong, evil and demonic.

“Linking Hinduism with backwardness and primitiveness,”^[1] the Hindudvesha discourse freezes Hinduism in time as ancient, obsolete, and irrelevant in contemporary times and continues to produce a form of incontestable “received knowledge” about the Hindus. The narrative structure of Hindudvesha frames “the superiority of Western culture both as its presupposition and its conclusion”^[2] and “can be traced back to the Christian theological understanding of ‘heathen’ religions [which] have become the foundation of the descriptions of India [Hinduism and Hindu culture] as developed by later generations of social scientists.”^[3] 

In the academic study of Hinduism, “the scholar’s relationship to his subject was framed as a conflict between modernity and tradition, between reason and revelation; and the scholar’s role was primarily that of an iconoclastic subversion of tradition, albeit in the name of “criticism,” “universal values,” and “enlightened’ modernity.”^[4] Thus, both Christian theology and enlightened modernity nearly totally agree on the conclusion that Hinduism is irredeemably bad and wrong, evil and demonic. They seek to redeem the Hindus through urgent eradication, using secularization, civilization, modernization, westernization, Christianization, or Islamization. In other words, Hindus must be emancipated, liberated, and saved from Hinduism itself, or at the very least be regulated, policed, accused, interrogated, monitored, shamed, and silenced.

In the colonial era, the discourse of Hindudvesha was set in motion in picturesque language, as evidenced by James Mill – that described and characterized Hindus as imperfect, barbaric, savage, wild, vague, wavering, obscure, rude, primitive, regressive, frivolous, wretched, imbecile, mean, absurd, base, gross, monstrous, superstitious, stupid, degraded, hierarchical, oppressive, immoral, disorderly, violent, selfish, corrupt, deformed, disgusting, grovelling, ridiculous, inconsistent, incoherent, ignorant, credulous, timid, dirty, weak, given to exaggeration and flattery, engulfed in darkness and confusion, and hardly different from monkeys.^[5] In contemporary times, such offensive language may not pass the test of the “appearance of objectivity.” Therefore, while it may not be “politically correct” for Hindudveshis i.e., the exponents of Hindudveshic discourse, to use these terms explicitly, today, they continue to use them subtly to suggest, hint, indicate, imply, insinuate, suspect, wonder about, propose, assert, conclude, and to construct their Hindudveshic arguments. The one too many adjectives in the preceding sentences, serve to portray the relentless, all-pervasive, ambient nature of the discourse of Hindudvesha.

In contrast, the more popular term “phobia,” is an exaggerated, usually inexplicable, and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.^[6] A phobia can also be defined as an extreme or irrational fear or aversion of something.^[7] For instance, claustrophobia is the abnormal dread of being in closed or narrow spaces, or a feeling of discomfort or discontent caused by being in a limiting or restrictive situation or environment;^[8] autophobia is the morbid fear of solitude;^[9] and so on. Not all people experience phobias. Some experience and exhibit certain phobias vividly and powerfully, while others might unconsciously do so, much in the way that one may be racist without knowing it.

Construed in this manner, it would be legitimate to ask the question, “Is there or is there not an irrational fear of Hindus?” For most Hindus and many Non-Hindus, the answer would be ‘No’; they do not see the question as legitimate. After all, what have Hindus done to evoke fear in the “other?” Hindus have not threatened anyone; they are not proselytizing by nature; they do not seek to convert the entire world to Hinduism; they do not wish to replace all the other religions, philosophies, and ideologies in this world; they do not seek to conquer the world; they have no history of invading, conquering, colonizing, enslaving, and exterminating peoples in any part of the world, as some other nations and ideologies have done and continue to do. Hindus did not conquer Arabia and the Middle East; Hindus did not colonize England or America or the rest of the world; Hindus did not buy and sell African Americans as slaves; Hindus did not exterminate the American Indians and confine them to reservations; Hindus have not launched well-funded proselytizing missions rampaging around the world. The fact is Hindus have been on the receiving end of these atrocities against humanity.

Any encounter with a Hindu in the workplace, marketplace, college, school, neighborhood, or any public sphere, does not cause a primal, inexplicable fear in the “other.” On the contrary, Hindus (in America) are mostly well educated – they are doctors and engineers, scientists and technologists, entrepreneurs, businesspersons, teachers, and professors. Despite this, the Hindu is relentlessly portrayed in academia and the media as an existential threat to others. What could possibly be the source of “fearing” the Hindu in that fundamental and visceral way that a term like Hinduphobia seeks to represent? Therefore, it seems reasonable and rational to dismiss the term “Hinduphobia”either as something that belongs entirely in the realm of imagined and unreal paranoia or, at best, as an inaccurate term that is nevertheless trying to describe a real underlying phenomenon. This ambiguity about the term has led to calls for a different term to describe the underlying phenomenon. For example, terms like Hindu-baiting, Hinduodium, Hindu-hater, or simply Anti-Hindu have been suggested in the attempt to capture the reality of that visceral hatred or aversion towards Hinduism, as distinct from any “fear” as suggested in “phobia.” This article proposes that the term, Hindudvesha best captures the phenomenon in conjunction with systemic Hinduphobia. It’s not inaccurate to say that the discourse and narrative of Hindudvesha thrives in an environment that is relatively free from the fear of Hindu backlash. In fact, it is the near absence of fear of cost or consequence that fuels Hindudvesha, even as pervasive ignorance and arrogance sustain its mocking, stereotyping, caricaturing devaluation of Hindus and Hindu civilization.

We may distinguish two forms of Hindudvesha i.e., Blatant Hindudvesha, conscious and explicit, and Blind Hindudvesha, unconscious and implicit. Common to both the blatant and blind forms of Hindudvesha is the underlying presumption that the champions of the discourse are discovering and representing objective and unbiased truth about the Hindus, and that they are merely seeking a legitimate corrective based on an honest critique of Hinduism’s many perceived problems. Blatant Hindudvesha is explicit, conscious, and does not even try to pretend that it is an honest critique of Hinduism. It consciously and relentlessly demonizes Hinduism and disregards all evidence to the contrary. It is a discourse that begins with the premise and prejudice that the “Hindus” are the problem, no matter what the issue is, and ends by repeating this foundational premise as the conclusion of its argument. Blind Hindudvesha is implicit, unconscious and masquerades as a genuine and honest, even an objective criticism of the Hindus. It is unaware of the prejudices that drive its discourse, and mostly unwilling to examine the underlying historical factors behind the emergence of such a discourse. Blind Hindudvesha thrives on the weight of endless repetitions and long chains of citations and also ends up calling for the eradication of the Hinduness of the Hindus, even if not explicitly so at all times. Hindudvesha – both blatant and blind – can be readily recognized in the outrage of its practitioners, whenever Hindus try to speak for themselves; the outrage then manifests in the form of urgent and inflammatory calls and petitions to suppress, silence, ostracize and outlaw the Hindus, while at the same time, scrupulously avoiding the substance of their arguments and criticism. The absence of Hindu voices in academia and the media is both an enabler and a consequence of the discourse of Hindudvesha, and traps both perpetrator and victim in a vicious self-perpetuating cycle.

Ultimately, like “Anti-Semitism”, Hindudvesha perpetuates a state of disharmony and conflict, leading to systemic discrimination and violence against the Hindus. As a discourse it justifies and camouflages all those forces directed at destroying Hinduism, the Hindu people, their culture and their civilization. And in so far as it shames, embarrasses, gaslights, and silences the Hindu people, it is a remarkably successful discourse. If as a Hindu, you are in any way embarrassed or ashamed of your Hindu heritage, or if you find yourself frequently being interrogated for the apparent mis-deeds of your ancestors such as the caste system, or if you find yourself constantly on the defense about your traditions, and feel compelled to defend or denounce them, of if you feel pressured to distance yourself from your heritage, or actively participate in denigrating and devaluing Hinduism, through name-calling and other strategies, then you may need to determine if you are a victim of Hindudvesha just as a victim of systemic racism needs to do.

Now that we have defined the term, it shall be incumbent upon us to distinguish the strategies that promote Hindudvesha as the objective truth about the Hindus; and to illustrate and demonstrate its ambient presence through examples and case studies in academia, media, school and college campuses, movies and the public square, politics, and policy domains. It is incumbent on all right-thinking persons, more so Hindus, to identify, call out and legislate against the principal players and stakeholders who institutionalize and perpetuate Hindudvesha.

[1] Sharma, Arvind, “The Ruler’s Gaze”, HarperCollins Publishers India, 2017, Page 27

[2] Balagangadhara, S.N., “Reconceptualizing India Studies”, Oxford University Press, 2012, Page 10

[3] Ibid, Page 10

[4] Adluri, Vishwa and Bagchee, Joydeep, “Jews and Hindus in Indology”, published in academia.edu, 2017

[5] Mill, James and Wilson, Horace Hayman, “The History of British India”, In Nine Volumes, Volume I, Fourth Edition with Notes and Continuation, London, 1848, (originally published by James Mill, 1817) – Every adjective or phrase used in this paragraph have been taken from the writings of James Mill.

[6] The Merriam Webster definition of ‘phobia’, at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phobia 

[7] The Oxford dictionary definition of ‘phobia’, at https://www.lexico.com/definition/phobia 

[8] Merriam Webster definition of claustrophobia: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/claustrophobia

[9] Merriam Webster definition of autophobia: https://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/autophobia

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Dharma for Global Sustainability aims to deliberate upon the lessons for Global Regeneration from the ancient Vedic Wisdom of Hindu Dharma.

“Everything happens for the best” is one of the foundational axioms of Hindu Dharma that I grew up with. But it is hard to reconcile this axiom with what we know about the cascading environmental catastrophes unfolding on Earth. Fires, floods, hurricanes, droughts are all occurring at increasing frequencies with greater intensities, even as wild animals are dying out at a faster and faster pace every year. The Earth is on fire in the midst of the Sixth Great Mass Extinction event in cosmological history, while nearly a billion humans are food insecure and 20 million people are dying of hunger related causes each year. How can all this “happen for the best”?

The only way this can be construed to have happened for the best is if the environmental destruction has occurred to help Life thrive in the long run. Life is an infinite game. Starting with simple, single-celled organisms that appeared 3.5-3.8 billion years ago, life has been around continuously on Earth until today. Furthermore, it is estimated that the biodiversity on Earth has been increasing almost monotonically, and as of late, even exponentially, starting with the Cambrian explosion some 540 million years ago.

In contrast, we humans have been playing a finite economic game focused on growth. To promote growth, we have

1. Monetized almost everything so that dead trees and whales have more value than live trees and whales,
2. Endangered life through climate change and mass extinction,
3. Addicted almost everyone into compulsive behaviors,
4. Lied to ourselves systematically about protein, calcium, Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, chemical pollution, product defects, etc.; and
5. Stolen from the poor in the name of commerce.

This is “Kaurava Economics,” the finite game of the Caterpillar, which cannot grow beyond a certain point on a finite planet. Climate change, biological annihilation, the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread social unrest are all indications that we have reached that point. Besides, why would we want to continue playing a game whose rules were concocted mostly in the middle ages, by colonial traders, to systematically siphon wealth from the global South to the global North, currently estimated to the tune of $3T each year? This is why when we pay $3 for a pound of organic basmati rice in retail stores in the US, only $0.05 reaches the poor village family that grew the rice in Orissa, India. In contrast, when the rich donate $3 for a food aid program, they expect at least $2.70 worth of goods to reach the poor recipient. Surely, if we can keep overhead to 10% when material resources flow down the social pyramid, we can do the same when material resources flow up the social pyramid. However, in the current monetary system, money flows from the top down mainly in the form of loans and it is returned back to the lenders with interest through competitive profit taking in commerce. The intent of this money game is to accumulate wealth. If market competition has been overcome through political corruption and predatory acquisitions by “Too-Big-To-Fail” corporations, then more wealth gets siphoned off during the resource flow. Thus far, the social consequences of such an asymmetrical money game have been mitigated by simply growing the human ecological footprint on Nature. In other words, on the backs of nonhuman animals and ecosystems.

The quest for global sustainability is the quest to transform this finite economic game into an infinite game that is in alignment with Nature. Therefore, the goal of this infinite game should be
to help Life thrive, not to make oneself rich. The quest for global sustainability is akin to the metamorphosis from the Caterpillar to the Butterfly. In line with that analogy, the COVID-19 pandemic has put humanity in the Chrysalis phase, as if Mother Nature has sent us to our rooms to think about what we have done during the Caterpillar phase. Will we emerge from our “time-out” vowing to resume our destructive mischief or will we get serious about realizing our potential to be Butterflies?

Will you join the Kaurava army and will you join the Pandava army in this looming battle of Kurukshetra?

Dr. Sailesh Rao is offering a course on Dharma of Global Sustainability at Hindu university of America. More details about the course can be found here. 

To learn more about his work, please check the website given in his Author’s profile. 

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Hindu Dharma has penetrated American culture[…] Philosophically, America has increasingly become a nation of Vedantists—and, in terms of spiritual practice, a nation of yogis.

THE INFLUENCE OF INDIAN SPIRITUALITY IN THE WEST

In 2009, Newsweek magazine ran an article on religious trends in America. The headline read: WE ARE ALL HINDUS NOW. The writer, religion editor Lisa Miller, did not mean that millions of Americans were doing pujas instead of going to church, or hanging Ganeshas from their necks instead of crosses. Her opening sentence explained: “Recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity.” Specifically, surveys showed that Americans had become far more accepting of other religions and other approaches to spirituality than they were in the past. The new attitude reminded Miller of the Rig Veda passage, ekam sat vipraha bahudha vadanti, which Americans usually translate as “Truth is one; the wise call it by many names.”

The article appeared as I was completing work on my book, American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. I was pleased that a major news magazine verified what I had documented in the book. In fact, Hindu Dharma has penetrated American culture more deeply than Newsweek realizes, and in the six years since that article appeared, the evidence is even stronger. Philosophically, America has increasingly become a nation of Vedantists—and, in terms of spiritual practice, a nation of yogis. According to studies, the American world-view has changed in these ways: greater awareness of the unity that underlies the multiplicity of ordinary experience; acceptance of our own divine nature, as in tat tvam asi; less concern with religious dogma and more interest in spiritual experience.

These trends are complex and multifaceted. But exposure to India’s spiritual treasures has played a major, and probably the most important role. The transmission of Vedic wisdom from India to America has been going on for over 200 years, through a variety of means. Large numbers of people have studied with gurus, spent time in ashrams and read the Gita, the Upanishads and the Yoga Sutras. But many others have absorbed Vedic ideas and practices indirectly, through non-Indian sources, because the core insights of Vedanta and the principles and practices of Yoga have impacted psychology, medicine, the arts, literature, physics, neurobiology, theology and other areas of life. Because the teachings are universal, they have been embraced by those with secular and scientific outlooks as well as spiritual seekers.

The primary means of dissemination has been the long line of swamis, gurus and yogacharyas who came to the West, beginning with Swami Vivekananda in 1893. Most people in India know about his electrifying presence at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago. But his impact was solidified in the following years, when he gathered students, wrote classic texts, gave hundreds of speeches (many transcribed into books) and established a teaching organization, the Vedanta Society, that continues to serve Americans to this day.

Other teachers followed, including swamis from the Ramakrishna Mission who taught Vedanta to thousands of Americans, including some of our most prominent thinkers. In 1920, Paramahansa Yogananda arrived and quickly became what the Los Angeles Times called “the first superstar guru of the 20th century.” He was the first emissary from India to make his home and international headquarters in America. His Self-Realization Fellowship continues to thrive, and his memoir, Autobiography of a Yogi, has inspired and informed millions since its publication in 1952.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, a parade of gurus burst on the scene, attracting mainly young seekers. Represent a variety of lineages and emphasizing different aspects of dharmic teachings, they included Swamis Satchidananda, Vishnudevananda, Muktananda and Rama, plus Srila Prabhupada, Bhagwan Sree Rajneesh (aka Osho), B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois and the most famous of all, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. His Transcendental Meditation attracted enormous media coverage and scientific research, moving meditation from the fringes of society into the mainstream by the mid-1970s. Virtually all of the prominent gurus have since passed on, but they continue to change lives because of their successors and the organizations that carry on their work.

In addition, certain masters who never came to the West—Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo and Neem Karoli Baba, to name just three—have nevertheless had a big impact, thanks to individuals who propagated their teachings in America. And gurus continue to come to America, of course; the most popular today being Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma).

The spread of Vedanta and Yoga also occurred through prominent Westerners who adapted the ideas and practices to their own fields of expertise and transmitted them to others, sometimes touching millions of minds and hearts. The disseminators include some of America’s greatest public thinkers, beginning in the 19th century with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, who absorbed Vedic texts long before Swami Vivekananda’s arrival. They were followed by Madame Blavatsky (the founder of Theosophy) and others who started alternative spiritual movements. In the mid-20th Century, their ranks included Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Joseph Campbell, Huston Smith. Other intellectuals followed suit, from Alan Watts in the 60s and 70s to Ken Wilber today.

Scientists from Nikola Tesla to Erwin Schrodinger to Robert Oppenheimer to Fritjof Capra also propagated Vedic ideas, and psychologists like Abraham Maslow and Richard Alpert (who became Ram Dass) fostered an East-West integration in the study of the mind and consciousness. Physicians such as Dean Ornish did the same in medicine, helping to legitimize meditation and other yogic practices in the field of healthcare.

Significantly, the transmission also came through artists. They include celebrated poets like Walt Whitman, T.S. Eliot and Allen Ginsberg; novelists Herman Hesse, Somerset Maugham and especially J.D. Salinger; and, in an extraordinary way, musicians. The great sitar master Ravi Shankar was the main catalyst; beginning in 1956 he penetrated the worlds of classical music, jazz and finally rock, when George Harrison of the Beatles studied with him. That association led directly to the Beatles—then the most famous celebrities in the world—taking up Transcendental Meditation and spending months at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in Rishikesh. This was a pivotal moment in the transmission of Vedic wisdom to the West, leading directly to the mainstream acceptance of meditation and hatha yoga.

Over time, the transmission from India to America has taken on different forms. In recent years, as is well known, the popular emphasis has been on asana-based practice, with studios popping up everywhere and hundreds of Americans being certified to teach. What has been called Modern Postural Yoga has become so mainstream that it threatens to obscure the deeper Yoga of the Gita and Patanjali. This is a challenge that concerns numerous Americans and Indians alike, and many are taking steps to protect the integrity of the yogic tradition.

Another unforeseen development has been the enormous interest in kirtan. Sometimes blending traditional mantras and musical motifs with Western instruments, kirtan wallahs who once played for ten or twenty people at a satsang now perform before hundreds, sometimes thousands. While some people attend kirtan sessions to have a good time, the number of sincere bhaktas should not be underestimated.

It is impossible to predict what forms the transmission will take in the future. It is, however, reasonable to expect that Vedantic ideas and yogic practices will spread deeper into American culture and the wisdom of the rishis will reach more people and find new applications. Americans tend to be rational, pragmatic people; when something holds up to scrutiny and proves to be valuable, they eventually adopt it, adapt it and assimilate it.

It is true, as many observers have noted, that some Americans appropriate dharmic ideas without honoring, or even acknowledging, the source. Those who care about the Vedic tradition must be aware of this problem and take steps to counteract it. That is one of the reasons I wrote American Veda. Fortunately, millions of Americans hold India and its traditions to be sacred; they feel profound gratitude for the rishis who realized the eternal truths of Sanatana Dharma and revealed them to the world. Increasingly, they are aware of the vital need to ensure that Vedic and yogic knowledge is adapted to American culture with discernment, to safeguard against their becoming diluted, corrupted or distorted. With vigilance, we can ensure that the Vedic transmission that began two centuries ago will continue to bless the American people. I hope that America can offer something of value to India in return for this great gift.

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