Shanti Mantras

Below are some of my favorte Shanti prayers that I chant daily when I rise  

Om Sarvesham Svastir Bhavatu
Sarvesham Shantir Bhavatu
Sharvesham Purnam Bhavatu
Sarvesham Mangalam Bhavatu

Om-may be auspiciousness be unto all
May peace be unto all
May fullness be unto all
May prosperity be unto all

Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah
Sarve Santu Niramayaah
Sarve Bhadrani Paysantu
Ma-Kaschid-Dukha-Bhag-Bhavet

Om-may all be happy
May all be free from disabilities
May all look to the good of others
May none suffer from sorrow

Lokha samasta, suckhino bhavantu. 
 

Asato Ma Sat Gamaya
Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya
Mrityor Maamritam Gamaya

Om-Let us be led from the unreal to the Real
From darkness to the Light
From mortality to Eternity

Om Purnamadah Purnamidam
Purnat Purnamudachyate
Purnasya Purnamadaya
Purnameva Vashsihate

Om-That is whole. This is whole
From the whole the whole becomes manifest.
From the whole when the whole is negated
What remains is again the whole.

Om Shantih Shantih Shantih
Om Peace Peace Peace

Place Based Oppositions to the Tehri Dam

Place Based Oppositions to the Tehri Dam

Here is a paper my dear friend Gina wrote. Gina is an anthropologist and has dedicated her life to the Ganga.

From Ramchandra Gandhi’s I am Thou, Meditations on the Truth of India

From Ramchandra Gandhi’s I am Thou, Meditations on the Truth of India

 

“At the Root of Great and Small Evil”

 

I am rude to you in the queue for a bus because you, an old man, are not moving fast enough; I am quite avoidably rude to you, I am a reasonably civilized human being and know and believe that such rudeness is wrong and bad and unbecoming of humanity. I insatiate it nevertheless. But logically there is more to my rudeness than the weakness of the flesh which fails all too often to be in alignment with the knowledge of its own spirit. In being rude to you I wordlessly yet loudly proclaim to the world both present and absent that one may be rude to another in my situation, that one—anyone—is permitted such rudeness. All free action, i.e., action not done under duress, is a proclamation of its permittedness, legitimacy, whatever retrospectively may be our reservations and regrets about it, for no man is under a law of freedom apart from all men. Thus in being rude to you I say, without words, not only to onlookers but to all mankind—past, present and future mankind—that one may be rude in the way I am, that you may also be rude in the same way.  So loud is this wordless permission that given, as the case in question assumes, my own belief in the wrongness of my rudeness, the following becomes the illogical testament of my wrongdoing: “I ought not to be rude to you in the given situation, but one is permitted such rudeness.” The example I have chosen is an instance of mild moral evil with which we have all learned helplessly to live, but its self-contradiction is no less a stultification than the self-contradiction involved in genocide committed by a civilized nation or people, for in the latter case there is no more illogicality than that of believing something, e.g., genocide, to be wrong, and at the same time wordlessly implying its permittedness. In all moral evil, great and small, merely irritating or unimaginably devastating, there is self-contradiction. And yet the embarrassment of such self contradiction does not much deter moral evil. Are we rational animals?

Why do we do moral evil, why do we involve ourselves in wrong-doing, in badness and abandonment of duty and inhumanity and insensitivity to man and life and nature? It cannot be that the satisfactory general answer to this question is that we have unfulfilled desires for what worldliness has to offer us—name, fame, pleasures, sex, success, security, etc.–, the pain of unfulfillment driving us to wrongdoing, initially as well as vengefully. Such an answer despite its prevalence and prestige is superficial and false because great and small immorality is committed often by the most materialistically fortunate human beings who have no want of worldly gifts and goods. The satisfactory deep-going answer to the question as to why we do evil must be: we are not happy even with our happiness, there is not in our samsaric situatedness within and without ourselves any point of absolute rest and peace and uncheatable fulfillment. We are not joyously self situated in wisdom, we are not atmarama, sthithaprajna, samadhistha, we are ceaselessly running out of the centre of ourselves, tormented by instability. Unawareness of an atmarama centre of our being, the centre also of all beings, is the source of our immorality and its self-contradiction, the source of our doing and impliedly in our doing proclaiming as permitted what we know or believe is not.

But could atmarama self-consciousness be fantasy, a chimerical unattainability? If so, then human musery and wrongdoing great and small, provocative or protesting retaliatory, are without causality and explanation and thus without the hope of rational remedy. But these are so often entirely rationally rooted out, their very possibility annulled in spiritual seeking, especially of the jnana marge: and indeed logically only one instance, e.g. of Sri Ramana Maharshi, in whose brahmajnana are permanently destroyed all possibility of misery and evil, suffices to disprove the despairing theory of the incurability of unhappiness and immorality and demonstrates the reality of the joyously self-situated eternal heart of self-consciousness.

 

What is it like to be God?

 

Theistic faith must establish itself securely in our hearts and intellects before we can advance towards advaita which fulfils and does not deny or diminish or destroy theistic faith. We make our first move towards advaita beyond and behind theism when we ask the following questions:

1. What is it like to be God?
2. Can I become God?

There should be no hesitation on our part in conceding the prima facie general legitimacy of the first question. It is the manifestation, perhaps the most ambitious manifestation, of curiosity, and therefore can invoke the deepest Greek authority. Likewise, barring those who regard as sinful all human aspiration to divinity, the rest of us ought not at all to be dismissive, morally or logically, of the second question, which is the manifestation, indeed the most ambitious manifestation, indeed the most ambitious manifestation, of the human thrust towards perfection and can invoke continuing Hindu authority, which as Bharatiya authority is at the base at least also of Buddhism and Jainism. And yet consider some conceptual difficulties in the way of grasping and asking these questions.

I cannot, it would appear, ask the question: “What is it like to be X?” if I cannot be X, i.e. if I logically cannot gain the most intimate access to what being X is, namely, identity with X. Thus on a dualistic view of selfhood, I cannot ask the question: “What is it like to be you?” because I can never be you. I could at the most ask and expect to discover answers to such questions as “What is it like to be old?” “What is it like to be rich?”, “What is it like to be an orphan?” because I too can be old or rich or an orphan and know intimately, or learn from you, who are old or rich, etc., what it is like to be old or rich, etc. But I cannot ask what it is like to be you or anybody else. Now on a dualistic view of ourselves not only is every jivatman wholly other than every other jivatman, all jivatmans are other than paramatman, God or Isvara, and thus quite apart from alleged moral difficulties inherent in the question “What is it like to be God?”, the question is logically impossible to answer and therefore ought not to be asked. But if we are to respect the authority of that question, trusting the authority of curiosity, and save it from the charge of unanswerability and unaskability, we must swiftly conclude that I must be God essentially, we must all be God essentially, for otherwise the question: “What is it like to be God?” must indeed be answerable and unaskable.

Likewise, can I ask or hope to answer intelligibly the question: “Can I become God?” if I were not already God but had forgotten tragically that I was Him? On any other assumption, becoming God would be a very hazardous enterprise and ambition, the process of becoming being entirely at the most contingent and reversible and comical, to say the least. We may of course panic at the prospect of realizing our divinity and so be prompted and bullied into thinking that question “Can I become God?” is morally and logically illegitimate. But if we would respect the Hindu or Bharatiya authority of that question, we must courageously conclude that we are not essentially other than God. Non-dualistically, however, our “becoming” God would have to be interpreted as our becoming aware, merely, of our eternal Godhood, as the revelation of our essential divinity.

It might be argued that on the advaitin view the question “What is it like to be God?” is identical with the question “What is it like to be myself?” and that this question cannot be answered because I cannot become other than myself in order to have an understanding by contrast, as it were, of what it is like to be myself. There is force in the form of this argument but it can be met. For I can without ceasing to be myself, without becoming other than myself, become profoundly self-forgetful even to the point of becoming virtually unconscious as in deep sleep. Also dreaming is proof of my capacity for distorting self-forgetfulness. Thus it can be argued that my self-consciousness and self-knowledge are nourished by a constant returning to this wakeful state from the contrasting states of self-forgetful distorting dreaming and deep sleep.

Thus there is no logical difficulty in asking the question: “What is it like to be God?” from the advaitin standpoint, because there is no logical difficulty in asking the question “What is it like to be myself?” Indeed one can now grasp with conviction the advaitin doctrine of Atman-Brahman’s power of Maya. Atman-Brahman, One and Self of all and each, would be lacking in self-consciousness and self-knowledge if it did not become self-forgetful as in the distorting and apparently separative conditions of samsara and virtually unconscious as in the apparent non-subjectivity or nothingness of matter. The return of the jives and samsara itself to their source, Atman-Brahman, is what enables Atman-Brahman to be self-conscious, is what constitutes its self-knowledge. The necessity of creation, sustenance, and dissolution is expressive of divine self-knowledge. Brahma, Visnu, and Siva are three forms that in dynamic togetherness constitute the eternal self knowledge of That One, tadekam. Whether the creative activity of Atman-Brahman must necessarily always invite the deludedness of jives and samsara, and the consequent misery of separative existence, or whether a mode of becoming apparently many is possible to Atman-Brahman which would yield infinitely many centres of itself not separtively alienated form one another but playfully mutually interlinked in a cosmic whirl of rasalila is a question we can only grossly imperfectly answer without the image and grace and necessary reality of purnavatara Sri Krsna.

Sri Ramana Maharshi was asked by a man who thought that the Master did not believe in the reality of the world or God the following question: “We believe in the reality of the world and God, you don’t. Is that not right?” The Master gave the following devastating reply: “One the contrary you only give one-third reality to the world, one-third reality to yourself, one-third reality to God. We give full reality to all three, all are Self.”

These words of Sri Ramana ought for ever to end snipping at advaita and mayavada. The world as other than Atman-Brahman is indeed more insubstantial than a dream, the jiva as other than Atman-Brahman is a pathetic illusion of centredness and self-realising and self sufficient self consciousness. And God who is not the secret essence, self, of all that is, is a despot and not ultimate reality. Atman-Brahman as self and centre and substance and power of all that is, however hideous and undivine and unpromising the appearance of it, is that than which no greater can be conceived, and is the reality which St. Anselm’s marvelous argument would prove if that argument were rescued from the limitations of dualistic theology which it seeks to serve.

The hyphenated phrase Atman-Brahman draws attention to two dimensions of undeniability, the undeniability of the greatness, vastness, of that which by the very etymology of its name is the greatest conceivable reality, i.e. Brahman, and the undeniability of the reality of self consciousness, Atman, Atman-Brahman thus undeniability of the reality of greatness as the very heart, self, of all, God. It is strange irony of fate that a civilization centered round an inadequate notion of God, namely Western civilization, should produce the Anselmian argument, and Indian civilization which is powerfully centred around the most adequate notion of ultimate reality, Atman-Brahman, should be without its own explicit ontological argument. God seeks historical and geographical and civilizational self-knowledge in strange ways. This also puts civilizational pride in its place.  

Mandukya Upanishad

I personally think that Sri Aurobindo has the best translation but here is one by Sanderson Beck. The Mandukya is extremely important to those who study nondual thought, it explains Aum to us! Hearing this chanted/sung is most beautiful!

English version by Sanderson Beck

AUM. This imperishable word is the universe.
It is explained as the past, the present, the future;
everything is the word AUM.
Also whatever transcends threefold time is AUM.
All here is God; this soul is God.
This same soul is fourfold.

The waking state outwardly conscious,
having seven limbs and nineteen doors,
enjoying gross objects common to all, is the first.

The dreaming state inwardly conscious,
having seven limbs and nineteen doors,
enjoying subtle objects that are bright, is the second.

When one sleeps without yearning for any desires,
seeing no dreams, that is deep sleep.
The deep-sleep state unified in wisdom gathered,
consisting of bliss, enjoying bliss,
whose door is conscious wisdom, is the third.

This is the Lord of all; this is the omniscient;
this is the inner controller; this is the universal womb,
for this is the origin and end of beings.
Not inwardly wise nor outwardly wise nor both ways wise
nor gathered wisdom, nor wise nor unwise,
unseen, incommunicable, intangible,
featureless, unthinkable, indefinable,
whose essence is the security of being one with the soul,
the end of evolution, peaceful, good, non-dual—
this they deem the fourth.

It is the soul; it should be discerned.
This is the soul in regard to the word AUM and its parts.
The parts are the letters,
and the letters are its parts: A U M.

The waking state common to all is the letter A,
the first part, from “attaining” or from being first.
Whoever knows this attains all desires and becomes first.

The sleeping state, the bright, is the letter U,
the second part, from “uprising” or from being in between.
Whoever knows this rises up in knowledge and is balanced;
no one ignorant of God is born in that family.

The deep-sleep state, the wise, is the letter M,
the third part, from “measure” or from being the end.
Whoever knows this measures everything and reaches the end.

The fourth is without a letter, the incommunicable,
the end of evolution, good, non-dual.

Thus AUM is the soul.
Whoever knows this enters by one’s soul into the soul;
this one knows this.

Copyright 1996 by Sanderson Beck

Where Science Meets Consciousness – Ayurveda and Yoga Conference in Rishikesh, February 21-25, 2008

During the last weekend of February I traveled to Rishikesh to attend an International Conference on Ayurveda and Yoga – “Where Science Meets Consciousness.” I was first introduced to Ayurveda when I was a child. My grandfather grew up in Kerala and was very knowledgeable about medicinal herbs. However I didn’t really incorporate Ayurvedic principles into my lifestyle and really studying this “Science of Life” until the Spring of 2005. One of the Director’s of the Yoga Teacher Training Program I was completing is an Ayurvedic Doctor. Prior to Ayurveda I has spent 1.5 years as a 100% raw/vegan. Essentially, I only ate fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. I came to raw/veganism because my mother has uterine cancer and I had read about Cancer patients curing themselves through raw foods and my body really took to the lifestyle. While I found huge benefits to raw veganism the philosophy behind Ayurveda, “There is no right or wrong but what is appropriate for whom and when” made much more sense to me and I feel much more balanced practicing an Ayurvedic lifestyle and sticking to a dinacarya. Essentially it comes down to knowing your body and listening to your body. Nowadays people have lost their connection with their body and I believe that this is what ultimately causes dis-ease in the world.

 

The conference was empowering and inspiring. I finally got to hear Dr. Robert Svoboda, Dr. David Frawley and Mother Maya speak and “networked” with other like minded individuals. A mentor of mine (Mark Lund) that lives in Brazil told me that while people in the business world “network” we had to constantly and continuously employ “spiritual networking” because only when we truly change peoples thinking will the world change and we will really evolve. It is just amazing how everything keeps coming together.

 

Held at the Parmarth Niketan Ashram on the banks of the Ganga the conference drew people from all over the world. Interestingly enough the organizers were mostly Tamil! There is a special connection I feel with my fellow Tamil brothers and sisters and it was amazing to see how an “Akka” or “Anna” will go out of their way for you. The conference reminded me about my love affair with Sanskrit and how I MUST review my Sanskrit. I sacrificed one year of my life to study the language (it really took over my life) but have not been doing translations for close to two years and have forgotten so much, it is such a shame and really unacceptable!

 

The highlight of the conference for me was the final night’s arati by the Ganga. There were hijras, sadhus, videshis, orphans and ashramites all singing and rejoicing together under the stars and moon. We sang Mahamritunjai’s by the yagna, followed by Tulsidas’ Hanuman Chalisa and many other bhajans. I started crying out of joy. I was just so happy and felt so blessed to be there under the stars and I could feel the Ganga’s love everywhere. I had first heard about Muniji, the ashram leader many years ago from my neighbor back home in New Jersey, Bhanu Aunty. He led our nightly prayers with the help of the orphan boys in the ashram’s gurukul and their voices were filled with so much bakti. I will never forget the dancing sadhu and smiling hijra and happy babies all seated next to me as we sang for Lord Krishna. Even though I subscribe to nondual thought I love singing devotional songs.

 

In our Saturday evening satsang Dr. Robert Svoboda talked about Sri Adi Sankaracarya’s composition Bhaja Govindam. Growing up I would hear this song and Vishnu Sahasranam sung by the beloved MS Subbulakshmi in my home. I still remember Rajaji’s introduction to Bhaja Govindam with complete clarity and his discussion of how jnana and bakti are one in the same. Rajaji also happens to be the grandfather of my mentor, Ramchandra Gandhi and the composer of my family song, “Kurai Ondrum Illai.” Dr. Svoboda discussed one line in particular of Bhaja Govindam stating that if you do satsang you will want to avoid everyone else. If you stop hanging out with people living in duality then your own delusion will be reduced. Where sat is delusion cannot be and when sat is there you are never confused about your dharma. When you have no delusion then you can attain moksha. Like Lord Siva we should have our eyes half open to the world and the other half in communion with totality. Overall, the conference reminded me that I’m not alone, I’m never alone (In fact if you break alone apart al one can also mean all is one) in my quest for meaning and knowledge and that all I have to do is continue to be true to who I am and my svadharma and everything will be taken care of.

 

I learned sooo much in the 2.5 days I was at the conference and what follows are my notes from the talks, teachings and workshops I attended.

  

Dr. Hari Sharma

 

Ayus = Life

Veda = Science or Knowledge

 

Ayurveda is used for prevention for healthy people and management of disease for unhealthy people

 

A healthy person is one who is established in the Self

 

Health is Swastha in Sanskrit, Sw – Self, Istha – Established

 

Yoga is a method to become established in Self

 

Hatha yoga focuses on physical postures (in the US they are building a house but only working on the basement their whole life because they only focus on asana)

 

Laya is the complete absorption or melting of the mind. Laya yoga teaches one to concentrate upon and merge in the real subtle sounds emanating from various inner creative forces of the Divine in nature.

 

Karma yoga is union with the divine through good work

 

Mantra yoga

 

Raja yoga, 8 fold path, Patanjali

Yama = avoidance of immortal actions

Niyama = righteous conduct

Asana = right posture

Pranayama = control of subtle life forces

Pratyahara = interiorization of mind

Dharana = concentration

Dhyana = meditation

Samadhi = transcendental consciousness

 

Life consists of consciousness and matter

 

Creation comes into being sound

 

Don’t get trapped by the intellect

 

Microcosm and macrocosm

 

For experiencing totality for better health practice meditation

 

Meditation reveals the persons inner infinite unbounded consciousness to overcome co-dependency the mistaken notion of relying on another person, drug or food for support (pragya-aparadh—mistake of intellect) as the person experiences a sense of Self Love

 

Everyone is addicted to something so get addicted to nonchanging infinite eternal consciousness

 

The habit of self reliance or inner reliance develops

 

Neti neti = pure conscious totality

 

Different modes of vibration create sound

 

We are prakriti

 

Aham Bhramasmi, Brihad Aranyaka Upanisad

 

The goal of life is to realize your inner awareness

 

Keeping in touch with the source is meditation

 

Meditators biological age 5-10 years younger, they slow the aging process

 

Meditate for your health

 

In the waking state you have awareness, in the dreaming state the gross body sleeps

 

In deep sleep the channels of the subtle body open and this is VERY GOOD for the rejuvenation of the physical body

 

Effect of sound and music, form of vibrational energy. Cells vibrate dynamically and transmit information via hormones wave motion, affects plant growth

 

Good music decreases blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate

 

Rock music increased cancer cell growth, soothing music decreased cancer cell growth and hanuman chalisa also decreased cancer cell growth

 

Pranayama creates proper cakra frequency and flow back and forth becomes normalized

 

*grape fruit seed extract

 

When you get angry you hurt yourself more than others

 

Rasayana, massage the body with sesame oil

 

Sanatana, never distance

Dharma, that which guides you

 

Experience of getting the yogic feeling, that is yoga

 Ayurveda and Woman – Dr. Claudia Welch 

Dinacarya (daily routine)

 

In all dealings accept the middle means avoiding extremes

 

Live in balance between nourishing qualities

 

Lunar, heavy, dull, cool, oily, smooth, dense, soft, stable, gross, cloudy, liquid, earth, water

 

Solar, lightening, light, sharp, fast, hot, dry, rough, (liquid), hard, mobile, subtle and clear, fire, air, ether

 

Caffeine energy is adulterated energy, nourishing energy is very different

 

Always a bit of the other in the one

 

Ignite your quest to learn more

 

Pancakosa and yoga

 

Judge Larry Standleyà sentenced a man to one year of yoga

 

Happiness, taitreya upanisad

 

Don’t look at what gives happiness but the experience of happiness

 

Annamaya = physical

Pranayama = life force

Manomaya = mental

Vijnanamaya = intellectual

Anandamaya = bliss

 

Kosas are subtleties of existence

 

There is no prana in hair or nails

 

The mind is an instrument

 

We are guided by ananda, our very nature is ananda

 

Abhyasa is discipline, vairagya is to let go

 

In the sleep state no object can give you joy, happiness is your nature, nothing can improve that. Plants and animals never forget their nature but humans do. Speed is how we have come away from our nature

 

Tigers are not violent, they eat when they are hungry

 

You are not in harmony when you eat when you are not hungry

 

Relax at the body level

 

Consciously relax

 

Happiness is object related, bliss is not

By nature you are blissful and happy

 

Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest the divinity within by controlling the nature internal and external

 Abhyasas – raja and karmaVairagya – jnana bakta You can also be peaceful 

Bhakti, find god within and outside

 

Yoga = peace of mind and harmony

 

Moving away from our nature is unconscious

 

Gurukul boys know their value and purpose

 

New Paradigms, illness to wellness and beyond

Health is spiritual, physical and mental well being

 

Modern science is limited to physical universe

 

Stress is multidimensional

 

Four wives story

 

4^th wife = body

3^rd wife = status and wealth

2^nd wife = family and friends

1^st wife = soul, jivatma

 

4 x 27 surya nadi shodhana

 

Yoga reduces mental retardation and cancer

 

PRAYER FOR EATING from the Bhagavad Gita

 

The act of eating is an internal yagna

 

Brahmaarpanam brahma havih

Brahmaagnau brahmanaa hutam

Brahmaiva tena gantavyamBrahma karma samaadhinaa 

For him the act of offering is Brahman, the oblation is Brahman.

By Brahman is it offered into the fire of Brahman. Brahman is that which is to be attained by him who realized Brahman in his actions. II 24 II

 

Aham vaishvaanaro bhootvaa

Praaninaam dehamaashritah;

Praanaa paanasamaayuktah

Pachaamyannam chaturvidham

 

I, having become the vaishwanara Fire (digestive fire), abide in all living entities and having united with Pranaand Apana. I digest the four kinds of food.

II 14 II

 Dr. Robert Svoboda – Yama and Niyama in AyurvedaYamas: ahimda, aparigraha, asteya, brahmacarya, satyaNiyama: soucha, santosha, ishwara, tapas, swadaya 

Yama and Niyama same root shared with yantra

 

Wherever there is yantra, mantra, nyasa, guru and diksha there is tantra

Tantra is about shakti and employing these methods (above) for transformation.

Indian alchemy is rasa vidya, rasayana

 

The root Yan is limiting or restraining or encasing. Yama deva is a limiting God. Dharma raja.

 

Any yama is a limitation you place on yourself to move forward and have yama be away from you until the last minute.

 

Asteya = non stealing (Sadhu on the rock wanting justice story)

 

Ayurveda is about qualities. Whenever you eat you are stealing the prana from that vegetable. Always be aware that you are stealing and the less you steal the better.

 

Aparigraha = grab hold, covetous, hording, wanting what someone else has.

 

Satya = relativity with lying nature doesn’t like things to be absolute

 

Ahimsa = relativity (cheese mites)

 

Brahmacarya = a method that lend you in the direction of supreme reality. Abstinence if that is the proper dharma for you.

 

In beings nonviolence is the best life promoting factorà what you do will be done to you.

 

Ahimsa promotes life prowess

 

Not being eaten and to eat is all you have to do.

 

Instead being a user of the internet you are used by the internet!

 

Sukha = good space

When akasha is in samya, balance, the space is good

 

Aurogiya is a lack of disease

 

Knowledge of reality is the best method to promote pleasure

Brahmacarya is the best path to follow

 

Patanjali said to do yamas and niyamas before asanas

 

Kaushalaà kusha grass, verse 51-52 of the Bhagavad Gita, definition of yoga

 

Niyama = ishwara pranidan promotes chitta vriddhi nirodha, surrender to ishwar. Aliging yourself with ishwara

 

Ishta is being fond of

 

In any Sanskrit test the first lines are the most important

 

Santosha = very satisfied

 

Saucha = purity, make sure we are pure in thought word and deed

 

Story of the yogi and the prostitute, he got the karma not her

 

Swadhaya, Self study

Study of big and little Self

 

Tapas = burn out parts of your personality obstructing reality and you do this before pranayama and asana

 

Protect ojas, protect from afflictions of the mind. Chastity of the senses.

 

Carika Samhita

 Life promoting = nonviolence to others and ourselves

Happiness promoting = control of sense organs

Pleasure promoting = knowledge of reality

 

Don’t get worried. Life is a journey, it will keep continuing. Openness brings insights, not expectations

 

David Frawley

 

Yoga and ayurveda are not 2 separate things

 

Yoga is a sadhana for inner purification and the goal is to transcend the body and mind. Yoga is the practice of veda and dharma

 

Aurobindo = a yogi should be able to do EVERYTHING better than a nonyogi

 

Wherever there is veda there is yoga

 

Yoga is MUCH older than Patanjali. He is just a compiler in the middle

 

Yogeshwar = Lord Krishna

 

Samkhya = philosophy and principles

Rishi Kapila is the most famous sage

Ishwara Krishna is different from Lord Krishna

 

Hiranya Garba is the founder of the yoga tradition

 

Yoga sastra and dharana related to Hiranya Garba

 

Yoga darshana is one of the 6 schools of yogic philosophy

 

Lord Siva is the lord of yoga. Ancient saivaite yoga, 3 headed Siva lord of animals is the oldest image in the world, on seals

 

Closest number to one is two!

 

Ayurveda chikitsa tradition, deal with disease of body and mind, vedic system of medicine

 

First you treat the dosha, then you treat the gunas

 

Yoga is a remedy for permanent alleviation of ALL suffering

 

Yama’s and niyama’s are the dynamic foundation for all human life

 

Ahara are substances you take in and vihara are things we do

 

Exercise reduces tamas but it is NOT yoga

 

Yoga is union, all aspects of your nature. If you only do asana it is not yoga

 

Asana is external medicine of yoga

 

Physical body rests upon the food we eat. You need to change the input

 

Spine reflects the condition of the digestive tract

 

You need to do more pranayama than asana to really practice yoga

 

Attachment to asana is an obstacle on the path

 

Asana practice is to reduce rajas

 

You must transform rajas à tamas to create yoga and when you do this you reduce body consciousness

 

Great yogi not good at asana (story about yogananda disciple janakananda achieved Samadhi in a chair)

 

Gaps in between are juicy

 

Asana becomes more important the older you get

 

Pranayama is the internal medicine of yoga

 

Outer limbs of yoga, inner yoga is REAL yoga

 

Pratyahara is the turning of energy within

 

Principle of healing by doing less, letting go, eating less and slower, breathing slower

 

Yoga is not about doing but about being

 

Turning our energy withing

 

Dharana is increasing our power of attention, lack of attention and awareness

 

Mind heals itself when it is in silence, mind requires space for healing

 

In Ayurveda you always treat the individual

 

Cikitsa = application of consciousness

 

Sattvic prana

 

Yoga is the balance of solar and lunar forces, prana and apana. Foundation of yoga is mantra yoga

 

Synthesis of yoga = aurobindo

 

Bakti yoga is the most important, psychological suffering is lack of bakti

 

We look at our enemies according to their tamas and ourselves according to our sattva

 

Aham brahmasmi

 

We must reclaim control of our own health. What does the pain tell you

 

Medical care has kept us living longer in a state of disease and suffering

 

The doctor should look at the WHOLE patient

 

We need yogic doctors, mantra is most important healing toold

 

Falling away from the sacred has ruined our lives

 

Ritualistic foundation of our lives is a necessity

 

Sankalpa shuddhi, higher or true intentions

 

In America 25% of children are medicated. We don’t need to take anti-depressants, chemistry of the mind and brain is a reflection of how we live

 

Our true self is our greater universal self

 

Can’t make a new beginning, start today and make a new ending

 

Muniji

 

Parmarth Niketan is not a piece of land but a land of peace…medicine, mantras, meditations and miracles

 

Meditation is the best medication next comes ganga jal

 

Biggest miracle is you (me)

 

Punarnava is here to rejuvenate you…become new, change yourself, your life and the world…you must be the change you want to be in the world

 

We are here to find ourselves

 

After so many degrees, where do we stand?

 

The girt is given to serve and share, that is true yoga

 

When yoga becomes your life then you see the same unity and divinity in all

 

Postures are not being perfected, you are being perfected

 

Selfless motives = great seva

 

Life is to give

 

Our personal balance sheet must be maintained

 

Sirsasana is great but how do you live your life?

 

What counts in being a true yogi is what is in your heart

 

Don’t get disturbed by snakes, love them. One day they will change you and not sting you.

  

Letter to a Young American Hindu by Vijay Prashad

The following is a guest contribution from Vijay Prashad. He is the author of eleven books, including Karma of Brown Folk (2000), and most recently The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World (2007).

Dear Friend,

Like you, I was raised in a mixed family. My parents’ families came to Bengal from Punjab, and from Burma. One side leans towards Hinduism; the other to Sikhism. The city, the metro, provided its own cultural mooring, and in secular India, I found myself interested in all religions and deeply schooled in none. Id meant fellowship with my Muslim neighbors and friends; a Navjot meant a crash course in Parsi life; Nanak’s birthday meant a visit to Gurudwara Sant Kutiya in the center of town; Christmas, which is Bara Din in Calcutta, meant a brightly lit Park Street and a visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral; and, of course, Diwali and Holi represented the high-points of our festival culture. Religion was colorful, and friendly. It didn’t represent either the harshest of personal morality nor the resentments or distrust of others.

I learnt a few prayers and songs, but this learning was not systematic. Some of my friends were better schooled than I in their various traditions. Our diversity was not simply across religion, but also a diversity of the density of our engagement with religion: agnostics or religious illiterates were as welcome as those who were committed to their faith. The festival that I most liked was Saraswati Puja, the day when we wore yellow and put all our schoolbooks at the feet of the goddess. The respite from study was welcome, as you can imagine.

My morality came from elsewhere than religion, from recognition of the pain in the world. Religious teachers whom I encountered sometimes talked about this suffering, but they didn’t seem to have more than charity to offer to those who suffered. It struck me that while religious festivals were beautiful, religions themselves were not adequate as a solution to modern crises. But religion, as I came to understand while reading Gandhi many years later, can play a role in the cleansing of public morality. In 1940, Gandhi wrote, “I still hold the view that I cannot conceive politics as divorced from religion. Indeed, religion should pervade everyone one of our actions. Here religion does not mean sectarianism. It means a belief in ordered moral government of the universe. It is not less real because it is unseen. This religion transcends Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, etc. It does not supersede them. It harmonizes them and gives them reality” (Harijan, February 10, 1940). In other words, politics should not be simply about power struggles, but it must be suffused with moral concerns. It is not enough to win; one must strive to create, what Gandhi called, Truth in the world.

To strive for Truth does not mean that we, as humans, can be sure that what we believe in or what we aspire to is some transcendental truth. Gandhi’s autobiography was not called I’ve Found Truth, but The Story of My Experiments with Truth. The use of the word “experiments” is revealing, since it refers to a scientific tradition that privileges verifiable testing (this is also the case with the Gujarati word “prayago,” which is in the original 1927 title, Satya-na Prayago athva Atmakatha; Professor Babu Suthar links “prayoga,” the singular of “prayago,” to the ayurvedic and yogic sense of treatment and practice. An ayurvedic doctor must ask the patient to “prayoga” a medicine, which would imply, try it out to see if it works). Religious traditions are resources to guide us, as social individuals, through the difficulties and opportunities of our lives. They are not dogmas to tear people apart from each other. In a powerful essay against compulsory widow segregation, Gandhi wrote, “It is good to swim in the waters of tradition, but to sink in them is suicide” (Navajivan, June 28, 1925). Let tradition be a studied resource, not a set of inflexible, unchanging rules.

The Gita.

More than a decade ago, I was teaching South Asian history in central New York. A few young students invited me to their Gita reading group. I was delighted to join them, not because I was an expert in the Gita, but because it pleased me to see second-generation South Asian Americans take an interest in the history and traditions of the subcontinent. The students, dutifully, read their section for the evening and proceeded to have a discussion about it. They had little guidance apart from the text, and they valiantly drew from the analytical skills they learnt in their classes to make sense of the Gita. For them, religion was not an “experiment with truth,” but because of their context, it was the Truth that had to be unmasked by their close, devoted reading. I felt myself sinking into it.

The Gita is a remarkable book, precisely because of its history (it was composed long after the Mahabharata, written in classical Sanskrit of the Gupta era, and interpolated into the long epic much later). Frustrated with the hierarchy promoted by Brahmans through the Vedic traditions, scores of people turned to Sramanic traditions (most familiarly, Buddhism). The Gita is a sublime response to the power of Buddhism with concepts such as karma drawn from it. The genius of the text is that it takes concepts and ideas from these popular traditions and brings them into line with some of the central principles of Brahmanism (varna, mainly). The Gita is awash with contradictions: it preaches ahimsa, and yet is set in a battlefield, where Krishna must convince Arjun to go into the fight; it validates the importance of caste hierarchy, and yet shines a light on the equality of all before the awesome might of divinity. The contradictory nature of the text allows every reader to find something beneficial in it. It works as a mirror to our reality.

Then there is bhakti, one of the foundation stones of modern Hinduism. It is the Gita’s central concept. Personal devotion (bhakti) drew out from the oppressed peoples of the subcontinent the ability to challenge those who stood between them and divinity (the Brahmins, for instance) and those who stood between them and a peaceful life (Kings, for instance). The concept, Bhakti, was the central idea for a series of important spiritual and social rebellions, led by such people as Andal, Kabir, Mirabai, Tukaram, and above all, Jnanesvar. Jnanesvar, the 13th century Marathi poet, wrote an extended commentary on the Gita in which he not only went after the powerful, but also bemoaned the great harm done to the people for whom religion had become a crutch rather than an engine. “The peasant farmer sets up cult after cult, according to convenience,” he wrote. “He follows the preacher who seems most impressive at the moment, learns his mystic formula. Harsh to the living, he relies upon stones and images; but even then never lives true to any one of them.” Jnanesvar’s powerful critique was not met with an equally powerful movement to overthrow the foundation of the social order of his time. As the historian D. D. Kosambi wrote, “Though an adept in yoga as a path towards physical immortality and mystical perfection, there was nothing left for [Jnanesvar] except suicide.” The ideas were glorious, but there was no institutional platform to realize them.

Noxious Hindutva

All this is lost if one reads the Gita as settled Truth rather than an experiment in truth. When Gandhi claimed to base his ahimsa philosophy on the Gita, he faced opposition. “My claim to Hinduism has been rejected by some,” he wrote in Young India (May 29, 1924), “because I believe [in] and advocate non-violence in its extreme form. They say that I am a Christian in disguise. I have been even seriously told that I am distorting the meaning of the Gita when I ascribe to that great poem the teaching of unadulterated non-violence. Some of my Hindu friends tell me that killing is a duty enjoined by the Gita under certain circumstances. A very learned Shashtri only the other day scornfully rejected my interpretation of the Gita and said that there was no warrant for the opinion held by some commentators that the Gita represented the eternal duel between forces of evil and good, and inculcated the duty of eradicating evil within us without hesitation, without tenderness…My religion is a matter solely between my Maker and myself. If I am a Hindu, I cannot cease to be one even though I may be disowned by the whole of the Hindu population.”

Those who criticized Gandhi for his “misuse” of Hinduism came from the organizations of the Right. The Hindu Mahasabha (1915) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (1925) provided this Right with an institutional nucleus to sharpen the assault on both Indian society and on the Indian freedom movement (whose undisputed leader at this time was Gandhi). The leadership of this Right considered Gandhi a “traitor” to the “Hindu people,” and it was their cadre that murdered him in 1948. The RSS, the spearhead of the new “Hindu nationalism,” eschewed the mass Freedom Struggle that emerged in the 1920s, sharpened in the 1930s and eventually defeated the British Raj in the 1940s. In 1928, the RSS inaugurated its Officer Training Camp to train its own storm-troopers, not to do battle with the powerful British and its institutions, but with the relatively powerless Muslim masses. The swayamsevak, or volunteer, took an oath, “offering himself entirely – body, mind and wealth – for the preservation and progress of the Hindu Nation.” The complexity of India, its diverse heritages and its fluid cultural resources, was anathema to the RSS and its doctrine of Hindutva (Hinduness).

The influence of Italian fascism and German Nazism pervaded the RSS, becoming clarified in the 1939 book by M. S. Golwalkar, “Germany has shown how well nigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.” For Golwalkar, the role of the “Jew” within India was to be played by the “Muslim” (it should be said that his 1939 book was reprinted in 1944 and in 1947, after the Holocaust was known to all, and yet there was no revision of this section). No wonder Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen considered the ideology of the RSS to be “communal fascism.” The RSS remained a marginal element in Indian political life, having played no role in the Freedom Struggle and having a noxious view of the complexity of Indian social life that appealed only to a few among the dominant castes who felt left out of the new Indian republic.

Indian Honeycomb

That complexity is something that Gandhi and others well understood. In 1992, the Anthropological Society of India published the first of an ongoing series of monographs with the omnibus title, The People of India. In this volume, the late K. S. Singh laid out the basic findings of this immense study of the Indian people. There are, he wrote, 4635 identifiable communities in India, “diverse in biological traits, dress, language, forms of worship, occupation, food habits, and kinship patterns. It is all these communities who in their essential ways of life express our national popular life.” Strikingly, the scholars working under Singh’s direction discovered the immense overlap across religious lines. They identified 775 traits that related to ecology, settlement, identity, food habits, marriage patterns, social customs, social organization, economy and occupation. What they found was that Hindus share 96.77% traits with Muslims, 91.19% with Buddhists, 88.99% with Sikhs, 77.46% with Jains (Muslims, in turn, share 91.18% with Buddhists and 89.95% with Sikhs). Because of this, Singh pointed out that Indian society was like a “honeycomb,” where each community is in constant and meaningful interaction with every other community. The boundaries between communities are more a fact of self-definition than of cultural distinction. This Gandhi knew implicitly. Unity was a fact of life, not a conceit of secular theory.

When I went to Punjab in the early 1990s to do my dissertation research, I was startled to find communities that considered themselves on the fence about their religious identification. Three in particular (that make their way into Singh’s study) stood out: the Mirasi, Sonar and Rajputs, who claimed to be both Hindus and Muslims. The group I had gone to study, the Balmikis, had a wonderfully rich religious history, where they crafted their own spiritual tradition around the preceptor Bala Shah Nuri and Lalbeg. Bala Shah’s poems attacked both the Brahmins and the Mullahs for their perpetuation of untouchability and their refusal to stand for justice. Ram te Rahim kian chhap chhap jana, the followers of Ram and Rahim will hide themselves in fear, sava neze te din avega, hade dosakh pana, and when the sun sets, Bala will send them to hell. This evokes the kind of language of that other great Punjabi poet, Bulle Shah, who sang, Musalman sarne to dared hindu dared gor, dove ese vich mard eho duha di khor (Muslims fear the flame, Hindus the tomb; both die in this fright, such is their hatred).

Hindutva, or the ideology and movement of Hindu chauvinism, attempts to do to this richness what agro-businesses do to bio-diversity. They want to reduce the multiplicity and plurality of cultural forms into the one that they are then able to control: a deracinated “Hindu,” like a Genetically Modified form of rice or barley. The joy of religious life, of social life, is reduced into a mass-produced form of worship, cultivated out of hatred for other religions rather than fellowship for humanity. With the RSS and its parivar (family), we are no longer in the land of religion. We are now in the land of power and politics, hate and resentment.

Till the 1980s, the RSS remained on the margins of Indian politics. Rejected at the ballot, the movement emerged only through assassination and intimidation, through riots and mayhem, through which it sought to define the political and social space. In the 1980s, conditions changed, as the Congress abandoned its soft socialism/soft secularism for neo-liberal globalization and the politicization of religion (first by patronizing Sikh separatists). The RSS family won over the Congress’ “Hindu vote bank” through an aggressive campaign against dalits (over the Mandal Commissions attempt to deepen reservations), against Muslims (over the Meenakshipuram conversions and the controversy over the mosque at Ayodhya) and against the Left (by deeming its ideology to be “foreign”). Flamboyant campaigns designed to make the most of the television media and harsh rhetoric against minorities attracted the dispossessed, who now joined with disgruntled dominant castes to bring the BJP to power.

The Indian honeycomb began to breakup in this period. It was also in this time that Hindutva went overseas with a new confidence.

Yankee Hindutva

More than a decade ago, I used the term “Yankee Hindutva” to describe the way Hindu chauvinism came into the United States. Eager to branch out to the Diaspora, the RSS and its subsidiaries took advantage of multiculturalism to build their foothold here. Not for the American audience an unadulterated anti-Muslim rhetoric (that would come only in some “safe” spaces, and more aggressively, after 9/11). Initially, the RSS organizations, particularly the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA) and its youth wing, the Hindu Students Council (HSC), promoted the idea that Hinduism is denigrated in the U. S. and that if other cultures are being celebrated, why not Hinduism too. This is an unimpeachable argument, but it came with some implementation problems. First, it assumed that “Hinduism” is a singular thing, not a clumsy name for a diversity of beliefs and affections that litter not only the subcontinent but also the South Asian Diaspora (from Trinidad to Fiji). Second, because the VHPA and the HSC jumped in the game first, and because the most stringent are best often to claim to speak for a religion, the conservatives took control of this issue. There was no liberal critique of the denigration of Hinduism, and when liberals and radicals did dare to tread, the conservatives harshly shut the door to them as being inauthentic defenders of the Culture. This was the tenor of the battle over the 2005-06 revisions of the California text-books. We didn’t like the old books either. But we didn’t like the sanitized version of Indian history promoted by the conservatives. We wanted “India” to appear for what it is, a land of contradictions, not an unblemished “brand” that needs to be sold so that we can feel falsely proud.

In 1990, a group of committed activists of the hard Right formed the Hindu Students Council (HSC) in the woods of New Jersey. Their public pronouncement was along the grain of liberal multiculturalism, that they wanted to assist Hindu students who struggle with the “loss and isolation” due to their “upbringing in a dual culture Hindu and Judeo-Christian….We try to reconcile our own sorrows and imperfections as human beings in a variety of self-defeating ways. And we usually go through this confused internal struggle alone. It was precisely to assist you with this spiritual, emotional and identity needs that HSC was born.” Given the strictures of liberal multiculturalism, everyone, including college administrators, stood by and applauded. But the HSC was never simply about the identity struggles of those whom it called Hindu Americans. It was also the youthful fingers of the long-arm of Hindutva-supremacy in India. The HSC was initially a “project of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America,” the far Right “cultural wing” of the hard Right Sangh Parivar (Family of the Faithful). When activists of the Right destroyed a five hundred year old mosque in 1992, the VHP egged them on, the VHPA cheered, and so did the leaders of the HSC. For them, concern over the identity struggles of young Indian Americans could easily be reconciled with their anti-Muslim politics. Multiculturalism in the U. S. provided cover for the cruel, cultural chauvinism in India.

Young South Asian Americans, such as yourself, come to the HSC not always for its politics, but as a space for shelter and struggle against anti-Indian racism. Falguni Trivedi, who participated with the HSC in 1997, tells the story poignantly, “When I was twelve years old, American kids would gang up on me at the bus stop, yelling ‘Gandhi Dot’ and ask, ‘why do you people in India worship cows and drink cow urine?’ It is pretty tough for young Hindus stuck between two cultures.” When Trivedi went to her parents, they, like many first-generation migrants, offered her the ostrich-strategy. “Adjust” to the verbal abuse, they said. Trivedi, however, wanted her parents to offer clear answers to the questions posed by the racist youth, such as answers about the cow. The parents didn’t have ready answers. “Parents don’t know,” said Dheeraj Singhal, now a lawyer in Ohio, “they’re lost. They don’t know where to look. Kids are really desperate to know who they are, the meaning of their customs. This giant void of ignorance facing them is a great issue.” It is here that the HSC and other such organizations (including the non-communal South Asian Student Associations on various college campuses) come in. But the HSC is actually unable or ill-fitted to deal with U. S. racism. It tells the youth that they come from an ancient heritage and that they should be proud of it, but the HSC makes no attempt to undermine the structures of racism that produce this sort of off-the-cuff racist remark. To promote Indians as the “model minority,” who have a great and ancient culture, and not combat the racism that devastates the world of color and pits people of color against each other, is inadequate. It simply lifts up one minority, us, and says that we shouldn’t take this nonsense because we are culturally great.

Groups like the HSC and the VHPA are less concerned with the broad problem of racism and of Indian American life, than they are to push the Hindutva agenda in the U. S. and Canada. Here are two examples:

(1)Air-conditioned Sadhus.

By the late 1990s, Hindu temples could be found in most of the areas where Indian Americans lived (or where American Hindus did, such as in Hawaiii). The Prathishtapanas for the Middletown, CT., Satyanarayan temple near where I live took place in 1999 (although families in the area had worshipped in their basements since the early 1980s). These temples are a resource for Hinduism, with ceremonies and festivals, “Sunday Schools” and devotional sessions. The VHPA has other ideas for the temples. In 1998, at a VHPA Dharam Sansad, the conclave decided that all temples and cultural organizations “should associate, endorse and/or affiliate with the VHPA to make the Hindu voice more effective.” In 2000, the VHPA sent a hundred God-men from India on a Dharma Prachar Yatra “in a manner so that all of America is covered with Hindutva,” as a VHPA activist put it. One of the tasks of the Yatra was for the sadhus to “clear the misconceptions about the VHP” and to assert “the VHP’s point of view about issues like Ayodhya movement and attacks on Christians.” All talk of “inter-faith dialogue” and of Hinduism as tolerance was out the window. These God-men went on tour, not to offer solace, spiritual guidance or to explain the travails of racism – they came out to plug for the BJP, the VHP and its campaigns against Muslims and Christians in India.

The God-men were treated like touring rock-stars. Luckily I was teaching the Manavadharmasastra (or the Laws of Manu) that semester: “A priest should always be alarmed by adulation as if it were poison and always desire scorn as if it were ambrosia” (II. 162). Our air-conditioned priests are far removed from even the barest humility asked of them by their calling.

(2)Representing Hinduism.

For decades, there has been an ongoing debate within the broad field of India Studies. Influenced by social historians who opened up the world of Indian popular culture and the struggles of ordinary Indians, and by the intervention of Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), these scholars fought against the racism and conservatism of the academy. Sanskrit studies, for instance, treated India as an ancient resource with no lived heritage of Hinduism; political scientists saw India in terms of U. S. or British foreign policy, not in terms of what is in the best interests of the Indian people. Graduate school in the 1980s and early 1990s was a hive of conflict against what some of us saw as a racist representation of the subcontinent.

In 2000, Rajiv Malhotra of the Infinity Foundation published a long essay against the tenor of Hinduism Studies in the U. S. As if he were a lonely pioneer, Malhotra went hell-for-leather against the entire U. S. academy. Much of what he said is correct (there is an insensitivity toward the Hindu tradition, and a disregard for the real living Indians), and it had been the basis for a long-standing debate around the institutions. With his access to the Indian American media, Malhotra (and the soon to be formed Hindu American Foundation) went after individual academics and then the California 6th grade textbooks. It was a lot of flash and lightning: many of us liberals and radicals were already in the thick of these fights, and much of our work has been fruitful. But we were not invested simply in making India look good: we wanted to ensure that the diversity of India’s history and its struggles be represented in the curriculum and in the research agendas. “The social science and history textbooks do not give as generous a portrayal of Indian culture as they do of Islamic, Jewish, Christian cultures,” carped Malhotra. When asked about the struggles of dalits and women in ancient India, Suhag Shukla of the Hindu American Foundation grumbled, “In terms of men and women, I think, first of all if you look at Christianity or Judaism or Islam, no-where in the textbooks is there any discussion of women’s rights. Then to pull it in for Hinduism, is a different treatment of Hinduism.” All culture must have equal treatment, all contemporary representatives of that culture should be able to create their sense of self-worth based on this representation. Shukla has a point: no tradition is in the clear on these issues. The solution is not to brown-wash the textbooks on ancient Indian history, but to write more honest books about the contradictions of all civilizations.

Malhotra’s assault to get a politically correct interpretation accepted or nothing at all is the genteel version of the Shiv Sena and VHP activists in India who went after James Laine’s book on Shivaji (by book burnings and physical assaults on his collaborators).

These issues are brought to the center by the VHPA, the HSC, the HFA: all to blind us from other issues, such as racism in the U. S., the Iraq War, economic uncertainty and distress in India, rising numbers on sexual assault and female infanticide in India, and the Gujarat pogrom. Yankee Hindutva is a set of blinders, not an optic to see the world clearly.

What Would You Have?

yadidam svayamarthanam rocate tatra ke vayam
If the objects themselves are like that, who are we?
Dharmakirti (7th Century).

The suffocating presence of the VHPA and the HSC, of the RSS and the BJP does not exhaust the capacity of either Hinduism or of its adherents. Our affection for its resources is not diminished, nor should we turn away from our traditions because the RSS and its family try to debase it.

In 2004, the Indian people, and a majority of them being claimants to the title Hindu, rejected the parties of the far Right in the parliamentary election (they were defeated again in 2007 in the Uttar Pradesh state elections). The mandate was offered to the Congress and the Left, who crafted a Common Minimum Program that promised a more generous set of policies for the working-class, the peasantry and the indigent, as well as a more secular defense of the public sphere. The parties of Hindutva went into a self-imposed period of infighting, as scandals interrupted their claim to holding the high-moral ground.

In the Diaspora, there was some reflection of this change in the Indian political landscape. The far Right moved to consolidate its agenda despite changes within India – closer ties between Indian American lobby groups and pro-Israeli lobby groups, to sharpen the idea that the Indo-Pakistani problems can only be resolved in the Israeli fashion, through force; the creation of the Hindu American Foundation (whose main campaign in 2004-05 was the Diwali resolution, and who was an active leader of the California textbooks campaign); an assault on scholars of India and Hinduism, led this time by the Infinity Foundation. But not a word from any of these organizations on the farmer’s suicides in Andhra Pradesh, on the deepening problem of unemployment across India, and on the cataclysmic child malnutrition rates across the country. These matters were not, apparently, of importance. Discussions about Planet India, as Mira Kamdar puts it, eclipsed the burgeoning social crises in India. As Gandhi warned his fellows ninety years ago, “The test of orderliness in a country is not the number of millionaires it owns, but the absence of starvation among its masses” (Muir Central College Economics Society, Allahabad, December 22, 1916). Equally, these organizations remained silent after 9/11 at the attacks on South Asians and Arabs and at the illegal detentions of hundreds of South Asians (the civil rights and activists groups, such as South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow and Desis Rising Up and Moving were in the lead here). Immigration reform, “Operation Meth Merchant” (against the small Indian shopkeepers in Georgia) and other such issues were equally off the radar of the HSC, the VHPA and HAF.

If I were you, I’d abandon the Hindu Students Council and create a new organization called Sarvodaya (Compassion for All), a word Gandhi coined for his variety of social justice. You can still have intellectual and spiritual investigations of the Gita, you can still hold inter-faith discussions, you can still educate your fellows about the rich and diverse tradition of Hinduism, and you can also promote egalitarianism and social justice as values derived from your tradition.

The Hinduism that cares more for its reputation than for its relevance is no longer a living tradition. It has become something that one reveres from a distance. To keep it alive, Hinduism requires an engagement with its history (which shows us how it evolves and changes) and with its core concepts (what we otherwise call philosophy). “Every formula of every religion has, in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal justice if it is to ask for universal assent” Gandhi wrote in 1925. “Error can claim no exemption even if it can be supported by the scriptures of the world” (Young India, February 26, 1925). Submit all faith to experiments, to see how they are able to assist one in the messy world we live in: to detach faith into self-indulgence is to patronize those traditions. That’s the nature of experimentation, a far better approach to faith traditions than empty reverence.

The choice lies between giving over the traditions you love to the forces of hatred who might masquerade as the defenders of tradition; or to the force within you, and around you, a force of love and ecstasy, passion and pain to transform the world. What would you have?

Vijay Prashad
May 17, 2007.

Judge Delivers Yoga Sentence

TIMES OF INDIA

Texas Judge Larry Standley ordered James Lee Cross, a car salesman accused of slapping his wife, to take a yoga class as part of his one-year probation.

“It’s part of anger management,” Standley said. “For people who are into it, it really calms them down.”

Prosecutor Lincoln Goodwin agreed to a sentence of probation with yoga and without jail time because Cross had no significant criminal history.

Cross told the court that his wife was struggling with a substance abuse problem and that he struck her on New Year’s Eve during an argument about her drinking.

“He was trying to get a hold of her because she has a problem,” Standley said. “I thought this would help him realize that he only has control over himself.”

The unusual sentence came as a surprise not only to legal circles but to the accused and his wife.

“I’m not very familiar with yoga,” Cross told the Houston Chronicle, which first reported the story. “From what I understand, it may help in a couple ways, not only as far as mentally settling, but maybe a little weight loss.”

Cross’ wife, Wendy, said she thought yoga would be good for him.

“I know there are a lot of benefits to meditation,” she said.

Yoga instructors in the region also hailed the sentence, although some derided it as a reflection of how faddish the practice had become.

There has been a big yoga revival in the US over the last few years. Some Indian gurus like Jaggu Vasudev have introduced yoga in the US prison system with outstanding results.

Yoga sentence judge: ‘Each case is different’

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) –Judge Larry Standley is known for his creative sentences. In a recent case, Standley ordered a man convicted of slapping his wife to take a yoga class as part of his one-year probation. CNN’s Fredericka Whitfield spoke with him about the unusual sentence.

WHITFIELD: Some might say slapping your wife is a serious charge, maybe even borderline abuse. I know this case is very unusual. But it’s domestic abuse, and here you hand him a sentence of yoga.

STANDLEY: First of all let me explain that there was a plea agreement between the prosecution and the defense attorney. And I basically signed off on the plea agreement. I did, however, tack on the yoga condition at the end of it. I’m usually pretty harsh on these kinds of cases. And the most that I can give is a year. But in this case the facts were unique.

WHITFIELD: Well, explain some of the facts. We are talking about 53-year-old James Lee Cross, and explain why he slapped his wife Wendy, how he justifies it and give us some of the circumstances of this case.

STANDLEY: The facts as they were presented to me were that on New Year’s Eve, during the day, his wife had a substance abuse problem; they had an argument in a parking lot. And he had control issues. And he slapped her. She wanted him to be on probation, and she agreed to the probation. Why did I impose yoga? I imposed it because people that I know that are really into it, it appears to help them.

WHITFIELD: But you are not into yoga yourself, right?

STANDLEY: No, I’m not in yoga because I have a bad back. But I think the public is getting misled in this case, it has taken a life of its own. Here in Texas last week, three people got the death penalty, and I’m up here talking about yoga.

Let me explain something. He received 10 years — 10 — 12 months’ probation. As well as 80 hours of community service as well as anger management counseling as well as random urinalysis. And what I did was tack on an additional condition that he attends a yoga class once a week for the entire year.

WHITFIELD: Have you done this before; have you tried this with others?

STANDLEY: Never did it before.

WHITFIELD: And what compelled you to do it this time?

STANDLEY: I’ll tell you what compelled me to do it, simply put, anger is a result of a feeling of a loss of control. And more and more I start seeing people that feel like they can control others around them. And the people that are really into yoga, just being in their presence, it is calming. And if it takes effect, I think it will help this individual. If not, then he will get revoked and do a year.

WHITFIELD: How will you be watching his case, will you be studying this closely to see if this is a sentence that would be applicable to other offenders?

STANDLEY: Oh, I think so. I think it is going to be a rare occurrence, but I think when you got a situation where the complainant has a documented substance abuse problem and the defendant himself has control issues, it is hopeful that maybe this as well as all the other conditions will help him realize his control ends with himself. And he has no control over anybody else.

That is really where all anger comes from, control. I am not light on punishment in the least. And it’s kind of interesting how this case sounds like I just sentenced him to yoga. In past cases where it’s been a trial and not a plea agreement, I have actually sentenced individuals to the full year. Which is all I can give, I can’t give prison. I’m in the mid-level court right below felony.

WHITFIELD: And for the record, his wife, Wendy, says she actually thinks this is good for him, and that you are really trying to get to the root of the psychology of his actions.

STANDLEY: Right. I think in your past, every judge likes to feel they are tough on crime. I’ll be tough on crime in the appropriate cases.

WHITFIELD: Do you worry you are not sending a strong message for those slapping their spouses?

STANDLEY: No, just talk to the individuals that are sitting in the Harris County jail right now that got a year, the maximum sentence, from me when they tried the case. I’m not trying to sit here and beat myself on the chest. But each case is different. You got cases where the complainant wants the defendant to be on probation.

Vaishnava Jan To Tene Kahiye

I was first introduced to this beautiful song written by Narsinh Mehta in November of 2006 at a retreat on Gandhian Philosophy with Satish Kumar in Delhi. To me this song represents a philsophy on life and how we all should strive to live.

Hindi:

Vaishnav Jan to tene kahiye
Jay peerh paraaye janneyray
Par dukkhey upkar karey teeyey, man abhiman na anney ray
Sakal lokma Sahuney bandhey,
Ninda Na karye kainee ray
Baach kaachh, Man nischal Raakhey, dhan-dhan jananee tainee ray
Samdrishi nay trishna tyagee, par-stree jaynay mat ray
Vivihva thaki asatya na bolay, par-dhan nav jhaley haath ray
Moh maaya vyaayey nahin Jeynay, dridth vairagya jana manma ray
Ram-nam-shoom taalee laagee,
Sakal teerth seyna tanma ray
Vanloohee nay kapat rahit chhay,
Kaam, Krodh nivarya ray
Bhane Narsinhyo tainoo darshan karta kul ekotair taarya re.

English:

Speak only as godlike of the man who feels another’s pain
Who shares another’s sorrow and pride does disdain
Who regards himself lowliest of the low
Speaks not a word of evil against anyone
Blessed is the mother who gave birth to such a son
Who looks upon everyone as his equal,
Lust he has renounced
Who honours women like he honours his mother
Whose tongue knows not the taste of falsehood
Nor covets another’s worldly goods
Who longs not for worldly wealth (or fame)
For he treads the path of renunciation
Ever on his lips is Ram’s holy name
All places of pilgrimage are within him
He has conquered greed, is free of deceit, lust and anger
Through him Narsinh has godly vision
And his generation to come will attain salvation.

Gayatri Mantra

My fondest memory of the Gayatri Mantra is from Bali. On my way to the airport my taxi driver asked me to bring him some water from the Ganga if I ever come back to Bali. He has so much devotion and all he wanted was the water from Ma Ganga. When I got in the car he began to play a tape recording of the Gayatri Mantra, the same one I have at home that I play in the mornings as I rise. We sang it together the whole way to the airport. Looking out the window, feeling blessed tears ran down my face as we sang with love, faith and firm devotion.

AUM BHOOR BHUWAH SWAHA,
TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM
BHARGO DEVASAYA DHEEMAHI
DHIYO YO NAHA PRACHODAYAT.

Summary of the Gayatri Mantra

Gayatri Mantra (the mother of the vedas), the foremost mantra in hinduism and hindu beliefs, inspires wisdom. Its meaning is that “May the Almighty God illuminate our intellect to lead us along the righteous path”. The mantra is also a prayer to the “giver of light and life” – the sun (savitur). Goddes Gayatri is closely linked to Saraswati (goddess of education) and Lakshmi (goddess of wealth).

Oh God! Thou art the Giver of Life,
Remover of pain and sorrow,
The Bestower of happiness,
Oh! Creator of the Universe,
May we receive thy supreme sin-destroying light,
May Thou guide our intellect in the right direction.

Word for Word Meaning of the Gayatri Mantra

Aum = Brahma ;
bhoor = embodiment of vital spiritual energy(pran) ;
bhuwah = destroyer of sufferings ;
swaha = embodiment of happiness ;
tat = that ;
savitur = bright like sun ;
varenyam = best choicest ;
bhargo = destroyer of sins ;
devasya = divine ;
dheemahi = may imbibe ;
dhiyo = intellect ;
yo = who ;
naha = our ;
prachodayat = may inspire!

Origin, Benefits and Chanting of the Gayatri Mantra

Rishis selected the words of the Gayatri Mantra and arranged them so that they not only convey meaning but also create specific power of righteous wisdom through their utterance. The ideal times for chanting the mantra are three times a day – at dawn, mid-day, and at dusk. These times are known as the three sandhyas – morning, mid-day and evening. The maximum benefit of chanting the mantra is said to be obtained by chanting it 108 times. However, one may chant it for 3, 9, or 18 times when pressed for time. The syllables of the mantra are said to positively affect all the chakras or energy centres in the human body – hence, proper pronounciation and enunciation is vital.

The Story of Stuff

I was introduced to “The Story of Stuff” this past weekend at a conference on the intersections between Science and Consciousness in Rishikesh. If you get a chance you MUST watch this. Just go to: www.thestoryofstuff.com

It blew my students away when they watched it!

Also if you haven’t already taken your ecological footprint you should: http://www.earthday.net/Footprint/index.asp