Hinduism Today, Apr, May, Jun, 2004

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Affirming Sanatana Dharma and Recording the Modern History of a Billion-Strong Global Religion in Renaissance

April/May/June, 2004 US$5.95

INTERNATIONALInterfaith: Meet the Daring Men and Women

Who Teach Hinduism to Non-Hindus 18Monastic Life: Guru Pramukh Swami Maharaj

Initiates His 700th Sadhu, As Predicted 28Monastic Training: We Visit a Model Training

Center for Sadhus in Remote Gujarat State 30Worship: Thousands Join Swami Pragyanand for

a Fire Ceremony Meant to Protect Mankind 32Temples: Kerala’s Ettumar Temple Is Famed

for its Healing Powers 34

L I FEST Y L ETransition: Swami Madhavananda Puriji Maharaj

Attains Mahasamadhi in India 36Insight: At Last, Clear Responses to the Ten

Most Common Misconceptions About Hinduism 37Religion: Yamas and Niyamas, the Hindu Ethical

Code of Human Conduct 49Education: Tara Guber’s Yoga Ed Is BringingSavvy Life Skills to Inner-City Kids 53

Philosophy: The Puzzle of Fate and Free Will 56History: America’s Transcendentalist Authors

Were Deeply Infl uenced by Hindu Mysticism 58Education: In a Modern Delhi School, Ancient

Teaching Methods Prevail 64Profi le: Varanasi Swami Continues Strong at 85 65Gods: He’s Collected more than 2,000 Statues,

Paintings and Cards of Lord Ganesha 66

OPINIONIn My Opinion: “How I Became a Hindu,” by

Mexican-Born John Campos 9Publisher’s Desk: Using the Power of Affi rmation to

Improve Your Life 10Letters 12From the Vedas: The Sacred Cow 16Minister’s Message: Let Kids Be Kids 67

DIGESTS

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Letters to the editor, subscription and editorial inquiries may be sent to Hinduism Today, 107 Kaholalele Road, Kapaa, Hawaii 96746-9304 USA, [email protected]. HINDUISM TODAY (issn# 0896-0801), April/May/June, 2004, Volume 26, No. 2. Editorial: 1-808-822-7032 (ext. 227); subscrip-tions, copy or bulk orders: (from USA or Canada:) 1-800-850-1008, 1-888-464-1008 or (from all countries:) 1-808-240-3108, [email protected]; advertising: (from USA or Canada:) 1-888-464-1008, [email protected]. All-department fax: 1-808-822-4351. HINDUISM TODAY is published quarterly by Himalayan Academy, a nonprofi t educational institution; Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Founder; Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, Publisher; Paramacharya Palaniswami, Editor-in-Chief. USA subscriptions: us$35/1 year, $65/2 years, $95/3 years, $155/5 years, $1,001/lifetime. Contact us for international rates. Also distributed through major subscription agencies worldwide. For permission to publish a HINDUISM TODAY article, call 1-808-822-7032 (ext. 227) or fax 1-808-822-4351. Printed in USA.

© 2004 himalayan academy, 107 kaholalele road, kapaa, hawaii 96746-9304 usa. all rights reserved.

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april/may/june, 2004 • Hindu Year 5106Tarana, the Year of Safe Passage

COVER: Lord Vishnu with the divine serpent Sesha blesses the world as the birds, representing misconceptions, are dispelled. (above) Swami Pragyanand (center left) chants as he conducts the rare Virat Rajsuya fi re ceremony.

www.gurudeva.org

Tackling 10 MisconceptionsAbout Hinduism

Diaspora 6Quotes & Quips 14

Digital Dharma 86

YEARS

1979–2004

HINDUISMTODAY

pg 01-2 cover Apr04 g4§.indd 1 2/13/04 2:04:16 PM

You think I’m making all this up? Here are my sources. The “Hindus worship rats” quote was reported by Yvette C. Rosser’s son as made by His World History teacher at LBJ High School, Austin, Texas. “Karma: If you did good deeds ...” is from New York State’s Liverpool High School Global History and Geography class. Marriage by kidnapping is word-for-word from World History: People and Nations, by Anatole G. Mazour and John M. Peoples, published by Harcourt Brace Jova-novich in 1990, and in use at Austin High School. The last quote is from Paul Courtright’s book, Ganesha: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings—about the only printable material from his chapter of Freudian psychoanalysis of our beloved Lord Ganesha. He’s a professor of religion at Emory University, which is owned by the United Methodist Church.

Hindus worship

RATS!!!Let’s all learn about karma: If you did good deeds and acts, you will be reborn high-er. If you were bad, you might come back as a plant or bug.

Listen up, students! In the Vedic Age marriages took place by kidnapping, by pur-chase or by mutual consent. A woman considered it a great compliment to be stolen. To

be bought and paid for was more fl atter-ing than to be married by consent. Men could marry more than one woman and owned their wives and children.

Both in his behavior and iconographic form, Ganesa resembles, in some aspects, the fi gure of the eunuch. He is like a eunuch guarding the women of a harem.

Misconceptions about Hinduism abound. The four depicted on this page were taken from modern-day classrooms. In this issue, on page 18, you’ll meet brave Hindu souls on the front lines in the Western world—in schools, churches, Rotary Clubs and in-terfaith meetings—trying to explain our faith as best they can to non-Hindus. Then, on page 37, we present answers to the ten common questions about Hinduism, so you will be better prepared next time someone asks you, “Why do you worship cows?”

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Me, incollegeMe, age 15Me, age 11Me, age 8

Hinduism as Taught (wrongly) in American Schools! Presenting Our Faith Rightly

pg 05 GATE BIG g2§.indd 5 2/13/04 2:10:18 PM

You think I’m making all this up? Here are my sources. The “Hindus worship rats” quote was reported by Yvette C. Rosser’s son as made by His World History teacher at LBJ High School, Austin, Texas. “Karma: If you did good deeds ...” is from New York State’s Liverpool High School Global History and Geography class. Marriage by kidnapping is word-for-word from World History: People and Nations, by Anatole G. Mazour and John M. Peoples, published by Harcourt Brace Jova-novich in 1990, and in use at Austin High School. The last quote is from Paul Courtright’s book, Ganesha: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings—about the only printable material from his chapter of Freudian psychoanalysis of our beloved Lord Ganesha. He’s a professor of religion at Emory University, which is affliated with the United Methodist Church.

Hindus worship

RATS!!!Let’s all learn about karma: If you did good deeds and acts, you will be reborn high-er. If you were bad, you might come back as a plant or bug.

Listen up, students! In the Vedic Age marriages took place by kidnapping, by pur-chase or by mutual consent. A woman considered it a great compliment to be stolen. To

be bought and paid for was more flatter-ing than to be married by consent. Men could marry more than one woman and owned their wives and children.

ca

rt

oo

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Me, age 15Me, age 11Me, age 8

Hinduism as Taught (wrongly) in American Schools! Presenting Our Faith Rightly

pg 03-04 GATE BIG §.indd 1 2/13/04 2:06:30 PM

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6 hinduism today april/may/june, 2004

c a n a d a

Brij Sood Honored Dr. brijendra k. sood

of Calgary, Alberta, was honored by the Governor Gen-eral of Canada, Adrienne Clark-son, at a ceremony October 24, 2003, in Ottawa as a member of the Order of Canada. The Order “....recognizes people who have made a difference....our country’s highest honor for lifetime achievement.” The citation read, “A dedicated phy-sician, Brijendra Sood has pro-moted multicultural awareness by recognizing and valuing the strengths of Canada’ s rich cul-tural mosaic. Since arriving in Canada in 1964, he has worked to develop and strengthen the social and cultural fabric of Cal-

a f g h a n i s ta n

Kabul Hindus and Sikhs Face Challenges to Cremation

Swami Akshayanandaji Maharaj

Dr. Brijendra K. Sood, Calgary

agence france presse , rob elliott; bharat sevashram sangha; dr . br i jendra k . sood

Sikhs and Hindus share one common temple in Kabul

t r i n i d a d

Centenarian Swami on Tour Delivers a Strong Message

Swami akshayanandaji maharaj, current president of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha, Calcutta, toured Sangha

centers in London, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago in the fall of 2003. In Trinidad he visited Felicity’s Trinidad Sevashram Sangha and its many temples and leaders throughout the coun-try. Swami was accompanied by three other swamis. Though Swami will be 100 years of age in July, 2004, he still has a clear voice, sharp mind and memory and needs very little help to get around, reports Paras Ramoutar. Swami became the head of the Sangha in 2000, the fifth in the lineage since it was founded in 1917. The Bharat Sevashram Sangha now has ten million members worldwide. Swami says, “The Bharat Sevashram Sangha is a spiritual brotherhood of monks and selfless workers devoted to the service of humanity....The goal of life is univer-sal emancipation and self-realization. Religion is self-sacrifice, self-discipline, adherence to truth and continence, while real death is forgetfulness of the Self.”

Since the fall of the ta- liban in Afghanistan, Ka-

bul Hindus and Sikhs who remained or returned to their homes are facing a challenge in reclaiming their cremation sites. After ten years of disuse, many are now hedged in by newly built residences. The Afghani-stan religious affairs ministry has granted Hindus usage rights

to Kabul’s 200-year-old Hindu cremation grounds, but locals are objecting. Abdul Wali Sahi, a local Muslim leader, says that Hindus can build anything they want, “but we can’t accept their cremation ground,” which is only 200 meters from a family residence. Hindus currently cremate their dead in their homes or take them outstation.

gary’s East Indian community. He has played leadership roles in the city’s India-Canada As-sociation, Multicultural Centre, Hindu Society and Temple, and

has received numerous honors for his ethno-cultural contribu-tions, including Outstanding Physician of the Year 2000 from the Calgary Medical Society.”

pg 6 Diaspora Apr04 § 6 2/13/04 2:02:09 PM

c e n t r a l a s i a

Kazakhstan Convenes Inter-religious Pow-Wow

“Firefi ghters of Chicago’s Engine 32 are learning to reduce stress.”

k e n ya

A Shrine to SriAurobindo in AfricaOn july 13th, 2003, an historic facility honoring sri

Aurobindo’s contributions and infl uence in Africa mani-fested at the Sri Aurobino Society, Nairobi Centre. Five members of the Nairobi Centre had traveled to India earlier and returned on the 12th, with Smt. Sushilaben Melvani of the Pondicherry Sri Aurobindo Society, bringing relics of Sri Aurobindo to Nairobi. The following morning, the day of the Guru Purnima festival, the relics were enshrined in the Relics House, and Sushilaben cut the ribbon to the new Sri Aurobindo Bhavan Meditation Hall. The Sri Aurobindo Bhavan was consecrated to the Divine Moth-er on her 125th birth anniversary, an event that locals described as “a landmark in the history of the African continent and the spiritual history of the Earth.” Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950), was a prolifi c writer, freedom fi ghter and yoga mystic whose powerful writings were a key contribution to last century’s Hindu revival.

Kazakhstan, with signs of human habitation going

back a million years, has long been a multi-cultural milieu. Kazakhstan’s president, Nursul-tan Nazarbayev, believes it can be a model for the world. Amidst global religious tensions, he took a proactive step with his state-initiated Congress of World and Traditional National Religions in September, 2003. For two days in Astana, 120 re-ligious leaders from 18 nations joined in inter-religious dialog.

Vaishnava leader Sugunendra Theertha Swamiji, head of the Madhwacharya Matha, Udipi, India, led the Indian delegation and delivered the Hindu teach-ing of tolerance. This central Asian Silk-Route arena of ancient bloody battles, the world’s ninth largest country in area, is rising from Soviet obscurity, striving for a new world order of inter-national cooperation. See www.dialog.inform.kz and www.kz for a ray of hope in the struggle for world peace.

april/may/june, 2004 h i n d u i s m t o d ay 7newsweek ; l iladhar bharadia ;

swami sugunendra theertha

u s a

NewsweekHighlightsMeditationNewsweek’s november 10,

2003, article, “Faith and Healing” examines the growing trend of bringing spirituality and religion into mainstream medical practice. The issue of medical doctors encouraging patients to pray is fraught with controversy, says the article. What if a zealous Baptist doc-

tor tells a Hindu girl to pray to Jesus? What if a devout patient is encouraged to pray, but still becomes terminally ill? Does that mean God doesn’t care? Meanwhile, the practice of meditation, which generally transcends such concerns, is making a move. A photo caption reads “Meditation especially has captivated scientists who are studying its effects....Doc-tors are prescribing the practice to patients to reduce stress...improve health.Now the un-likeliest Americans—including professional tough guys—are signing up to sooth their souls.”

Swami Sugunendra Theertha brings Hindu dharma to Astana

Aurobindo’s relics enshrined by Smt. Sushilaben Melvani

pg 7 Diaspora § Apr04 7 2/13/04 2:11:55 PM

krt, bob fila; epa photos, kirsty wigglesworth8 hinduism today april/may/june, 2004

House of Commons: Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair celebrating Deepavali

Interactive yoga with pets

LIVERMORE HINDU TEMPLE IN California has begun a program to provide food, shelter, medi-cal and educational assistance to needy area residents. The commendable program will give away US$15,000 this year.

THE MALAYSIA HINDU SANGAM cracked down on abuses of the age-old penance of kavadi during the Thai Pusam festival at Batu Caves. The practice involves carrying a highly deco-rated arch to the temple and piercing the body with small spears. However, in recent years, it had degenerated into a spectacle of many nontradition-al and objectionable elements. Now, only those following the tradition will be allowed en-trance to the temple grounds where more than a million cel-ebrated in February.

THE MYSTERIOUS DECLINE OF the Asian vulture, a critical part of the Indian ecosystem, has been attributed to the birds eating the carcasses of cattle treated with the common vet-erinarian drug diclofenac, also used in humans to relieve pain. The research, published in Na-ture magazine, did not offer a plan to end use of the drug.

THE SRI LANKA GOVERNMENT is taking a proactive approach to peace in the country by training hundreds of clergy of all faiths in mediation and con-flict resolution. The program started for Hindu clergy on January 17 in Trincomalee.

A TEXAS JUDGE CREATED A BIT of a sensation when he sen-tenced a man who slapped his wife to take yoga classes as part

of his one-year probation. The sentence garnered national attention. The judge said he thought the yoga classes would help the man control his anger.

FIJI’S HINDU TEMPLES continue to be the targets of robbers. Most recently pillag-ers struck the country’s largest shrine, the Shri Shiva Subrah-manya Swami temple in Nadi. Though some desecration has occurred during the robberies, the motive in recent years ap-pears to be money.

JANUARY 24 WAS HONORED AS “Gurudeva Day” on Kauai, home of Hinduism Today. The day was designated by the mayor and is arranged each year by local residents who revered our late publisher, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, as a warm friend and gentle guide. This is their way of giving thanks for his many contributions to the island community.

PUNE’S BHANDARKAR ORIENTAL Research Institute was ran-sacked in an incident regretta-ble for its violence and irrevers-ible damage to historical items. The Hindus were protesting the book Shivaji—Hindu King in Islamic India by James Laine. They took exception to a pas-sage raising questions about Shivaji’s parentage. Consider-able damage was done to the institute, which is a repository of ancient manuscripts. Laine himself was later booked by local police under the Indian Penal Code section 153 which prohibits, in part, “doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony.”

SOUTH AFRICAN HINDUS ARE creating their own replica of one of India’s most popular and richest temples, Tirupati in Andra Pradesh. The foundation stone was laid for the temple, which is being built in Lenasia, south of Johannesburg.

f e s t i va l s

Deepavali Goes Worldwide P reviously ignored on so-

called multi-religious public cal-endars and official agendas outside of India where Hindus are a minority, Deepavali 2003 moved up several social notches into government halls. Celebrations were held in the White

House, British House of Commons, and Australia’s New South Wales Parliament, to name a few. England topped the lot with the presence of Prime Minister Tony Blair. Australia came in second with a large number of MPs joining in the ceremonies. And US Hindus were delighted that their lobbying efforts elicited a Deepavali statement from President Bush and ceremonial observances in the White House with a delegation of Hindus from around the country.

h e a lt h

Ninety Percent of Earth’s Water Is Now Polluted

T rekker’s and travelers face a common dil-emma: unboiled water can make you ill. But what if

you can’t boil? This online excerpt from The Backpackers Field Manual by Rick Curtism, www.princeton.edu/~oa/manual/water.shtml, is a clear guide to water purification. Whether you are going to Yellowstone Park, Calcutta, Mexico City or Africa, the tools are simple. A good water filter or purifier and correct usage of iodine or chlorine—with knowledge of the time they take—can keep you well.

Some simple, effective ways to purify drinking water

pg 8 diaspora g2 § Apr04 8 2/13/04 2:12:32 PM

IN MY OPINION

How I Became a HinduA Mexican comes home to IndiaB Y J O H N C A M P O S

few years ago, an Indian woman dressed in a sari approached me at

a gas station in Austin, Texas. She asked if I knew direc-tions to a local Hindu temple. It so happens I did, because I regularly attend services at that very temple. At the conclusion of our conversation, the lady asked what part of India I was from. I replied that I was from Mexico, not India. She looked at me with astonishment. “That’s amazing,” she exclaimed. “A Mexican Hin-du! I’ve never heard of such a thing!”

That wasn’t the first time this has hap-pened to me. I have often been asked if I was born in India. The question amuses me, because I could respond both “yes” and

“no.” Since this would just confuse people, I usually just say, “No.” At times, however, I want to respond differently. Undoubtedly, I was born an Indian from a spiritual point of view. I formally adopted the Hindu faith several years ago.

Although my background makes my in-terest in Hinduism an intriguing story, it is not uncommon for non-Indians to become practicing Hindus. Many, like me, have rec-ognized the spiritual wealth of Hinduism and benefited from its treasures. Its prac-tice of bhakti (devotion), its Sanskrit scrip-tures, its philosophy of living and its yoga practices for the well-being of body and mind are but a few of its priceless spiritual jewels. Non-Indians who adopt Hinduism become spiritually enriched.

However, a troubling phenomenon is emerging, and it is growing. Indians who are Hindus by birth are discarding their religion. I believe that, in the process, they are becoming spiritually bankrupt.

Many Indians coming to the United States share common stories. Educated and ambitious, they are lured here by the prom-ise of material acquisition. But along the way to this material wealth, many forget their birthright, their great spiritual ances-try of Hinduism.

This forsaking of their heritage for the sake of wealth brings to mind a Spanish di-

cho (saying) which goes like this: “Quien mucho abarca poco aprieta.” This means,

“He who grasps much can hold on to little.” Certainly it is true that if life is lived for material benefits only, it is nearly impossible to hold on to God’s love. This love of God makes it possible to dwell in the contentment of the soul.

When I’m asked why I chose to practice Hinduism, my answer is

founded on my practical experience of the spiritual happiness that it has brought me. My past religious studies were fruit-less, because they did not inspire spiritual desire in me. By contrast, I found that the wisdom of Hindu scriptures was a deep well from which I could easily replenish my spiritual needs. This discovery was profound. I was searching for personal meaning in life and found it in Hinduism. There is such great solace in this ancient religion’s lucid philosophy and teachings of love for a personal God.

In the past I have also read the works of some Western philosophers. It seemed to me that what they said was just dry, intel-lectual speculation. By contrast, the deep love for and devotion to God that mani-fested in the lives of the great saints of the Hindu tradition were far more appealing to me. Their promise that, through lov-ing devotion, it is possible to see, know and merge in divine communion with a personal form of God inspired my faith. I learned from Hinduism that by one’s sincere effort and God’s grace, God’s love will fructify in the heart. I also learned that it did not matter what my race, gen-der or belief was. This is how a Mexican came to be spiritually born an Indian.

january/february/march, 2004 h i n d u i s m t o d ay 9

HINDU RENAISSANCE TEAMHINDUISM TODAY was founded January 5, 1979, by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. It is a nonprofit educational activity of Himalayan Academy with the following purposes:1. To foster Hindu solidarity as a unity in diversity among all sects and lineages; 2. To inform and inspire Hindus worldwide and people inter-ested in Hinduism; 3. To dispel myths, illu-sions and misinformation about Hinduism; 4. To protect, preserve and promote the sacred Vedas and the Hindu religion; 5. To nurture and monitor the ongoing spiritual Hindu re-naissance; 6. To publish a resource for Hindu leaders and educators who promote Sanatana Dharma. Join this seva by sending letters, clip-pings, reports on events and encouraging others.

Founder: Satguru Sivaya SubramuniyaswamiPublisher: Satguru Bodhinatha VeylanswamiEditor-in-Chief: Paramacharya PalaniswamiPublisher’s Aide: Paramacharya Ceyonswami Deputy Editor: Acharya KumarswamiManaging Editor: Sannyasin ArumugaswamiGraphics Director: Sannyasin NatarajnathaswamiProduction Manager: Sannyasin SivakatirswamiContributing Editor: Yogi JapendranathaAdvertising and Subscriptions: Sadhaka JothinathaCorrespondents: Choodamani Sivaram, Bangalore; Rajiv Malik, Prabha Prabhakar Bhardwaj, Madhu Kishwar, Delhi; Mangala Prasad Mohanty, Orissa; V. S. Gopalakrishnan, Kerala; Basudeb Dhar, Bangladesh; Archana Dongre, Los Angeles; Lavina Melwani, New York; Dr. Hari Bansh Jha, Nepal; Anil Mahabir, Paras Ramoutar, Trinidad; V. G. Julie Rajan, Philadelphia; Rajesh Jantilal, South Africa; Iraja Sivadas, Califor-nia; Tara Katir, Hawaii. HPI Staff: Lalita Easwaran, Janaka Param, Toshadeva Guhan, Vijay Pillai, Easan Katir, Adi Alahan, Chandra Sankara, Shama Vinayaga, Lavanya Saravan, Rajkumar Manickam, Arjana Das-wani. Sanskritist: Dr. P. Jayaraman, New York. Artists: A. Manivelu, S. Rajam. Cartoonists: M. Arumugam, Bob Thaves, Ripin Karla. Photo Contributors: Thom-as L. Kelly, Stephen P. Huyler, Dinodia, Amit Kumar, Dev Raj Agarwal, Gilles Flament, Vel Kadressen, Mu Devarayan, Gordon Wiltsie, Indivar Sivanathan. Web Masters: Nitya Nadesan, Sadhunathan Nadesan. Dis-tribution: USA: Ingram Periodicals, New Leaf, EBSCO Subscription Services, OneSource, Ubiquity. Europe: SWETS Subscription Service. Malaysia and Singapore: Sanathana Dharma Publications. India: Central News Agency Limited, Delhi. Mauritius: CODIP. Trinidad: Pandit Narendra & Ashwinee Ragoonanan. Printer: Banta Publications Group, Kansas City, MO

John Campos has been a devotee at Bar-sana Dham in Austin, Texas, since 1991. He was born in San Antonio, and is a qualified CPA, working as a hospital auditor for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He has been to India three times.

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10 hinduism today a pr il /m ay/j u ne, 2 0 04

he idea behind affi rmations is that through the repetition of positive statements, we can improve our self-concept, make greater progress on the spiritual path and in general increase our magnetism to success. To progress

spiritually, a positive self-concept is essential. For this, the use of affi rmations can be quite helpful.

What exactly is a positive self-concept? It is think-ing of ourself as a worthy individual deserving of a wonderful life and fully capable of achieving it. Unfortunately, many of us reach adulthood with a negative self-concept, feeling that others are better than we are, and life has little to offer. A negative self-concept occurs when, while growing up, we are criticized con-stantly or cruelly by our parents and teachers. Having a positive concept about our outer self allows us to identify with our spiritual nature so that we truly feel we are a divine being.

Let’s look for a moment at changing our self-concept from a neg-ative one to a positive one. If our physical body becomes weak due to a serious illness, after the illness is gone everyone knows that we can overcome the resultant physical weakness and, through consistent exercise, regain our normal strength again. If, however, because of diffi cult experiences our outlook on life has become negative, and we feel that we just can’t be successful, many people

assume this is something that cannot be changed. However, just as we can strengthen the body’s muscles through exercise and become fi t again, we can also remold the subconscious mind and change its compo-sition through the power of affi rmation.

What exactly is an affi rmation? As our Gurudeva, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, explains, an affi r-mation is a series of positive words repeated time and time again in line with a visual concept. Such a state-ment can be repeated mentally, or preferably verbally, many times a day. The idea is if one feels “I can’t,” he cannot. If he is always criticizing himself and lament-ing over what he cannot do, then he can reverse this

pattern and change the fl ow of magnetic mental force, enliven its intensity by saying orally and feeling through all the pores of his body “I can. I will. I am able to accomplish what I plan.” Gurudeva calls this remolding the subconscious and gives useful insights to seekers on how to accomplish this: “My devotees succeed by remolding subconscious magnetic forces. They purge the dross through writing and burning past transgressions and current prob-lems and then use positive affi rmations.”

There is a very important key to being successful in affi rmations: when repeating the affi rmation, simultaneously think, visual-ize and feel what the affi rmation is manifesting. Think means to

PUBLISHER’S DESK

Using the Power of Affi rmationWe mold our lives constantly by what we think and say. With positive affi rmation, you can harness this creative force to improve your life.B Y S AT G U R U B O D H I N AT H A V E Y L A N S WA M I

10 hinduism today a pr il /m ay/j u ne, 2 0 04

We, the Patel (substitute name) family, beseech

the grace of Lord Ganesha to manifest His blessings of peace and harmony within our home and to joyfully fulfi ll the spiri-tual, social, economic, cultural and educational goals of family life as outlined in Hindu scrip-ture. We dedicate ourselves, in-dividually and together, to our daily worship, spiritual disci-plines and study. Knowing that

bonding is essential, we hold daily family meetings and week-ly gatherings to cooperatively solve problems and create a loving, uplifting atmosphere in which each member develops discipline, responsibility and the spirit of divine service. We remain close-knit and cultivate unity by talking together about the experiences of our day and extend our aff ection and har-mony to other families as well.

We take time for training, and we value mistakes as opportu-nities to learn. To us, the guest is truly God, welcomed and honored with heartfelt hospi-tality. Through our thoughtful-ness, care and compassion, we allow an abundance of gold to accumulate within our home. We give generously of our in-come and our time to further our religion. We are fi lled and thrilled with God’s Cosmic Energy, creatively alive and in tune with the universe.

A Daily Affi rmation for Families

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a pr il /m ay/j u ne, 2 0 04 h i n d u i s m t o d ay 11

Affi rmation at work: A seeker is seated upon a fabled one-wheeled chariot, which represents the movement of his mind. The power to go in any direction—toward gloom and failure or upliftment and success—lies in his words and thoughts, symbolized by the swirling threads.

consciously be aware of what the affi rmation means. Not thinking would be to repeat the affi rmation out of habit while thinking about something else. Visualize means to create a mental picture depicting the affi rmation. For example, see yourself making a plan to earn extra money to remodel your home. See yourself earn-ing the money and doing the remodeling. Feel means to have the same feeling you will have when this is consistently happening in your life. In the case of the above affi rmation, it is the feeling of confi dence and success that goes along with being able to accom-plish what you plan. You need to feel now how you will feel in the future when you are successful and confi dent. Until you awaken this feeling, you should not expect the affi rmation to work.

Why don’t you try this practice for fi ve minutes a day in the morning, at noon and in the evening and see the positive results it produces? Simply repeat out loud the affi rmation “I can. I will.

I am able to accomplish what I plan” while utilizing the three keys of thinking, visualiz-ing and feeling. During this exercise, you may fi nd yourself feeling “I can’t. I won’t. I am not able.” If that is the case, it shows that there is a strong negative self-concept in the subconscious mind. Therefore, great benefi ts to your spiritual and material life will occur if this exercise is continued for a long period of time, because it will result in the negative self-concept being replaced by a positive one.

If you like, a longer affi rmation can be used in your daily exercise, such as the following one. When done in the early morning, this affi rma-tion sets a positive mood for the day. “I am now open to a fl ow of spiritual energy in which I perceive the most worthy course of action for this day. My service, being selfl ess, opens new doors of supply, making available all of the tools required so that my work will be beautiful, energetic and infl uential to the highest degree.”

Here is another affi rmation that is more of a purely divine nature that strengthens our identity as a spiritual being. It is most effec-tive when repeated several times before sleep and upon awakening. “I am not my body, mind or emotions. They are but shells of the infi nite energy that fl ows through them all. I am this energy. I am its source.”

However, as in the saying “Be careful what you wish for,” the power of affi rmation needs to be used with wisdom. Affi rmations remold the subconscious mind and thereby change our future. Therefore, we need to be careful that the future we are creating is one in which the responsibilities and challenges are within our abilities to successfully handle. It is wiser to choose a future that is a natural step up in life from where we are than one that is many, many steps away from us. For example, it is a natural next step for someone who is renting an apart-ment to purchase a modest house, while pur-chasing a mansion would probably be too big a

step up to successfully handle.For many years, as part of our pre-dawn worship, the monastery

has repeated an affi rmation. We recite it aloud together. It has been effective in reminding all the monastics of the overview of what we are doing and the importance of integrating the blessings of the Deities into our everyday affairs. A few years ago we devel-oped a similar affi rmation for families to repeat together every morning. We have included it in the sidebar, and suggest that all members of your family recite it together each day.

In conclusion, through repeating positive statements you can improve your self-concept, make greater progress on the spiritual path and in general increase your magnetism to success. Remem-ber, success depends upon utilizing the three-fold key—to think about the meaning, create a visualization for this meaning and feel how you will feel when this is consistently happening in your life.

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LETTERS


Accommodative Hinduismgood work calls for a good word. For the good work that you are doing in Hinduism Today, my hearty thanks, and the thanks of India, too. Hindus are awake today. The spell of a thousand years of sub-jugation has been broken. We have discov-ered our past. Nothing will now stop us from resuming our ancient quest for jnana, wis-dom. It was the mystery of the universe that set us on our quest. The Rig Veda wonders,

“Ah, what are words, and what are mortal thoughts? Who is there who truly knows and who can say whence this unfathomed world, and from what cause?” The rishis of old set out to find the answers. Their quest led to freedom of enquiry. Freedom led to diversity of thoughts. Diversity led to toler-ance of views, and tolerance led to the rich-ness of our civilization. It has no parallel in the world. The Hindu civilization is basically accommodative and assimilative. It should remain so. We celebrate inclusivity. Others celebrate exclusivity. We learned to live in peace with each other and with Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and hundreds of different sects. “All ways lead to me,” says the Lord in the Gita. But others still live by the sword.

M. S. N. Menon Delhi, India

Why Untouchabilityunemotionally, the basis of untouch-ability is poverty and lack of education. The Hindu temples must do their part, but it is the government’s utmost duty to educate all to age 16 years, as is being done in my country, Trinidad. In ten years, India has reduced poverty from 35% to 26%. By 2010, it should be reduced again, to 15%.

Yogi Hary Pasarma Chagauanas, Trinidad

Greatness of Kumbha Melacompliments on an excellent report of the Kumbha Mela held recently in India at Nashik (Jan/Mar, 2004). Your pictures are unique, and every attempt is made to depict the actual participation in this Mela. I was fortunate to participate, and without being at such a great Mela, nobody can understand the real philosophy of Hinduism. We found great enthusiasm amongst the people.

S. S. Bhatt Hoffman Estate, Illinois

Virasaivism Separateyour magazine in a recent article included Virasaivism as one of the sub-sects (Oct/Dec, 2003). This is a commonly held misconception, but Virasaivism is a distinct religion. Basavanna, the founding father of modern Virasaivism, not only preached equality of all human being, including wom-

en, and rejected the caste system, he also did not accept the Vedas.

Sathish Vr, USA ∫ [email protected]

Skewed Toward Saivismafter being a long-time subscriber to Hinduism Today, I reluctantly decided a few months back to discontinue my sub-scription. I have regarded and still regard as extremely important, the service you are rendering Hinduism. Not only that, over the years you have made it a publication of very high quality. My objection is that it has become Saivism Today. The coverage of news and events are so biased that one would think that Saivism is the only flavor of Hinduism!! You are not “reporting” news and events, you are “categorizing” and “in-terpreting” everything from the Saivism perspective.

Cadambi Rangarajan ∫ [email protected]

✔ We understand your point. We do pres-ent a view of Hinduism skewed toward Saivism. It’s natural, one could say, for the magazine is created at a Saivite monastery and the staff are committed Saiva sannya-sins, facts we publish openly in each issue. What is not obvious is this: we have tried for years to fill the gaps in our experience and knowledge by calling upon Vaishnavite, Shakta and Smarta followers, journalists, artists and academics to contribute more, but the response is not there. The truth is we would love to have more authentic art and articles from other traditions. But our wanting it to happen has not made it hap-pen. It disappoints us as much as it annoys you. Our recent articles on the four sects, New Vrindaban, South Africa’s Lord Ha-numan conference, Jagannath Temple and interviews with many Vaishnava swamis at the Kumbha Mela are part of our small ef-forts to broaden our coverage.

Rehabilitate the Swastikai am jewish by birth, but personally favor the swastika’s use and comeback to erase the fact that the Nazis ever used it. Why should this symbol be forever tainted by their evilness? Let’s erase not the Holo-caust, or its lessons, but the Nazi’s hijacking of this holy symbol.

Eileen Weintraub Seattle, Washington, USA

Promote Pancha Ganapatii was delighted to read that satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami created the mod-ern-day festival of Pancha Ganapati to coin-cide with Christmas celebrations for Hindus living in the west. The five-day celebration

as drawn out by Gurudeva is just marvelous for all Hindu diaspora adults and children, as well as for Hindus in the homeland. Please re-mind us each year of the festival’s approach.

Jamuna Vittal, New Jersey, USA ∫ [email protected]

✔ Thank you. The Pancha Ganapati fes-tival is described at www.hinduism-today.com/archives/1995/11/1995-11-14.shtml.

Charity Begins at Homei was very much impressed after reading “Indian Restaurant Serves Free Food Dur-ing Major US Blackout” in your Jan/Mar, 2004, issue. I appreciate the owner’s good gesture. It builds a spiritual bridge. Also, I’ve never missed to view the unique pictures which greatly enhance the last pages and never fail to read the poems by Dr. Arjunan Subrama-niam.

Rajalakshmi Rajikrishnan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

∫ [email protected]

Right Giving for Indiathe nri community has contributed generously, I believe, to charities in India that are actually working against Hindus. As well, there is substantial funding for Chris-tian evangelical work from various sources. There are many fund-starved Hindu institu-tions of knowledge, arts, sciences and tradi-tional knowledge systems in India. Money is needed for the upliftment of our community, society and country. As Hindus the world over acquire more wealth and prominence on the world stage, they need to be sure their efforts are not misguided and wasted—or worse, fire back at them. IDRF, Ekal Vidya-laya and other venues such as your esteemed Hindu Heritage Endowment need to be pub-licized more for the benefit of the Hindu NRI community’s charitable needs. These are not merely alternatives, but truly humanitarian charities, because human rights and humani-tarianism are built into the Hindu tradition. You should cover the importance and chan-nels of daan dakshina, charity, for the Hin-dus outside of India in the near future.

Sucheta Maheshwari, USA ∫ [email protected]

A Question of Karmai read with interest arvind sharma’s article, “Karma and Gravity,” (Jan/Mar, 2004). It is a bit confusing when he states, “In order to reach a karma-free state, we must give up not only bad karma, but good karma as well. We must perform only that karma which is appropriate for the attainment of zero kar-ma.” This raises more questions than answers. First, if we give up both bad karma as well as good karma, what is there left to do? Second,

pg 12-13.indd 12 2/13/04 2:19:10 PM

what is a karma-free state? Third, what is zero karma? And fourth, how does one attain a karma-free state or zero karma?

Pradeep Srivastava, Detroit, USA∫ [email protected]

✔ Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami ad-dressed this same issue in his book Merging with Siva. He wrote, “One does not have the experience of realizing the Self until all of his karma is in a state of resolve. This means that the action-and-reaction patterns were balanced out, one against the other, through his ability to be steadfast in his yoga, brah-macharya and previous superconscious in-sights which have revealed the true nature of himself. When this begins to occur in him, he actually sees that man is not man, man is the Self, God, for his karma and the forces of his dharma have begun to become trans-parent to him. Through the power of his realization, the karma is created and simul-taneously dissolved. This occurs for the one who lives in the timeless state of conscious-ness. If one were to realize the Self each day, he would live his life like writing his karma on the surface of water. The intensity of the Self is so strong that action and reaction dissolve, just as the water’s surface clears immediately when you remove your fi nger from having written upon it.”

Let’s Educate Ourselvesfi rst and foremost, a big round of ap- plause for the Hinduism Today team. Your issues keep me abreast of the latest develop-ments and pull me out of ignorance. Your article on the four major denominations in

Hinduism was excellent and timely. I con-fess that I never knew about Shaktism and Smartism. It reflects how far I’m lagging behind in my attempt to sail the ocean of Sanatana Dharma. However, I’m ever ready to spread my wings into deeper knowledge about Hinduism, thus my humble request is that you should unleash an issue entirely on the basics and understanding of Hinduism. Common questions like why there are many Gods in Hinduism should be answered with adequate facts. Such questions keep buzzing through my mental corridors like a recalci-trant mosquito. Hinduism provides us with a great sense of pride and belonging, but we cannot safeguard our beloved faith with ig-norant Hindus.

S. Vijai Ananth, Sitiawan, Malaysia∫ [email protected]

✔ Well, Vijai, this issue is for you! It was planned long before your letter arrived, but check out the list of questions and answers that form our Insight section.

Dowry Deathsin a recent bbc program broadcast here, the issue of dowry deaths was explored in horrifi c detail. The fi gure of 25,000 dowry deaths per year was given. The causes were listed as the Indian man’s view of women, old laws, corrupt police, uncaring societal at-titude, lack of political will and poor social support services. Do Indian men and fami-lies really view this system of dowry as some-thing to be admired?

When persons of Indian origin, such as myself, view such depictions of our ancestral

homeland, we cannot help to be glad that my ancestors escaped these customs. I, like many Indo-Trinidadian men, value immensely the day that our wives agreed to marry us. This dowry system of India reduces the value of the woman to a mere object to be bought and sold. How can a society with such a great past, a society which has elevated the female to the Divine, such as Sita, Lakshmi and all other forms of the Devi, in the same breath treat the human female form with such dis-taste?

Devant Parsuram MaharajSanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Trinidad

∫ [email protected]

Corrections

✔ The article “When Dowry Went Wrong in the Jan/Mar 04 issue mistakenly gives the wife of King George V as Queen Elizabeth. His wife was her grandmother, Queen Mary.

✔ The address of Dr. Naram’s clinic (Jan/Mar, 04) is CTS 563 (1 and 2), Bhadran Na-gar Cross Road #2, Op. Milap Theater, Off S.V. Rd., Milad (W), Mumbai. The phone is 022 2806 5757.

april/may/june, 2 0 0 4 h i n d u i s m t o d ay 13

Letters with writer’s name, address and daytime phone number, should be sent to:

Letters, Hinduism Today107 Kaholalele RoadKapaa, Hawaii, 96746-9304 USAor faxed to: (808) 822-4351or e-mailed to: [email protected]

Letters may be edited for space and clarity and may appear in electronic versions of HINDUISM TODAY.∫ INDICATES LETTERS RECEIVED VIA E-MAIL

Celebrating Our 25thHow You Can Empower Hinduism Worldwide!

hrough 25 years of continuous publishing (a minor miracle, these days!) Hinduism Today not only survived, but evolved from humble beginnings in 1979 to a worldclass international magazine respected today as one

of Hinduism’s most infl uential voices. And sweetest of all, we often hear our readers say we have helped uplift them, or done some signifi cant good for Hinduism or the world. This is our greatest reason to celebrate a quarter century.

We have come a long way, but there is still much farther to go. Hindus are dispersed into all corners of the world. We’d like to reach them all, do even more to reveal Hinduism’s endless trea-sures and provide inspiration and tools for teaching the young. We’d like to insure Hinduism Today’s continuing publication into the coming decades, and beyond. We’d like to have the fi nancial means to hire more writers, researchers, photographers and artists to give you and your children an even more potent magazine. To that end, a Hinduism Today Production Fund and a Hinduism Today Distribution Fund, both part of Hindu

Heritage Endowment, have been established. As these endow-ment funds grow, so does Hinduism Today’s future. If you are inspired to help, you may contribute to these funds by donating outright or by becoming a Lifetime Subscriber or a Benefactor. One way to become a Benefactor is by making the Hinduism Today Production Fund a benefi ciary in your estate plan of a gift of $5,000 or more. For details, please contact us on the web at www.hheonline.org/funds/htdf_htpf.html or www.hheonline.org/planned_giving.html. E-mail us at [email protected] or call 808-822-3012, ext 244.

Looking ahead to another 25 years of powerful publishing:Hinduism Today publisher and editorial staff

pg 12-13.indd 13 2/13/04 2:19:24 PM

“By birth man does not become an outcast, nor does he become a high caste man. He becomes high or low according to his deeds.”

Swami Chinmayananda (1916-1993), founder of Chinmaya Mission

14 h i n d u i s m t o d ay a p r i l / m ay / j u n e , 2 0 0 4

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Abstaining from Eating Meat

Tirukural 256: If the world did not purchase and consume meat, no one would slaughter and offer meat for sale.

Tirukural 257: When a man real-izes that meat is the butchered fl esh of another creature, he will abstain from eating it.

Tirukural 258: Insightful souls who have abandoned the passion to hurt others will not feed on fl esh that life has abandoned.

Tirukural 259: Greater than a thousand ghee offerings consumed in sacrifi cial fi res is to not sacrifi ce and consume any living creature.

A sannyasin of great spiritual attainment came to the outskirts of a village in India. He was camped under a tree for the night when suddenly a villager came running

to him, screaming, “The stone! The stone! Give me the precious stone!” “Which stone?” asked the sannyasin. “Last night, Lord Siva appeared before me in a dream,”

said the villager, “and told me that if I went to the outskirts of the village at nightfall, I would fi nd a sannyasin who would give me a stone which would make me rich for the rest of my life.” The sannyasin rummaged through his knapsack and took out a stone.

“Probably he talked about this,” he said, extending the stone to the villager. “I found it lying on the path in the forest a few days ago. Take it, I give it to you,” offered the sannyasin with all simplicity. The villager looked at the stone in amazement—it was an enormous diamond. He took the dia-mond and went away quickly. All that night he tossed in his bed and could not sleep. The next day at dawn he woke up the san-nyasin, returned the gem and asked, “Give me the inner wealth which has made it possible for you to part with this diamond so easily.”

What extracts from the Vedas I have read fall on me like the light of a higher and purer luminary, which describes a loftier course through purer stratum. It rises on me like the full moon after the stars have come out, wading through some far stratum in the sky. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American author, poet and philosopher

Frank and Ernest © 2 0 0 3 T H A V E S . R E P R I N T E D W I T H P E R M I S S I O N .

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a p r i l / m ay / j u n e , 2 0 0 4 h i n d u i s m t o d ay 15

Look at the man who walks on a tight rope. He is performing various tricks, but his mind is only on the rope. So also, we may be doing various things, but our minds must be on God.” Sri Sri Sri Sivaratna puri Tiruchi Mahaswamigal, founder of Kailasa Ashram, Bangalore

If you don’t learn from your mistakes, there’s no sense making them. Anonymous

The root of all bliss is God. And to forget God is the root of all problems. His Divine Holiness, Pramukh Swami Maharaj, spiri-tual head of Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Puroshottam Swaminarayan Sanstha

When we engage every moment without the cares and fears of the beyond, we are able to harness the spirit of sadhana, and every moment is fi lled with Divin-ity. Swamini Mayatitananda Saraswati, spiritual head of Wise Earth Monastery and Mother Om Mission, Candler, North Carolina

Q: How many Vedantins does it take to change a light bulb? A: Three—one to change it, one to not change it and one to both change and not change it.

Devotion must not be like the fl ood of the rainy season in which all get washed away. Devotion should be like the river that retains water even in the hottest season. Saint Kabir (1440-1518)

The phaomnneil pweor of the hmuan mnid: Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in

waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig! Mybae the Hunidsim Tdoay sfatf can sotp slpel ckchenig?

The writers of the Indian philosophies will survive when the British dominion in India shall long have ceased to exist, and when the sources which it yielded of wealth and power are lost to remembrances. Lord War-ren Hastings (1754-1826), the fi rst gover-

nor general of British India

It is the unique and all-encompassing na-ture of Hinduism that one devotee may be worshiping Ganesha while his friend wor-ships Subramaniam or Vishnu, and yet both honor the other’s choice and feel no sense of confl ict. The profound understanding and universal acceptance that are unique in Hinduism are refl ected in this faculty for accommodating different approaches to the Divine, allowing for different names and forms of God to be worshiped side by side within the temple walls. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001), founder of Hinduism Today

D I D Y O U K N O W ?

Denim Came from Indiane of bharat’s little known but long- lasting contributions to the Western world was the export of a thick cotton cloth known as dun-

garee, which was sold at a market near the Dongarii Fort in Mumbai in the sixteenth century. Portuguese and Genoan sailors used this durable, blue, broad cloth, dyed with indigo, for their bellbottom sailing pants, and it soon became popular with farmers and others. Dungaree made its way through Europe and moved across the Atlantic to America in the late eighteenth century, where it wove its way into popular varieties of work clothes such as overalls. In 1873, a German im-migrant in San Francisco by the name of Levi Strauss, along with Jacob Davis, a Nevada tailor, patented “waist overalls.” These denim pants which have pockets and button fl ies reinforced with metal rivets are the most popular clothing product in the world today—blue jeans.

with yvette rosser

Fashion: A model shows off a shirt, long skirt and hat by a Tokyo designer, all denim

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FROM THE VEDAS

Sacred Cow, Divine MotherCow protection: a scriptural edict, a lynch-pin for dharma

16 hinduism today a p r i l / m ay / j u n e , 2004

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he protection of the bovine species is prescribed by Hindu scripture. Orthodox Hindus are adamant that the nurture of cows lies at the core of Hindu dharma, representing symbolically and in real, earthly terms the Hindu rever-

ence for the Divine in all life. Read more about why the cow is sacred in this issue’s article on Ten Questions. At a time when the human species is wreaking havoc on na-ture and the environment, cow protection takes on new meaning as a dramatic headline issue. We present here key scriptural verses from the Rig Veda and the cogent thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi on the subject of goseva, caring for the cow, “the mother of Cosmic Forces.”

Rig Veda: She is like the mother of the cosmic Forces, the daughter of the cosmic Matter, the sister of cosmic Energy, the centre of the ambrosia. I address to men of wisdom—kill not her, the sinless inviolate cow.

The divine cow, herself is skilled in eloquence, gives speech to others, who comes surrounded by every kind of utterance, who helps me for my worship of the divine forces, it is only the fool that abandons her.

May cows come and bring us good fortune; let them stay in our cowsheds and be content in our company. May many colored cows bring here prolifi c milk for of-ferings to the resplendent Lord at many dawns.

The resplendent Lord bestows affl uence on the devo-tee who offers worship and oblations. He takes not what belongs to the worshiper and gives him more; thereby increasing his wealth more and ever-more, he places the devotee in fortifi ed positions, free from danger.

Let not the cows run away from us, let no thief carry them away; let no hostile weapon fall upon them. May the master of the cattle be long possessed of them, with the milk products of which he makes offerings and with which he serves the godly men.

Let not the cows fall a victim to the arrogant, dust-spurning war-horse. Let them not fall into the hands of a butcher or his shop. Let the cattle of the man, the house-holder, move about freely and graze without fear.

May the cows be our affl uence; may the resplendent Lord grant us cattle; may the cows yield food (milk and butter) of the fi rst libation. These cows, O men, are sa-cred as the Lord resplendent Himself—the Lord whose blessings we crave for, with head and heart.

O cows, you strengthen even the worn-out and fa-tigued and make the unlovely beautiful to look on. Your lowing is auspicious, and makes my dwelling prosperous. Great is the abundance that is attributed to you in our religious ceremony.

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May you, O cows, have many calves grazing upon good pastures and drinking pure water at accessible ponds. May no thief be your master. May no beast of prey assail you and may the dart of vital Lord never fall on you.

O resplendent Lord, a showerer of virility as you are, may we have by your blessings the sturdy bulls for insemi-nation and let us have plenty of nourishment for the cows.

RIG VEDA VIII , 102, 15-16; VI , 28, 1-8TRANSLATION BY SWAMI SATYA PRAKASH SARASVATI

AND SATYAKAM VIDYALANKA

Mahatma Gandhi: “The central fact of Hinduism is cow protection. Cow protection to me is one of the most won-derful phenomena in human evolution. It takes the human being beyond this species. The cow means the entire sub-human world. Man through the cow is enjoined to realize his identity with all that lives. Why the cow was selected for apotheosis is obvious to me. The cow was in India the best companion. She was the giver of plenty. Not only did she give milk, but she also made agriculture possible“Cow protection is the gift of Hinduism to the world.

And Hinduism will live so long as there are Hindus to pro-tect the cow. Hindus will be judged not by their tilaks, not by the correct chanting of mantras, not by their pilgrim-ages, not by their most punctilious observances of caste rules, but their ability to protect the cow.“I would not kill a human being to protect a cow, as I

will not kill a cow to save a human life, be it ever so pre-cious. My religion teaches me that I should by personal conduct instill into the minds of those who might hold different views the conviction that cow-killing is a sin and that, therefore, it ought to be abandoned. My ambi-tion is no less than to see the principle of cow protection established throughout the world. But that requires that I should set my own house thoroughly in order fi rst.“Cow protection to me is not mere protection of the cow.

It means protection of all that lives and is helpless and weak in the world.

“The cow is a poem of pity. One reads pity in the gentle animal. She is the mother to millions of Indian mankind. Protection of the cow means protection of the whole dumb creation of God. The ancient seer, whoever he was, began with the cow. The appeal of the lower order of cre-ation is all the more forcible because it is speechless. The cow is the purest type of sub-human life. She pleads on behalf of the whole of the sub-human species for justice to it at the hands of man, the fi rst among all that lives. She seems to speak to us through her eyes: ‘You are not ap-pointed over us to kill us and eat our fl esh or otherwise ill-treat us, but to be our friend and guardian.’ I worship it and I shall defend its worship against the whole world.“Mother cow is in many ways better than the mother

who gave us birth. Our mother gives us milk for a couple of years and then expects us to serve her when we grow up. Mother cow expects from us nothing but grass and grain. Our mother often falls ill and expects service from us. Mother cow rarely falls ill.“The reader will observe that behind the foregoing re-

quirements lies one thing, and that is ahimsa (noninjury), otherwise known as universal compassion. If that supreme thing is realized, everything else becomes easy. Where there is ahimsa, there is infi nite patience, inner calm, dis-crimination, self-sacrifi ce and true knowledge.”

EXCERPTS FROMTHE MIND OF MAHATMA GANDHI,

COMPILED BY R. K. PRABHU & U. R. RAOHTTP://WWW.MKGANDHI.ORG/MOMGBOOK/

The Vedas are the divinely revealed and most revered scriptures, sruti, of Hinduism, likened to the Torah (1,200 bce), Bible New Testament (100 ce), Koran (630 ce) or Zend Avesta (600 bce). Four in number, Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva, the Vedas include over 100,000 verses. Oldest portions may date back as far as 6,000 BCE.

Cow protection to me is not mere protection of the cow. It means protection of all that lives and is

helpless and weak in the world. —Mahatma Gandhi

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BY LAVINA MELWANI, NEW YORKhose attending the speeches of Swami Vivekananda at the Parlia-

ment of the World’s Religions in 1893 had never heard Hinduism presented

in such an enlightened manner. One was heard to remark, “That man a heathen? And we send missionaries to his people? It would be more fi tting that they should send missionaries to us.” Well, that day has come, and there are Hindu missionaries by the millions across the Western world—po-tential missionaries, at least. “The problem,” according to Ved Chaudhary, “is that our religion is like a closet religion. Indians are

everywhere, in hospitals, universities. They are doctors, lawyers, accountants. Ameri-cans say they know a lot of Indian people, but ask them if they know any Hindus, and they say ‘no.’ This is because we don’t iden-tify ourselves as Hindus—we only identify ourselves as Indians.”“The result,” he continued, “is that many

interfaith dialogues have Muslim, Buddhist and Sikh participation, but no Hindu rep-resentation. We have to be assertive and take time and interest. Otherwise, we can complain, but we’ll be ignored, and we’ll not become part of the community as Hindu-Americans. And the same thing will be true c

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E D U C A T I O N

Oh, For a Fair View of Hinduism…Meet a few of the brave souls who dispel myths and teach Hinduism at schools, colleges and interfaith meetings

BY TRISHA PASRICHA, AGE 15, HOUSTONt’s 8:00 am, and students slowly trickle into mr. West’s sixth-grade history class. The majority of the people, including the teacher, are white. One African-American, two Orientals and myself, a second generation Indian girl, make up the rest of the class. On the blackboard is written “World

Religions.” As the rest of the class prepares for a boring two hours, I can already feel my stomach sink—what did I do to deserve this?

We are handed a fi ll-in-the-blank chart of major world religions and are instructed to look in our books for the answers. Finishing quickly, I hand in my chart to Mr. West at his desk, and turn to leave. “Now wait a minute, you put ‘monotheistic’ down for Hin-dooism [as he pronounces it],” he remarks. “I know,” I reply, feeling my face burn as the class looks up. “Hindoos are polytheistic.” “No, they’re not.” “Are you a Hindoo?” “Yeah.” “Oh.”

Scattered murmurs break out among my peers, whispering about how freaky Hindus worship elephants and monkeys. Great.

“Well,” Mr. West says standing up and going to the chalkboard, “from what I understand, Hindoos are all about their caste system.” And he begins a long, irrelevant and incorrect explanation, which he memorized from our textbook. What does that have to do with being monotheistic? I don’t even bother correcting him, to save

myself any more embarrassment. I wanted to get out of there. Fast.

Seventh grade starts, and it’s culture day in history. “Both of my parents are Indian...” I begin when it’s my turn. “Do you mean Native American Indian, or Mid-dle Eastern Indian?” my teacher asks. Sounds like it’s going to be another fun year in social studies.

India and Hinduism are summed up in a few short sentences by the teacher. India is described as fi lled with pollution, cows and poverty-stricken people. Hindus love to bathe in rivers where they throw the ashes of their parents and yes, they do worship elephants and monkeys.“Do you speak Indian?” I’m asked at least two times a week. “I

heard there were two thousand Gods, and every full moon you had to give a sacrifi ce to them. Do you do that?” No. I try to ex-plain that all the Gods are really aspects of one Almighty Being. I’ve never sacrifi ced anything except my dignity, which slowly dwindles with each question. The release of popular award-win-ning books such as Homeless Bird, which portrays the typical Indi-an girl who is forced to get married at thirteen, didn’t help Indians

O N E S T U D E N T ’ S O R D E A L S

The Abuse Hinduism Receives In US Schools Is Intolerable

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E D U C A T I O N

Oh, For a Fair View of Hinduism…with our children, who are grow-ing up here.”

Chaudhary has pinpointed a major issue among Hindus of the diaspora in many countries, not just America. I was assigned by Hinduism Today to investigate just who had come forward in our community to represent and explain Hinduism to the non-Hin-dus. An appeal in our e-mail news service, Hindu Press Internation-al, brought a hundred responses from those engaged to a greater or lesser extent in doing just that. They are on the front lines, talking at schools, churches, Rotary Clubs and interfaith meetings, or bring-

ing people to their local temple, trying their best to put forward our great religion in an understandable fashion. Impressive espe-cially are the efforts of Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden, London, who have in-troduced their temple and Hinduism to a quarter-million non-Hindu students over the past eight years.

There are many traveling swamis and holy men and women of Hinduism also interact-ing with the non-Hindu public. But this ar-ticle is an account of those brave modern missionaries who are lay Hindus, ordinary men and women. They are benign souls who denigrate no other faith, nor seek for converts. Rather they provide their friends and neighbors a glimpse into Hindu spiri-tual life.

Some when questioned on certain issues could become shy and defensive—quali-ties conspicuously absent from Swami Vi-vekananda’s presentations! The best of our missionaries are religious men and women,

anywhere. And, who could have guessed, the author hadn’t even been to India! No kidding. Six entire chapters in our textbook were devoted to Christianity, whereas one page is given to the history of India and the teachings of Hinduism. A second page is entirely about Lord Siva, accompanied by a rather unbecoming picture of an ancient dancing Siva statue. Buddhism gets one paragraph.

This doesn’t make sense, as most of the school already knows so much about Christianity, but hardly any even knew Buddhism or Hinduism existed. Now that they did, we would be ridiculed pub-licly. Thank you, Board of Education.

At last, high school starts. I almost die of shock when I see the ninth-grade textbook has devoted an entire three sentences to Sikhism and Jainism. It claims Sikhism “combines the Muslim belief of one God with the Hindu belief of reincarnation.” Christi-anity in India and the ever-popular “Western infl uence” get pages and pages of text. One of the main pictures which help represent

“typical life in India” is one my fellow students describe as some sort of drag-queen in make-up doing an obscure peacock dance. Out of all the dazzling pictures of Indian culture, that is the one they have to stick in? They chose that one over a picture of, say, the classic Taj Mahal?

But the fun just gets funnier—the next picture of a sari earns a whole two sentences. Oh, but it’s not an exquisite silk or glittering embroidered sari. Nope, it’s a dirty yellow (perhaps once white) cotton sari worn by an old woman bathing in the Ganges River. In spite of its pollution, “Hindus readily drink and bathe in the Ganges’ water. People even come to die in the river.” To further prove their point, they stick in a picture of a fi lth- and trash-laden section of Ganges, not a clean part, which much of it is. I kid you not, upon reading this and looking at the picture, a boy in my class had to be excused to the nurse’s offi ce because his stomach had

become queasy. Now we come to the sacred cow. They say entire streets are blocked because Hindus don’t want to run over our beloved cow. C’mon, even in America, people aren’t going to just run over a local cow; they’ll fi nd a way to move it or get around it. On an ending note, stated in the book, Indians are technologically behind. They fail to mention that we have a space program, nucle-ar capabilities, and many Indians, believe it or not, have heard of a computer.

Every day, young Hindu children and teenagers are unreason-ably tormented because of our perceived background. The school textbooks are half the cause. The average American knows pre-cious little about India, and with the help of poorly researched textbooks, they learn nonsense. The sheer embarrassment of the situation is enough to make Hindu students everywhere wish we could have been “normal” by American standards.

It is not fun for any young Hindu to explain to her (or his) peers that she doesn’t worship a thousand Gods like the Greeks; that her grandmother doesn’t force her to bathe in dead people’s ashes every full moon; and that even though she knows how to bhangra, kuchipudi, or whatever it may be, she’s never danced with a drag-queen. But why do we put up with it? Jewish, African-American, and Orientals all have organizations against defamation and they are represented correctly in the textbooks. Why aren’t we?

If Christians can effectively lobby to remove the theory of evolu-tion from school science textbooks, then certainly we should be able to at least correct the blatant misinterpretation of our culture. Read what your (or your child’s) Social Studies textbook says on In-dia and Hinduism and write a simple letter or e-mail to the editor and your local board of education. It can make a world of differ-ence for not only you but for thousands of others who face ridicule because of what is taught about Hinduism in our American schools.

Encountering Hinduism: UK youths learn about the world’s most ancient faith at the Swami-narayan Temple in Neasden

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confident and content with their own be-liefs and possessing a broad knowledge of Hinduism and other religions.

Meet the missionariesLet’s begin with Ved Chaudhary, (photo be-low) who hails from the district of Itawa, 150 miles southeast of Delhi, India. He came to the US in 1965 as a graduate student at Rut-gers University. He worked as an engineer with Bell Labs and its subsidiaries, until he retired last year. He received his training in Hinduism from his father, a teacher, who made sure his son knew all about the faith. He laughs, “My name is Ved [“knowledge”], after all!”

He has participated in interfaith activities in churches, schools and colleges. As part of his effort to educate non-Hindus, he started the Hindu International Council Against Defa-mation, on the lines of

the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, to take action against any misinformation or defa-mation of Hindu Gods and rituals. HICAD (www.hicad.org) keeps a vigilant eye on how Hinduism is portrayed in the main-stream and takes offending organizations to task. Last year, after the Global Dharma Conference in New Jersey, Chaudhary, along with other participants, helped initiate an organization which would be able to correct inaccuracies—the Educators’ Society for the Heritage of India (ESHI)—where vari-ous professors can get together and network about an accurate presentation of Hinduism to the mainstream. Their website, www.eshi.org, is still under construction, but contains a short statement of purpose.

There is a lot of misinformation out there about Hinduism, Chaudhary says, and it starts right in school. Sixth graders have a course called World Cultures, which

still contains wrong information about Hinduism. “If there are ten pages about Hinduism, several pages may be devoted to the caste system, as if that is the defining characteristic of Hinduism. It is very hard to fight this situation; in New Jersey alone there are 600 school districts—I would have to go to each one to convince them to use or not use certain books.”

American school texts are indeed a major source of misinformation—the text situation is slightly better in the UK. Those ventur-ing to present Hinduism in local schools should first become familiar with what is in the textbooks. They likely will be shocked by the contents (our opening gatefold car-toon quotes four real-life, very wrong state-ments on Hinduism made in US schools). It is possible to impact the problem by going directly to the publishers, and Hinduism Today has successfully done so. In fact, one major publisher sent us a pre-publication manuscript of their chapter on Hinduism for review. We returned a highly edited ver-sion which they accepted almost in entirety. Still, some concepts, like that of the Aryan Invasion (which many modern scholars question), are virtually impossible to extract at this time, as is the emphasis on caste.

One missionary who has focused on the texts is Yvette C. Rosser (Ram Rani). Now 52, she’s spent many years in India, is a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba and identi-fies herself as Hindu. She’s made presenta-tions in classrooms and to teachers for the last twelve years in the Austin, Texas, area. Her paper, “The Clandestine Curriculum: Temple of Doom in the Classroom” (www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/s_es/s_es_rosse_EAA.htm) discusses the factual errors about Hinduism and India in four texts used in American schools, and forms the basis for her presentations to students and teachers. It’s a useful document to study, because you will very probably find some errors in the books used at your local middle school.

Yvette (photo left) has done about twenty class-room presentations in her local area, to 10th grade World History and 6th grade World Civili-zations classes which are mandated by the Texas curriculum. The classes

are just 50 minutes, so she tries to keep it simple. She gets the students’ names from the teacher in advance, and makes out a card with their name spelled phonetically in Sanskrit. She brings props like conch shells for the children to blow and essential oils of sandalwood, jasmine, etc., “to get a whiff of India,” she says. Incense is out because it sets off the smoke alarms. “I do a little ste-reotype lesson and challenge the students’ preconceived notions, as well as address is-sues raised in my Temple of Doom article, such as cows, bindi, etc.” She also works with Beth Kulkarni’s program in Houston (see sidebar, page 23).

On the other side of the Atlantic, the Swaminarayan temple in Neasden has set an excellent standard. They’ve brought 260,500 students from 5,820 schools through the temple. The school children are given a short lecture on basic Hinduism, then go to the main temple to see the Deities and elaborate carvings, and view a short video on the temple’s creation. The last part of the experience, the temple spokesman said, “is a visit to the Exhibition on ‘Understand-ing Hinduism’ which portrays the origins, growth and glory of Hindu Dharma and outlines what Hindu values can contribute to the individual, society and the world at large.” As well, children are allowed to undertake school projects on parts of the temple, such as the Deities, the architecture or the temple’s activities. The BAPS organi-zation, which owns the temple, has an out-standing record for training well-informed guides for its exhibitions.

A century with non-Hindus: (left) Swami Vivekananda with students at Green Acres, Maine, after the 1893 Parliament of the World Re-ligions in Chicago; (right) Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami gives blessings of holy ash following his talk at the 1993 Parliament

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have found that presenting the purushartha, the four Hindu goals of life, is an effective way of introducing Hinduism to non-Hindus in a classroom environment.

This is due to the fact that the students have almost always learned about Hinduism from a religion or history textbook that focuses on India and events in the past, plus the fact that none or few of them have ever met a Hindu. Unfor-tunately, this leaves the impression that Hindus are quite different from them, their family, friends and neighbors.

Thus the goal of this presentation is to have the students realize that Hindus are pretty much the same as everyone else. The presentation begins by writing on the blackboard the word purushartha and its translation as “goals of life” and underneath writ-ing each of the four goals in Sanskrit and English: dharma, “virtuous living;” artha, “wealth;” kama,

“love;” and moksha, “libera-tion.” Then the explanation begins.

In Hinduism the goals of life are called purushartha, and there are four of them: dharma, virtuous living; artha, wealth; kama, love; and moksha, liberation. Let’s look fi rst at love and wealth. Love and wealth are in-deed the goals of all of mankind. Most everyone, monks excluded of course, is living life in a way that pursues these goals. They want to fall in love, get married, have children and live a happy family life. They want to learn a profession so that they can earn a good living and provide for their family a home and all the necessary possessions. In this regard, Hindus are the same as everyone else, not at all different in fulfi lling these natural human pursuits.

Next we have dharma. Dharma is not really a separate goal from artha and kama but rather

governs the way we pursue them. Are we hon-est or dishonest in the way we acquire wealth? If we are honest, then that is fulfi lling the goal of dharma. Are we loyal to our spouse or do we have extramarital affairs? If we are loyal, that is again fulfi lling dharma. In addition to the idea of following virtue, dharma outlines our natural human duties in life. We have obliga-

tions to our immediate family members, guests in our home, our parents, our community, our state and our nation. Dharma tells us that we should help others, and perform our part in the service and upliftment of society. Dharma also includes the concept of regularly worshipping God. There is a verse from the Hindu scripture Tirukural which nicely summarizes these duties, “The foremost duty of family life is to serve duly these fi ve: God, guests, kindred, ancestors and oneself.” Dharma can also be translated as reli-gion, and we can clearly see that Hindus pursuing dharma act the same as anyone else who is follow-ing a religious tradition.

Finally, we have the goal of moksha, or libera-tion. All religions have a fi nal goal. Some call it salvation; others call it enlightenment. Hinduism calls it liberation, which refers to being liberated from the cycle of reincarnation on Earth. Mok-sha comes through the fulfi llment of dharma, artha and kama in the current or past lives, so that you are no longer attached to worldly joys or sorrows. We can see that this concept is differ-ent from that held in religions such as Christian-ity, Judaism and Islam but similar to that held in other Eastern religions such as Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. Therefore, in their pursuit of moksha, Hindus are the same as others in the Eastern religions but do differ in this one regard from those in the Western faiths.

Presenting Hinduism’s Four Goals of LifePersonal, human values are interesting to everyone

B Y S A T G U R U B O D H I N A T H A V E Y L A N S W A M I

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Also active in London is physicist Jay Lakhani (photo left, vivekananda @btinternet.com), one of our few full-time Hindu missionaries. His family is originally from Gujarat, and he was born and raised in Ke-

nya. Lakhani came to the UK for further studies at the age of 15. Now 55, he says, “I took early retirement to focus on what I love best—studying and promoting Hinduism.” Although he received no formal education in Hinduism, Lakhani has been inspired by the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. He has become a popular speaker in the London school sys-tem, having interacted with over 100 institu-tions, from elite public schools like Harrow to the inner-city schools in deprived areas,

speaking with young people from all faiths and no faith. Besides doing a yearly series of talks at the Christian Ministerial Col-lege, he is a regular Hindu presenter on the interfaith scene and the main speaker on Hinduism on BBC World Service, with 20 million listeners worldwide.

He has fielded many questions from non-Hindus, but he finds that they are most attracted by the idea of the divinity of man: “When talking to youngsters of the Abrahamic faiths, this idea of the essential nature of everyone as ‘divine’—equating it to God—grabs them and makes them run after me, asking me excitedly again and again: ‘Is this really Hinduism?’ This single concept from Swami Vivekananda works like a bombshell. The religious education teachers, the students and the school staff become transformed. They are now in love with Hinduism! Any non-Hindu exposed

to this presentation becomes a lover of Hinduism forever. How can anyone fault this religion that gives highest dignity to mankind?” Dr. Karan Singh in his interview on page 26 expresses a similar perception, that the high-minded concepts of Hinduism are won-derfully received when correctly explained.

Lakhani said that since the vast majority of religious education teachers in the UK are women, the Hindu idea of God as female is the most exciting thing they have heard in religious education. He laughs, “Hinduism has stolen their hearts forever! On a serious note, this pluralism of Hindus removes the misconception of Hinduism being polytheistic and at the same time gives resolution to the thorny question the world faces of inter-religious harmony.”

Lakhani is often faced with the C-word, and works hard to demolish the idea of caste-based discrimination as being part of Hinduism. He says, “I term this an ‘atrocity in the name of reli-gion’ and not religion. This is a very important distinction that sometimes gets overlooked in the way Hinduism is presented in the West. This does serious damage to the more important and vibrant aspect of Hinduism as promoting the divinity of man.”

Enthusiasm for Hindu con-cepts can lead to inquiries about conversion, and many of our mis-sionaries seemed unsure in this area. Hinduism, like Judaism, ac-cepts those who freely wish to join the faith, but makes no attempt

to pull a person out of another religion. A good response to someone who inquires about conversion is to refer them to How to Become a Hindu, by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. It is available in full on the Internet at www.himalayanacademy.com/books/hbh/.

Addressing common issuesThe most frequent questions encountered by our missionaries are: caste, dowry, sati, cows, Gods, yoga, methods of worship, con-version, definition of who is a Hindu, holy books and a Hindu’s obligation to a temple. One can take a reactive or a proactive ap-proach to explaining Hinduism. The reac-tive approach is to make defensive expla-nations and assume a certain degree of hostility on the part of the questioner. The proactive approach is to assume questions are being asked honestly and without the

Teaching Hinduism: (top) Students from Island School during their visit to Kauai Aadheenam, home of Hinduism Today; (bottom) Jay Lakhani, center, with students of Hatch End High School in Harrow, England, following a presentation to 600 students of all faiths at an assembly

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intent to embarrass the Hindu. With this ap-proach, questions are answered clearly and simply, but one doesn’t get bogged down in the cow/caste/karma arena to the exclusion of a well-rounded presentation of the Hindu view of life and religion. Still, it is easy to get put on the defensive because of the presen-tation of Hinduism in the school textbooks, the negative portrayal of Hinduism by the Indian media and even the anti-Hindu fund-raising propaganda of the fundamentalist Christian missionaries touting their India programs to save Hindu “heathens.”

It can be necessary to “set the record straight” with some issues. Yes, untouch-ability is a major social evil in India. But why does the blame for it get laid at the feet of Hinduism, when Christianity is not blamed for racism in other countries? Anti-Semitism, which is still a major problem in Christian countries, is a result of the belief by Christians that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. Racial hatred of black people also has its basis in religion, for the black Africans are regarded as the offspring of the cursed Ham, son of Noah, a story re-counted in the Old Testament of the Chris-tian Bible. The story of the curse was freely used by Christian ministers and priests to justify slavery right up to the 19th century, and is still used today by America’s white supremacists.

Why, then, is untouchability, which isn’t even supported by our scriptures in the way it exists today, a “fault” of Hinduism, while racism and anti-Semitism are not the “fault” of Christianity? Hate crimes are such a problem in the West that hate-crime legisla-tion has had to be implemented in the last several decades in several countries, includ-ing the US and UK, to deal with it by adding additional penalties to any crime commit-ted with racial hatred as a factor.

Proceeding with confidenceDas Menon, 63, an industrial design con-sultant, has been in the US since the 80s ([email protected]). During his college years, he studied all the works of Swami Vi-vekananda. He observes, “India, Hinduism and Sanatana Dharma are my passions. I think it is time to spread the word about human divinity and the universality of the spiritual path. It is much needed in a world that is torn between constrained views of God and humanity.”

Menon, who has spoken to various church groups, local college study groups and at schools, has encountered the standard mis-conceptions about Hinduism, including that Hindus confuse many Gods with one God, are primitive in their belief system, are su-perstitious and worship animals.

Menon, who is working on a book about Hinduism, explains ‘Why so many Gods?’ to non-Hindus as one impersonal Spiritual-

Getting to Know Your Hindu Neighbors

eth kulkarni came into Hinduism through marriage to a Hindu from India and is an evoca-tive interpreter of the faith for non-

Hindus. She has spoken at school, univer-sity and church religious classes. She also takes non-Hindus on tours of Houston’s Sri Meenakshi Temple, where she is an Ad-visory Council member. Beth, 62, is a re-tired technical trainer for a multinational corporation ([email protected]).

“One of the most frequent misconcep-tions is that Hindus are polytheistic. I re-ply that we believe in an ‘Ultimate Reality’ that is simultaneously both with form and without form, and that this Ultimate Real-ity is both transcendent and immanent, both personal and nonpersonal. I give the example that I, Beth, am a wife, mother, grandmother, friend and community worker, with different functions and re-lationships due to these various roles, but am still the same ‘Beth.’ How, I ask, could God, therefore, not have different roles, functions and relationships?”

Kulkarni is a part of the Indian-American community and has raised her two children in it. She therefore finds it even more im-perative to change the perceptions people may have of Hinduism. She says, “So many Ameri-cans know very little about Hindu traditions. I tell them, ‘It’s not like 40 or 50 years ago when Hinduism was the religion of people on the other side of the globe. Today they are your doctors, they are the motel owners down the street, they are your neighbors.’ ” She finds that children are very open to new ideas, as are senior citizens, maybe because they have seen enough of life to realize that no one tradition has all the answers.

Beth has been instrumental in the organizing of In-dic Culture and Traditions Seminars ([email protected]). These are training sessions for non-Hindu teachers who present India and Hinduism in their classes on World History and World Cultures. Beth explains the main con-cepts—including karma, moksha, dharma and the Hindu concept of God—simply and clearly. Cows and caste are put in perspective. Said one high school teacher after a seminar, “I am really surprised at the lack of knowledge we had.” Another said, “The books were always stuck on the caste system, population and the worship of cows. I didn’t want to keep teaching badly. Even I thought Hindus were polytheistic.”

Beth concludes, “Hindus are part of the community, and we have to know about the traditions of each other. It’s extremely satisfying when I explain reincarnation or karma, and non-Hindus realize that they are not such strange notions after all—be-cause they do make sense.”

Beth tells Houston teachers about Hindu Dharma at an ICAT seminar

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Reality that manifests in infi nite personal names and forms in the spiritual and mate-rial realms: “For Hindus, there is no separa-tion between the Creator and that which ap-pears to be created. There is nothing that is outside God. There is no second entity.” He has a useful set of questions and answers about Hinduism at hometown.aol.com/mme-non9018/myhomepage/faith.html.

In a small town in rural Pennsylvania, yet another Hindu is sorting out the myths for non-Hindus—Dr. Jeffrey D. Long, 34, Assis-tant Professor of Religious Studies in Eliza-bethtown College ([email protected]). He did his PhD in comparative religious stud-ies at the University of Chicago, focusing on Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Long has been involved with informal study of Hinduism since his childhood and ultimately embraced it.

Non-Hindus are curious about caste, espe-cially untouchability, he says. “I always try to problematize caste, explaining that the origi-

nal Vedic ideal was not of birth-caste, but that birth-caste became the norm at a later period, and that the notion of birth-caste has been contested throughout the history of Hinduism. In the classroom, I generally treat this in historical fashion, citing vari-ous reform movements that have occurred throughout the centuries—from the Buddha to Mahatma Gandhi.”

He adds, “If I am speaking as a Hindu, to a more informal gathering, I share my own phi-losophy, which is that of Swami Vivekananda, that our oneness in God ought to supersede all other factors in our treatment of other be-ings!” The most prevalent misconceptions he encounters regard cows and Gods: “There is a commonly held view that if people in India ate their cows, their hunger problem would vanish. This is, of course, absurd.”

He explains the symbolic importance of the cow in Hinduism, as well as the fact that respect for the cow is really emblematic of respect for all life. Countering the perception

that Hindus are idol-worshipers, Long ex-plains the symbolism involved in murti puja and the respects in which the many Gods are simultaneously One God. “Since my audience is usually Christian, I

typically make an analogy with the Chris-tian ideal of the Trinity, saying something like, ‘Imagine the Trinity extended to an in-fi nity, and you get the basic concept of God in Hinduism,’” he says. “I also distinguish between the high Gods—Vishnu/Siva/Shakti conceived as supreme manifestations of Sa-guna Brahman—and the many other devatas, who are liberated or advanced souls, which I compare to angels and saints when I speak with Christian groups.”

When facing questions on idol worship, cow/monkey/rat worship, bride burning or female infanticide, Dr. Sudhir Prabhu, 53, ([email protected]) has two secret weap-ons: “Although my answers are anchored in the scriptures, I always use logic and humor to convey the points to the audience. The re-

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Viewing Divinity: Schoolchildren ask ques-tions during their tour of the Swamina-rayan temple in Neasden as they sit be-fore the Deities in the main shrine. Here one sees the wonderfully ornate marble pillars (with plexiglass protection) of this stunning temple.

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sponses are almost always well received.” Prabhu (photo left), who has been teaching to var-ied audiences in church-es, interfaith groups and youth study groups in Jacksonville, Florida, for over 20 years, had no for-mal training, but was, as he likes to say, “trained

on the job.” A physician specializing in aller-gies and asthma, he has served as the chair of the board of the local Hindu temple and on the boards of organizations such as the Red Cross and American Lung Association.

He confided, “Since I make frequent pre-sentations in my field, I have taken some public speaking courses, studied the ways of effective communicators and applied these to my presentations. This background has helped me relate to the Western mind and au-diences with ease.” Prabhu recommends that more Hindus volunteer and conduct classes but suggests they also study the history of monotheistic religions and their concepts. “Naturally, I tend to get what I call ‘the

three Ks’ on a regular basis: Kaste, Kows and Karma,” says Fred Stella, 49, an ac-tor and yoga instructor who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan ([email protected]). He is president of the Interfaith Dialogue As-sociation and has received training in the Self Realization Fellowship and the local Vedanta Society ashram.

Stella started attending a Hindu temple when he was 15, when he was still being educated in the Catholic school system, and so “developed the ability to speak about Hinduism to those with a Christian mind set.”

He points out that the only exposure many church groups have to Hinduism is through missionary films which show images of des-titute villages in India and say “Well, this is what you get when you practice bad re-ligion.”

Misconceptions he faces? “That Hindus don’t acknowledge one absolute source of the universe or God and that karma is fatal-ism. Critics assume that the cruel tradition of caste bigotry is blessed by our scriptures, and that we are somehow related to Islam. They even confuse tamasic (the philosophic category of dullness) with turmeric (the spice)!”

In the schools where Stella teaches, 99 percent of the children are from conserva-tive Christian homes, many of whom may never have encountered a real, live Hindu.

“Knowing all the misinformation these peo-ple are going to come across in their lives, I feel content that I may be the one source who will put it in a different perspective for them,” Stella grins. “So perhaps when these people meet their next Hindu—whether it’s at work, or someone who moves on to their block or joins the same social organization—

they will meet that Hindu with less preju-dice than if they did not attend my talk.”

Of course, there are many more people doing good work for Hinduism. One notable program is that of the Hindu University in Florida, which conducted a four-hour semi-nar led by K. C. Gupta ([email protected]) last year for 35 hospital chap-lains and others to explain how to relate to Hindu patients. They gave a list, for ex-ample, entitled “Hug, Kiss or Fold Hands?” which covered some of the basics, like shak-ing hands or not, proper vegetarian diet and Hindu attitudes and customs upon the death of a loved one.

We learned, too, as responses came in to our request for input for this article, that presenting Hinduism to non-Hindus is a developing craft. There is no “Office of Interreligious Affairs” for our decentral-ized Hindu religion, nor a one theological seminary where the necessary skills might be taught. Each instructor heard from had a different approach and different answers (some not really correct) to the most com-mon questions about Hinduism. (We offer answers to ten such common questions in our Educational Insight in this issue, begin-ning on page 37). Complex issues such as caste were often dismissed with oversimpli-fied responses, such as “The brahmins creat-ed caste to dominate the other Hindus”—an assertion that doesn’t match the historical facts of the matter. Another common pit-fall is to present one’s personal beliefs as if

all Hindus held them. For example, several speakers explain temple worship only from the perspective of the Smarta Vedanta in-terpretation of the Gods as “symbols” of transcendent reality and not from that of the rich devotional, bhakti traditions, which hold the Gods to be very real. Denial is an-other faulty response to aspects of Hinduism that seem bazaar to non-Hindus. The fact is, for instance, some Hindus do walk on fire, sleep on beds of nails or pierce their bodies with small spears, not just “even today” or

“still today,” but as an active, even growing, form of religious penance.

In conclusionThe work of teaching Hinduism is a vital endeavor. Jay Lakhani spoke for many when he observed, “It is only when the West rec-ognizes the true value of Hinduism, incor-porating ideas of the divinity of man and the role of religious pluralism, that Hindus themselves will come to their senses about what valuable treasures they possess. De-ciphering Hinduism for non-Hindus is of paramount importance.”

Unquestionably, the movement among Hindus to clarify their faith is rapidly grow-ing, as more and more see the need—and gain the courage—to reach out to non-Hin-du friends and neighbors with clear, friend-ly presentations. The experiences recounted here and the information in our Insight sec-tion this issue just might prepare and inspire you to join their ranks! ∏π

Classroom presentation: Here Fred Stella of Michigan addresses a class on the basics of Hinduism. It was only in the 1980s that the US Supreme Court allowed the teaching of religion in American classrooms, and only in the context of world history.

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High-level Hinduism: Dr. Karan Singh during an interview at the 2000 meet-ing of world spiritual and religious leaders at the United Nations

Dr. Karan Singh, member of the Rajya Sabha of India’s parlia-ment and son of the last maharaja of Kashmir, is one of Hinduism’s most popular and erudite representatives at the international level. Hinduism Today correspondent Rajiv Malik interviewed him in Delhi on his experience in presenting Hinduism to non-Hindus at meetings of global, interfaith leaders.

Hinduism Today: How is Hinduism received by interfaith leaders? Karan Singh: At the interfaith level we are already dealing with people who are open to other religions, by definition. Otherwise they would not be in an interfaith gathering. They may be con-vinced that their religion is the best, but they are at least open to learning about the other religions. So I find that if Hinduism is presented in a manner which is more universal than denomina-tional, there is a very broad acceptance among the people. In a way, Hinduism itself is a one-religion interfaith movement. Right from the very beginning, when none of the other religions were born, you could worship a saakar Brahma [a divine with at-tributes] or nirakaar Brahma [divine without attributes]. In the saakar you could worship a male or a female deity. You could worship Siva, you could worship Vishnu, Rama, Krishna, Hanu-

man, Ganesha, etc. There is a whole array of paths to the divine. So, I think the basic, key concept of the interfaith movement is the acceptance of multiple paths to the divine. Ekam sat viprah bahuda vadanti. That is the Vedic edict which means, “The truth is one, the wise call it by many names.” I find that if Hinduism is presented in this universal manner, there is a good appreciation.HT: How do you present Hinduism?KS: I concentrate on the Upanishads and on Vedanta. And I take certain universal concepts such as, Ishavasya idam sarvam yatkinch jagatyam jagat. This means that the entire universe or cosmos is permeated by the Divine. This is a concept which can be very well understood, because there are billions upon billions of galaxies, and Hinduism is not confined to this tiny speck of dust that we call planet Earth; it is universal. Then I talk of the atman, Iswar sarvabhutanam rideshe tishthati. This means that the Di-vine resides in the hearts of all beings. Then I point out that the joining of the Brahman and the atman is what is known as yoga. The word yoga in English comes from the same root as the word yoke. Then I talk about the four paths of yoga. The way of wisdom, jnana yoga, the way of devotion, bhakti yoga, the way of work, karma yoga and the way of spiritual practices, raja yoga. Then

AT GLOBAL FORUMS

Present the Deepest ConceptsDr. Karan Singh has found the profound mystical principles of Hinduism are much appreciated in the international interfaith world

World gathering: Dr. Karan Singh (above) gives a keynote speech during the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiri-tual Leaders at the UN in October, 2000

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from there I go on to this concept of the multiplicity of the paths to the divine—Ekam sat anekah panthah [Truth is one, paths are many]. Then from there I discuss concepts like Vasudhaiva ku-tumbakam [the world is a family]. Then I speak about the concept of Bahujan hitaya, bahujan sukhaya, the welfare of the many and the happiness of the many. If you present Hinduism in these uni-versalist terms, then I find the acceptance level is very high. But not if I start talking in denominational terms and say that you have to worship in this particular way or you have to chant the mantras in this particular manner, which is very important for Hindus, but obviously not that important for non-Hindus.

HT: What is the impression of Hinduism at the interfaith level?KS: It is good, but it is a very small elite, as it were. No one has

ever asked me about the issues you mention, such as cow worship, bindis or caste. In this regard, I would like to point out, there are two kinds of customs. One kind of custom is benign. For example, wearing a bindi, do-ing puja and so on. Some of the customs are malign, as it were, such as untouchability or animal sacrifice. They are also a part of Hinduism, let us remember that. But then that has to be kept aside. We have to tell them that such wrong practices may have been a part of Hinduism at some stage, in some communities, but they are not an essential part of Hinduism. The whole history of Hinduism is a history of constant reform and rearticulation.

For example, Swami Vivek-ananda came and he thundered against the so-called “kitchen religion.” He said that if your re-ligion is so fragile that if you eat with someone [of another caste] and it collapses, then it does not deserve to be a religion. All the great Hindu social reformers have tried to educate the public that the core beliefs of Hinduism are the beliefs of the Vedanta, the Upanishads. But there are some undesirable elements which need to be purged.

There are misconceptions abounding about Hinduism abroad. It is like somebody saying that because the Christians believe that the sacrament, the bread and the wine, is the body and blood of the Christ, therefore Christianity is a cannibalistic religion. If somebody says this, it is prima facie ridiculous. But it can be put in that way. That is the sort of distortion that people do about Hinduism, which is entirely wrong. It is symbolic. Symbolism is of-ten mistaken for the reality. The communion given by the Roman Catholic Church is a symbolism of the divine prasad [food offered to the Deity and then given to the devotee] as it were, which they give, as far as I understand. So you can distort these things if they are not properly explained. One should not approach an interfaith gathering as if it is a debate over the superiority of one religion over another.

HT: What is the key to a better understanding of Hinduism?KS: The big thing in Hinduism is that we are not bound down to

one particular path. Each of us can choose the path, and we can change it in the course of our lifetime. In my own life, for example,

at one stage, my own devotion was to Lord Krishna. But for some mysterious reasons He disappeared behind the veil and Lord Siva came to the front. So, according to one’s developing needs you can change your methodologies. That flexibility is something unique. There are many religions where you cannot change. This is what you must do. This is your prayer. This is your path. And any devia-tion from that path is apostasy, which is to be totally rejected. That is not the approach of Hinduism.

HT: How have recent events impacted the image of Hinduism?KS: The destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and then

these terrible riots in Gujarat have given a very bad impression of Hinduism. It is a well-known fact that Muslim rulers and invaders of India destroyed vast numbers of temples and did all that. But Hindus had the proud privilege of saying that, “Look, we have nev-

er done that.” Now unfortunately after these incidents, questions are being raised. These attacks and riots are very wrong. They are anti-Hindu acts, un-Hindu acts, shall we say. Jihadis have totally discredited Islam, though maybe they represent a tiny frac-tion of Muslims. Now Islam itself has become some kind of a men-ace and threatening force around the world. I wrote an article in which a key sentence was that it would be a tragedy if we do to Hinduism what the jihadis have done to Islam, which is becom-ing a word coterminous with terror and fear. If that happens to Hinduism, that would be a disaster.

HT: What else do you bring up?KS: I talk about Hinduism

and the inner path. For example, when somebody comes to me I ask him, “Are you on an inner path? Maybe outwardly you are a software manufacturer, char-tered accountant, businessman, politician or whatever. What is your inner life ? Are you moving towards something inwardly? Do you have an inner focus in your life?” That is the question which

I ask, one-on-one particularly, or even in groups. I say, “Look, life is fleeting. How long does one last–70, 80 or 90 years? Have you used this life to move towards some kind of inner integration? Or have you just wasted it skimming the surface of consciousness?” Non-Hindus understand the inner-life concept, not perhaps in the same manner as the Hindus would understand it, but they do un-derstand it. If you explain to them that your inner life is important, then they can focus on their inner life. Inner life is also a focus in Christianity, but not always visible. Even in Islam, which is looked upon as severe, there is the Sufi movement, which is a much softer, much more spiritual side. You must see these Sufi dervishes go whirl round and round in great devotion. Even to watch them is a spiritual experience.

HT: How have your talks been received by non-Hindus?KS: You seem to suggest that I must have faced a barrage of hos-

tile questions from these people. No such thing has ever happened to me. In fact, people come to me after my speech and confide,

“This is the first time we have begun to understand some of the ba-sic concepts of Hinduism.” ∏π

Royal representation: Karan Singh at a 2003 interfaith meet-ing in Delhi, India which included many dignitaries of other faiths, including the Dalai Lama (at right)

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n november 27, 1968, brahmaswarup Yogi Maharaj prophesied,

“Pramukh Swami will initiate 700 sadhus.” The newly designated successor’s reaction to this massive

assignment isn’t known. But to put the task of finding, training and ordaining 700 young men into Hindu monastic life in perspective, consider the life of Yogiji’s guru, Brahmas-warup Shastriji Maharaj. He founded the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) in 1906. It is a reform movement promulgating the teach-ings of Lord Swaminarayan, who lived in the mid-18th century. By 1951, Shastriji Maharaj had 50 sadhus in his order of monks. Yogiji

Maharaj added another 100 by the time of his Mahasamadhi in 1971. Among them, he had singled out one as his successor, declar-ing, “Pramukh Swami is my all.”

On May 27, 2003, Pramukh Swami ful-filled his guru’s prophecy at a ceremony at-tended by tens of thousands of devotees in Gondal, India. After worshiping a life-size, and literally moving, image of his guru on stage, Swamishri said, “Due to the divine wish of Yogiji Maharaj, the figure of 700 sadhus will be accomplished today. May the 700 sadhus consolidate ekantik dharma and attain the saintly qualities in their lives.” Ekantik dharma is the collective term for the four endeavors: religious disciplines

and duty, spiritual knowledge, detachment and devotion coupled with knowledge of God’s greatness. “May you understand the glory of all,” Pramukh Swami went on,

“and never see faults in others. We must preserve Yogiji Maharaj’s tradition of katha, kirtan, bhajan, niyam, chesta and darshan (religious oratory, singing, group songs, discipline and vows, kirtans of Lord Swami-narayan and the sight of saints and God).

The ceremony took place at 10:15 am in a huge hall filled with devotees. Nine pra-shads, those who had completed a three-year training program were given orange robes. Twenty-three sadhaks, who had completed a year-and-a-half training, were given five

M O N A S T I C L I F E

The 700th SadhuPramukh Swami Maharaj fulfills prediction during his guru’s birthday

Initiation Rites: Nine new swamis and 23 sadhaks don the sacred thread as they are initiated May 27, 2003, in Gondal, India

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lifetime vows and white robes. The initiated include one from the UK and USA, two from Africa and two from the tribal areas of India. Fourteen hold university degrees, including an MBA. This order as a whole boasts many highly educated monks. Strictly speaking, the ceremony brought in the 703rd sadhu, surpassing the prediction.

Under the guidance of Pramukh Swamiji, the BAPS movement today has one million followers and 3,000 centers worldwide. In addition to its extensive religious work, it is one of the foremost relief organizations in India, and recently concluded impressive reconstruction efforts following the 2001 Gujarat earthquake. The order’s sadhus live extremely strict lives (see following page), yet work closely with family devotees to plan and accomplish huge projects, such as their mas-sive temple in Naesdan, England, and similar temples in the USA and other countries. ∏π

Lord Swaminarayan: Sadhus join with Pramukh Swami Maharaj in the worship of their movement’s founder

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Guru lineage: A young Sri Pramukh Swami consults with Sri Yogiji Maharaj

Sri Yogiji MaharajHe skillfully took the movement into the modern era

ducated young men joined the BAPS monastic order during the time of Yogiji Maharaj between 1951 and 1971. He would send them

out into the fields to pick stones, or have them clean the toilets—tasks at which they had no demonstrable skill and possi-bly even less inclination. Still, they stayed close to the saintly sage, who had himself renounced worldly life at just 18, in 1910, and was initiated as a sadhu and named Jnanjivandasji the following year. He worked very hard as a young monk, even on the seven days a month he performed a waterless fast. Eventually he was known as just “Yogi,” for his ardent religiousness. In 1951, at age 59, he became the BAPS guru, setting out on missions to Africa, and England, countries to which many Gujaratis had emigrated, in addition to traveling extensively in India.

Lord Swaminarayan had, at one point, 3,000 sadhus, out of which he initiated 500 paramhansas who traveled through-out the region preaching to the people. The movement had lost momentum at the turn of the century. Yogiji’s guru, Brahmaswarup Shastriji Maharaj, had just five sadhus in 1906. It has been the century-long mission of this line of gurus

to reestablish the great order of Lord Swaminarayan.

Yogiji Maharaj said of himself, “I do not like people celebrating my birth, or hon-oring me. Rather, I am eager to tolerate rebuke. I am eager to serve and perform the lowest service. From the beginning, my life has been of a sevak (servant of God). I have never liked to be a guru. For 40 years, I have been flogged by hardships. I have endured a great many insults, and so tolerance has become a part of me. I do not have the faintest desire to be wor-shiped, nor possess one seed of pride. I say this with a sincerely honest heart. In my fifty years in satsang (religious meetings), not once have I seen a fault or thought ill of a satsangi, be he the lowest of the low, be he a simpleton with little sense, who knows nothing at all—never have I had an ill thought for anyone, even if he be my enemy. I have cared for everyone. I have served everyone. I have never affronted anyone nor hated anyone.”

One devotee said of meeting him, “I was in Yogiji Maharaj’s divine presence just once and such was his laughter that I always remember it. I have traveled the whole of India, but I have not seen such innocent laughter anywhere.”

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M O N A S T I C L I F E

Sarangpur Sadhu SchoolA rare glimpse inside a remote center that does one thing: train Hindu monks

n 1995, satguru sivaya subramuni-yaswami (Gurudeva), founder of Hin-duism Today, spent three months tra-veling in India with two of his swamis. They met Pramukh Swami Maharaj at

his 75th birthday celebration in Mumbai in a scene that could have been right out of Vedic times, with dozens of orange-robed sadhus gathered around to catch a glimpse of the two gurus as they sat in mostly silent communion. The two had much in common, though they represented two distinct lin-eages of Hinduism, one part of the northern Vaishnava tradition and the other of the southern Saivite lineage. Both taught a path that encompassed devotion and meditation, that insists on the strict and traditional rules of monastic life and that holds the guru es-sential to spiritual advancement.

Pramukh Swami invited Gurudeva to Akshardam in Gandhinagar, north of Mum-bai, and to his nearby Sarangpur monastic training center, established in 1981. Though Gurudeva very much wanted to see these places, his India tour was at that point com-pletely booked. But several weeks later, an unexpected break came in the program in Bangalore, and Gurudeva flew to Gujarat.

He and his swamis first stayed at the Gandhinagar administrative center, then

under construction. It was an impressive display of dedicated religious work, with the hundred-plus sadhus in residence supported by thousands of local devotees running both the construction project and a complex local ministry. The next day, Gurudeva was taken to Akshardham temple, the huge facility that is a temple to Lord Swaminarayan and a series of spacious dis-play halls dedicated to his teachings and life through exhibits, dioramas and historical items in every manner of presentation.

But it was the Sarangpur center that Gurudeva and his swamis were most inter-ested in, for however much the dedication and devotion of the family community, an or-ganization like BAPS remained based upon the solid foundation of renunciate monks, dedicated, trained and ceaseless in their ef-forts to please their guru and worship God. Gurudeva wanted to see how the monks were trained in the BAPS system, answer questions they might have for him, and most importantly, inspire and encourage them in their chosen path, which he so admired.

Gurudeva was whisked to Sarangpur, sev-eral hours along the modern Gujarat road system. The village itself, and it is definitely a village, sits upon the flat plains amidst farm country. The center is a modern com-

plex of two-story buildings that, at the time of the visit, housed more than a hundred monks in training.

Young men at least 21 years of age wish-ing to enter monastic life first spend 12 to 18 months at the center as sadhaks (novices). During this time, they do ashram chores, study the movement’s teachings, memorize religious songs and are prepared for a life of service and austerity, following all the rules of a sadhu except that they are allowed to see their parents. If they prove quali-fied and have the written consent of their parents, Pramukh Swami Maharaj initiates them into the parshad order. Their head is shaven, except for a small tuft, and they wear white robes. After a further 12 to 18 months, they may receive bhagwati diksha and the saffron robes of a full renunciate sannyasin. Their training then continues at Sarangpur for a total of five years. A sig-nificant number of the monks have earned university degrees before joining the order.

One got an immediate sense of how these monks regarded their own guru by the loving reception they accorded Gurudeva. They had all seen and admired Hinduism Today, which is in their library.

There are no separate rooms for individ-ual monks. They sleep in large, open halls,

Kindred spirits: Ashramites listen in rapt attention in 1995 as Gurudeva advises, “Obey your guru. Obey your guru. Obey your guru.”

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many of which, during the day, are filled with clotheslines for drying robes. Bedrolls are neatly stacked on shelving, while each monk has a small cabinet in which to keep his few personal belongings.

The monks do all the work connected with the facility, cleaning, cooking and managing the temple. They rotate services every 15 days. Their day begins at 4:00 am with bathing and personal puja, then temple services, morning chores, breakfast, classes, lunch, personal study, meditation, more classes and, at 7:30 pm the sandhya arti is performed. Then, in a charming tra-dition, each monk touches the feet of all the others and bid “Jai Swaminarayan.” After dinner, there are further activities, with each spending an hour in personal study before bedtime at 11:30 pm.

The four-and-a-half hours of sleep a night is only part of the austerities practiced here. Each monk undertakes a waterless, 24-hour fast five to seven times a month, not counting any other fasts he might impose on himself. For meals, each monk mixes the prepared dishes together in his bowl and partakes of the resulting slurry as a discipline to curb the desire for food. They travel about only in pairs (a practice followed by Gurudeva’s monks as well). They will not touch money, speak to or even look at a woman, and never again return home after receiving the orange robes. It is not possible to draw these men into a worldly conversation, as each returns the subject to religious matters at the first

opportunity. While there are three million Hindu monastics today, most are loosely or-ganized. It is rare to find such a large order of well-trained monks living and serving together.

One of the BAPS monks asked Gurudeva, “People call us fanatics. How should we re-spond?” Gurudeva said, “Take it as a compli-ment. They are only saying so because they are envious of your dedication and enthu-siasm.” In his talks to them, Gurudeva said,

“There is only one duty of the disciple. Obey your guru! Obey your guru! Obey your guru!” Several years later, one of their senior monks was sent into the 2001 Gujarat earth-quake disaster that killed 50,000 people. Pramukh Swami instructed him to direct the relief work for the people. “It seemed an impossible task,” he told Hinduism Today’s reporter, “like the story in the Upanishads of the disciple being sent to the forest with 400 sick cows and told to return only when the herd had reached 1,000. But I recalled Gurudeva’s words, ‘Obey your guru. Obey your guru. Obey your guru.’ and proceeded with confidence.”

After the meeting, each of the monks came forward to receive a handful of flow-ers from Gurudeva. Love and devotion radi-ated from them, just one parcel of their love and devotion for their own guru. It was a memorable visit, and uplifting for both mo-nastic orders. Gurudeva later commented, “I have never seen such a training center for Hindu monks anywhere in the world.” ∏π

Training: (clockwise from top left) Classes with a senior sadhu may cover scripture, English, Hindi, Sanskrit, music, art and other subjects; Gurudeva being shown the computer facility; robes hang to dry aloft and food bowls hang below in the dining hall; bed rolls neatly packed in rack; each gets one shelf to hold personal belongings.

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ccording to legend, the fi rst Virat Rajsuya Yagna was conducted by Lord Krishna some 5,000 years ago at the end of a vast span of time called

the Dwapara Yuga. The purpose of that great fi re ceremony was to protect mankind from the impending calamities of the coming Kali Yuga, the “age of darkness” in which we now live. It has been said that the Rajsuya Yagna was continually practiced into the Kali Yuga. However, Sri Swami Pragyanand, President, Delhi Sant Mahal Mandal, Pragya Mission International, New Delhi, is the only one do-ing it today. And he is doing it in a very big way. His massive, multifaceted, seven-day extravaganzas take place in the village of Ka-tangi near Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, a two-day train ride southeast of New Delhi.

They have been performed annually now for six years consecutively, and are a marvel to behold. During these yagnas, a notable variety of enjoyments are provided to coun-terbalance the inherent austerity of long fi re ceremonies, solemn prayers and serious proclamations. These include plenty of food, entertainment, games and ferris wheel rides for the kids. Swami also distributes blankets, wheel chairs and hearing aids to the disabled and needy.

During the most recent yagna, which oc-curred from November 4 through 10, 2003, and was attended by thousands, Swami in-augurated an eye hospital for the poor and a school for local tribal girls. One hundred sadhus from all over India attended the event as featured guests. Among these, two

distinguished holy men were honored: Kan-nuaj Peethadhishwar Swami Ananda Teer-tha, 96, and Swami Lakshman Sharan Sakhi Baba, 92. Famous bhajana singers Tripti Shakya and Shri Jagdish Dewan provided high-quality musical entertainment.“The world faces problems of air and water

pollution,” Swami Pragyananda exclaimed during his keynote address. “But what about pollution of the mind? This is the main chal-lenge we face, and no one seems to have a solution. This is why I have decided to per-form these mahayagnas. They will purify the minds of people worldwide. Purity of mind brings up the inclination to serve. A lot of energy has been generated through this yagna. This energy can be used to help the poor and serve mankind.” ∏π


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M A D H Y A P R A D E S H

Seeking peace through ancient ritual

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The making of the magic: (Clockwise from upper left) Swami Pragyananda offi ciates at one of fi ve main kunds (fi re pits) during the yagna. Devotees simultaneously offer nine kinds of grain into each of 103 other smaller, secondary kunds. Hundreds of happy pilgrims gather to hear Swami Pragyananda extol the merits of purity and service.

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The Healing Temple

By Vrindavanam S. Gopalakrishnan, Ernakulam, Kerala, India

hen one hears the name of Ettumanur, a small town in

southeastern Kerala, the beloved Ettumanar Mahadevar and His ancient temple always come to

mind. Now under government administra-tion, this traditional Kerala-style temple, situated 61 km southeast of the port city of Cochin, is believed to be one of the oldest temples in the state, with legends connect-ing it with the Vedic era of 5,000 years ago.

Even with today’s relentless onslaught of materialism and the resultant atheism, the greatness and glory of this temple has not dwindled in the slightest. The fact that thousands of devotees rush to the temple every day to fulfi ll their numberless desires and to get cured of so many incurable dis-eases proves that the power of this sacred place has not faded, but has only increased with the passage of time, says Mr. V.K. So-masekharan Nair, a retired college professor.

“The number of devotees who have been blessed by the Aghoramurti (the temple’s main icon, a Sivalinga representing God Siva’s fi ery, life-transforming aspect) is leg-

endary. Owing to the all-pervading power of the Aghoramurti, the temple stands fi rst among places of worship and pilgrimage in the South. That is why it attracts devotees not only from India but from abroad,” he adds. Devotees hold that any incurable dis-ease will be cured and any desire will be fulfi lled by pilgrimaging to this temple.

Hinduism Today spoke with some of the benefi ciaries of Ettumanur Mahadevar’s renowned power, who have been cured of such serious ailments as epilepsy and pep-tic ulcers. When asked about the mercy of the Lord, tears of joy rolled down the cheeks of 53-year-old Sukumariamma of Ernakulam. She was suffering from pain in the stomach and had been on medica-tion for a long time, but the medications provided no permanent solution to her agony. Eventually, an old woman suggested that she take a vow to offer thulabharam, her weight in rice, before the God. Suku-mariamma took the suggestion, and also began reciting the mantra “Aum Namah Sivaya” while taking her medications. To her astonishment, after about a fortnight she started to feel relief. She said, “I offered the thulabharam, and ever since I have

made a point to visit the Mahadevar temple at least once a month to offer my prayers.”

Mr. S. Mani of Thiruvalla, a town 50 km south of Ettumanur, narrated his experi-ence. He started having epileptic seizures when he was 26 years old. He was given sedatives and other medications, but they didn’t help. On the advice of a friend, he went to Ettumanur Mahadevar and surren-dered before the Lord, remaining there for several days while chanting “Aum Namah Sivaya.” The head priest gave him blessed, medicated ghee to take in the early morn-ing for 41 days while observing a penance. Thereafter, his seizures ceased. Mani ex-claimed, “Ettumanur Mahadevar is a very powerful Lord!” The devotees of this temple have numberless miraculous experiences to relate, including the curing of skin diseases and chronic asthma.

Believers of other faiths come and offer prayers here, too. During the annual festival in February/March, several thousand peo-ple congregate, but there are never any un-toward incidents. Once a person enters the walls of the compound, he is self-disciplined and controlled, said a senior police offi cial.

According to Mr. Mathur V.P. Panicker,

Ettumanur in Kerala is an oasis of relief for sufferers from all faiths

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Gilded in gold: (clockwise from left) The impressively tall, golden flagstaff stands outside the temple entrance; a priest fills offering cups full of sesame oil for the large lamp; the solid gold baby elephant

a retired executive engineer from the State Public Works Department and currently the head of the temple man-agement committee, many notable names from the scrip-tures are associated with this great temple. It is believed that the Pandavas and Sage Vyasa (both ca 3100 bce) worshiped here. The great philosopher-monk and Hindu reformer Sri Adi Shankaracharya (788-820) showed his devotion to God Siva here, and composed his poem “Saundarya Lahari” during his visit to the temple.

The Ettumanur Mahadevar temple shines in the annals of ancient India, Panicker says. The great saint Khara Praka-sha worshiped God Siva here to alleviate his sins and prayed for blessings to consecrate a Sivalinga for the benefit of all humanity. God Siva appeared and presented his own icon to the saint, who then installed the Sivalinga in the sanctum sanctorum facing the unusual direction of West. This two-foot-high Sival-inga is the primary object of worship in the temple today.

Several more legends link the temple’s ori-gins to the Vedic era. One belief is that the Maniman Tirtham mentioned in the Vama-na Purana and the Padma Purana is Ettu-manur. Another story, in which Saint Khara Maharshi disguised himself as a deer and persuaded Siva to carry him around, gives Ettumanur its name, which in Malayalam means “the place where the deer was carried.”

The Pandyan King Chanda Bhaskara was exorcised of demonic spirits with the blessings of the Lord at Ettumanur and constructed the present temple in gratitude in 1540. The gifted architects of that time exhibited great skill in their art here. Both the functional, architectural wood carvings and those of a purely decorative nature are distinguished as some of the most expertly executed examples of Kerala’s long-standing and famous wood-carving tradition. The paintings on the walls are the oldest (early 16th century) and most celebrated example of Keralan murals. In one painting, God Siva as Pradosha Nataraja is depicted in a blissfully radiant, gloriously energetic dance. This particular painting is considered a

landmark in the history of traditional Kerala temple painting.

The unusual, circular sanctum sanctorum of the presiding Deity is constructed on an elevated sloping deck of black granite. Ad-mission into the sanctum is strictly reserved for the chief priest and his assistants. As the space directly facing the sanctum is limited, only a handful of devotees can have darshan of the Deity at a time. Also within the sanctum, facing South, is enshrined an image of Siva as Dakshinamurti, the silent, primordial guru. Nearby is an icon of Lord Ganesha, and opposite the main Deity, in a large hall, is a pillar dedicated to Goddess Bhagavati. A small shrine in the north wing of the temple is dedicated to Lord Dharma Sastha, more popularly known as Ayyappan.

Several offerings made by kings and other devotees of yore are unique to Ettumanur Mahadevar Temple. King Marthanda Varma of the erstwhile Travancore state offered seven large, solid gold elephants, each weigh-ing 210 lb, as well as an eighth gold baby elephant and a pile of gold areca nuts. These were offered in 1753 as atonement for the destruction of temple property caused in his campaign to annex neighboring territories.

Chempakassery King Devanarayanan of the mid-17th century visited the temple to offer prayers and gifted a huge, 500-lb

bronze ox filled with chennullu, a variety of paddy grain—in gratitude for the Lord’s curing the king of his stomach ailments. It is believed by many that eating a few blessed rice grains taken from the belly of the giant bronze ox will provide immediate relief for any stomach disease. The presence of so much gold and the power of the temple to cure so many devotees explains why this is one of the wealthiest temples in the state, at-tracting an income of US$200,000 annually.

One of the most impressive features of Ettumanur is the valia vilakku, a giant oil lamp at the entrance to the temple. “The soot that accumulates on the underside of the shade of the lamp has been found to cure many eye diseases,” says Mr. Panicker. The focus of offerings is typically in the direction of this legendary lamp. Devotees pour sesame oil into the lamp by the jug, and over 4,000 liters of overflowing oil is collected each month. “The oil is collected in a tank underground and is pumped into a tank in the temple store,” said Mr. Jagmohan Das, an administrative officer of the temple. Some of the surplus oil is distributed to other temples, and the balance is auctioned. Panicker says, “This lamp has remained lit for over 450 years, giving spiritual light to the millions of devotees who grope about in the dark seeking divine illumination.” ∏π

Procession: Solid gold el-ephants stand before their elaborately caparisoned living counterparts while ceremo-nial torches are lit and held before each one for the annual festival’s main parade.

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is holiness, hindu dharm samrat Paramhans Sri Swami Madhavanan-da Puriji Maharaj entered into Maha-sa madhi, making his transition from

this world in Jodhpur on October 31, 2003. Thousands of devotees, including his desig-nated successor, His Holiness Vishwa Guru Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Ma-heshwaranandaji, attended the internment ceremony on November 2 at Om Ashram in Rajasthan State, India. Bhajana, religious singing, continued nonstop until the 14th when Swami Maheshwarananda was for-mally installed as Mahashishya, or succes-sor. A report from the ashram describes the rites, “Thousands of sadhus and sannyasins from various sects and ashrams and tens of thousands of devotees came to witness and celebrate the declaration. Special guests of honor were the Mahamandaleshwars from Maha Nirvani Akhara (leaders of one of

Hinduism’s largest monastic orders) and the Ambassador of Croatia, personally asked to attend by Croatian President Stjepan Me-sic. With mighty sounds of drums, horns and conch, Swamiji was invited to take the seat of the Holy Guruji. As he did so, he received the offi cial chadar, shawl, designat-ing him as successor of this great lineage.” Sri Madha vanandji himself had succeeded Bhagwan Sri Deep Narayan Mahaprabhuji, who passed on in 1963 at age 135.

Sri Madhavanandaji was born on Septem-ber 11, 1923, as Tekchanda Garg in the vil-lage of Nipal, Rajasthan. His father was a pandit and learned astrologer, and a humble devotee of Lord Siva and Lord Rama. His mother was deeply devoted to Lord Krishna.

In Lila Amrit–the Divine Self of Sri Maha-prabhuji, the story of his guru’s life, Swami Madhavanandaji wrote of their fi rst meet-ing. “From early childhood, I felt strongly at-

tracted to God Krishna. I even used to weep in my relentless longing to see him. I was sent to school but had quite a diffi cult time there because I could not concentrate on the lessons; my thoughts were always on Lord Krishna. Eventually I returned to Nipal and began to read and study the Bhagavad Gita every day. I prayed to Surya, the Sun God, and to Durga Mata, the Holy Mother. I used to go on nine-day fasts for Her, but most of all I prayed to Lord Krishna to be merciful and appear to me in my meditations. “How bitter were the tears I shed, loving

Him so much and not being able to see Him! In those moments I frequently had the feel-ing of a voice within me saying, ‘Be calm. The Lord will come to you.’ One day I was again praying to Lord Krishna from the depths of my soul, ‘O Krishna, my Beloved God. I have heard Your holy promise deep within me. How long must I wait? When will I see You?’ In that moment a glorious vision of the Lord appeared before my in-ner eye. ‘Three and one-half months from today, at ten o’clock in the evening, you will see me with open eyes,’ he said. ‘Remember this.’ He disappeared, leaving me with an unworldly sense of security. “The Lord of Gods Himself, I knew, was

going to take care of me. Fortunately, not too long after that Mahaprabhuji was invited by the Maharaja of Jodhpur to that city and so he blessed the people there with his glorious satsangs. Since Jodhpur was at a manage-able distance, I decided to take this oppor-tunity to visit him for the fi rst time. I arrived at Jodhpur by train at nine o’clock in the evening and directly went to Mahaprabhuji’s satsang. To my utter bewilderment, when I stood before him at ten o’clock, I saw none other than the Lord Krishna to whom I daily prayed in my meditation.

My eyes fi lled with tears and I fell to my knees. I had only one wish and that was to surrender myself completely. Merciful Ma-haprabhuji placed his holy hand on my fore-head. ‘My son, I have saved you forever. Re-member the words I spoke to you three and one-half months ago in your meditation.’ As they must, the words of the Lord had come true. From that moment on I dedicated my life to him and promised to stay with him forever. At the age of seventeen I knew I had found the everlasting Light of my life and decided to spend the rest of my life under his merciful shelter. I took initiation as a swami in 1942, at the age of 19.”

For more than 20 years Paramhans Swami Madhavanandaji lived with Sri Maha pra bhuji and during that time faithfully recorded Mahaprabhuji’s religious songs and discours-es. After his guru’s passing, he traveled to Europe and North America and preached throughout India. Today his work is carried on globally by His Holiness, Paramhas Swa-mi Maheshwar anandaji. ∏π


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tracted to God Krishna. I even used to weep in my relentless longing to see him. I was sent to school but had quite a diffi cult time there because I could not concentrate on the lessons; my thoughts were always on Lord Krishna. Eventually I returned to Nipal and began to read and study the every day. I prayed to Surya, the Sun God, and to Durga Mata, the Holy Mother. I used to go on nine-day fasts for Her, but most of all I prayed to Lord Krishna to be merciful and appear to me in my meditations. “How bitter were the tears I shed, loving

Him so much and not being able to see Him! In those moments I frequently had the feel-ing of a voice within me saying, ‘Be calm. The Lord will come to you.’ One day I was again praying to Lord Krishna from the depths of my soul, ‘O Krishna, my Beloved God. I have heard Your holy promise deep within me. How long must I wait? When will I see You?’ In that moment a glorious vision of the Lord appeared before my in-ner eye. ‘Three and one-half months from today, at ten o’clock in the evening, you will see me with open eyes,’ he said. ‘Remember this.’ He disappeared, leaving me with an unworldly sense of security. “The Lord of Gods Himself, I knew, was

going to take care of me. Fortunately, not too long after that Mahaprabhuji was invited by the Maharaja of Jodhpur to that city and so he blessed the people there with his glorious

Sri Deep Ashram founder attains Mahasamadhi at age 81; succeeded by Swami Maheshwarananda

Krishna’s devotee: Swami Madhavananda Puri touched the lives of hundreds of thousands across India and the world through his inspired teaching and singing

T R A N S I T I O N

Paramhans Madhavananda

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Lord Vishnu stands with the vast ocean of truth behind Him. In the

sky above, ten birds—symbolizing persistent misconceptions about

Hinduism—take fl ight as we tackle ten common questions about our faith.

PLUS…

Hinduism’s Code Of Conduct: theYamas & Niyamas

Ten Questions people ask

About Hinduism …and ten terrific answers!

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© 2004 by Himalayan Academy, 107 Kaholalele Road, Kapaa, Hawaii 96746To order additional copies of this Educational Insight, e-mail: [email protected] Similar resources on the web include “Four Facts of Hinduism,” “Nine Beliefs of Hinduism” and “How to Win an Argument with a Meat-Eater.” You can access these at www.himalayanacademy.com/basics.

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ave you ever been put on the spot with a provocative question about Hinduism, even one that really shouldn’t be so hard to answer? If so, you are not alone. It takes some good preparation and a little attitude adjustment to confi dently fi eld queries on your faith—be they from

friendly co-workers, students, passersby or especially from Chris-tian evangelists. Back in the spring of 1990, a group of teens from the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago, Lemont, sent a re-quest to HINDUISM TODAY for “offi cial answers” to nine questions they were commonly asked by their peers. These questions had perplexed the Hindu youth themselves; and their parents had no convincing answers. Satguru Sivaya Sub-ramuniyaswami took up the challenge and provided the following answers to the nine questions. Perusing the list for this edition of the magazine, we thought it crucial to add a tenth dialog on caste, since that is the most relentless criticism Hinduism faces today.

Let’s begin with advice on the attitudes to hold when responding. First, ask yourself,

“Who is asking the question?” Millions of peo-ple are sincerely interested in Hinduism and the many Asian religions. So, when asked about Hinduism, don’t be defensive, even if the questioner seems confrontational. Instead, assume that the person really wants to learn. Of course, some only want to harass, badger and turn you to their view. If you sense this is the case, feel free to smile and courteous-ly dismiss yourself without any attempt to answer, lest you simply add fuel to his fi res.

With all this in mind, it is still best never to answer a question about religion too boldly or too immediately. That might lead to con-frontation. Offer a prologue fi rst, then come to the question, guiding the inquirer toward understanding. Your poise and deliberateness gives assurance that you know what you are talking about. It also gives you a moment to think and draw on your intuitive knowing. Before going deeply into an an-swer, always ask the questioner what his religion is. Knowing that, you can address his particular frame of mind and make your answer most relevant. Another key: have confi dence in yourself and your ability to give a meaningful and polite response. Even to say “I am sorry. I still have much to learn about my religion and I don’t yet know the answer to that” is a meaningful answer. Honesty is always appreciated. Never be afraid to admit what you don’t know, for this lends credibility to what you do know.

Here are four prologues that can be used, according to the situation, before you begin to actually answer a question. 1) “I am really pleased that you are interested in my religion. You

may not know that one out of every six people in the world is a Hindu.” 2) “Many people have asked me about my tradition. I don’t know everything, but I will try to answer your question.” 3) “First, you should know that in Hinduism, it is not only be-lief and intellectual understanding that is important. Hindus place the greatest value on experiencing each of these truths personally.” 4) The fourth type of prologue is to repeat the ques-tion to see if the person has actually stated what he wants to know. Repeat the question in your own words and ask if you have understood his query correctly. If it’s a complicated question, you might begin by saying, “Philosophers have spent lifetimes

discussing and pondering questions such as this, but I will do my best to explain.”

Have courage. Speak from your inner mind. Sanatana Dharma is an experiential path, not a dogma, so your experience in answering questions will help your own spiritual unfoldment. You will learn from your answers if you listen to your inner mind speak. This can actually be a lot of fun. The attentive teacher always learns more than the student.

After the prologue, address the question without hesitation. If the person is sincere, you can ask, “Do you have any other ques-tions?” If he wants to know more, then elaborate as best you can. Use easy, ev-eryday examples. Share what enlightened souls and scriptures of Hinduism have said on the subject. Remember, we must not as-sume that everyone who asks about Hindu-ism is insincere or is challenging our faith. Many are just being friendly or making con-versation to get to know you. So don’t be on the defensive or take it all too seriously.

Smile when you give your response. Be open. If the second or third question is on something you know nothing about, you can say, “I don’t know. But if you are really interested, I will fi nd out, mail you some literature or lend you one of my books.” Smile and have confi dence as you give these answers. Don’t be shy. There is no question that can be put to you in your birth karmas that you cannot rise up to with a fi ne answer to fully satisfy the seeker. You may make lifelong friends in this way.

Each of the ten answers is organized with a short response that can be committed to memory, a longer answer, and a detailed ex-planation. Many questioners will be content with the short, simple answer, so start with that fi rst. Use the explanation as background information for yourself, or as a contingency response in case you end up in a deeper philosophical discussion. Additional resources can be found at: www.himalayanacademy.com/basics/.

II hinduism today a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04

A visitor to India questions an elder about temple ceremonies and customs

Humanity’s most profound faith is now a global phenomenon. Students, teachers, neighbors and friends are full of questions. Misconceptions run rampant. Here are ten thoughtful answers you can use to set the record straight.

PART 1: TEN QUESTIONS

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11ontrary to prevailingmisconceptions, Hindus all worship a one Supreme Being, though by different names.

This is because the peoples of In-dia with different languages and cultures have understood the one God in their own distinct way. Through history there arose four principal Hindu denominations—Saivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism and Smartism. For Sai vites, God is Siva. For Shaktas, Goddess Shakti is supreme. For Vaish-navites, Lord Vishnu is God. For Smartas—who see all Deities as refl ections of the One God—the choice of Deity is left to the devo-tee. This liberal Smarta perspec-tive is well known, but it is not the prevailing Hindu view. Due to this diversity, Hindus are pro-foundly tolerant of other religions, respecting the fact that each has its own pathway to the one God.

One of the unique understand-ings in Hinduism is that God is not far away, living in a remote heaven, but is inside each and every soul, in the heart and con-sciousness, waiting to be discov-ered. This knowing that God is always with us gives us hope and courage. Knowing the One Great God in this intimate and experi-ential way is the goal of Hindu spirituality.

Elaboration: Hinduism is both monotheistic and henotheistic. Hindus were never polytheistic, in the sense that there are many equal Gods. Henotheism (literally

“one God”) better defi nes the Hindu view. It means the worship of one God without denying the existence of other Gods. We Hin-dus believe in the one all-pervasive God who energizes the entire universe. We can see Him in the life shining out of the eyes of humans and all creatures. This view of God as existing in and giving life to all things is called panentheism. It is different from

pantheism, which is the belief that God is the natural universe and nothing more. It is also dif-ferent from strict theism which says God is only above the world, apart and transcendent. Panen-theism is an all-encompassing concept. It says that God is both in the world and beyond it, both immanent and transcendent. That is the highest Hindu view.

Hindus also believe in many Gods who perform various func-tions, like executives in a large corporation. These should not be confused with the Supreme God. These Divinities are highly ad-vanced beings who have specifi c duties and powers—not unlike the heavenly spirits, overlords or archangels revered in other faiths. Each denomination wor-ships the Supreme God and its own pantheon of divine beings.

What is sometimes confusing to non-Hindus is that Hindus of various sects may call the one God by many different names, according to their denomina-tion or regional tradition. Truth for the Hindu has many names, but that does not make for many truths. Hinduism gives us the freedom to approach God in our own way, encouraging a mul-tiplicity of paths, not asking for conformity to just one.

There is much confusion about this subject, even among Hindus. Learn the right terms and the subtle differences in them, and you can explain the profound ways Hindus look at Divinity. Others will be delighted with the richness of the Indian concepts of God. You may wish to mention that some Hindus believe only in the formless Absolute Reality as God; others believe in God as personal Lord and Creator. This freedom makes the understanding of God in Hinduism, the old-est living religion, the richest in all of Earth’s existing faiths.

Why does Hinduism have so many Gods?Hindus all believe in one Supreme God who created the universe. He is all-pervasive. He created many Gods, highly advanced spiritual beings, to be His helpers.

a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04 h i n d u i s m t o d ay III

Hindus all worship the One Supreme God, called by various names, depending on their denomination, and they revere a multitude of angelic beings, which they call Gods. Above, the central fi gure is Lord Siva, worshiped as the Supreme Being by Saivites and many other Hindus. Cradled in His hands are other great beings, known as Gods, including Lord Ganesha.


22arnate means “of flesh,”and reincarnate means to

“reenter the fl esh.” Yes, Hin-dus believe in reincarnation.

To us, it explains the natural way the soul evolves from immaturity to spiritual illumination. Life and death are realities for all of us. Hinduism believes that the soul is immortal, that it never dies, but inhabits one body after another on the Earth during its evolution-ary journey. Like the caterpillar’s transformation into a butterfl y, physical death is a most natural transition for the soul, which sur-vives and, guided by karma, con-tinues its long pilgrimage until it is one with God.

I myself have had many lives before this one and expect to have more. Finally, when I have it all worked out and all the les-sons have been learned, I will at-tain enlightenment and moksha, liberation. This means I will still exist, but will no longer be pulled back to be born in a physical body.

Even modern science is discov-ering reincarnation. There have been many cases of individuals’ remembering their past lives. These have been researched by scientists, psychiatrists and para-psychologists during the past de-cades and documented in good books and videos. Young children speak of vivid past-life memories, which fade as they grow older, as the veils of individuality shroud the soul’s intuitive understanding. Great mystics speak of their past lives as well. So do our ancient scriptures, the Vedas, reveal the reality of reincarnation.

Reincarnation is believed in by the Jains and the Sikhs, by the Indians of the Americas, and by the Buddhists, certain Jewish sects, the Pagans and the many indigenous faiths. Even Chris-tianity originally taught reincarnation, but formally renounced

it in the twelfth century. It is, in fact, one of the widest held ar-ticles of faith on planet Earth.

Elaboration: At death the soul leaves the physical body. But the soul does not die. It lives on in a subtle body called the astral body. The astral body exists in the nonphysical dimension called the astral plane, which is also the world we are in during our dreams at night when we sleep. Here we continue to have experiences until we are reborn again in another physical body as a baby. Each reincarnating soul chooses a home and a family which can best fulfi ll its next step of learning and maturation.

After many lifetimes of fol-lowing dharma, the soul is fully matured in love, wisdom and knowledge of God. There is no longer a need for physical birth, for all lessons have been learned, all karmas fulfi lled. That soul is then liberated, freed from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Evolution then continues in the more refi ned spiritual worlds. Similarly, after we graduate from elementary school we never have to go back to the fi fth grade. We have gone beyond that level in understanding. Thus, life’s ultimate goal is not money, not clothes, not sex, not power, not food or any other of the instinc-

tive needs. These are natural pursuits, but our real purpose on this Earth is to know, to love and to serve God and the Gods. That leads to the rare and priceless objects of life: enlightenment and liberation. This Hindu view of the soul’s evolution answers many otherwise bewildering questions, removing the fear of death while giving assurance that each soul is evolving toward the same spiritual destiny, for the Hindu believes that karma and reincarnation are leading every single soul to God Realization.

Do Hindus believe in reincarnation?Yes, we believe the soul is immortal and takes birth time and time again. Through this process, we have experiences, learn lessons and evolve spiritually. Finally we graduate from physical birth.

IV hinduism today a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04

Each soul evolves by experiencing many varied lives through reincarnation, called punarjanma in Sanskrit, the process wherein the soul repeatedly takes on a physical body through being born on Earth. Here, a soul, represented by the ray of light, is shown in seven successive lives. Reincarnation is a purposeful maturing process governed by the law of karma.


33arma is one of the nat-ural laws of the mind, just as gravity is a law of matter. Just as God cre-

ated gravity to bring order to the physical world, He created karma as a divine system of justice that is self-governing and infi nitely fair. It automatically creates the appropriate future experience in response to the current action. Karma simply means “action” or

“cause and effect.” When some-thing happens to us that is appar-ently unfortunate or unjust, it is not God punishing us. It is the re-sult of our own past actions. The Vedas, Hinduism’s revealed scrip-ture, tell us if we sow goodness, we will reap goodness; if we sow evil, we will reap evil. Thus we create our own destiny through thought and action. And the di-vine law is: whatever karma we are experiencing in our life is just what we need at the moment, and nothing can happen but that we have the strength to meet it. Even harsh karma, when faced in wis-dom, can be the greatest catalyst for spiritual growth. Understand-ing the way karma works, we seek to live a good and virtuous life through right thought, right speech and right action. This is called dharma.

Elaboration: Karma is basi-cally energy. I throw energy out through thoughts, words and deeds, and it comes back to me, in time, through other people. Karma is our best teacher, for we must always face the consequences of our actions and thus im-prove and refi ne our behavior, or suffer if we do not. We Hindus look at time as a circle, as things cycle around again. Professor Einstein came to the same conclusion. He saw time as a curve, and space as well. This would eventually make a circle. Karma is a very just law which, like gravity, treats everyone the same.

Because we Hindus understand karma, we do not hate or resent people who do us harm. We un-derstand they are giving back the effects of the causes we set in motion at an earlier time. The law of karma puts man at the center of responsibility for ev-erything he does and everything that is done to him.

Karma is a word we hear quite often on television. “This is my karma,” or “It must have been something I did in a past life to bring such good karma to me.” We hear karma simply defi ned as “What goes around, comes around.” In some schools of Hin-duism, karma is looked upon as something bad—perhaps be-cause we are most aware of this law when we are facing diffi cult karma, and not so aware of it when life is going smoothly. Even some Hindus equate karma with sin, and this is what evangelical Christians preach that it means. Many people believe that karma means “fate,” a preordained des-tiny over which one has no con-trol, which is also untrue.

The process of action and reac-tion on all levels—physical, men-tal and spiritual—is karma. Here is an example. I say kind words to you, and you feel peaceful and happy. I say harsh words to you, and you become ruffl ed and up-

set. The kindness and the harshness will return to me, through others, at a later time. This is karma. An architect thinks creative, productive thoughts while drawing plans for a new building. But were he to think destructive, unproductive thoughts, he would soon not be able to accomplish any kind of positive task even if he desired to do so. This is karma, a natural law of the mind. We must also be very careful about our thoughts, because thought creates, and thoughts make karmas—good, bad and mixed.

What is karma? Karma is the universal principle of cause and effect. Our actions, both good and bad, come back to us in the future, help-ing us to learn from life’s lessons and become better people.

arma is one of the nat-

a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04 h i n d u i s m t o d ay V

One of the best examples of karma is that you can’t give any-thing away but that generosity will return to you, with interest. Here, in the upper scene, a lady happily gives clothing to a youth. Below, she receives an unexpected gift from a neighbor as the karma of her good deed brings its natural reward. By wisely heeding karma’s ways, we tread the path of dharma.


44indus regard all living-creatures as sacred—mam-mals, fi shes, birds and more. We acknowledge

this reverence for life in our spe-cial affection for the cow. At fes-tivals we decorate and honor her, but we do not worship her in the sense that we worship the Deity.

To the Hindu, the cow sym-bolizes all other creatures. The cow is a symbol of the Earth, the nourisher, the ever-giving, unde-manding provider. The cow rep-resents life and the sustenance of life. The cow is so generous, taking nothing but water, grass and grain. It gives and gives and gives of its milk, as does the lib-erated soul give of his spiritual knowledge. The cow is so vital to life, the virtual sustainer of life, for many humans. The cow is a symbol of grace and abundance. Veneration of the cow instills in Hindus the virtues of gentleness, receptivity and connectedness with nature.

Elaboration: Who is the great-est giver on planet Earth today? Who do we see on every table in every country of the world—breakfast, lunch and dinner? It is the cow. McDonald’s cow-vend-ing golden arches and their ri-vals have made fortunes on the humble cow. The generous cow gives milk and cream, yogurt and cheese, butter and ice cream, ghee and buttermilk. It gives en-tirely of itself through sirloin, ribs, rump, porterhouse and beef stew. Its bones are the base for soup broths and glues. It gives the world leather belts, leather seats, leather coats and shoes, beef jerky, cowboy hats—you name it. The only cow-question for Hindus is, “Why don’t more people respect and protect this remarkable creature?” Mahatma Gandhi once said, “One can measure the greatness of a nation and its moral progress by the

way it treats its animals. Cow protection to me is not mere protection of the cow. It means protection of all that lives and is helpless and weak in the world. The cow means the entire subhu-man world.”

In the Hindu tradition, the cow is honored, garlanded and given special feedings at festivals all over India, most importantly the annual Gopashtama festival. Demonstrating how dearly Hin-dus love their cows, colorful cow jewelry and clothing is sold at fairs all over the Indian country-side. From a young age, Hindu children are taught to decorate the cow with garlands, paint and ornaments. Her nature is epito-mized in Kamadhenu, the divine, wish-fulfi lling cow. The cow and her sacred gifts—milk and ghee in particular—are essential ele-ments in Hindu worship, penance and rites of passage. In India, more than 3,000 institutions called Gaushalas, maintained by charitable trusts, care for old and infi rm cows. And while many Hindus are not vegetarians, most respect the still widely held code of abstaining from eating beef.

By her docile, tolerant na-ture, the cow exemplifi es the cardinal virtue of Hinduism, noninjury, known as ahim-sa. The cow also symbolizes

dignity, strength, endurance, maternity and selfl ess service. In the Vedas, cows represent wealth and joyous Earthly life.

From the Rig Veda (4.28.1;6) we read. “The cows have come and have brought us good fortune. In our stalls, contented, may they stay! May they bring forth calves for us, many-colored, giving milk for Indra each day. You make, O cows, the thin man sleek; to the unlovely you bring beauty. Rejoice our homestead with pleasant lowing. In our assemblies we laud your vigor.”

Why Do Hindus worship the cow?Hindus don’t worship cows. We respect, honor and adore the cow. By honoring this gentle animal, who gives more than she takes, we honor all creatures.

VI hinduism today a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04

Hindus never worship cows, but they do revere them as the perfect example of Divinity in all forms of life. Here a girl gar-lands a cow whose horns are painted and adorned with brass tips and tassels. Her sister offers fresh grass. In India, the cow is honored, adored and protected as a symbol of wealth, strength, abundance, selfl ess giving and a full Earthly life.


55he stone or metal deityimages in Hindu temples

and shrines are not mere symbols of the Gods. They

are the form through which their love, power and blessings fl ood forth into this world. We may lik en this mystery to our abil-ity to communicate with others through the telephone. We do not talk to the telephone; rather we use it as a means of communica-tion with another person. With-out the telephone, we could not converse across long distances; and without the sanctifi ed icon in the temple, we cannot easily commune with the Deity. Divin-ity can also be invoked and felt in a sacred fi re, or in a tree, or in the enlightened person of a satguru. In our temples, God is invoked in the sanctum by highly trained priests. Through the practice of yoga, or meditation, we invoke God inside ourself. Yoga means to yoke oneself to God within. The image or icon of worship is a fo-cus for our prayers and devotions.

Another way to explain icon worship is to acknowledge that Hindus believe God is every-where, in all things, whether stone, wood, creatures or people. So, it is not surprising that they feel com-fortable worshiping the Divine in His material manifestation. The Hindu can see God in stone and water, fi re, air and ether, and inside his own soul. Indeed, there are Hindu temples which have in the sanctum sanctorum no im-age at all but a yantra, a symbolic or mystic diagram. However, the sight of the image en hances the devotee’s worship.

Elaboration: In Hinduism one of the ultimate attainments is when the seeker transcends the need of all form and symbol. This is the yogi’s goal. In this way Hinduism is the least idol-ori-ented of all the religions of the world. There is no religion that is

more aware of the transcendent, timeless, formless, causeless Truth. Nor is there any religion which uses more symbols to rep-resent Truth in preparation for that realization.

Humorously speaking, Hindus are not idle worshipers. I have never seen a Hindu worship in a lazy or idle way. They wor-ship with great vigor and devo-tion, with unstinting regularity and constancy. There’s nothing idle about our ways of worship! (A little humor never hurts.) But, of course, the question is about “graven images.” All re-ligions have their symbols of holiness through which the sa-cred fl ows into the mundane. To name a few: the Christian cross, or statues of Mother Mary and Saint Theresa, the holy Kaaba in Mecca, the Sikh Adi Granth enshrined in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the Arc and Torah of the Jews, the image of a medi-tating Buddha, the totems of in-digenous and Pagan faiths, and the artifacts of the holy men and women of all religions. Such icons, or graven images, are held in awe by the followers of the re-spective faiths. The question is, does this make all such religion-ists idol worshipers? The answer is, yes and no. From our perspec-tive, idol worship is an intelligent,

mystical practice shared by all of the world’s great faiths.The human mind releases itself from suffering through the use

of forms and symbols that awaken reverence, evoke sanctity and spiritual wisdom. Even a fundamentalist Christian who rejects all forms of idol worship, including those of the Catholic and Episcopal churches, would resent someone who showed disre-spect for his Bible. This is because he considers it sacred. His book and the Hindu’s icon are much alike in this way.

Are Hindus idol worshipers? Hindus do not worship a stone or metal “idol” as God. We worship God through the image. We invoke the presence of God from the higher, unseen worlds, into the image so that we can commune with Him and receive His blessings.

a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04 h i n d u i s m t o d ay VII

A devotee looks within and beyond the bronze dancing Siva to behold God in His spiritual body of light. Dressed in tradi-tional Hindu garb, the man is performing his daily puja in his home shrine—chanting Sanskrit mantras, offering fruit, water, fl owers, incense and light—worshiping devoutly, beseeching God to send blessings through the enshrined image.


55

a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04 h i n d u i s m t o d ay XI

he stone or metal deityimages in Hindu temples

and shrines are not mere symbols of the Gods. They

are the form through which their love, power and blessings fl ood forth into this world. We may lik en this mystery to our abil-ity to communicate with others through the telephone. We do not talk to the telephone; rather we use it as a means of communica-tion with another person. With-out the telephone, we could not converse across long distances; and without the sanctifi ed icon in the temple, we cannot easily commune with the Deity. Divin-ity can also be invoked and felt in a sacred fi re, or in a tree, or in the enlightened person of a satguru. In our temples, God is invoked in the sanctum by highly trained priests. Through the practice of yoga, or meditation, we invoke God inside ourself. Yoga means to yoke oneself to God within. The image or icon of worship is a fo-cus for our prayers and devotions.

Another way to explain icon worship is to acknowledge that Hindus believe God is every-where, in all things, whether stone, wood, creatures or people. So, it is not surprising that they feel com-fortable worshiping the Divine in His material manifestation. The Hindu can see God in stone and water, fi re, air and ether, and inside his own soul. Indeed, there are Hindu temples which have in the sanctum sanctorum no im-age at all but a yantra, a symbolic or mystic diagram. However, the sight of the image en hances the devotee’s worship.

Elaboration: In Hinduism one of the ultimate attainments is when the seeker transcends the need of all form and symbol. This is the yogi’s goal. In this way Hinduism is the least idol-ori-ented of all the religions of the world. There is no religion that is

more aware of the transcendent, timeless, formless, causeless Truth. Nor is there any religion which uses more symbols to rep-resent Truth in preparation for that realization.

Humorously speaking, Hindus are not idle worshipers. I have never seen a Hindu worship in a lazy or idle way. They wor-ship with great vigor and devo-tion, with unstinting regularity and constancy. There’s nothing idle about our ways of worship! (A little humor never hurts.) But, of course, the question is about “graven images.” All re-ligions have their symbols of holiness through which the sa-cred fl ows into the mundane. To name a few: the Christian cross, or statues of Mother Mary and Saint Theresa, the holy Kaaba in Mecca, the Sikh Adi Granth enshrined in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the Arc and Torah of the Jews, the image of a medi-tating Buddha, the totems of in-digenous and Pagan faiths, and the artifacts of the holy men and women of all religions. Such icons, or graven images, are held in awe by the followers of the re-spective faiths. The question is, does this make all such religion-ists idol worshipers? The answer is, yes and no. From our perspec-tive, idol worship is an intelligent,

mystical practice shared by all of the world’s great faiths.The human mind releases itself from suffering through the use

of forms and symbols that awaken reverence, evoke sanctity and spiritual wisdom. Even a fundamentalist Christian who rejects all forms of idol worship, including those of the Catholic and Episcopal churches, would resent someone who showed disre-spect for his Bible. This is because he considers it sacred. His book and the Hindu’s icon are much alike in this way.

Are Hindus idol worshipers? Hindus do not worship a stone or metal “idol” as God. We worship God through the image. We invoke the presence of God from the higher, unseen worlds, into the image so that we can commune with Him and receive His blessings.

A devotee looks within and beyond the bronze dancing Siva to behold God in His spiritual body of light. Dressed in tradi-tional Hindu garb, the man is performing his daily puja in his home shrine—chanting Sanskrit mantras, offering fruit, water, fl owers, incense and light—worshiping devoutly, beseeching God to send blessings through the enshrined image.


66ur religion does notlay down rigid “do’s and don’ts.” There are no com-mandments. Hinduism

gives us the wisdom to make up our own mind on what we put in our body, for it is the only one we have—in this life, at least. Vege-tarians are more numerous in the South of India than in the North. This is because of the North’s cooler climactic conditions and past Islamic infl uence. Priests and religious leaders are defi nite-ly vegetarian, so as to maintain a high level of purity and spiri-tual consciousness to fulfi ll their responsibilities, and to awaken the refi ned areas of their nature. Soldiers and law-enforcement of-fi cers are generally not vegetar-ians, because they have to keep alive their aggressive forces in order to perform their work. To practice yoga and be successful in meditation, it is mandatory to be vegetarian. It is a matter of wisdom—the application of knowledge at any given moment. Today, about twenty percent of all Hindus are vegetarians.

Elaboration: This can be a touchy subject. There are several ways to respond, depending on who is asking and the background in which he was raised. But the overlying principle that defi nes the Hindu answer to this query is ahimsa—refraining from injuring, physically, mentally or emo-tionally, anyone or any living creature. The Hindu who wishes to strictly follow the path of noninjury naturally adopts a vegetar-ian diet. It’s a matter of conscience more than anything else.

When we eat meat, fi sh, fowl and eggs, we absorb the vibration of the instinctive creatures into our nerve system. This chemical-ly alters our consciousness and amplifi es our lower nature, which is prone to fear, anger, jealousy, confusion, resentment and the

like. Many Hindu swamis advise followers to be well-established vegetarians prior to initiation into mantra, and to remain veg-etarian thereafter. But most do not insist upon vegetarianism for those not seeking initiation. Swa-mis have learned that families who are vegetarian have fewer problems than those who are not.

Poignant scriptural citations counsel against eating meat. The Yajur Veda (36.18) calls for kind-liness toward all creatures living on the Earth, in the air and in the water. The Tirukural, a 2,200-year-old masterpiece of ethics, states, “When a man realizes that meat is the butchered fl esh of another creature, he will abstain from eating it” (257). The Manu Dharma Shastras state, “Hav-ing well considered the origin of fl esh and the cruelty of fettering and slaying corporeal beings, let one entirely abstain from eating fl esh,” and “When the diet is pure, the mind and heart are pure.” For guidance in this and all matters, Hindus also rely on their own guru, community elders, their own conscience and their knowl-edge of the benefi ts of abstaining from meat and enjoying a whole-some vegetarian diet. Of course, there are good Hindus who eat meat, and there are not-so-good Hindus who are vegetarians.

Today in America and Europe millions of people are vegetar-ians because they want to live a long time and be healthy. Many feel a moral obligation to shun the mentality of violence to which meat-eating gives rise. There are good books on vegetarianism, such as Diet for a New America. There is also a fi ne magazine called Vegetarian Times. The booklet “How to Win an Argument with a Meat-Eater” is online at: www.himalayanacademy.com/books/pamphlets/WinMeatEaterArgument.html.

Are Hindus forbidden to eat meat? Hindus teach vegetarianism as a way to live with a minimum of hurt to other beings. But in today’s world not all Hindus are vegetarians.

VIII hinduism today a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04

Vendors at a market are selling fruits, vegetables, grains, spices and sweets—a potpourri of foods that great cooks creatively combine in one of the world’s most sumptuous cuisines. Hin-dus understand the sound reasons against eating meat, and many abstain entirely. With such a savory and healthy diet, there is no need to consume fl esh.


77ike the taoist tao te ching, the Buddhist Dhammapada, the Sikh Adi Granth, the Jewish Torah, the Christian

Bible and the Muslim Koran—the Veda is the Hindu holy book. The four books of the Vedas—Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva—in-clude over 100,000 verses. The knowledge imparted by the Ve-das ranges from earthy devotion to high philosophy. Their words and wisdom permeate Hindu thought, ritual and meditation. The Vedas are the ultimate scrip-tural authority for Hindus. Their oldest portions are said by some to date back as far as 6,000 bce, orally transmitted for most of history and written down in San-skrit in the last few millennia, making them the world’s longest and most ancient scripture. The Vedas open a rare window into ancient Indian society, proclaim-ing life’s sacredness and the way to oneness with God.

Elaboration: For untold centu-ries unto today, the Vedas have remained the sustaining force and authoritative doctrine, guid-ing followers in ways of worship, duty and enlightenment. The Vedas are the meditative and philosophical focus for millions of monks and a billion seekers. Their stanzas are chanted from memory by priests and laymen daily as lit-urgy in temple worship and domestic ritual. All Hindus whole-heartedly accept the Vedas, yet each draws selectively, interprets freely and amplifi es abundantly. Over time, this tolerant alle-giance has woven the varied tapestry of Indian Hindu Dharma.

Each of the four Vedas has four sections: Samhitas (hymn col-lections), Brahmanas (priestly manuals), Aran yakas (forest treatis-es) and Upanishads (enlightened discourses). The Samhitas and Brah manas affi rm that God is immanent and transcendent and

prescribe ritual worship, mantra and devotional hymns to estab-lish communication with the spiritual worlds. The hymns are invocations to the One Divine and to the Divinities of nature, such as the Sun, the Rain, the Wind, the Fire and the Dawn—as well as prayers for matrimony, progeny, prosperity, concord, pro-tection, domestic rites and more.

The Aranyakas and Upanishads outline the soul’s evolutionary journey, provide yogic philo-sophical training and propound realization of man’s oneness with God as the destiny of all souls. Today, the Vedas are published in Sanskrit, English, French, German and other languages. But it is the popular, metaphysi-cal Upanishads that have been most amply and ably translated.

The Vedas advise: “Let there be no neglect of Truth. Let there be no neglect of dharma. Let there be no neglect of welfare. Let there be no neglect of pros-perity. Let there be no ne glect of study and teaching. Let there be no neglect of the du ties to the Gods and the ancestors” (Tait-tiriya Upanishad 1.11.1). “United your resolve, un ited your hearts, may your spirits be one, that you may long to gether dwell in unity and concord!” (Rig Veda 10.191.4). “There, where there is

no darkness, nor night, nor day, nor being, nor nonbeing, there is the Auspicious One, alone, absolute and eternal. There is the glo-rious splendor of that Light from whom in the beginning sprang ancient wisdom” (Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4.18). “Taking as a bow the great weapon of the Upanishad, one should put upon it an arrow sharpened by meditation. Stretching it with a thought directed to the essence of That, penetrate that Imperishable as the mark, my friend” (Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.3).

Do Hindus have a Bible?Our “Bible” is called the Veda. The Veda, which means “wisdom,” is comprised of four ancient and holy scriptures which all Hindus revere as the revealed word of God.

a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04 h i n d u i s m t o d ay IX

The Vedas are revealed scripture, meaning they were issued forth by God through enlightened sages, or rishis. This divine transmission is depicted here as Lord Siva bestows the four books of the Veda to four rishis. The sacred knowledge, passed orally for most of history, was fi nally scribed in Sanskrit on palm leaves to share and preserve it.


88he dot worn betweenthe eyes or in the middle

of the forehead is a sign that one is a Hindu. It is called

the bindi in the Hindi language, bindu in Sanskrit and pottu in Tamil. In olden days, all Hindu men and women wore these marks, and they both also wore earrings. Today it is the women who are most faithful in wearing the bindi.

The dot has a mystical meaning. It represents the third eye of spir-itual sight, which sees things the physical eyes cannot see. Hindus seek to awaken their inner sight through yoga. The forehead dot is a reminder to use and cultivate this spiritual vision to perceive and better understand life’s inner workings—to see things not just physically, but with the “mind’s eye” as well. The bindi is made of red powder (called sindur, tra-ditionally made from powdered turmeric and fresh lime juice), sandalpaste or cosmetics.

In addition to the simple dot, there are many types of fore-head marks, known as tilaka in Sanskrit. Each mark represents a particular sect or denomination of our vast religion. We have four major sects: Saivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism. Vaishna-va Hindus, for example, wear a v-shaped tilaka made of white clay. Elaborate tilakas are worn by Hindus mainly at religious events, though many wear the simple bindi, indicating they are Hindu, even in the general public. By these marks we know what a person believes, and therefore know how to begin conversations.

For Hindu women, the forehead dot is also a beauty mark, not unlike the black mark European and American women once wore on the cheek. The red bindi is generally a sign of mar-riage. A black bindi is often worn before marriage to ward off

the evil eye. As an exotic fashion statement, the dot’s color comple-ments the color of a lady’s sari. Ornate bindis are even worn by actresses in popular American TV shows.

Elaboration: Men and women of a particular religion wishing to identify themselves to one an-other often do so by wearing dis-tinctive religious symbols. Often these are blessed in their temples, churches or synagogues. Chris-tians wear a cross on a necklace. Jewish boys wear small leather cases that hold scriptural pas-sages, and the round cap called yarmulka. Sikh men wear their hair in a turban. In many coun-tries, Muslim women cover their head with a scarf, called hajib.

Do not be ashamed to wear the bindi on your forehead in the United States, Canada, Europe or any country of the world. Wear it proudly. The forehead dot will distinguish you from all other people as a very special person, a Hindu, a knower of eternal truths. You will never be mistaken as be-longing to another nationality or religion. The sacred forehead dot is an easy way of distinguishing Hindus from Muslims. And don’t be intimidated when people ask you what the dot means. Now you have lots of information to give a good answer, which will probably

lead to more questions about your venerable religion.For both boys and girls, men and women, the dot can be small

or large depending on the circumstance, but should always be there when appropriate. Naturally, we don’t want to fl aunt our religion in the face of others. We observe that many Christian men and women take off or conceal their crosses in the corpo-rate business world. Some communities and institutions disallow wearing religious symbols entirely.

X hinduism today a pr il /m ay/ j u n e, 2 0 04

Why do many Hindus wear a dot near the middle of their forehead?The dot worn on the forehead is a religious symbol. It represents divine sight and shows that one is a Hindu. For women, it is also a beauty mark.

Decorating the face and body with colorful paints is a univer-sal human practice, often a cultural rite expressing one’s tribe, beliefs and identity. The forehead dot shows that one is proud to be a Hindu and bespeaks mystical seeing beyond the fi ve senses. Here, in a simple, daily act, a woman obligingly applies a red bindi to her sister’s forehead.


99n popular, village hindu-ism God is represented as male, and God’s energy, or Shakti, is personifi ed as His

spouse—for example, Vishnu and Lakshmi. In Hindu temples, art and mythology, God is every-where seen as the beloved, divine couple. Philosophically, however, the caution is always made that God and God’s energy are One, and the metaphor of the insepa-rable divine couple serves only to illustrate this Oneness.

Hinduism is taught on many levels to many different people, and to uneducated people who are not able to understand high philosophy, Hinduism is taught in story form. Because the temple is the center of every Hindu com-munity, and everyone is focused on the temple and the Gods within it, the Gods are the major players in these stories. Hindus who understand the higher phi-losophy seek to fi nd God on the inside while also worshiping God in the temples. Simple folk strive to be like a God, or like a God-dess. These tales, called Puranas, have long been the basis of dance, plays and storytelling around the fi re in the homes to children as they are growing up. The stories illustrate how a family should live, how they should raise their children, and much more. Before the printing press, there were few books, and Hinduism was conveyed orally through stories and parables. While these often violent children’s tales should not be perpetuated, there remains much of value in the extensive writings of the Puranas.

Elaboration: Those who learn the higher Hindu philosophies know that Gods are neither male nor female. In fact, attaining to that Godly level of being is one of the mystical goals of yoga. This is accomplished by blending the feminine and masculine

currents, ida and pingala, into the spiritual current, sushumna, in the center of the spine within each individual.

Hindus know that the Gods do not marry, that they are com-plete within themselves. This unity is depicted in the tradi-tional icon of Ardhanarishvara, Siva as half man and half wom-an, and in the teaching that Siva and Shakti are one, that Shakti is Siva’s energy. Siva is dearly loved as our Father-Mother God. Yet, sexual gender and matrimo-nial relations are of the physical and emotional realms, whereas the Gods exist in a stratum that far supersedes these levels of life. For that matter, the soul itself is neither male nor female.

Some modern swamis now urge devotees not to pay any at-tention to Puranic stories about the Gods, saying that they have no relationship with the world today—that they are misleading and confusing and should no lon-ger be taught to the children. In-stead, they encourage followers to deepen themselves with the higher philosophies of the Vedic Upanishads and the realizations of Hindu seers.

Other faiths sometimes criti-cize the Hindu religion as a sort of comic-book religion, and we should not be part of perpetuat-

ing that image by passing on such misconceptions as the mar-riage of the Gods. Other religions move and adjust with the times. Hinduism must also do so. It must offer answers to the questions about God, soul and world—answers that are reasonable, that can be understood and accepted even by a child, that are coher-ent, sensible and strictly in accord with scripture and tradition. This is necessary in the technological age, necessary in order that Hinduism will be a religion of the future, not of the past.

a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04 h i n d u i s m t o d ay XI

Are the Gods of Hinduism really married?It is true that God is often depicted with a spouse in our traditional stories. However, on a deeper philosophical level, the Supreme Being and the Gods are neither male nor female and are therefore not married.

Through history Hindus have depicted God as Ardhanarish-vara, which literally means “half-female Lord”—Siva as male on the right and female on the left. This vision of the Divine as our Mother-Father God supersedes the popular, mythological notion of marriage of a God and Goddess, declaring that God and His energy are one.


1010aste, from the portu-guese casta, meaning “clan” or “lineage,” refers to two systems within Hindu soci-

ety. The fi rst is varna, the division of society into four groups: work-ers, business people, lawmakers/law enforcers and priests. The second is jati, the thousands of occupational guilds whose mem-bers follow a single profession. Jati members usually marry within their own jati and follow tradi-tions associated with their jati. In urban areas they often enter oth-er occupations, but still usually arrange marriages within the jati.

Wealth, especially in urban areas, often trumps caste. Indus-trialization and education have greatly altered India’s jati system by eliminating or changing the professions upon which it was originally based, and opening new employment options. The jatis are evolving to function to-day less like guilds and more like large clans of related families. At the bottom are the so-called untouchables, who perform the dirtiest jobs and have suffered much like the black people of America, who were freed from slavery just 138 years ago. Strong laws have been passed in India to end caste-based discrimination. Modern Hindus rightly deplore caste abuse and are working to set matters right. Just as in the US, it is a diffi cult task that will take decades, especially in the villages.

Elaboration: Caste is, no doubt, the biggest stick that Hindus get beaten with. It is taught as the defi ning attribute, or fatal fl aw, of Hinduism in Western schools. Untouchability as a formal system shocks Westerners. One response we can make is to separate so-cial stratifi cation from the issue of racial/class discrimination.

First issue: social stratifi cation. India is one of the world’s oldest

societies. It has sustained a con-tinuity of culture and religion for thousands of years. Europe, on the other hand, has seen millen-niums of upheaval. Still, one only has to go back to before the 17th-century industrial revolution to fi nd a social system that is simi-lar to caste. European society then comprised the landed elite (including royalty, a hereditary caste maintained to this day), merchants, artisans and peas-ants. The artisans formed guilds, occupation-based organizations that served both as closed unions and marketing monopolies. The guild legacy remains in Western surnames such as Smith, a metal worker. There was no public edu-cation system, and each genera-tion learned at home the family occupation. There was little tech-nological change, so jobs were static. Industrialization and pub-lic education altered (but did not destroy) this class system in the West, just as they are changing caste and jati in India today.

Second issue: racial/class dis-crimination. Most Indians are unfamiliar with the extent of dis-crimination in the West today. In America, for example, hundreds of thousands live destitute and homeless on city streets, as true

“untouchables.” US cities are more racially segregated than before

the 1950s Civil Rights Movement because of “white fl ight” to the suburbs. Black Americans receive harsher sentences than white Americans for the same crime. Many Native American Indians live at the bottom of society, destitute and alcoholic, on barren Indian reservations. This kind of response—we can call it the

“You’re one, too” defense—doesn’t mean Hindus should not work much harder to end caste discrimination. But it reminds others that no country in the world is yet free from racial discrimination.

What about caste and untouchability?Caste is the hereditary division of Indian society based on occu pation. The lowest class, deemed untouchables, suffer from discrimination and mistreatment. It is illegal in India to dis-criminate against, abuse or insult anyone on the basis of caste.

XII hinduism today a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04

Representatives of the four castes, or varnas, are shown here surrounding Lord Ganesha. They are: worker, businessman, general and priest. These are natural divisions which appear in all nations and societies as shown by the universal existence, in some form, of labor unions, businessmen’s associations, armies and police forces, and religious ministers.


a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04 h i n d u i s m t o d ay XIII

ow often do you see a professional team of peoplemisbehave on the job? You’re on a fl ight from San Fran-cisco to Singapore. Do the fl ight attendants bicker in the aisle? Of course not. People at this level of business have control of their minds and emotions. If they

didn’t, they would soon be replaced. When they are on the job, at least, they follow a code of conduct spelled out in detail by the corporation. It’s not un-like the moral code of any religion, outlining sound ethics for respect and harmony among humans. Those seeking to be successful in life strive to ful-fi ll a moral code whether “on the job” or off. Does Hinduism and its scriptures on yoga have such a code? Yes: twenty ethical guidelines called yamas and niyamas, “restraints and observances.” These

“do’s” and “don’ts” are found in the 6,000 to 8,000-year-old Vedas, mankind’s oldest body of scripture, and in other holy texts expounding the path of yoga.

The yamas and niyamas are a common-sense code recorded in the fi nal section of the Vedas, called Upani-shads, namely the Shandilya and the Va ru ha. They are also found in the Hatha Yoga Pra dipika by Gorakshanatha, the Tiru-mantiram of Tirumular and in the Yoga Sutras of Pa tanjali. The yamas and niyamas have been preserved through the centuries as the foundation, the fi rst and second stage, of the eight-staged practice of yoga. Yet, they are fundamental to all beings, expect-

ed aims of everyone in society, and assumed to be fully intact for anyone seeking life’s highest aim in the pursuit called yoga. Sage Patanjali (ca 200 bce), raja yoga’s foremost propounder, told us,

“These yamas are not limited by class, country, time (past, present or future) or situation. Hence they are called the universal great vows.” Yogic scholar Swami Brahm-ananda Saras wati revealed the inner science of yama and niyama. They are the means, he said, to control the vitarkas, the cruel mental waves or thoughts, that when acted upon result in injury to others, untruthfulness, hoarding, discontent, indo-lence or selfi shness. He stated, “For each vitarka you have, you can create its opposite through yama and niyama, and make your life successful.”

The following paragraphs, with accompanying illustrations by A. Manivel of Chennai, elucidate the yamas and niyamas. Presented fi rst are the ten yamas, the do not’s, which harness the instinctive nature, with its governing impulses of fear, anger,

jealousy, selfi shness, greed and lust. Second are illustrated the ten ni yamas, the do’s, the religious observances that cultivate and bring forth the refi ned soul qualities, lifting awareness into the consciousness of the higher chakras of love, compassion, self-lessness, intelligence and bliss. Together the yamas and niyamas provide the foundation to support our yoga practice so that at-tainments in higher consciousness can be sustained.

PART 2

Hinduism’s Code of Conduct

Yama 2 Adhere to truthfulness, refraining from lying and betraying promises. Speak only that which is true, kind, helpful and necessary. Know-ing that deception creates distance, don’t keep secrets from family or loved ones. Be fair, accurate and frank in discussions, a stranger to deceit. Admit your failings. Do not engage in slander, gossip or backbiting. Do not bear false witness against another.

Noninjury, Ahimsa Truthfulness, Satya

Twenty keys for spiritual living in contemporary times

Ç⁄“Ä–Ÿ –´æYama 1 Practice noninjury, not harm-ing others by thought, word or deed, even in your dreams. Live a kindly life, revering all beings as expressions of the One Divine energy. Let go of fear and insecurity, the sources of abuse. Knowing that harm caused to others unfailingly returns to oneself, live peacefully with God’s creation. Never be a source of dread, pain or injury. Follow a vegetarian diet.

THE 10 VEDIC RESTRAINTS, YAMA æº


XIV hinduism today a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04

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Ç—™‰æ ∏˘“˜òæ@ Yama 3 Uphold the virtue of nonsteal-ing, neither thieving, covet-ing nor failing to repay debt. Control your desires and live within your means. Do not use borrowed resources for unintended purposes or keep them past due. Do not gamble or defraud others. Do not renege on promises. Do not use others’ names, words, resources or rights without permission and acknowledgement.

Yama 4 Practice divine conduct, controlling lust by remain-ing celibate when single and faithful in marriage. Before marriage, use vital energies in study, and after marriage in creating family success. Don’t waste the sacred force by promiscuity in thought, word or deed. Be restrained with the opposite sex. Seek holy company. Dress and speak modestly. Shun pornography, sexual humor and violence.

Yama 5 Exercise patience, restrain-ing intolerance with people and impatience with cir-cumstances. Be agreeable. Let others behave accord-ing to their nature, without adjusting to you. Don’t argue, dominate conversations or interrupt others. Don’t be in a hurry. Be patient with chil-dren and the elderly. Mini-mize stress by keeping wor-ries at bay. Remain poised in good times and bad.

Nonstealing, Asteya

Yama 6 Foster steadfastness, over-coming nonperseverance, fear, indecision and change-ableness. Achieve your goals with a prayer, purpose, plan, persistence and push. Be fi rm in your decisions. Avoid sloth and procrastination. Develop willpower, cour-age and industriousness. Overcome obstacles. Never carp or complain. Do not let opposition or fear of failure result in changing strategies.

Divine Conduct, Brahmacharya

Patience, Kshama Steadfastness, Dhriti

Yama 7 Practice compassion, con-quering callous, cruel and insensitive feelings toward all beings. See God ev erywhere. Be kind to people, animals, plants and the Earth itself. Forgive those who apolo-gize and show true remorse. Foster sympathy for others’ needs and suffering. Honor and assist those who are weak, impoverished, aged or in pain. Oppose family abuse and other cruelties.

Yama 8 Maintain honesty, renounc-ing deception and wrongdo-ing. Act honorably even in hard times. Obey the laws of your nation and locale. Pay your taxes. Be straight-forward in business. Do an honest day’s work. Do not bribe or accept bribes. Do not cheat, deceive or circum-vent to achieve an end. Be frank with yourself. Face and accept your faults with-out blaming them on others.

Compassion, Daya Honesty, Arjava


a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04 h i n d u i s m t o d ay XV

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⁄º™Ÿ“Ÿ¿ –Êò Yama 9 Be moderate in appetite, neither eating too much nor consuming meat, fi sh, shellfi sh, fowl or eggs. Enjoy fresh, wholesome vegetarian foods that vitalize the body. Avoid junk food. Drink in moderation. Eat at regular times, only when hungry, at a moderate pace, never between meals, in a dis-turbed atmosphere or when upset. Follow a simple diet, avoiding rich or fancy fare.

Yama 10 Uphold the ethic of purity, avoiding impurity in mind, body and speech. Maintain a clean, healthy body. Keep a pure, uncluttered home and workplace. Act virtu-ously. Keep good company, never mixing with adulter-ers, thieves or other impure people. Keep away from pornography and violence. Never use harsh, angered or indecent language. Worship devoutly. Meditate daily.

Niyama 1 Allow yourself the expres-sion of remorse, being mod-est and showing shame for misdeeds. Recognize your errors, confess and make amends. Sincerely apologize to those hurt by your words or deeds. Resolve all conten-tion before sleep. Seek out and correct your faults and bad habits. Welcome cor-rection as a means to better-ing yourself. Do not boast. Shun pride and pretension.

Moderate Appetite, Mitahara

Niyama 2 Nurture contentment, seeking joy and ser enity in life. Be happy, smile and uplift others. Live in constant gratitude for your health, your friends and your belongings, Don’t complain about what you don’t possess. Identify with the eternal You, rather than mind, body or emotions. Keep the mountaintop view that life is an opportunity for spiritual progress.

Purity, Saucha

Remorse, Hri Contentment, Santosha

Niyama 3 Be generous to a fault, giving liberally without thought of reward. Tithe, offering one-tenth of your gross income (dashamamsha), as God’s money, to temples, ashrams and spiritual organizations. Approach the temple with offerings. Visit gurus with gifts in hand. Donate religious lit-erature. Feed and give to those in need. Bestow your time and talents without seeking praise. Treat guests as God.

Niyama 4 Cultivate an unshakable faith. Believe fi rmly in God, Gods, guru and your path to enlightenment. Trust in the words of the masters, the scriptures and tradi-tions. Practice devotion and sadhana to inspire experiences that build advanced faith. Be loyal to your lineage, one with your satguru. Shun those who try to break your faith by argument and accusation.

Giving, Dana Faith, Astikya

THE 10 VEDIC PRACTICES, NIYAMA ⁄≤æº


Niyama 5 Cultivate devotion through daily worship and medita-tion. Set aside one room of your home as God’s shrine. Offer fruit, fl owers or food daily. Learn a simple puja and the chants. Meditate after each puja. Visit your shrine before and after leaving the house. Worship in heartfelt devotion, clearing the inner channels to God, Gods and guru so their grace fl ows toward you and loved ones.

Niyama 6 Eagerly hear the scriptures, study the teachings and listen to the wise of your lineage. Choose a guru, fol-low his path and don’t waste time exploring other ways. Read, study and, above all, listen to readings and dis-sertations by which wisdom fl ows from knower to seeker. Avoid secondary texts that preach violence. Revere and study the revealed scriptures, the Vedas and Agamas.

Niyama 7 Develop a spiritual will and intellect with your satguru’s guidance. Strive for knowl-edge of God, to awaken the light within. Discover the hidden lesson in each experi-ence to develop a profound understanding of life and yourself. Through medita-tion, cultivate intuition by listening to the still, small voice within, by understand-ing the subtle sciences, inner worlds and mystical texts.

Worship, Ishvara-Pujana

Niyama 8 Embrace religious vows, rules and observances and never waver in fulfi lling them. Honor vows as spiritual con-tracts with your soul, your community, with God, Gods and guru. Take vows to har-ness the instinctive nature. Fast periodically. Pilgrimage yearly. Uphold your vows strictly, be they marriage, monasticism, nonaddiction, tithing, loyalty to a lineage, vegetarianism or nonsmoking.

Scriptural Listening, Siddhanta Shravana

Cognition, Mati Sacred Vows, Vrata

Niyama 9 Chant your holy mantra daily, reciting the sacred sound, word or phrase given by your guru. Bathe fi rst, quiet the mind and concentrate fully to let japa harmonize, purify and uplift you. Heed your instructions and chant the prescribed repetitions without fail. Live free of anger so that japa strength-ens your higher nature. Let japa quell emotions and quiet the rivers of thought.

Niyama 10 Practice austerity, serious disciplines, pen ance and sac-rifi ce. Be ardent in worship, meditation and pilgrimage. Atone for misdeeds through penance (prayashchitta), such as 108 prostrations or fasting. Perform self-denial, giving up cherished posses-sions, money or time. Fulfi ll severe aus terities at special times, under a satguru’s guidance, to ignite the inner fi res of self-transformation.

Recitation, Japa Austerity, Tapas

XVI hinduism today a pr il /m ay/ j u ne, 2 0 04 For the full elucidation of the yamas and niyamas, see Yoga’s Forgotten Foundation, available at www.himalayanacademy.com/books.

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a p r i l / m ay / j u n e , 2 0 0 4 h i n d u i s m t o d ay 53 a p r i l / m ay / j u n e , 2 0 0 4 h i n d u i s m t o d ay

One noble soul takes on the public school system and wins aVedic victory

E D U C A T I O N

f you think the art of yoga isonly for trendy health enthusiasts or reclusive sages—and no one in be-tween—Tara Guber would like to have a

word with you about Yoga Ed., her program for training schoolteachers to bring yoga to toddlers and teens in US public schools.

Before Tara married Peter Guber, one of America’s most successful movie producers, she taught grammar school in New York City. As a teacher, she was struck by the commu-nication gap that existed between teachers and students. It bothered her. “Wouldn’t it be nice,” she mulled, “if the education system could be improved?” Little did she know then that yoga would eventually pres-ent her with a way to do just that.

Tara fi rst attended yoga classes back in the 1970s with her husband, who had been advised that hatha yoga might help him with a back problem. It did. At fi rst, Tara was just tagging along for moral support. Soon, however, she became infatuated with the ancient Hindu practice and embraced it fully. In fact, she was so inspired by it, she decided to revisit the domain of child edu-cation with some new ideas about teaching. The rest is history.

In addition to founding Yoga Ed., Tara has established Yoga House, a teaching center that regularly features some of the country’s fi nest yoga instructors. She also participated in setting up The Accelerated School (TAS) in South Central Los Angeles where Yoga Ed. is a featured system of training. She now serves on the board of directors at TAS and has co-founded a nonprofi t organization called Education First. For years she has been highly praised and profi led in a num-ber of publications including The Los Ange-les Times, The New York Times, Time maga-zine and Yoga Journal. When she visited the offi ces of Hinduism Today at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii in September of 2003, she shared a little of her dynamism and inspiration with our editorial staff.

Tara Guber:Founder of Yoga Ed

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pg 53-55 TARA Apri04 g3§.indd 53 2/16/04 4:17:55 PM

You are so dynamic in your work with Yoga Ed. What drives you? First of all, I really love this work. I feel it is in line with my destiny. The great thing about being in line with destiny is that passion fuels the fi re. There is great inspiration. I feel that, in the big-ger picture, what I really came here to do is to help solve the nation’s education crisis.

How can this be accomplished through teaching yoga? Yoga is a big part of my life, personally. I’ve learned from my own ex-perience what a powerful tool it is. I have learned from yoga that we can go within, shift consciousness and alter beliefs. If we can get even a little of this kind of teach-ing into the minds of our young people, all kinds of other problems will be also solved

in the process. It’s all about consciousness, which is fundamental to everything. I am very familiar with the weaknesses of public education. Believe me, yoga is just the thing that is needed. When did you catch the idea that yoga could be such a panacea? When I started teach-ing in Brooklyn, I was a much different sort of person. New York was different then, too. There was a different consciousness. Back then I would tell the students, “Listen! You sit down and be quiet.” Now I have more compassion. I realize that there could be so many problems that are not readily appar-ent—like Attention Defi cit Disorder. Usually, kids don’t want to do and say the things they do. They just can’t help it. They can’t con-

centrate, they can’t focus and they can’t sit still. Compassion is needed. The fi rst lesson I learned from yoga was about compassion. Through compassion, we can see that each child is unique and has to be treated dif-ferently. Back then, when I was teaching, I did not see this. Now I do. The difference between then and now is yoga.

So far you have talked about teaching the students. What about teaching the teachers? The teachers have to be taught fi rst, before the students. So my fi rst commitment is to teaching the teachers the principles and ide-als of yoga for the eventual benefi t of the students. I got inspired about this because of what yoga did for me. That’s how this commitment to putting yoga into the school system got established in the back of mind years ago—because of my own experience. We teach our teachers to practice yoga so that they can fi nd a place inside themselves from which they can convey the full impact of yoga through experience.

Give us some examples of the “tools” the teachers learn to use in class. Color is a great tool. We have a song we sing about col-or. The lyrics go from red to orange to yellow to green, singing the meanings of the colors along the way. “Blue. I tell the truth. Indigo-intelligent. Violet. I understand.” And on it goes like that.

Also during class, when negative situa-tions occasionally come up, we take the opportunity to teach yoga in action. For example, one kid will come to school in a bad mood and say or do something nega-tive. We will ask him, “What’s happening, Eric?” He won’t say anything, but we will ask him again. Finally he says, “Well, there was so much going on in my house last night I could not sleep.” So the whole class learns that Eric didn’t come to school to cause trouble just for the fun of it. He was just exhausted and did not feel good. The class learns that there is always a “bigger picture.” Isn’t wisdom a wonderful thing?

We also have something called “time in.” If a child is disruptive, we allow him to prac-tice “time in.” During this practice, he goes into a separate room and sits in silence. He can return to class and join the group when he feels he is ready. We make it his choice, not ours. He decides to create a problem, and he decides to solve it. What were some of the more rewarding mo-ments during the implementation of this program? As we developed Yoga Ed. and used it more and more, we noticed how the kids were changing and how their relation-ships were greatly improving. They were be-coming more aware of what they said and how they said it. They began to speak dif-ferently with each other. They were start-

centrate, they can’t focus and they can’t sit still. Compassion is needed. The fi rst lesson I learned from yoga was about compassion. Through compassion, we can see that each child is unique and has to be treated dif-ferently. Back then, when I was teaching, I did not see this. Now I do. The difference between then and now is yoga.

So far you have talked about teaching the students. What about teaching the teachers?The teachers have to be taught fi rst, before the students. So my fi rst commitment is to teaching the teachers the principles and ide-als of yoga for the eventual benefi t of the students. I got inspired about this because of what yoga did for me. That’s how this commitment to putting yoga into the school system got established in the back of mind years ago—because of my own experience. We teach our teachers to practice yoga so that they can fi nd a place inside themselves from which they can convey the full impact of yoga through experience.

Give us some examples of the “tools” the teachers learn to use in class.great tool. We have a song we sing about col-or. The lyrics go from red to orange to yellow to green, singing the meanings of the colors along the way. “Blue. I tell the truth. Indigo-intelligent. Violet. I understand.” And on it goes like that.

tions occasionally come up, we take the opportunity to teach yoga in action. For example, one kid will come to school in a bad mood and say or do something nega-tive. We will ask him, “What’s happening, Eric?” He won’t say anything, but we will ask him again. Finally he says, “Well, there was so much going on in my house last night I could not sleep.” So the whole class learns that Eric didn’t come to school to cause trouble just for the fun of it. He was just exhausted and did not feel good. The class learns that there is always a “bigger picture.” Isn’t wisdom a wonderful thing?


On the job: Tara works with a fl exible young student at The Accelerated School in LA

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ing to understand consciousness. Also, they were starting to use yoga and meditation techniques in practical ways to prepare for making speeches or taking tests, or to be-come calm when they were nervous. They were learning that they had control over their lives and that yoga could bring secu-rity. This was all wonderful to see.

When you were faced with obstacles in get-ting yoga into the school system, did you ever feel like just giving up? There were diffi cul-ties, especially in the beginning. My friends kept telling me, “Boy, you are really sticking with this.” It’s true. I was. I may have felt like giving up, but I never did. However, I must say that anything worthwhile—es-pecially something like this that’s out on the edge—takes time to accomplish, espe-cially when it has to go through the school system. When The Accelerated School became Time magazine’s School of the Year, we knew we were on the right track.

How did you sell such an innovative, yoga-based, teaching program to the notoriously conservative public school system. A lot of people have tried to do this and failed. I got into the Los Angeles Unifi ed School Dis-trict through friends. This is the real truth. Here is an example of how it would work. At Yoga House we feature famous people like Krishna Das and Sharon Salzburg. Dur-ing their evening presentations before they

would begin, I would mention Yoga Ed. and explain the concept of using yoga in teach-ing kids. One evening, this woman jumps up, runs over to me says, “I’m on the Board of Education, I’m going to help you put yoga

and meditation into the Public Schools of L.A.” Later, another man from the Board comes forward. He is the son of someone who worked with my husband. These two people are helping me tremendously, even now. And there are others. This is the way that it goes.

What would be an example of a problem you faced as you worked to get Yoga Ed. into the schools? I have a ranch in Aspen. So I am connected to that community. They asked me to put Yoga Ed. into the Aspen school system and I was so pleased. Yet before I knew it, I was face to face with fundamental-ist Baptists and the Aspen Board of Educa-tion. I was just appalled. Basically, they told me they didn’t want anybody else teaching their children anything pertaining to reli-gion or meditation. They wanted to be the only ones to teach their children anything of this sort. They had already nit-picked our curriculum and produced a book about it which was two inches thick.

They wanted us to take out every single word that was even vaguely religious or spir-itual. But we didn’t take out the word yoga. They wanted us to name it “stretching and bending and pulling” or something like that. That was the last of it for me. I said, “No, the word yoga holds thousands of years of teachings.” I told them I would be happy to take out any other word, but not yoga. So in three days, we did indeed take out every word but yoga. Samadhi was replaced with

“oneness.” Meditation was replaced with “time in.” On it went like that. It was on the front page of the local newspapers. But you know, when we actually started implement-ing our program, we found that many people were desperate to fi nd somebody who would teach their kids yoga. ∏π

Try this at home: Limber young students excell in Yoga Ed. hatha yoga classes

me to put Yoga Ed. into the Aspen school system and I was so pleased. Yet before I knew it, I was face to face with fundamental-ist Baptists and the Aspen Board of Educa-tion. I was just appalled. Basically, they told me they didn’t want anybody else teaching their children anything pertaining to reli-gion or meditation. They wanted to be the only ones to teach their children anything of this sort. They had already nit-picked our curriculum and produced a book about it which was two inches thick.

word that was even vaguely religious or spir-itual. But we didn’t take out the word They wanted us to name it “stretching and bending and pulling” or something like that. That was the last of it for me. I said, “No, the word teachings.” I told them I would be happy to take out any other word, but not in three days, we did indeed take out every

Education, I’m going to help you put yoga

Try this at home: Limber young students excell in Yoga Ed. hatha yoga classes

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oga ed. is a 36-week, yoga study course created for the us public schoolsystem. Easily accessible to children from ages fi ve through seventeen, it combines

fundamental yoga techniques such as breath control, hatha yoga (physical postures) and meditation into simple 15-minute classroom-friendly sequences that just about

anyone can do. The aim of the program is to help kids be better students in class. However, before students can learn these yoga practices, their teachers must be taught. For this, Tara has developed Yoga Ed. Tools for Teachers.

Tools for Teachers is a division of Yoga Ed. in which participating teachers are taught to follow a teacher’s manual, developed by Tara and Leah Kalish, that provides all necessary instructions and information for creatively teaching yoga to children in a classroom environ-ment. These teachers are also required to attend classes at local yoga studios (where they are offered special teacher’s discounts). In developing this program, it was Tara’s ambitious hope that by learning the actual practice of yoga, and not just the theory of it, teachers would undergo some degree of personal transformation that would enable them to convey, primarily through example, the deeper and more meaningful experience of yoga to their students in class. So far, her plan seems to be working. At The Accelerated School (TAS) where Yoga Ed. was fi rst implemented, test scores have improved, aggression among stu-dents has greatly reduced, and kids are even meditating and practicing yoga on their own. Time magazine named TAS the 2001 Elementary School of the Year and said it was one of the nation’s “most accomplished K-12 institutions”… for having “found the most promising approaches to the most pressing challenges in education.”

Yoga Ed. and Tools for Teachers has been successfully implemented into the public school system primarily because it is uncomplicated and does not cost a lot of money. Those who have completed the Tools for Teachers program are certifi ed yoga instructors who are quali-fi ed to establish yoga classes in public schools wherever they are in the country. For more information on Yoga Ed. and The Accelerated School go to http://www.accelerated.org/ or http://www.yogaed.com/.


What’s the Program?

Time In: A student takes a moment to chill

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56 hinduism today april/may/june 2004

P H I L O S O P H Y

Master Your Destiny!

His Holiness Sri Chandrashekara Bharati Mahaswami, 1892-1954, was the Sanka-racharya of Sringeri Peetha for 42 years. He was a learned and articulate expositor of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy of the Smarta denomination of Hinduism. We share with you some of his trenchant in-sights into the mysteries of free will and fate, excerpted from dialogs with a disciple.

Devotee (D): One doubt repeatedly comes up during my Vedanta studies, and that is the problem of the eternal conflict between fate and free will.

His Holiness (HH): A conflict arises only if there are two things. As a follower of our Sanatana Dharma, you must know that fate is nothing extraneous to yourself, but only the sum total of the results of your past actions. As God is but the dispenser of the fruits of actions, fate, those fruits are not his creation, only yours. Free will is what you exercise when you act now. Fate is past karma; free will is present karma. Both are really one, that is, karma, though they may differ in the matter of time. There can be no conflict when they are really one.

D: But the difference in time is a vital dif-ference which we cannot overlook.

HH: I do not want you to overlook it, but only to study it more deeply. The present is before you and, by the exercise of free will, you can attempt to shape it. The past is past and is therefore beyond your vision and is rightly called adrishta, the unseen. How do you expect to find a solution to the problem of fate and free will when the former by its very nature is unseen! It is profitless to embark on the enquiry as to the relative strength of fate and free will.

D: Does your Holiness then mean to say that we must resign ourselves to fate?

HH: Certainly not. On the other hand, you must devote yourself to free will. By exercising your free will in the past, you brought on the resultant fate. By exercising your free will in the present, I want you to wipe out your past record if it hurts you, or to add to it if you find it enjoyable. In any case, whether to acquire more happiness or to reduce misery, you have to exercise your free will in the present.

D: But the exercise of free will, however well directed, very often fails to secure the desired result, as fate steps in and nullifies the action of free will.

HH: You are again ignoring our definition of fate. It is not an extraneous new thing which steps in to nullify your free will. On the other hand, it is already in yourself.

D: It may be so, but its existence is felt only when it comes into conflict with free will. How can we possibly wipe out the past record when we do not know or have the means of knowing what it is?

HH: Except to a few highly advanced souls, the past remains unknown. But our ignorance of it is advantageous. If we knew all the accumulated results of this and our past lives, we would be so shocked as to give up in despair any attempt to overcome or mitigate them. Forgetfulness is a boon bestowed by the merciful God. Similarly, the divine spark in us is ever bright with hope and makes it possible for us to confi-dently exercise our free will.

D: All the same, it cannot be denied that fate very often does present a formidable obstacle in the way of such exercise.

HH: It is not quite correct to say that fate places obstacles in the way of free will. By seeming to oppose our efforts, it tells us the extent that free will is necessary now to bear fruit. Ordinarily, to secure a single benefit, a particular activity is prescribed; but we do not know how intensively or how repeatedly to pursue or persist in that activity. If we do not at first succeed, we can deduce that in the past we exercised our free will in the opposite direction, that the result of that past activity must first be eliminated and that our present effort must be proportionate to that past activity. The obstacle which fate seems to offer is just our gauge to guide our present activities.

At the start, do not be obsessed at all with the idea that there will be any ob-stacles. Start with boundless hope and with the presumption that there is nothing in the way of your exercising the free will. If you do not succeed, tell yourself that there has been in the past a counterinfluence brought on by yourself by exercising your free will in the other direction. Therefore,

you must now exercise your free will with redoubled vigor and persistence to achieve your object. Tell yourself that, inasmuch as the seeming obstacle is of your own making, it is certainly within your competence to overcome it. If you do not succeed even after this renewed effort, there can be absolutely no justification for despair, for fate being but a crea-ture of your free will can never be stronger than your free will. Your failure only means that your present exercise of free will is not sufficient to counteract the result of the past exercise of it. There is no question of a relative propor-tion between fate and free will as distinct factors in life. The rela-tive proportion is only between the intensity of our past action and the intensity of our present action.

D: But even so, the relative intensity can be realized only at the end of our present effort in a particular direction.

HH: It is always so in the case of anything which is adrishta or un-seen. For example, the length of a nail embedded in a varnished pillar and the composition of the wood are unseen, or adrishta, so far as you are concerned. The number and intensity of the pulls needed to take out the nail de-pend upon the number and inten-sity of the strokes which drove it in. Do we stop from pulling out the nail simply because we are ignorant of its length or of the number and intensity of the strokes which drove it in? Or, do we persist in pulling it out by increasing our effort?

D: Certainly, as practical men we adopt the latter course.

HH: Adopt the same course in every ef-fort of yours. Exert yourself as much as you can. Your will must succeed in the end.

D: But there certainly are many things which are impossible to attain even after the utmost exertion.

HH: There you are mistaken. There is nothing which is really unattainable. A thing, however, may be unattainable to us at the particular stage at which we are, or

Shri Chandrashekara Bharati explores the riddle of fate and free will, exhorting us to be proactive

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with the qualifications that we possess. Its attainability is not absolute but is relative and proportionate to our capacity.

D: The success or failure of an effort can be known definitely only at the end. How are we then to know beforehand whether with our present capacity we may or may not exert ourselves to attain a particular object, and whether it is the right kind of exertion for the attainment of that object?

HH: Your question is certainly a perti-nent one. The whole aim of our Dharma Shastras is to give a detailed answer to your question. Religion leaves man quite free to act, but tells him at the same time

what is good for him and what is not. He cannot escape responsibility by blaming fate, for fate is of his own making, nor by blaming God, for He is but the dispenser of fruits in accordance with the merits of actions. You are the master of your own destiny. It is for you to make it, to better it or to mar it. This is your privilege. This is your responsibility.

D: But often it so happens that I am not really master of myself. I know, for instance, quite well that a particular act is wrong; at the same time, I feel impelled to do it. Similarly, I know that another act is right; at the same time, however, I feel

powerless to do it. It seems that there is some power which is able to control or defy my free will. So long as that power is po-tent, how can I be called the master of my own destiny? What is that power but fate?

HH: Fate is a thing quite different from the other one which you call a power. At first a man steals with great effort and fear; the next time both his effort and fear are less. As opportunities increase, stealing becomes habitual, requiring no effort at all, done even when there is no necessity. This tendency goes by the name vasana. The power which makes you act as if against your will is only the vasana of your own making. This is not fate. The punishment or reward, in the shape of pain or pleasure, which is the inevitable consequence of an act, good or bad, is alone the province of fate or destiny.

The vasana which the doing of an act leaves behind in the mind in the shape of a taste, a greater facility or a greater ten-dency for doing the same act once again, is quite a different thing. The punishment or the reward of a past act is, in ordinary circumstances, unavoidable, if there is no counter-effort; but the vasana can be easily handled if only we exercise our free will correctly.

D: But the number of vasanas or tenden-cies that rule our hearts is endless. How can we possibly control them?

HH: A vasana seeks expression in out-ward acts. This essential characteristic is common to all vasanas, good and bad. The stream of vasanas, the vasana sarit, as it is called, has two currents, the good and the bad. If you try to dam up the entire stream, there may be danger. The shastras, therefore, do not ask you to attempt that. They ask you to be led by the good vasana current and to resist being led away by the bad vasana current. When you know that a particular vasana is rising up in your mind, you cannot possibly say that you are at its mercy. The responsibility to encourage it or not is entirely yours.

The Shastras enunciate what vasanas are good and have to be encouraged and what vasanas have to be overcome. When, by dint of practice, you have made all your vasanas good and practically eliminated the charge of any bad vasanas leading you astray, the shastras teach you how to free your free will even from the need of being led by good vasanas. You will gradually be led on to a stage when your free will be en-tirely free from any sort of coloring due to any vasanas. At that stage, your mind will be pure as crystal and all motive for partic-ular action will cease to be. Freedom from the results of particular actions is an inevi-table consequence. Both fate and vasana disappear. There is freedom for ever more and that freedom is called moksha. ∏π

His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Chandrashekara Bharati Mahaswami, mystic, poet and seer

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rime and punishment grow outof the one stem,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay, Compensa-tion. “Punishment is a fruit that un-

suspected ripens within the fl ower of the pleasure which concealed it. Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed, for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end pre-exists in the means, the fruit in the seed.”

Compensation was Emerson’s in ter pretation of the Hindu law of karma. Long before his fellow countrymen even knew Hinduism existed, he was studying and ab-sorbing the wisdom of the Vedas and Upanishads, The Laws of Manu, The Mahabharata and Ramayana. Today Emerson is honored as one of America’s most influential and original thinkers. Yet few realize how extensively his work was suffused with Oriental philosophy—especially Hinduism. Long before Swami Vivekananda’s famed sojourn to North America, Emerson was subtly weaving Hindu thought into the fabric of his scholarly writing as if it were his own. In the minds of the Western intelligentsia, he ploughed fertile fi elds of inspiration fi fty years be-fore Indian swamis traveled West to seed them.

Transcendentalism was a liter-ary movement founded in 1836 by Emerson and a handful of other adventuresome American thinkers. It featured at least three authors of world stature: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Da-vid Thoreau and Walt Whitman.

Combining Romanticism with reform, Transcendentalism celebrated the spiritual potential of man by encouraging nonconfor-mity so that, through a sense of individual-ity, man might be released from mass con-ditioning enough to intuitively experience

God’s all-pervading oneness by personal efforts of unbiased and open-minded intro-spection. Transcendentalism emphasized the individual rather than the masses, intu-ition rather than reason, the forces of nature rather than the powers of man. This was

radical thinking in those days and it did not bring them immediate popularity. Yet such outspoken abandon of accepted norms freed the authors to study the literature, religion, philosophy and cul-ture of then exotic lands far beyond their shores. Perhaps as a result of Emerson’s infl uence, they all eventually became fasci-nated by the ancient texts of Hinduism.

A Disparate TeamAn irrefutable mystical bent coupled with an interest in Oriental literature may have been the only qualities the early American Transcendentalists had in common. History paints a vivid picture of disparity and dis-

similarity between Emerson, Thor-eau and Whitman. Yet, this very dissonance was fuel in the fire of the cause for which they had formed in the fi rst place. Emerson remained the ring leader—staid and serene. He entered into disputes only with intellectuals on intellec-tual issues. He was a far more com-prehensive thinker than his com-rades, yet less given to “putting the concepts into practice,” which was the forte of Thoreau and Whitman.

Emerson’s infatuation with the East enticed him away from an ear-ly career in the Christian ministry into a mystic search that his creative writing only partially appeased, even though it decidedly altered the course of Western thought for more than a hundred years to come.

In an essay entitled Emerson as Seen from India, written shortly after his death, Pratap Hunder Mo-zoomdar, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj declared: “Brahmanism is an acquirement, a state of being rather than a creed. In whomso-ever the eternal Brahma breathed his unquenchable fi re, he was the Brahman. And in that sense Emer-son was the best of Brahmans. He shines upon India serene as the

evening star. He seems to some of us to have been a geographical mistake.”

Another author and scholar, Heram-bachandra Maitra, suggests that the Mas-sachusetts mystic gave Hindus assurance and faith: “Emerson appeals to the Oriental mind. He translates into the language of modern culture what was uttered by the sages of ancient India in the loftiest strains.


It featured at least three authors of world radical thinking in those

similarity between Emerson, Thor-

evening star. He seems to some of us

“Ineffable is the union of man and God in every act of the soul. The simplest person, who in his integrity worships God, becomes God; yet for ever and ever the in-fl ux of this better and universal self is new and unsearchable. It inspires awe and astonishment. How dear, how soothing to man, arises the idea of God, effacing the scars of our mistakes and disappointments!”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

H I S T O R Y

Ralph Waldo Emerson and the

America’s earliest mysticism was strongly infl uenced by Hindu thought

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He breathes a new life into our old faith, and he assures its stability and progress by incorporating with it [other] truths re-vealed or brought into prominence by the wider intellectual and ethical outlook of the modern spirit.”

Not only is Emerson acknowledged by modern-day scholars East and West as one of the world’s greatest writers, he is also considered to be a primary infl uence in the development of North America’s current open-mindedness toward religious toler-ance, psychic interests and ethical concerns. Emerson is the most quoted American in the 20th-century press, and his works have been translated into dozens of languages abroad. Even those who never heard of him venerate the American ideals he helped to forge, including personal achievement,

character development and moral living. According to one critic, he continues to be “the least limited, the most permanently sug-gestive” of American literary artists.

Many Hindu religious leaders came to respect the work of Emerson. Swami Paramananda of the Ramakrishna Order, for instance, frequently quoted Emerson in his lectures and even wrote a book entitled Emerson and Vedanta.

Bringing Old Laws to LifeToday it’s easy to fi nd translations of Orien-tal writings. When Emerson was alive, how-ever, things were different. Such translations were few and imperfect. Additionally, inter-national communication and travel were poor. In that day it was rare to even hear of Hindu writings and rarer still to be able

to study them in depth. Yet, Emerson was able to gain much from “Hindu missionar-ies” like Ram Mohan Roy who traveled to America in the early 1800’s, specifi cally in-spired to elucidate Hinduism in the West.“When Confucius and the Indian scrip-

tures were made known, no claim to mo-nopoly of ethical wisdom could be thought of,” Emerson joyfully proclaimed. “It is only within this century (the 1800’s) that England and America discovered that their nursery tales were old German and Scan-dinavian stories; and now it appears that they came from India, and are therefore the property of all the nations.”

Emerson often presented Hindu prin-ciples in their original purity. Sometimes he would quote the scriptures directly. Through all of the elegance of his refi ned


Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Philosopherk

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Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was born in Boston, Mas-sachusetts, but he spent most of his life in Concord. His father was a Unitarian minister with a keen interest in fi ne literature who was instrumental in founding several important literary societies and publications of the time. When his father died, Emerson was given into the care of his aunt, who took a strong interest in his education. His literary gifts were recognized, encouraged and developed early. In 1817 he entered Harvard College where he met “Hindu missionaries,” including Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Emerson eventually became licensed to preach in the Unitarian community in 1826. His early sermons contained the themes of his later famous essays. His early work from the pulpit also laid the foundation for the distinguished skill he later displayed as a lecturer.

The grief of the death of his fi rst wife drove him to question his beliefs and his profession in the Christian ministry, turn-ing him to other religions (including Hinduism) for evidence of vital truth. At this point he resigned from the Unitarian ministry and traveled abroad. Infatuated by the possibility of spiritual correspondence between man and nature, he began lecturing and writing. As with many writers, personal expe-rience played heavily into Emerson’s assimilation of creative ideas. His disenchantment with Christianity fi nds its way into Compensation, one of his early essays. “Ever since I was a boy,” he writes, “I have wished to write a discourse on compensation; for it seemed to me when very young that on this subject life was ahead of theology and the people knew more than the preachers taught. It seemed to me also that in it might be shown a ray of divinity, the present ac-tion of the soul of this world, clean from all vestige of tradition; and so the heart of man might be bathed by an inundation of eternal love, conversing with that which he knows was always and always must be, because it really is now. It appeared, moreover, that if this doctrine could be stated in terms with any resemblance to those bright instructions in which this truth is sometimes revealed to us, it would be a star in many dark hours and crooked passages in our journey, that would not suffer us to lose our way.”ar

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prose, there ever remained in his work an unpretentious commitment to the wisdom of the words rather than the crafting of them, as if the core of his motivation was more about leaving behind diaries of per-sonal practice and discovery than legacies of literary greatness. Even his finished works read like ongoing revelations “to be continued.”“Always pay!” he exclaimed, heralding the

truths of karma and dharma. “First or last you must pay your entire debt. Persons and events may stand for a time between you and justice, but it is only a postponement. You must pay at last your own debt.”

“Thou canst not gather what thou dost not sow; as thou dost plant the trees, so will it grow. Whatever the act a man commits, of that the recompense must be received in corresponding body.”

Emerson more than echoed ancient wis-dom. It was his pleasure and a good portion of his genius to be able to expand upon or

penetrate these timeless truths. In this sense his works were shared meditations.“Every act rewards itself, or in other words,

integrates itself, in a twofold manner,” Em-erson asserts. “First, in the thing, or in real nature, and secondly in the circumstance, or in apparent nature. Men call the circum-stance the retribution. The causal retribu-tion is in the thing and is seen by the soul. The retribution in the circumstance is seen by the understanding. It is inseparable from the thing, but it often spreads over a long time and so does not become distinct until after many years. The specifi c stripes may follow late after the offense, but they follow because they accompany it.”

A man of considerable infl uenceRalph Waldo Emerson was a poet, an essay-ist and a lecturer. He is considered one of the most signifi cant leaders of the American Renaissance, which fl ourished at the middle of the nineteenth century. Besides Thoreau

and Whitman, that period also featured the masterful work of other literary greats like Emerson’s very dear friends: Herman Mel-ville, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Emily Dick-inson. Together these notable artists had a profound effect upon the religious, aesthetic, philosophical and ethical thinking of the day, and Emerson was at the center of it all.

His transcendentalism left the literary world with a general sense that there were mystic realities over, above and greater than the trials and tribulations of common, ev-eryday life. Yet, ironically, his writings were never without a touch of realistic pragma-tism. He combined ancient classical human-ism with Oriental metaphysics to ratify his own down-to-earth brand of philosophical monism.“There is one mind common to all individ-

ual men. Every man is an inlet to the same. He that is once admitted to the right of reason is made a free man in the whole es-tate. What Plato has thought, he may think;


The RecluseHenry David Thoreau (1817-1862) made a few important ideas famous—but not during his lifetime. He said that man must follow his conscience regardless of cost, that life should be lived with awareness and appreciation and that the world of nature was su-perior to the world of man. Although these are not original ideas, his lucid, provocative writing made them convincing.

On fi rst impression, Thoreau’s life was one of poverty and failure. He was a rebel. With prickly independence, he referred to his most famous work, Walden, as his “cockcrow to the world.” Toward the end of his life the fi ery disdain of his youth died to warm embers. Because of his outspoken ways, he received few accolades for his literary accomplishments. Even his close friend, Emerson, predicted no literary greatness for him. Such evaluation humbled the talented writer as he got older.

An intensely practical man, Thoreau rarely idealized. Yet, of Hinduism he wrote in his journal: “What extracts from the Vedas I have read fall on me like light of a higher and purer luminary, which describes a loftier course through a purer stratum, free from particulars, simple, universal.”

Thoreau was austere and remained an ascetic throughout his life. This attitude was inspired by his encounter with the yoga of Hinduism.

“Depend upon it that, rude and careless as I am, I would fain practice the yoga faithfully,” he writes. “The yogi, absorbed in contemplation, contributes in his degree to creation. To some ex-tent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogi.”

Mahatma Gandhi, another nonconformist, was deeply inspired by Thoreau: “My fi rst introduction to Thoreau’s writings was when I was in the thick of the passive resistance struggle. A friend sent me his essay, Civil Disobedience. It left a deep impression upon me. The essay seemed to be so convincing and truthful that I felt the need of knowing more of Thoreau, and I came across his Walden and other essays, all of which I read with great pleasure and equal profi t.”

Henry David Thoreau

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what a saint has felt, he may feel; what at any time has befallen any man, he can un-derstand. Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is or can be done. How easily these old worships of Moses, of Zoroaster, of Manu, of Socrates, domesticate themselves in the mind. I cannot fi nd any antiquity in them: they are mine as much as theirs.”

The LegacyAccording to historical accounts, Emerson was a quiet, humble and unassuming gentle-man. Nevertheless, history also shows that he had a commanding and wide-ranging in-fl uence upon the humanity of his day. Thus, like many men of legendary greatness, he became more than the sum of his various identities as speaker, poet, writer and phi-losopher. Because the common denominator in and through all of his work was medita-tive introspection, he is recognized, loved and admired today as one of America’s fi rst

truly indigenous sages.Although he searched the world over for

glimmerings of truth and in the process delved deep within himself, Emerson dis-covered in the inherent limitations of hu-man comprehension what was perhaps his greatest fi nd: humility.“The philosophy of six thousand years

(Hinduism) has not searched the chambers and magazines of the soul,” he lamented. “In its experiments there has always remained, in the last analysis, a residuum it could not resolve. Man is a stream whose source is hidden. I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine.”

When the Earth’s most comprehensive philosophical system yielded what he con-sidered to be, at best, a spiritual dilemma, Emerson was forced to seek his answers—as all mystics must—in personal transcenden-tal experience. It should come as no great surprise that he would be fundamentally re-

sponsible for founding a movement referred to as “Transcendentalism.”As Emerson and the Transcendentalists became enamored with Hinduism, they took up the crusade of literary eclecticism, showing a breadth of vision that went beyond their European heritage of American literature and thought. It was their dream to integrate Judeo-Chris-tian and Americo-European transcendental thought with Hindu ideas. The result of that endeavor forms a good portion of the extensive appeal their writings still have today all over the world.“In the morning I bathe my intellect in the

stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagvat-Gita, since whose composition years of the Gods have elapsed, and in com-parison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial,” writes Thoreau. “And I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of ex-istence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions.” ∏π


The Recluse

Walt Whitman

The MysticWalt Whitman (1819-1892) was born in Long Island, New York. Having left school at the age of eleven, he was mostly self-educated. He worked as a typesetter, journeyman printer, school teacher, editor, stationer, journalist, essayist—and fi nally a poet.

Whitman lived in New York for 36 years. Around age 30, he experienced a spontaneous mystical illumination which was strongly refl ected in his poetry. In Song of Myself, he writes, “All truths wait in all things. They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it. The insignifi cant is as big to me as any.”

In 1855 he wrote Leaves of Grass, his most famous work, which he revised and published nine times throughout the re-mainder of his lifetime. Although the radical form and content of this poetry eventually marked him as a revolutionary epito-me of American literature, he was, during his life, known more for his infl uence as a prophet of democracy and “an enthusiast of the common man.” The Transcendentalists loved him from the start and gave his work credence, for he exemplifi ed their coveted denial of conformity in pursuit of individual mystical experience.

Whitman’s work was applauded fi rst by great Eastern minds. Sri Aurobindo had respect for him and extolled him in his es-say, Future Poetry. Tagore admired him and even translated one of his poems. Swami Vivekananda paid tribute to him as a “spiritual genius.” In the late 1860s Whitman received overdue recognition in America as the early reactions to his radical style began to fade. In 1870 Whitman wrote Passage to India. This poem moved beyond America, beyond humanity, to death and “the hereafter.”

In January, 1873, Whitman had his first stroke, which left him partially paralyzed. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Camden, New Jersey, where he spent the last years of his life. Facing his fi nal days, he wrote Proudly the Flood Comes In, a wondrous contemplation of death. He died March 26, 1892.

Walt Whitman

The Mystic

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Transcendent Moments“Brahma”“If the red slayer think he slays,Or if the slain think he is slain,They know not well the subtle waysI keep, and pass, and turn again.

“Far or forgot to me is near,Shadow and sunlight are the same,The vanished gods to me appear,And one to me are shame and fame.

“They reckon ill who leave me out;When me they fl y, I am the wings;I am the doubter and the doubt,And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

“The strong gods pine for my abode,And pine in vain the sacred Seven;But thou, meek lover of the good!Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I lived like the Puri Indians, of whom it is said that for yesterday, today and tomorrow they have only one word—pointing backward for yesterday, forward for tomorrow and over-head for the passing day. This was sheer idle-ness to my fellow townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and fl owers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting.”

“One may discover the root of the Hindu reli-gion in one’s own private history, when, in the silent intervals of the day or the night, he does sometimes infl ict on himself like austeri-ties with a stern satisfaction.”

Henry David Thoreau

“I lived like the Puri Indians, of whom it is “I lived like the Puri Indians, of whom it is “

From “Walden”

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From “Walden”From “Walden”From “Walden”

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a p r i l / m ay / j u n e , 2 0 0 4 h i n d u i s m t o d ay 63 a p r i l / m ay / j u n e , 2 0 0 4 h i n d u i s m t o d ay 63

Transcendent Moments“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to meAs good belongs to you.

“Do you see O my brothers and sisters?It is not chaos or death.It is form, union, plan.It is eternal life. It is Happiness.

“The past and present wilt.I have fi ll’d them, emptied them.And proceed to fi ll my next foldOf the future.

“Listener up there!What have you to confi de to me?Look in my face while I snuffThe sidle of evening.

“The spotted hawk swoops byAnd accuses me.He complains of my gabAnd my loitering.

“I too am not a bit tamed,I too am untranslatable,I sound my barbaric yawpOver the roofs of the world.

“The last scud of day holds back for me,It fl ings my likeness after the rest and True as any on the shadow’d wilds,It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.

“I depart as air, I shake my white locksAt the runaway sun,I effuse my fl esh in eddies,And drift it in lacy jags.

“I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow From the grass I love,If you want me again look for meUnder your boot soles.

“You will hardly know who I amOr what I mean,But I shall be good health to you Nevertheless, and fi lter andFibre your blood.

“Failing to fetch me at fi rstKeep encouraged,Missing me one place, search another.I stop somewhere waiting for you.”

Walt Whitman

From “Walden”

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself, “I depart as air, I shake my white locks

From “Song of Myself”

arch

hiv

e ph

oto

s

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By Kumud Mohan, New Delhiuring vedic times, most children were taught at home by their par-ents. Sons apprenticed with dads, and daughters learned from moms.

As these kids became adults, they helped to mold a personalized family tradition. How-ever, for a few young people showing poten-tial in fields requiring special instruction such as music, dance, art, medicine or the priestly crafts, gurukulams were established. A gurukulam (literally, “teacher’s family”) is a place where students live and learn in resi-dence with a highly accomplished teacher in a specialized field. Although gurukulams can theoretically exist for the education of boys or girls in any skill, they are most tra-ditionally established to instruct young men of the brahmin caste in the performance of Vedic priestly rites and the practice of reli-gious discipline. To keep up with the needs of modern times, most of today’s gurukulams add a more secular teaching curriculum, in-cluding even computer classes.

The Shrimad Dayanand Vedarsh Maha-vidyalaya of Gautam Nagar in South Delhi is one of approximately three hundred guru-kulams still in existence today in India. It was first established some 70 years ago by a Hindu holy man named Swami Sacchinanda Yogi. Although it flourished for a number of

years, it began to suffer for lack of sufficient patronage after India’s Independence in 1947 and finally closed in 1961. It was, how-ever, reopened in 1979 by Acharya Haridev, and has been successfully function-ing as a non-profit school ever since.

The one-acre campus of the Mahavidyalaya provides boarding and education for about 250 resident male stu-dents. To qualify for admit-tance, teenage boys must have at least a fifth-grade education, but no one is denied admittance due to caste, race or religion. Stu-dents come from all parts of India, including Assam, Ben-gal, Maharashtra, Orissa, UP, Bihar and Karnataka. Over 60 percent of them are very poor. Some are tribals or “un-touchables.”

Poverty-stricken parents pay about $10 a month for their boys to live and learn at Mahavidyalaya—less than they would spend on them if they were staying at home.

This nominal fee includes food, clothes, housing, books, medicine and instruction.

Admission to the Mahavidyalaya is formal-ized with an ancient ceremony called the upanayan, during which the tying of a sa-cred white thread across the left shoulder of the young student formally marks the begin-ning of his Vedic education. This ceremony also equalizes the status of the students, ir-respective of their background. At this time their heads are also shaven.

The ashram raises its own cows. Meals consist of milk, dal, chapatis, vegetables and rice. Spices like ginger and cloves re-place onion and garlic, which are believed to stimulate the instinctive nature. Fruit and yogurt, being costly, are included once or twice a week. Delicacies like puri and halva are served two or three times a month, usu-ally when contributed by donors.

Each day begins and ends with hatha yoga, meditation and worship at the havan, or fire ceremony. The other daylight hours are tightly packed with work, service and classes. First priority is given to instruction in the performance of temple ceremony, but all resident students also learn mathematics, science and three languages: Sanskrit, Hindi and English.

Teachers and students share the same meals, wash their own clothes, sleep on the floor and follow the same demanding sched-ule. On the seventh day, Sunday, the only concession made is that formal education is replaced by sports and carefully monitored television.

Unnecessary contact with outsiders, con-sidered a distraction to study, is not allowed.

Students may occasionally communicate by letter or telephone according to individual requirements, although such communica-tion is discouraged. There are no holidays, except an annual one-month summer vacation. Spartan simplic-ity defines the schedule, but most students adjust to it over time. Those who can’t or won’t usually drop out within the first two or three months.

There is no physical pun-ishment of a violent nature in the gurukulam. “We discourage and disallow physical punishment of any type in the Vidyalaya,” ex-plains Pradhanacharya Ha-

E D U C A T I O N

Preserving Ancient WaysDiscipline and intense learning still define the Vedic gurukulam system of education

sau

ra

bh

mo

ha

n


Class time: Disciplined students sit poised and ready for Sanskrit class at Mahavidyalaya

ku

mu

d m

oh

an

Winning example: Ramesh Kumar Yadav, 21, graduated from the Vedarsh Mahavidyalaya and now teaches there. During the time he was a student, he won twelve gold, seven silver and eight bronze medals in na-tional and international hatha yoga competitions.

pg 64-65.indd 64 2/13/04 2:52:37 PM

By Tirtho Banerjee, Uttar Pradeshwami shitlaprasad, 85, has livedhis life in reverence for God and service to people. Born in a small village called Malke in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, he

was sent by his father to live in an ashram at an early age. There, he learned Sanskrit, Ve-dic astrology, ayurveda and yoga. Although he loved the ashram life, he was consumed with a desire to wander freely in search of God. Sometime before the age of 20, he was initiated into sannyas by an old sadhu named Pandit Devi Sahaya Shukla. In 1940, at age 22, he left home to make his way on foot throughout North India and into the Hi-malayas on his quest for the ultimate Truth.

During his travels, he visited great places of learning, including the famous Samved Vidyalaya in Varanasi, and sat at the holy feet of many wise men. The turning point in his inner search came in 1946 when he ar-rived in Kanpur on the banks of the Ganga in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The British

had occupied the strategically located city since 1803 and Muslims had looted and plundered its many Siva temples. The city’s famous Sati Chaura Ghat

(steps down to the river) was also nearly demolished. All the local

inhabitants were distraught. Swami was deeply saddened by what he saw.

During his fi rst night in Kanpur, Goddess Saras-

wati appeared to him in a dream. She told

him to excavate a yantra (a mystic diagram com-

posed of geometric and alphabetic fi gures) called Sriyantra from beneath the entrance to an abandoned Siva temple on the Sati Chaura ghat. Following his devonic instructions, the swami did indeed fi nd the Sriyantra. It was six feet tall, two feet wide and carved in white stone. Immediately, he had it installed in the dilapidated Siva temple and began the renovation of both the temple and the ghat. Through relentless efforts, he was able to mobilize like-minded people of the city to raise funds for the reconstruction project. Many contemporary luminaries of the 1950s, including Pandit Balkrishna Naveen, Pan-dit Sudarshan Bajpai, Pannalal Tripathi and Badri Prasad Dubey, participated in the ef-fort. The temple was soon completely rebuilt. It became famous overnight.

In 1947, Swami Shitlaprasad organized the temple’s first mayayagna (great fire ceremony). Today, it is an annual ritual. In 1948, he established a monastery called Sri Nanarao Surja Reshwar Shakti Yoga Ash-ram Sri Vidyapeeth within the temple com-pound. This ashram includes a satsang hall (gathering place for religious discussion), a library and a yoga training center, as well as accommodations for extensive ayurvedic research and practice. For more than half a century, the swami has tirelessly organized important religious seminars. In 1968, he ar-ranged a spiritual meeting featuring India’s four primary Shankaracharyas. In 1997, he established the Sri Vidya Raj Rajeshwari Lalitamba Trust to insure the well being of the temple/monastery complex even after his passing. In 1998, he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ashram.

Swami is currently writing a book on yoga and, even in his old age, is unremit-ting in the practice of daily meditation. He often meets with devotees who come to his temple. In his conversations with them, he stresses the importance of religious disci-pline, especially the practice of silent japa. His very presence kindles in visitors that same fl ame of spiritual aspiration that made him the uncommon man that he is. ∏π

for more information write to tirtho banerjee, 131 rabindra palli, faizabad road, lucknow, 226016,

uttar pradesh, india.

ridev, the principal, “We believe in ahimsa, or nonviolence. Physical punishment would just lead to resentment and reinforcement of the fault rather than to the reform of it. So, normally, we point out the consequences of a child’s actions to him and encourage him to do some self-searching.”

Approximately 20 shastris and acharyas graduate from the Vedarsh Mahavidyalaya every year. Some become lecturers, writ-ers and researchers. Others become puro-hits, conducting religious ceremonies, such as weddings. A few set up Vedic schools in India and abroad. Many continue to perfect themselves in the art of mantroccharana, the oral recitation of the Vedas.

Although it may be said that for now the ancient gurukulam system is alive and well, its future is undeniably fragile. Modern times militate against its austerity, money is always in short supply and mastering the an-cient Sanskrit language is certainly not the prestigious aspiration it once was. Still, well-wishers of this ancient heritage hope for the best and pray that at least a few good, young men might be allowed the opportunity to spend their impressionable early years wise-ly—strengthening body, mind and character through discipline, study and restraint, ac-cording to the Vedic ways of old. ∏π

for more information please e-mail [email protected] or write: kumud mohan,

28 anand lok, new delhi-110049

P R O F I L E

Living for Inner SearchOne man’s one-minded commitment to yoga yields a life of enlightened service

rived in Kanpur on the banks of the Ganga in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The British

had occupied the strategically located city since 1803 and Muslims had looted and plundered its many Siva temples. The city’s famous Sati Chaura Ghat

(steps down to the river) was also nearly demolished. All the local

inhabitants were distraught. Swami was deeply saddened by what he saw.

During his fi rst night in Kanpur, Goddess Saras-

wati appeared to him in a dream. She told

him to excavate a yantra (a mystic diagram com-


Making a difference: Swami Shitlaprasad

tir

th

o b

an

er

jee

pg 64-65.indd 65 2/13/04 2:53:01 PM


By Rajiv Malik, New Delhi, Indiaanjay started collecting imag-es of Lord Ganesha about five years ago. “I used to collect matchboxes,” he says, “but my wife told me that I should collect something which has

some value in life.” In fact, it was his wife who initially inspired him to collect Gane-shas, and she has been his primary source of encouragement along the way.“It started in Rishikesh,” con-

tinues Sanjay. “At my wife’s sug-gestion, I purchased a wooden image of Lord Ganesha, which we put in our home shrine.” Nice, he mused, but only a be-ginning. Sanjay began to collect wedding cards with pictures of Hinduism’s beloved elephant-faced Deity on them. Normally such cards are thrown away af-ter the rites, but Sanjay wasn’t comfortable watching people indiscriminately consign images of the Gods to garbage cans. “I always tell people that either the cards with Ganesha’s picture on them should not be produced, or if they are, then we must preserve them.” He picks up old, discarded wedding cards with images of the Gods on them, even from the roadside. “I keep the cards with Ganesha on them that I want for my collection, and those with other Gods I rev-erentially offer to a holy river.”

Sanjay Sawhney’s collection is such an important part of his life now that he is searching for a new home in which he plans to dedicate an entire room for his Ganeshas. He relates, “I would like to manage it more system-atically than I’ve done so far. I had about 2,000 Ganeshas in my collection a year ago, and now many more have been added.” His collection includes cuttings of paintings from wedding and greeting cards, as well as carved murtis in gold, silver, copper, brass, wood, glass and other materials. He has laminated posters, original paintings, key rings, lamp shades and wax images, to name a few of the many media through which the Remover of Ob-stacles gives darshan these days. He and his wife have even fashioned their own images

am

it k

um

ar

G O D S

One Man’s Divine DiversionDelhi’s Sanjay Sawhney has collected over 2,000 images of Ganesha

of Lord Ganesha.Sanjay considers it a big achievement that

over 200 million people in New Delhi and neighboring states have read about him and his Ganesha collection in newspapers. “This could not have happened without the bless-ings of Lord Ganesha himself,” Sanjay offers.

“A lot of people are aware of my collection and recognize me. My friends and relatives also appreciate my interest and keep en-

couraging me. Whenever an article is pub-lished on my collection—over half a dozen have been published so far—my friends and relatives call me up on the phone and tell me that they saw it.”

About adding to his collection, Sanjay says, “I am not investing a very large amount of money in purchasing Ganeshas, but whatev-er I do spend I know is graciously provided by Lord Ganesha Himself. The truth is that

from where the Ganeshas come and how I buy them, I just don’t know. I feel that all of this is happening, but I am not really doing it.” At exhibitions, around town and while on vacation with his family, Sawhney is al-ways on the lookout for a different form of the benevolent, large-bellied Lord. He adds,

“Some Ganeshas suddenly appear before me in the most unexpected places, and I quick-ly pick them up.”

According to Sawhney, money is usually not a big hindrance when it comes to buying Gane-shas. However, there have been a few occasions when he couldn’t acquire a Ganesha because it was too expensive. He explains,

“Sometimes I have to drop some-thing I personally desire and opt for spending the money on add-ing one more Ganesha to my col-ection. Even when I give a gift, I try to give a Ganesha.”

Sanjay recalls that his parents gave him reverence for the Hindu Gods and Goddesses by their pi-ous example. He is trying to pass that devotion on to his two small children whom, he says, are in-spired by the Ganesha collection to do good work. Becoming a veg-etarian is another way his special connection with Ganesha has made him a better Hindu.

Sanjay’s biggest ambition in life is to construct a Ganesha temple, which he would name Ganesha Dham. He’s not sure how he’ll manage to gather the resources for such a large project, but hopes that it would be a place where his Ganesha collection could some-how be used to benefit the poor.

Before I leave, Sawhney touch-es on more philosophical matters:

“Ganesha is one of our most beau-tiful forms of God. He is known

for fulfilling people’s desires and removing obstacles from their paths, which is prob-ably the reason why He is the first God to be worshiped whenever any puja is done. Though sometimes He may take time to fulfill one’s desires, ultimately He does. The forms of Ganesha are endless, and as long as I am alive I will keep on adding more and more Ganeshas to my collection.” ∏π

Many divine forms: Sanjay Sawhney in his Delhi home replete with Ganeshas of every kind

pg 66.indd 66 2/13/04 2:53:40 PM


swami tejomayananda, 54, is the spiritual head of Chinmaya Missions worldwide. Based in Mumbai, he frequently tours the globe teaching and inspiring people to understand the Vedantic texts.

The following is an edited excerpt from an interview of Swami which appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of Chinmaya Kasi.

arenting is a difficult task. it is interesting that parents want me to speak on the subject. When I give them certain advice they say, “Swamiji, that is al-right for you to say, but only if you had children of your

own would you understand our situation!” Even though I don’t have children of my own, I was also born and brought up in a family. So, I, too, have seen what family life is like.

How to care for children, especially those in their teens, who can be very rebellious, revolting and resistant? This question cannot be answered in a general manner. Every individual is unique, and no set of rules can really be effective all the time. A man said, “Before marriage, I had six theories about raising chil-dren. Now, after marriage, I have six children and no theories.”

The first thing that is required when you face any problem in life is that you have to keep cool. Calm down and relax. There is no use getting agitated or over-anxious. The second thing to know is that the problem you are facing is a common problem. For ex-ample, when a doctor sees a patient, he doesn’t get upset, because he has seen many such cases. Every patient thinks his or her case is unique and the most serious and that the doctor should imme-diately attend to it. The doctor, on the other hand, remains very calm and collected.

Whenever you feel that your children are misbehaving, please think of your own teenage years. I don’t think that there is any person who was not rebellious while growing up. Some people may have rebelled at the mental level—some form of resistance must have manifested at one time or another.

Your worries are not because all children in general are misbe-having, but because your children are misbehaving. Let’s go to a subtler level. First, it appears that the worry is for children in gen-eral. Then you realize that the worry is for your child. Still subtler is the fact that the action of your child has direct repercussions on you and your image.

The mother and father are only the suppliers of the physical body for the jiva (soul) to live in. They don’t give birth to the jiva. The one who takes care of the child in the womb will also take care of the troubles later on. We seem to have an unnecessary sense of doership. Kahlil Gibran in his book The Prophet states that children come through you, they don’t belong to you, like the arrow which travels through the bow but does not belong to it; it just follows its own course.

Parents must play the role of an instrument. Gurudev, Swami Chinmayananda, said that your role is like that of a gardener. You do not create the seed or the soil. The potential power is already in the seed. The role of the gardener is to prepare the soil properly, to sow the seeds at the right time and to give them the required amount of water, shade and sunlight—to provide a conducive en-vironment for the seeds to grow. If the seeds have something in

them, they will sprout. But if the seeds are roasted, or if the soil is not right, or there is too much rain or too little, then what can the gardener do?

Children say that you are hypocrites, that you have double standards, one for yourselves and another for your children. If we want them to be cultured, we, too, have to follow the same rules. We must start with ourselves first. The child starts its learning process while he or she is in the mother’s womb. Imparting culture to our children is the most important thing, but we must begin with ourselves. That is why Pujya Gurudev used to say, “Culture cannot be taught; it can only be caught.”

Do not impose your ideas on your chil-dren. If you have failed to achieve some-thing in your life, you feel that you want to experience and enjoy that achievement in-directly through your children. We should allow the children to grow on their own. Nobody likes taking orders, commands or advice from others. We should not make the children feel that we are teaching or advising them. Instead, the ideas should seem to come from within themselves.

As a parent, you should be sensitive to your children’s reactions and determine if his behavior has sudden-ly changed or if he is simply following the growing pattern. When children go through various stages of childhood, teenage and young adulthood, certain mental and physical changes take place. Sometimes we give undue importance to these changes and worry too much. We must remember that it is only a passing phase.

In a home I once visited, the host had two sons. The parents told their children, “Now Swamiji is here. Ask him whatever you want to know.” The children immediately replied, “We don’t have any questions.” I told the parents to leave them alone. After breakfast, I went to the boys and asked them, “What is your hobby?” “We like to play baseball,” was the reply. I said, “Please teach me about baseball.” Immediately they became enthusiastic about educating me on baseball. They showed me some pictures and videos. Slowly they began asking me all about religion and culture. This shows that if you take an interest in their interests, slowly a rapport will build with the child.

Children say, “Swamiji, there is no limit to what our parents expect from us! They want us to become first-class sportsmen, first-class musicians, first-class artists, first-class dancers, first-class students and first-class professionals!” Don’t you think you are ask-ing too much of them?

There is a Sanskrit verse that deals with parenting: “Play with your children up to the age of five. The next ten years, be strict with them, discipline them and educate them. When they turn six-teen years old, treat them like your friends.” Once the right vision and values are given, they will follow them to a large extent.

The Lord is the Inner Controller. Pray to Him to change your child’s mind and inspire him. If you pray and remain calm, things will change—and for the better. I wish all your children a very bright future.

MINISTER’S MESSAGE

Let Kids Be KidsParents need to relax and allow their children to meet the many challenges of growing upB Y S W A M I T E J O M A Y A N A N D A

pg 67.indd 67 2/13/04 2:54:08 PM

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F U N D S F O R A D E I T Y, B R A I L L E B O O K S A N D A R T

T A O S H A N U M A N F U N D

This endowment (#51) was created by Rev. Kathleen A. Knight to help care for and maintain the Taos Hanuman Temple Deity in Taos, New Mexico. The first priority of the fund is to see that the paint does not fade, for example, and to sponsor one traditional Hindu puja each day on a regular basis. If necessary, the grants can be used to bring an artisan in from India to do maintenance work on the Deity. As the fund grows, a second priority is to maintain a small shrine for Neem Karoli Baba and to see that a minimal, once daily Hindu puja is performed. Currently, the fund is at $5,573.49, and the yearly grants are compounding back into the principal until it reaches $12,500. At that time, the Taos Hanuman Temple would receive approximately $500 per year.

S a i v i t e H i n d u S c r i p t u r a l F u n df o r t h e V i s u a l l y I m p a i r e dDamara Shanmugan first became interested in helping the blind in 1993-1994 while visiting Sri Sri Sri Balagangadharanatha Swamiji’s school for the blind in Karnataka, South India. After her second pilgrim-age to India in 1995-1996, she worked as a volunteer in this school for two weeks. Now acutely aware of

the needs of these dear children, she returned to the United States determined to learn braille and do whatever necessary to provide them with much-needed ma-terials, texts and encouragement. Entirely self-taught, using the special braille program, EDIT-PC, her personal home computer, and a Romeo RB-25 por-table embosser, she has, since 1996, created and operated The SHIVA Braille Foundation, the beneficiary of this endow-

ment (#43). Damara is the only braille transcriber in the world who exclusively transcribes Saivite Hindu practices and philosophy into braille. Using the award winning books and magazines of her late guru, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, she carefully transcribes the essence of the mystical Saivite Hindu tradition and sends braille books free of charge around the globe. In June, 2000, the SHIVA Braille Foundation opened the Satguru Subramuniyaswami Braille Learning Center in Whitefield, Karnataka. As the second beneficiary of this fund, the center teaches braille in three languages to blind adults and has graduated 118 students.

K A U A I A A D H E E N A M A R T A N D A R T I F A C T S F U N D

In acknowledgement of the profound lifetime of love and commitment to art exhibited by William E. Daniels, a special Hindu Heritage Endowment multi-donor fund was established by his son, Rajadeva Alahan. Grants from this fund (#38) are to promote the spiritual arts of the Hindu tradition, especially the South Indian, Saivite traditions, and include rajput-style paintings, batiks, silk paintings, illustrations as well as sculptures and religious artifacts. This fund was initiated with a $5,000 contribution and, as is common with small endowments, has been accumulating its grants for several years. The annual grant now totals $786, and the fund’s current project is to help fund the wrought iron portion of the 16-foot-tall white granite entrance gate for Kauai Aadheenam, shown below.

pg 76-77 apr-may-jun 04.indd 76 2/11/04 11:48:46 AM

HINDU HERITAGE ENDOWMENTKAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY

107 Kaholalele RoadKapaa, Hawaii, 96746-9304 USA

Tel: 808-822-3012 Ext 244 • Fax: [email protected] • www.hheonline.org

MISSION STATEMENT: Hindu Heritage Endowment is a publicly supported, charitable organization recognized as tax exempt by the IRS on April 22, 1994. Employer ID 99-0308924. Founded by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, its philanthropic mission is to provide secure, professionally managed fi nancial support for institutions and religious leaders of all lineages of Sanatana Dharma.

PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS: Halbert, Hargrove/Russell, Investment Counsel; Alvin G. Buchignani, Esq., Legal Counsel; and Hirose, Kato and Co., CPA. HHE is a member of the Council on Founda-tions, an association of 1,931 foundations which interprets relevant law and management and invest-ment principles.

I WANT TO PARTICIPATE. WHERE SHOULD I SEND MY DONATION? You can send your gift to an existing fund, create a new endowment or request information through the address below. Dona-tions may be made online at www.hheonline.org or use the HHE tear-out card in this magazine to join our family of benefactors who are Strengthening Hinduism Worldwide. Thank you.

O C T O B E R T O D E C E M B E R E N D O W M E N T C O N T R I B U T I O N S

Kauai Aadheenam Monastic EndowmentWilliam & Barbara Bachmann $1,000.00Rajendra Giri 30.00Arul Karttikeya 866.00Sadhaka Nilakantha 105.00Other Donations 4,391.00Himalayan Academy 1,500.00Total 7,892.00

Iraivan Temple EndowmentAnonymous 159.00Jane Claassen 50.00Mani & Surya Nallasivan 500.00Sivadas Sivarajah 20.00Devananda Tandavan 1,345,716.67Niraj Thaker 54.00Other Donations 29,217.00Total 1,375,716.67

Kauai Aadheenam Annual Archana FundKanda Alahan 149.00Ravindra Doorgiat 58.43Isanah Kameni 39.45Amouda Koothan 1.50Egilen Koothan 30.03Saravan Koothan 1.50Souda Koothan 1.50Thavamalar Lingam 38.90Saroja Devi Manickam 2.50Bhaveshan Moorghen 1.85Shanda Kumaran Moorghen 1.85Udeyadeva Moorghen 1.85Adi Sankara Perumal 34.11Anjeeni Devi Perumal 18.95Kirtideva Peruman 13.42Niroshnee Peruman 20.14Gunalan Ponniah 130.71Akileiswaran Samuthiran 2.80Jayasutha Samuthiran 2.80 Sathialingeswari 63.53Devaladevi Sivaceyon 5.23Nutanaya Sivaceyon 5.23Patudeva Sivaceyon 10.45Hemavalli Sivalingam 2.37Kantha Ruben Sivalingam 2.37Rohini Sivalingam 2.37Dasa Sivam 72.00Potriyan Sivanathan 6.27Guha Skanda 126.00Javanya Skanda 6.00Subasene Skanda 18.00Samynaden Veerapen 38.00Siven Veerasamy 53.00Total 962.11

Hinduism Today Distribution FundAnonymous 30.00Kanda Alahan 851.00Appamal Athimulam 262.58Cecelia Autar 252.00Anil Ananda Badhwar 95.10Surinder M. Bhardwaj 150.00Ram Iyer Chandra 125.00Jane Claassen 50.00Stephanie Devi Corgatelli 430.00

Rohit & Bisram Deocharan 99.00Banu Devi Deva 509.00Chellappa Deva 433.00Ravindra Doorgiat 16.63Rajul & Heidi Gandhi 111.99Puvana Kandasamy 78.43Amravadee Kownden 34.91T. Iswarah Kumar 106.50Rushikesh H. Mehta 99.00Thila Nadason 866.00Gassa Patten 107.64Gunalan Ponniah 130.71Charles & Jan Roberts 40.00Vatsala Sastry 252.00Linda Seeley 75.00Jiva Shanmuga 102.00Usha Kiran Shastri 800.00Chandra Shekharan 195.00Yatrikadevi Shivam 306.00Devaladevi Sivaceyon 5.22Nutanaya Sivaceyon 5.22Potriyan Sivanathan 2.61Girish Skanda 21.00Womana Skanda 30.00Robert Sorrells 324.00Rajesh Wadhwa 800.00Total 7,796.54

Hindu Businessmen’s Association TrustVel Alahan 411.00Paramaseeven Canagasaby 19.76Vel Mahalingum 10.95Manogaran Mardemootoo 36.52Vishwanaden Moorooven 7.01Total 485.24

Boys School for Iraivan PriesthoodBala Sivaceyon 38.69Total 38.69

Kauai Aadheenam Matavasi Medical FundKailash Sivam Dhaksinamurthi 101.00Gowri Nadason 60.06Sadhaka Nilakantha 610.00Niraj Thaker 54.00Vayudeva Varadan 18.00Total 843.06

Tirunavukkarasu Nayanar GurukulamAran Sendan 51.00Total 51.00

Sri Subramuniya Kottam FundAndrew Schoenbaum 10.00Total 10.00

Kumbhalavalai Ganesha Temple EndowmentAnonymous 50.00Manoharan Navaratnarajah 75.00Total 125.00

Hinduism Today Production FundUsha Varma 50.00Total 50.00

Hindu Orphanage Endowment FundRam Iyer Chandra 125.00Jane Claassen 50.00Lila Shakti Devi 100.00Rajendra Giri 30.00Christian Langers 150.00Mani & Surya Nallasivan 500.00Natraj Narayanswami 45.00Rajalakshmi Ramalingam 50.00Alex Ruberto 30.00Jutikadevi Sivaraja 108.00Rodney & Ilene Standen 30.00Shun K. Sunder 1,008.00Usha Varma 50.00Matthew Wieczork 225.00Total 2,501.00

Loving Ganesha Distribution FundChristian Langers 150.00Manoharan Navaratnarajah 75.00Gassa Patten 1,404.05Total 1,629.05

Swami Agnivesh Endowment FundAnonymous 1,001.00Total 1,001.00

Saiva Agamas TrustRam Iyer Chandra 125.00Matthew Wieczork 20.00Total 145.00

Alaveddy Pasupatheeswarar Temple FundAnonymous 50.00Total 50.00

Hindu Heritage Endowment Administrative FundRam Iyer Chandra 125.00Sandeep Kakaria 50.00Total 175.00

Thank You Gurudeva FundMohan Ekambaram 501.00Anonymous 126.00Kanda Alahan 1,108.00Amarnath Devarmanai 324.00Shama Kumaran 21.00Dasan Mahadevan 1,008.00Singapore Mission 54.61Nitya Nadesan 108.00Manoharan Navaratnarajah 150.00Shanta Devi Periasamy 345.00Alex Ruberto 30.00Chamundi Sabanathan 108.00Hitesvara Saravan 108.00Sivadas Sivarajah 150.00Vayudeva Varadan 21.00Total 4,162.61

Mathavasi Travel FundKailash Sivam Dhaksinamurthi 501.00Total 501.00

Udayan Care Endowment FundChristian Langers 150.00Natraj Narayanswami 25.00Richard Stocker 21.00Total 196.00

Saivite Hindu Scriptural Fundfor the Visually ImpairedMani & Surya Nallasivan 500.00Jutikadevi Sivaraja 108.00Total 608.00

Sri Chandra Madhab Debnath EndowmentShyamal Chandra Debnath 50.00Total 50.00

Manitha Neyam Trust FundBala Sivaceyon 41.84Total 41.84

Taos Hanuman FundMani & Surya Nallasivan 500.00Total 500.00

Kapaleeshwara Temple Orphanage Vasudevan Jayanthi 300.00Mani & Surya Nallasivan 1,000.00Ganesan & Rajalakshmi Ramalingam 50.00Total 1,350.00

Pazhassi Balamandiram Orphanage FundAaron Mathias 30.00Total 30.00

Pooled Income Fund Trust (PIF)Gowri Nadason 20.00Satya Palani 50.00Total 70.00

Total Contributions $1,406,980.81

Funds at Market Value, Dec 31, 2003Total Endowment Funds $5,228,398.51Total Pooled Income Funds $195,622.92

Grand Total $5,424,021.43

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info. Also visit www.indiavoyages.com

www.hindugods.net

• Statues of Hindu & Bud-dhist Gods & Goddesses

• Rare furniture pieces

• Folk art textiles

• Prayer & Tibetan rugs

• Silver ethnic jewelry

• Pichwaiis & batik paintings

• Buddhist Thangkas batiks

• Books & henna body art

• Musical instruments:sitars and tablas

• Healing mantramusic CDs

I N D I A

The Finest Collectionof Antiques & Art from India, Tibet and Nepal

www.kindlelife.orgwww.kindlelife.orgLinks to charitable and worthy institutions worldwide.

Make donations to the institutions of your choice via Kindle Life (in accord with US regulations).

Apply for inclusion of your favorite charities.

Contact us to learn about other possibilites in giving—or to help us to develop them.

Visit site to access Hindu scriptures.

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Working Together

To Uplift People and CommunitiesTo Uplift People and Communities

Working Together

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in service of others.—Mahatma Gandhi

Tel: 1-510-653-6927Non-profit OrganizationFederal ID# 94-330847, CA state ID# 2072724

World-renowned teacher

and advisor, Chakrapani Ullal,

consults internationally with

people from all walks

of life. As the founding hon-

orary chairman of the ACVA

(American Council of Vedic

Astrology), he has played

an active role in bringing to-

gether the Eastern Indian

Vedic astrologers and

Western astrologers. Consid-

ered a teacher of teachers, he

travels widely as an author,

lecturer and consultant.

Born into a traditional Hindu lineage of astrologers in

South India, Chakrapani began his training at an early age

and enjoyed associations with many of India’s most revered

and celebrated saints and sages. With over 45 years of experi-

ence, his depth of knowledge and unique understanding

of how astrological principles apply to different cultures

are sought out by people from all over the world. For more

information and a schedule of his upcoming itinerary,

please contact:

Chakrapani Ullal • 12044 Kearsarge Street

Los Angeles, CA 90049-4113 USA

Tel: 310-476-9942 • Fax: 310-471-3205

[email protected] • www.chakrapani.com

Chakrapani Ullal, Vedic Astrology


Sign up now at www.gurudeva.org/mc/...or write to :

HIMALAYAN ACADEMY, KAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY107 Kaholalele Road, Kapaa, Hawaii, USA 96746-9304Phone: 808-822-3012, ext. 245 E-mail: [email protected]

Daily Lessons for Self-transformation!

Become a student of Gurudeva’s definitive trilogy on contemporary Hinduism. Why wait?


In remembrance of the Supreme Consciousness, by Dr. Arjunan Subramaniam, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 5th September 2002Part III, “The Worship of Shiva—Lord Ganesha Speaks to Gurudeva,” will appear in the July-August-September 2004 issue.

Photo courtesy of NASA.

Like the still waters of a lakeBecome cascading waters in a waterfall,

Father, show me Thy kinetic form—The Cosmic Mother, Paruvathi.

Like a child who has never Known his mother’s face

I sorrow for Thee:Like the Earth orbits the Sun

My atma orbits Thee.As the Oceans surround the lands

Thy Love surrounds me.

I gasp for the breath of wordsTo express my adoration for Thee:

’tis a long time since I said, “Mother, I love Thee.”

In the altar of my soulBurns the flame of love.

Fueled by the fire of ambition to see Thee,Fanned by the winds of devotion,

That flame has becomeA flame on flames

Leaping and soaring to Thee.

And but a glimpse of Thy faceWould put out my flames andBring my pilgrimage on earth

To a close.I wait, Thy child awaits, For that day, for the joy

of that moment…

Infinite ShivaPart II—Shiva as Shakti, the One Mother.

pg 85 apr-may-jun 04 bw7 2/11/04 9:55 AM Page 85

Visit www.hindu.org

M U L T I - M E D I A

Digital ShrineDoes your job or hectic

lifestyle prevent you from attending temple or praying in

your home shrine? Don’t worry! Lord Ganesha can now be as close as your laptop computer. Ganesha Prarthana, an interac-tive CD ROM, is specifi cally designed to let you perform vir-tual puja, archana and meditate on the forms of Lord Ganesha while you are on the go. Create your own puja, learn how to do an archana or sing along with the bhajans. All of this and much more is contained on this delightful CD from Dhrishti Creations in Bangalore.

Order online: dhrishticreations.comUS$12 plus shipping, Win. only.

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E D U C A T I O N

Cyberschool

“Namaste, vanakkamNamaskaram!” The

brightly colored home page of Vidya-Bharati bids wel-come to seekers. It is an ideal website for youth and begin-

ers to get a broad overview of Hinduism’s traditions and perennial philosophy. The well-organized course format has concise, accurate infor-mation on beliefs, philosophy, the yogic paths and devo-tional practices common across a broad spectrum of Hindu denominations.

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P A R E N T I N G T O O L S

Peace for Kids

“Guided meditation forChildren, Journey into the

Elements,” an audio CD, teach-es children ages four to twelve to look within for ways to focus, solve problems and relieve stress through meditation. Five serenity-inducing meditations take children on an inward journey into the elements of

earth, air, water, fi re and ether. Enchanting natural music and a life enhancing message accom-pany each meditation. This CD was produced by Chitra Sukhu, entrepreneur and mother of two. She’s the daughter of Yogi Hari and has practiced of yoga and meditation since the age of three, Order online: http:// www.newagekids.om; US$15.99.

This CD by Chitra Sukhu (left, with her children) proves a use-ful tool for peaceful parenting

H E R I T A G E

Survival ThruCyberspace

P ublication of ancientTamil literary works in elec-

tronic format has been the goal of Project Madurai, http://www.tamil.net/projectmadurai/, since the early days of the worldwide

web. Spearheaded by various Tamil enthusiasts, there are now over 200 texts, from the Tirumantiram to contemporary short stories from Sri Lanka in this e-library. The Tamil language contains the second largest body (after Sanskrit) of ancient Hindu teachings, mak-ing this effort toward preserva-tion and accessibility a boon for future generations of Hindus.

A wealth of lessons awaits you at www.bnaiyer.com/vidya/

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Project Madurai brings the Tamil literary heritage to digital realms

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pg 86.indd 86 2/13/04 2:55:08 PM

Hinduism Today, Apr, May, Jun, 2004

Documents

Transcript of Hinduism Today, Apr, May, Jun, 2004