1. religion and spirituality
2. hinduism

O
SPRING 2015 ISSUE
Canadian
Hindu Link
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
A Free Quarterly Magazine Dedicated To Thinking Hindus Who Care About Hindu Dharma
From Editor’s Desk................ 3
Volume 7 . Issue 2
ISSN# 1920-9339
Apr / May / June 2015
Reader’s Feedback................ 3
Swami Vivekananda’s
15 Laws of Life....................... 4
Hinduism for Westerners...... 5
Women as Hindu Spiritual
Leaders................................. 6
Buddhism and its Vedic
Connections.......................... 8
Vasant Panchami Festival...... 10
The Vedic People of Lithuania.11
Practical Implications of The
Theory of Reincarnation........ 12
Coming Home to Intuition
And Reason From Blind Faith.. 14
Do Some Indians Purposely
Misunderstand Secularism?... 16
YOUTH CORNER: We Are
Privileged to be Hindus........ 20
History And Literature of
Sanskrit................................. 21
Global Hindu News.............. 22
Music Really Does Soothe
The Soul............................... 24
Rejuvenation By Yoga........... 25
Is The Pk Movie Really
Anti-Hindu?.......................... 26
Of The Sacred And The
Profane: Hinduism And Pk.... 27
Pk Movie Against Hindu
Sentiments............................ 28
The Four Female Intellectual
Giants of The Vedic Period... 29
Why Miracles Happen.......... 30
How Sikhs And Hindus
Became The Bedrock of
Middle Britain....................... 31
The Christian Mission a
Complete Failure.................. 32
Yes, This Can Happen To Your
Child!................................... 34
— Om Aim Hreem Kleem Chamundaye Vichay —
CANADIAN HINDU LINK | VO L U M E 7 . I S S U E 2
PAGE 2
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FROM EDITOR’S DESK
A GUIDE FOR HINDU PARENTS
TO TRANSMIT HINDU HERITAGE TO OUR CHILDREN
When we leave India and settle in Canada our decision is
based primarily on three factors – to enhance our career;
to raise our standard of living; to give a better education to
our children. The social and cultural implications of raising
children in a non-Hindu society never enters our minds.
Once we have achieved our immediate goals – success in
our professional lives affording basic amenities, comforts
and luxuries of a well-laid life and our children have grown
up – we start experiencing a cultural shock.
and surrounding towns at a nominal cost. This booklet
contains some very useful tips and hints to help Hindu parents develop loving relationships with their children, and
raise them as well balanced, informed Hindu-Canadian
citizens with pride in their Hindu heritage. This booklet
also has some suggestions and recommendations for the
Management Boards of Hindu temples, to help parents in
their efforts to transmit their beliefs and key values. Every
Hindu parent must read this capsule of knowledge.
When Hindu parents suddenly find out that their young
daughter is dating a non-Hindu young man at work, school
or college, they start panicking. Suddenly, the issues like
cross-cultural dating, pre-marital sex and inter-racial or
inter-faith marriage, become a cause of serious conflict
with children, and destroy the family harmony. In a panic
mode, some parents start taking drastic, irrational actions
for damage control – severely restricting the child’s outdoor activities; monitoring telephone calls; sending him or
her to India during the summer to acquire cultural orientation or looking for a Hindu match for engagement followed
by an early marriage.
The Canadian Hindu Education Link, established in 2009,
is a not-for-profit organization registered with Revenue
Canada; its Mission is to keep Hindu Dharma and culture
alive in Canada by educating Hindu parents and their children born or raised in Canada. This Mission is impossible
to achieve without the assistance and cooperation of the
Hindu community in Ontario. We have been publishing
the Canadian Hindu Link magazine under severe financial
constraints. Therefore, in order to keep it alive we need
donations and advertisements, our major source of revenue, from the Hindu business community. Please help us
keep our glorious Hindu cultural heritage alive in Canada.
Of course, some Hindu parents just would not care who
their son or daughter married, Christian, Muslim, black or
Chinese. Whether their son or daughter converts to Islam
or Christianity would not bother them. However, there are
many parents who do have a strong desire to see their children marry within their own Hindu community to perpetuate their Hindu heritage. However, they don’t know how
they can do it, because they have very little knowledge of
their Dharma, and feel inadequate to answer their children’s questions about their beliefs, customs and rituals.
“In the world always take the position of the Giver.
Give everything and look for no return. Give love, give
help, give service, give any little thing, but keep out
barter. Make no conditions and none will be imposed.
Let us give from our own bounty, just as God gives us.”
– Swami Vivekananda
Thus Spake booklet
To help such parents, The Canadian Hindu Education Link
and the publishers of the Canadian Hindu Link magazine
have sponsored a small booklet – Meeting the Challenge:
A Guide for Raising Hindu Children Overseas that will
soon be made available from all major temples in the GTA,
Help us Keep Hindu Dharma alive in Canada
Ajit Adhopia, Volunteer Editor,
Canadian Hindu Link
[email protected]
Tel. 905-273-9563
READER’S FEEDBACK
I stay in Chennai Tamilnadu, India and received this copy of your magazine.
It was well written and very insightful. Please accept my congratulations for the same.
V. C. Krishnan,
Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
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PAGE 3
CANADIAN HINDU LINK | VO L U M E 7 . I S S U E 2
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S 15 LAWS OF LIFE
By Subhamoy Das
Swami Vivekananda (Jan 12, 1863 - July 4, 1902) is one of most admired spiritual leaders of India. The world knows
him as an inspiring Hindu monk; his motherland regards him as the patriot saint of modern India and Hindus consider him
a source of spiritual power, mental energy, giver of strength and open-mindedness to see things in the proper light.
1. Love Is The Law Of Life
8. Uphold Your Ideals
All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love
is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he
who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love’s sake,
because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.
Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to
live up to his own highest ideal, and strive at the same
time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.
2. It’s Your Outlook That Matters
You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach
you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other
teacher but your own soul.
It is our own mental attitude, which makes the world
what it is for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful,
our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in
our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light.
3. Life is Beautiful
First, believe in this world - that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy
and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you
do not understand it in the right light. Throw the burden
on yourselves!
9. Listen To Your Soul
10. Be Yourself
The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature.
Have faith in yourselves!
11. Nothing Is Impossible
Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It
is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the
only sin - to say that you are weak, or others are weak.
4. It’s The Way You Feel
12. You Have The Power
Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha
and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life,
the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of
intellectual activity can reach God.
All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we
who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it
is dark.
5. Set Yourself Free
The goal of mankind is knowledge... now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from
outside: it is all inside. What we say a man ‘knows’,
should, in strict psychological language, be what he
‘discovers’ or ‘unveils’; what man ‘learns’ is really what
he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which
is a mine of infinite knowledge.
The moment I have realised God sitting in the temple
of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence
before every human being and see God in him - that
moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds
vanishes, and I am free.
6. Don’t Play The Blame Game
13. Learn Everyday
Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand,
do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.
14. Be Truthful
7. Help Others
15. Think Different
If money helps a man for his benefit, it is of some value;
but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is
got rid of, the better.
All differences in this world are of a degree, and not
of a kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.
PAGE 4
Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot
be sacrificed for anything.
Source: Vol 17, Issue 1, www.hinduism.about. com
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HINDUISM FOR WESTERNERS:
The Magnetism Of Hinduism
By David Frawley
A couple of months ago, I received an email from
one Bob H. S. The subject line called out - “Problem!”, and I opened it immediately. Bob’s problem
related to the difficulty in feeling like an unwelcome
outsider to the Hindu world, despite trying hard to
come into the folds of Hinduism. His letter moved me
so much that I want to pass on the rest of it to you:
“Since 1975, I have been interested in Eastern
religions…I have explored to some extent the Hindu
Tradition (“Sanatana Dharma”) by reading, especially
the Bhagavad Gita…
The “Marvellous” Gita
“I remember (I am now 69), quite a few years ago,
around Christmas, while I was sitting in the living
room, my eyes fell on a paperback copy of The Gita,
translated with commentary by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood. I realized that I had
not read this universally honoured scripture, and that
I “should”. So, out of a sense of duty, I began to read.
It was not long, but the text had seized my attention,
so I could hardly stop reading…Eventually, I began to
list my favorite slokas…
Seeking A “Powerful” Religion
“I did spend some time exploring Hinduism by meeting, from time to time, a spiritual teacher of Yoga
and Vedanta in New Mexico, USA. My motivations
for this study were several:
“I was seeking a religion, which believed in “other
powers” perhaps more than Buddhism did. Or that
believes in a higher power, which is the source of
life, wisdom, grace...
“The Vedantic doctrine of Brahman being the only
absolute reality and the “world” as we know it,
“maya”, or relative reality, if not illusion, struck a
responsive chord in me.
“The fact that Hinduism seems to have a path for
everyone in the four Yogas... The bhajans and chants
appealed to me with their focus and feeling.
“Finally, The Gita, itself, was a great attraction...”
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WOMEN AS HINDU SPIRITUAL LEADERS:
THE WOMEN OF GOD
By Vishal Agarwal
Hindus have been blessed with a continuous, unbroken
chain of women Saints, Yoginis, Nuns, Priestesses, Ascetics and Seers who roam all over the world to this day to
preach the eternal message of our Dharma.
Meera, Akka Mahadevi, Lalleshvari, Andal and other
saintly women of medieval India are considered some of
the foremost Hindu Sages. Their writings are treated as
scripture, and chanted with great regard to this day.
Meerabai (16th century) was a Rajput Princess of Mewar
who decided in her childhood that her husband was Lord
Krishna. She was married to a Rajput prince, but forsaking all formal ties, she traveled between various religious
centers associated with Lord Krishna. Her Hindi bhajans
(devotional songs) in praise of Rama and Krishna are very
popular even today. Meerabai’s soul merged with that of
Lord Krishna in Dwaraka when she was 67 years old. Andal-Goda’s songs are recited daily in Shri Vaishnava Hindu
liturgy in temples as well as in homes, in India as well as
outside India. Her icon is frequently placed alongside that
of Lord Vishnu and Devi Lakshmi in temples.[6]
Lalleshvari (14th century CE) is considered the greatest
saint poet of Kashmir. Her devotional verses highlight the
divinity within our own selves, and exhort us to love the
Shiva who dwells in our heart. Lalleshvari walked out of a
traumatic marriage and roamed the Kashmir valley singing
her mystical songs, demonstrating Yogic feats while lost
in the bliss of Bhagavan Shiva. Her spellbinding songs are
recited even today.
Akka Mahadevi (12th century) lived and preached in
Karnataka. Though married, she severed her worldly
bonds and instead sought to merge in Shiva. She roamed
the countryside of that region singing of Lord Shiva, and
ultimately is said to have merged in him. Akka joined the
Virashaiva community after her meeting with Saint Basavacharya and wrote 350 exquisite spiritual compositions.
Akka and Lalleshvari defied the social norms by eschewing garments for they had surrendered their entire being to
their deity and had no use for social norms. A late twentieth century woman ascetic named Mate Mahadevi drew
her own inspiration from the ideal set by Akka Mahadevi.
The Shaiva Siddhanta tradition has been blessed with several women saints such as Kaaraikkaal Ammaiyaar, Thilakavathiyaar, Mangaiyarkkarachiyaar, Paravaiyaar, Changiliyaar,
Chembiyan Madheeviyaar, Auvaiyaar etc. Some of them led
PAGE 6
a saintly life dedicating their lives to spiritual pursuits. The
others lead a family life while spreading of spiritual teachings of Shaivism in Tamil speaking areas.[7]Likewise, the
Sant tradition of Maharashtra has several feminine voices
from Muktabai (13th century CE) the sister of Sant Jnaneshvara, to Bahina Bai. Janabai (1298-1350) also wrote of
abandoning social norms and offering herself to the service
of God. The hagiographies of many of these women Sants
occur in Mahipati’s Bhaktavijaya. Most women saints of this
tradition were in fact housewives. Similar examples may be
given from many other Hindu spiritual traditions such as
Gaudiya Vedanta of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
In more recent times, Shree Shree Ma Anandamoyi (18961982), born in what is now Bangladesh[8], was a Hindu
woman mystic whose own husband became her devotee,
and who was held in great reverence even by Mahatma
Gandhi. She traveled far and wide, preaching compassion
and spirituality, and was instrumental in the setting up of
many hospitals and other charitable institutions.
In our times, Mata Amritanandamayi and Mata Nirmala
Devi as Hindu women Gurus are well known today in the
international spiritual circuit as teachers of Divine Love and
of Yoga respectively.
Ammachi, as Mata Amritanandamayi is lovingly called by
followers, was born in a humble Hindu harijan family of
Kerala. From her childhood she was lost in Divine Love for
God. Today, she travels all over the world preaching love
for God and compassion for human beings. She is well
known for embracing all the visitors who come to see her
with patience and compassion, and with an eternal beatific
smile that leaves a profound spiritual effect on them.
Mata Nirmala Devi, born to a Christian priest, converted to
Hinduism and discovered a simpler form of Yoga that she
teaches to her devotees spread all over the world. Many
other Hindu women Gurus preach in the West in our times,
including Ma Yoga Shakti, Shri Ma, Anandi Ma and so on.[9]
Foreign women who adopted Hindu spirituality also made
a significant contribution to our Dharma and society. For
instance, Sister Nivedita (Margaret Noble) born in 1867 in
Northern Ireland, met Swami Vivekananda in London in
1895 and became his disciple. She came to India in 1898.
In India she engaged herself in running a school for girls
and young women. After Swamiji’s death she involved herself actively in the Indian Freedom Movement. She wrote
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CANADIAN HINDU LINK | VO L U M E 7 . I S S U E 2
several books that present different aspects of Hinduism
and Buddhism in a very lucid manner for the lay readership. She died in 1911.
Women have played an important role in other sacred
traditions that have organic links to Hindu Dharma. For
instance, one out of the twenty-four Tirthankaras (founding
spiritual teachers) of the Jains was a woman. The heroine
of a Tamil Jain didactic epic is a Jain nun named Neelakeshi. Guru Amar Das, the 3rd Sikh Guru, entrusted two of
the 26 regions marked out for his missionary activity to
women spiritual leaders. Princess Bhrikuti, the daughter
of Nepalese Licchivi King Amshu Varma (7th century CE)
married the Tibetan King Tsrong-tsong Gompo and influenced her husband to convert to Buddhism. She is also
credited with the construction of several prominent places
of Tibetan Buddhism such as Potala and Jokhang, as well
as Buddhist shrines in Bhutan. Thus, she played a pivotal
role in leading Tibetans to Buddhism and is therefore worshipped as a manifestation of the Tibetan deity Tara.[11]
Often, when male saints have died, their widowed wives
or women disciples have assumed the spiritual leadership
of his followers. As an example we may cite ‘The Mother’,
who was the spiritual companion or the first disciple of
Shri Aurobindo, one of the most influential Hindu Sage of
our times. She had visions about him even before she met
him and became Self-realized/God-realized following the
Integral Yoga he was developing/teaching).[12] Originally
from France, she followed him to India, where she spent
the rest of her life providing spiritual leadership to Shri
Aurobindo’s disciples.
Another example is that of Sharada Devi (b. 1853), the
wife of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a Hindu Saint
who lived in the 19thcentury. After Ramakrishna Paramahamsa passed away in 1886, she continued to guide her
husband’s followers till her own death in 1920. Portraits of
the two are worshipped together by followers of this Hindu
saint even today.
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In our own times, Bhagwati Devi Sharma (d. 1994) provided spiritual leadership to the Gayatri Parivar, after its
founder Guru Shri Ram Sharma Acharya passed away.
It would be a fair statement to make that of all the organized global religions in the world today, women perhaps
have the most visible and prominent presence in Hindu
Dharma. Feminine spirituality is not something that needs
to be grafted onto Hindu Dharma. It has always been a
part of the core of our faith.
Source: www.ivarta.com
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BUDDHISM AND ITS VEDIC CONNECTIONS
By Stephen Knapp
Many people may know about Buddhism, but few seem to
understand its connections with Vedic culture and how many
aspects of it have origins in the Vedic philosophy. To begin
with, it was several hundred years before the time of Lord
Buddha that his birth was predicted in the Srimad-Bhagavatam: “In the beginning of the age of Kali, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead will appear in the province of Gaya
as Lord Buddha, the son of Anjana, to bewilder those who are
always envious of the devotees of the Lord.” (Bhag.1.3.24)
This verse indicates that Lord Buddha was an incarnation of
the Supreme who would appear in Gaya, a town in central India. But some historians may point out that Buddha, Siddhartha
Gautama, was actually born in Lumbini, Nepal, and that his
mother was Queen Mahamaya. Therefore, this verse may be
inaccurate. But actually Siddhartha became the Buddha after
he attained spiritual enlightenment during his meditation under
the Bo tree in Gaya. This means that his spiritual realization
was his second and most important birth. Furthermore, Siddhartha’s mother, Queen Mahamaya, died several days after
Siddhartha’s birth, leaving him to be raised by his grandmother,
Anjana. So the prediction in the Bhagavatam is verified.
When Lord Buddha appeared, the people of India, although
following the Vedas, had deviated from the primary goal
of Vedic philosophy. They had become preoccupied with
performing ceremonies and rituals for material enjoyment.
Some of the rituals included animal sacrifices. The people
had begun to sacrifice animals indiscriminately on the plea
of Vedic rituals and then indulged in eating the flesh. Being
misled by unworthy priests, much unnecessary animal killing
was going on and the people were becoming more degraded
and atheistic.
The rituals that included animal sacrifices, according to the
Vedas, were not meant for eating flesh. An old animal would
be placed in the sacrificial fire and, after the mantras were
chanted, it would come out of the fire in a new and younger
body as a test to show the potency of the Vedic mantras.
However, as the power of the priests deteriorated, they could
no longer chant the mantras properly and, therefore, the
animals would not be brought back to life. So in the age of
Kali all such sacrifices are forbidden because there are no
longer any brahmanas who can chant the mantras correctly.
Thus, Lord Buddha appeared and rejected the Vedic rituals
and preached the philosophy of nonviolence. In the Dhammapada (129-130) Buddha says, “All beings fear death and
pain, life is dear to all; therefore the wise man will not kill or
cause anything to be killed.”
The Vedic literature also teaches nonviolence, but Buddha
taught the people who used the Vedas for improper purposes
PAGE 8
to give them up and simply follow him. Thus, he saved the
animals from being killed and saved the people from being
further misled by the corrupt priests. However, he did not
teach the Vedic conclusions of spiritual knowledge but taught
his own philosophy.
Buddha was born in the town of Lumbini in Nepal as the
son of a king of the Shakya clan. He is generally accepted
to have lived during 560-477 B.C. but has been shown to
have been born in 1887 B.C. and died in 1807 B.C. Check
the article Reestablishing the Date of Lord Buddha for more
evidence of this.
His mother, Queen Mahamaya, before she conceived him,
saw him in a dream descending from heaven and entering her womb as a white elephant. After his birth his father
sheltered him from the problems of the world as much as
possible. Later, Buddha married and had one son. It was during this time that he began to be disturbed by the problems
life forced on everyone, especially after he had seen for the
first time a man afflicted with disease, another man who was
decrepit with age, a dead man being carried to the cremation grounds, and a monk who had dedicated himself to the
pursuit of finding a release from the problems of life.
Soon after this, at the age of 29, he renounced his family and
became a wandering beggar. For six years Buddha sought
enlightenment as an austere ascetic. He would eat very little
food, sometimes only one grain of rice a day, and his bones
would stick out as if he were a skeleton. Finally giving that
up, thinking that enlightenment was not to be found in such
a severe manner, he again became a beggar living on alms.
When he started to eat more regularly, the five mendicants
who were with him left him alone, thinking that he had given
up his resolution. During this time he came to Gaya where
he determinedly sat in meditation under the Bo tree for seven
weeks. He was tempted by Mara, the Evil One, with many
pleasures in an effort to make Gautama Buddha give up his
quest. But finally he attained enlightenment. It was then that
he became the enlightened Buddha.
Buddha at first hesitated to teach his realizations to others
because he knew that the world would not want them. Of
what use would there be in trying to teach men who were
sunk in the darkness of illusion? Nonetheless, he decided to
make the attempt. He then went to Benares and met the five
mendicants who had deserted him near Gaya. There in the
Deer Park, in present day Sarnath, he gave his first sermon,
which was the beginning of Buddhism.
Buddha taught four basic truths: that suffering exists, there is
a cause for suffering, suffering can be eradicated, and there
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is a means to end all suffering. But these four noble truths had
previously been discussed in the Sankhya philosophy before
Buddha’s appearance, and had later been further elaborated
upon in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. So this train of thought actually was not new.
Buddha also taught that suffering is essentially caused by
ignorance and our own mental confusion about the purpose
of life. The suffering we experience can end once we rid ourselves of this confusion through the path of personal development. Otherwise, this confusion and ignorance causes us to
perform unwanted activities that become part of our karma
that must be endured in this or another existence. When
karma ceases, so does the need for birth and, naturally, old
age, sorrow, and death. With the cessation of birth, there is
the cessation of consciousness and entrance into nirvana follows. Thus, according to this, there is no soul and no personal
God, but only the void, the nothingness that is the essence
of everything to which we must return. Although this was the
basic premise from which Buddha taught, this theory was
mentioned in the Nasadiya-sukta of the Rig-veda long before
Buddha ever appeared.
However, Buddha refused to discuss how the world was created or what was existence in nirvana. He simply taught that
one should live in a way that would produce no more karma
while enduring whatever karmic reactions destiny brought.
This would free one from further rebirth.
In order to accomplish this, Buddha gave a complete system
for attaining nirvana that consisted of eight steps. These were:
right views (recognizing the imperfect and temporary nature
of the world), right resolve (putting knowledge into practice
or living the life of truth and nonviolence toward all creatures, including vegetarianism), right speech (giving up lies,
slander, and unnecessary talk), right conduct (nonviolence,
truthfulness, celibacy, nonintoxication, and nonstealing), right
livelihood (honest means of living that does not interfere
with others or with social harmony), right effort (maintaining
spiritual progress by remaining enthusiastic and without negative thoughts), right mindfulness (remaining free from worldly
attachments by remembering the temporary nature of things),
and right meditation (attaining inner peace and tranquility
and, finally, indifference to the world and one’s situation,
which leads to nirvana). This, for the most part, is merely
another adaptation of the basic yamas and niyamas that are
the rules of what to do and what not to do that are found in
the Vedic system of yoga.
However, because of Buddha’s lack of interest in discussing
any metaphysical topics, many interpretations of his philosophy were not only possible but were formed, especially after
his disappearance. The two main divisions of Buddhism that
developed were the Hinayana, or lesser vehicle, and Mahayana, or greater vehicle. The Hinayana was more strict and
held onto Buddha’s original teachings and uses Pali as the
language of its scriptures. It also accepts reaching nirvana as
the goal of life. Hinayana stresses one’s own enlightenment
and puts less emphasis on helping others, and Mahayana
emphasizes the need of enlightenment for the good of others
while overlooking the need to realize the truth within. The
Mahayana accepts Sanskrit as the language for its texts and
integrates principles from other schools of philosophy, making
it more accessible to all varieties of people. Gradually, as followers came from numerous cultural backgrounds, Mahayana
Buddhism drastically changed from its original form.
The ideal of the Mahayana system is the bodhisattva, the
person who works for enlightenment for all other living beings. The personification of this enlightened compassion is
one of the major deities of Buddhism, Avalokiteshvara, who is
represented in a variety of forms and images. The mantra that
is the sound representation of this enlightened compassion is
om mani padme hum, which is chanted on beads by aspiring
Buddhists. The vibration of this mantra evokes compassionate qualities and feelings in the heart and consciousness of a
person who chants it.
A third division of Buddhism is the Vajrayana sect. This has
the same principles as the Mahayana, but the Vajrayana
bases its process for achieving enlightenment on the Buddhist Tantras, which are supposed to reveal a quicker path to
enlightenment. The Vajrayana path is one of transforming the
inner psychological energy toward enlightenment by the use
of various types of yogic techniques. First they try to change
their conventional perceptions of this world by identifying
themselves with the Buddhist deity that they feel affinity for,
and to view the mandala of the particular deity as the world.
Ultimately, this form of meditation, as well as other techniques
used in this system, is meant to give one the experience of
what is called the “clear light.” This clear light is said to be
experienced by everyone shortly after death, but most people
hardly notice it because they are not prepared for it. The idea
is that if one is prepared for it before death, it can help one to
be ready to merge into it when he sees it after death.
As Buddhism flourished, the Hinayana spread through the
south in Ceylan, Burma, and Thailand, while the Mahayana
spread to the North and East and is now found primarily in Tibet, China, and Japan. The Mahayana school still uses knowledge of kundalini and the chakras in its teachings, other topics
that are traced to the Vedic system. It is this Mahayana school
which has now developed more than twenty sects with a variety of teachings that, in some cases, especially in the West,
have become so distorted that it is impossible to distinguish
the original principles that were established by Buddha.
Besides the Vedic similarities in Buddhism already mentioned,
there are many additional correlations between the Vedic literature and the Buddhist religion of the Far East. For example,
the word Ch’an of the Ch’an school of Chinese Buddhism is
Chinese for the Sanskrit word dhyana, which means meditaCON’T ON PAGE 11
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CANADIAN HINDU LINK | VO L U M E 7 . I S S U E 2
VASANT PANCHAMI FESTIVAL
IN HONOUR OF SAWRASWATI MAA
By Subhamoy Das
As ‘Diwali’ – the festival of light – is to Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and prosperity, and ‘Navaratri’ is to
Durga, goddess of power and valor, Vasant Panchami
is to Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and arts.
This festival is celebrated every year on the 5th day or
‘Panchami’ of the bright fortnight of the lunar month
of Magha, which falls during January-February, (see
calendar). ‘Vasant’ comes from the word ‘spring’ as this
festival heralds the beginning of the spring season.
Birthday of Goddess Saraswati
It is believed that on this day goddess Saraswati was
born. Hindus celebrate Vasant Panchami with great fervor in temples, homes and even schools and colleges.
Saraswati’s favorite color white assumes special significance on this day. Statues of the goddess are dressed in
white clothes and are worshiped by devotees adorning
white garments. Saraswati is offered sweets which are
given away as ‘prasad’ to all people attending the ritual
worship. There is also a custom of ancestor worship,
known as ‘Pitri-Tarpan’ in many parts of India during
Vasant Panchami.
The Foundation of Education
The most significant aspect of Vasant Panchami is that
it is also the most auspicious day to begin laying one’s
foundations of education – of how to read and write.
Pre-school children are given their first lesson in reading
and writing on this day. All Hindu educational institutions conduct special prayer for Saraswati on this day.
It is also a great day to inaugurate training institutes and
new schools – a trend made famous by the renowned
Indian educationist Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya
(1861-1946), who founded the Banaras Hindu University
on Vasant Panchami day in 1916.
A Springtime Celebration
During Vasant Panchami, the advent of spring is felt in
the air as the season undergoes change. New leaves
and blossoms appear in the trees with the promise of
new life and hope. Vasant Panchami also announces
the arrival of another big springtime event in the Hindu
calendar - Holi, the festival of colors.
PAGE 10
Saraswati Mantra: Sanskrit Prayer
The following is the ‘pranam mantra’ or Sanskrit prayer,
Saraswati devotees utter with utmost devotion on this day:
Om Saraswati Mahabhagey,
Vidye Kamala Lochaney |
Viswarupey Vishalakshmi,
Vidyam Dehi Namohastutey ||
Jaya Jaya Devi, Charachara Sharey,
Kuchayuga Shobhita, Mukta Haarey |
Vina Ranjita, Pustaka Hastey,
Bhagavati Bharati Devi Namohastutey ||
Saraswati Vandana: Sanskrit Hymn
The following hymn is also recited on Vasant Panchami:
Yaa Kundendu tushaara haaradhavalaa,
Yaa shubhravastraavritha|
Yaa veenavara dandamanditakara,
Yaa shwetha padmaasana||
Yaa brahmaachyutha shankara prabhritibhir
Devaisadaa Vanditha|
Saa Maam Paatu Saraswatee
Bhagavatee Nihshesha jaadyaapahaa||
English Translation:
May Goddess Saraswati,
who is fair like the jasmine-colored moon,
and whose pure white garland is like frosty dew drops;
who is adorned in radiant white attire,
on whose beautiful arm rests the veena,
and whose throne is a white lotus;
who is surrounded and respected by the gods,
protect me.
May you fully remove my lethargy, sluggishness,
and ignorance.
Source: www.hinduism.about.com
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CON’T FROM PAGE 9
tion, as does the word zen in Japanese. Furthermore,
the deity Amitayus is the origin of all other Lokesvara
forms of Buddha and is considered the original spiritual
master, just as Balarama (the expansion of Lord Krishna)
in the Vedic literature is the source of all the Vishnu
incarnations and is the original spiritual teacher. Also,
the trinity doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism explains the
three realms of manifestations of Buddha, which are the
dharmakaya realm of Amitabha (the original two-armed
form is Amitayus), the sambhogakaya realm of the spiritual manifestation (in which the undescended form of
Lokesvara or Amitayus reigns), and the rupakaya realm,
the material manifestation (which is where the Buddha
in the form of Lokesvara incarnates in so many other different forms). This is a derivative of the Vedic philosophy.
Thus, Lokesvara is actually a representation of Vishnu to
the Mahayana Buddhists.
Furthermore, all the different incarnations of Vishnu appear
as different forms of Lokesvara in Buddhism. For example,
Makendanatha Lokesvara is the same as the Vedic Matsya,
Badravaraha Lokesvara is Varaha, Hayagriva in Buddhism
is the horse-necked one as similarly described in the Vedic
literature, and so on. And the different forms of Lakshmi,
Vishnu’s spouse as the Goddess of Fortune, appear as
the different forms of Tara in the forms of White Tara, the
Green Tara, etc. Even the fearful forms of Lokesvara are
simply the fearful aspects of Lord Vishnu, as in the case
of the threatening image of Yamantaka, who is simply the
form of the Lord as death personified. The name is simply
taken from Yamaraja, the Vedic lord of death.
Many times you will also see Buddhist paintings depicting
a threefold bending form of Bodhisattvas and Lokesvaras
much the same way Krishna is depicted. This is because
the Bodhisattvas were originally styled after paintings
from India, which were prints of Krishna. Most images of
Tara are also similar to paintings of Lakshmi in that one
hand is held in benediction. And Vajrayogini, the Buddha
in female aspect, is certainly styled after goddess Kali or
Durga. Kuvera, the lord of wealth in the Vedic culture, is
Kuvera Vaishravana in Buddhism. There are many other
carry-overs from the Vedic tradition into Buddhism that
can be recognized, such as the use of ghee lamps and
kusha grass, and the offerings of barley and ghee in rituals
that resemble Vedic ceremonies. In this way, we can see
the many similarities and connections in Buddhism with
Vedic culture, which is the origin of many of the concepts
found within Buddhism.
Therefore, after the disappearance of Lord Buddha, the
authority of the Vedas and Vedic culture was reinstated
by such scholarly personalities as Shankaracarya, Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, Nimbarka, Baladeva Vidyabushana, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and others.
THE VEDIC PEOPLE
OF LITHUANIA
If you were to travel to Lithuania you might encounter some
traditional houses adorned with the motif of two horse
heads. You might take this as a simple design but it is in fact
a small clue to Lithuania’s deep and ancient Vedic past.
Traditionally, the Vedic peoples of Lithuania worshipped
the Ašvieniai, the divine horse twins, related to the goddess Usinis. They are said to pull the Sun Chariot through
the sky. The Lithuanian people continue to adorn their
roof tops with the symbol of the divine horse twins in
order to receive protection for the household.
In India the complete Vedic tradition has been preserved.
There the divine horse twins are known as the Ashvins,
the children of the Sun god Surya, who are summoned
by the goddess Ushas (morning dawn) and appear as the
morning and evening sunlight. They are often known as
Nasatya (Kind, Helpful) and Dasra (Enlightened Giving).
They are practitioners of Ayurveda as the doctors of the
devas (demigods), and it is for this reason that people
adorn their roofs with their image - so that the residing
family may remain healthy. They are most notable for
granting the divine twins of King Pandu - Nakula and
Sahadev, who along with Yudhisthira, Bhima, and Arjuna
made up the Pandavas of the Mahabharata.
Lithuanian is very archaic and has preserved linguistically
a great deal from Sanskrit, the original Mother Language
of Europe. Below are a few examples of the linguistic
similarities:
LITHUANIAN SANSKRIT
MEANING
Asva Ashva ‘horse’
Dievas Devas ‘gods’, ‘the shining ones’
Dumas Dhumas‘smoke’
Sunus Sunus ‘son’
Vyras Viras ‘man’
Padas Padas ‘sole of the foot’
Ugnis Agnis ‘fire’
Vilkas Vrkas wolf’
Ratas Rathas carriage’
Senis Sanas ‘old’
Dantis Dantas ‘teeth’
Naktis Naktis night’
In the Anglo-Saxon tradition also, it is said that two German brothers Hengist (“Stallion”) and Horsa (“Horse”) led
the armies that conquered Britain. Many believe this is a
continuation of the original tradition of the Vedic horse
twins. Similar to Lithuania, you will find the same tradition
of horse-headed gables on roofs throughout Germany in
honor of Hengist and Horsa.
Source: www.indiadivine.com; posted on Jan 20, 2015
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PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE
THEORY OF REINCARNATION
By Alex Warren
Every man’s soul has by the law of his birth been a spectator
of eternal truth, otherwise it would never have passed into this
mortal frame. Yet still it is no easy matter for all to be reminded of their past by their present existence.
Phaedrus, Plato
Polls taken in Western countries where there are few
practitioners of religions that teach reincarnation, nevertheless consistently show that many people “believe in
reincarnation” (Harris Poll). Why? Plato says that our inner
compass regarding certain fundamental truths or values
(such as beauty, justice and goodness) comes from “anamnesis” or “recollection,” (sometimes called “reminiscence”):
remembering unconsciously what has been seen in the
time between incarnations, when the soul is in the celestial
realm. Is it possible that we have more wisdom inside than
we realize? It has been said that when a person sees certain
sights, such as the stars, the sea or a fire at night, something
in their soul remembers...
Today’s humanity is more interested in material comforts
than in spiritual quests. There is little interest in the cause
or causes of things. The law of cause and effect is only
applied on the physical and lower psychological planes of
nature. On the physical dimension, the law of cause and
effect is used for technology: how to make things that will
bring more comfort and convenience and to make better
information systems and weapons. On the psychological
dimension the law of cause and effect is used to persuade
people, such as in marketing, advertising and politics; also
to manipulate people’s emotions (again for monetary gain
instead of for the betterment of people) such as in music
and entertainment.
Mysterious Questions
However, in spite of the incessant roar and push of the
media and society for an ever more uncertain tomorrow,
some people feel an inner need to seek “deeper” and
“higher.” They have an inner magnet that draws them to
Cause or Truth. They get a certain mysterious feeling when
they look at a sunset or a mountain or a flower or in the
eyes of a child or countless other elements of nature that
they mysteriously feel related to. They ask questions such
as: *Who am I? * What is my purpose in life? * Where do
I come from? * Where am I heading? These questions may
sound like clichés, but they are perhaps the most important
PAGE 12
questions that we can ask. As we reflect on the nature of
the human being, we will find more questions, observations that lead to a deeper understanding of others and
ourselves. Questions such as: * Why do we humans strive
to improve ourselves? * Why do we seek knowledge? *
Why do we find beauty in harmony? * Why do we pursue
justice? * Why do we intuitively believe in God (regardless of religion or denomination)? * Where do feelings of
altruism and compassion come from? * Why do we love to
work together? Humanity is one big family, even though at
times we act immature and attempt to separate ourselves
from one another (and often in the name of “religion” - a
word which etymologically means “to unite”!).
These questions are uncommon today. Unfortunately
people are more likely to have memorized the phrases and
“ideas” they see on television commercials than to have
thought about these questions (What does that say about
our society? - Good question!). Nevertheless these questions and others like them are very useful to someone who
feels the need to understand one’s self, others, and the
world we live in. The answers lead inevitably toward the
conclusion that the human being has a purpose. It is on a
journey. It is evolving....
There is a mysterious potential within that calls us. Even
though we may first recognize it outside of ourselves, in
those elements of nature mentioned above, this intuition
or sense of beauty or love of justice is the Immortal Soul.
“Where” is the Immortal Soul? All the ancient systems of
thought spoke of a “higher,” invisible world, which is more
perfect than the one we see, feel, smell, taste and hear.
The World of Archetypes and its Reflection
Plato taught that the manifested world we see around us
is simply a shadow of a perfect world of ideas or “archetypes.” In the East, ancient philosophers also taught that the
incarnated world is merely the reflection (“Maya” or illusion) of a far more subtle and “real” world. Ideas are more
real and much longer lasting than their worldly manifestation. For example, we may be more or less compassionate
or patient (or at least know what those 2 virtues are), but
the ideas or ideals of compassion and patience existed long
ago, and will continue to exist after the current incarnations
of the writer and reader of this article is over.
Plato and all the other great masters of wisdom taught that
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every human being has an “ideal aspect”, an immortal soul or
spirit. This immortal soul, or “spark of divinity,” as it is sometimes called, existed before this life we are currently living in
and will last long after the body and the psyche are gone.
Reincarnation
All of the ancient philosophies and religions taught reincarnation. Each one uses different words, symbols, parables and/or
myths to explain the process. But all teach that souls determine their future incarnations and the way they spend the
time between incarnations by the way they live the present
one. If a person tends to be selfish, to only expend energy for
their own comfort and pleasure, something that is contrary
to spiritual development, then they will accordingly have few
spiritual aspirations to fulfill in the afterlife. Then when it is
time to be reborn, the path of least resistance (this is within
the law of cause and effect) will be to continue with a life
similar to the last one. If however during one’s life a person
struggles to rise above that path of least resistance to live a
little closer to truth, justice, goodness and beauty, and to put
those ideals into action, then their will becomes stronger, their
understanding clearer and the path of growth or evolution will
be more natural for them after death and in the next life.
The first lifestyle mentioned above, selfishly seeking comfort at whatever the price, will eventually lead to pain
and unhappiness. Buddha taught that “Pain is a vehicle of
consciousness” and that pain is generated by trying to find
something permanent in something that is by nature fleeting.
This pain, he explained, eventually teaches us the difference
between the real and the illusory. Similarly, in the Phaedo,
Socrates notes that the absence of pleasure often causes
pain and when pain goes away, pleasure ensues.
In The Bhagavad Gita, Krishna calls pleasure and pain unreal, and says: From the world of the senses, Arjuna, comes
heat and comes cold and pleasure and pain. They come
and they go: they are transient. Arise above them, strong
soul. The man whom these cannot move, whose soul is one,
beyond pleasure and pain, is worthy of life in Eternity. (49)
One of the primary teachings of the Great Masters of Wisdom who have taught humanity is the distinction between
the illusory and the real, both in the world and in the human being. The illusory part is what dies: in other words,
returns to its origins. Like the old saying goes, “ashes to
ashes, dust to dust”, the real part “the divine part” is what
lasts, and together with the lessons learned from previous
incarnations, reincarnates.
Reading the Book of Nature
Is it possible to perceive the law of reincarnation without
words, directly? As with other laws of the universe, investigation is needed to uncover truth. Then we do not need to
contemplate in order to compare, analyze, synthesize and
evaluate to ultimately UNDERSTAND. Are there clues that
can be perceived directly? Is it possible to perceive truth
directly? The Voice of the Silence, and many other ancient
works like it, refers to shunning “head-learning” and instead
seeking “soul-wisdom.” Head-learning is collecting knowledge. Soul-wisdom is putting the teachings into action. The
Voice of the Silence, again, like other treatises on spiritual
development, also says that the keys to understanding are
always inside the aspirant (as opposed to being something
sought in the external world). So when we have opened our
heart, our eyes will see and our ears will hear. We will recognize illusion for what it is. We will be a bit closer to Truth.
For Seekers of Wisdom
Does believing in reincarnation necessarily change the way
we live? Reincarnation is a mechanism of evolution. We
are spiritual beings on a journey towards a fuller and fuller
realization of our true nature. Each life we live provides us
with experiences we need to learn and grow. Those experiences can be difficult, that is how we learn. There is,
however, a way by which we can learn faster and cause less
pain for ourselves and others. That is the idea behind all
the teachings of the Masters. It is the Path of Wisdom. This
Royal Path requires sincerity, humility, will and persistence.
It is a path that leads inward and upward. Traveling it, we
learn about ourselves and others. We learn about Nature
and God. It is a path of liberation and hope. It is liberating because on it we build our own future with our own
thoughts, words and actions. Only we determine those.
No other person or being can control our future or us. This
knowledge dissipates feelings of helplessness. That is why
the path is ever-blooming with hope. So, yes, the knowledge of reincarnation changes the way we live our lives. We
begin to value the real things more. Plato spoke of Beauty,
Justice and Goodness.
As Confucius said, when we find a truth, no matter how
small, we are obliged to live it. We begin to recognize that
we are linked together with all beings. We begin, little by
little, to identify more with the Immortal Soul or Spirit,
rather than with the temporal body and the lower emotions.
We naturally become more moral, not because some one
told us to or out of fear of man made laws, but because we
desire to be better, to have more harmony inside us, to be
closer in our actions to the universal laws. There is more
peace in our hearts, even in the most difficult of times and,
in our own small way, we become creators of a new and
better world.
teachings or explanations or symbols or parables - in other
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IN MY OPINION
COMING HOME TO INTUITION AND REASON
FROM BLIND FAITH
By Maria Wirth
The topic of conversion has become centre stage in India
– not because millions have been converted from their
Hindu faith to Christianity and Islam in recent years, but
because some 50 Muslim families came back to Hindu
Dharma. ‘How dare Hindus do what only Christians and
Muslims are entitled to?’ seems to be the motto.
.Strangely, not only representatives of the dogmatic
religions and Western mainstream media, including the
New York Times, are outraged, but even Indians with
Hindu names. Why would they bat for religions that
require blind faith, and not for their own Dharma that
is based on deep philosophy? The reason may be that
many Indians are ignorant, when it comes to religion.
They neither know their own tradition, as they have
been to convent schools or grown up in westernized
families, nor do they know the insidious effect of dogmatic religions as they never were insiders.
Since I grew up as a Christian, I may see clearer why
the dogmatic religions depend on conversion and
indoctrination to gain followers. The reason is simple:
Suppose a community on some island is completely
unconnected to the modern world. They will never become Christians or Muslims because they would need
to be told a story about God sending his only son to
earth 2000 years ago, etc. and then they would need to
believe it blindly and get baptized. Yet if these islanders
had wondered about the truth, they might have come to
similar conclusions like Sanatana Dharma, as it doesn’t
depend on some event in history. It only requires dedicated, deep enquiry into “That What Truly Is – Now
And Always”.
Everyone, who learns about Christianity and Islam, will
right away discover illogicality: both religions claim that
they are the only true religion and all human beings
have to follow it, and both also claim that the Creator of
this universe has endorsed this claim. Now such claim
would be of great consequence, if it were true. However, none of the contenders for the “only truth” provides
any proof. To cover this up, they put forth an ingenious
idea: “You will know that it is the truth when you are
dead. After you die you will be rewarded with heaven
for believing what we tell you.”
“And what if it is not true?” may someone have asked.
“What!! You doubt the word of God? You deserve to
PAGE 14
be put to death!” was the harsh answer given by both
religious ideologies over many centuries.
So apart from dangling the carrot regarding the other
world, they also used the stick in this world. The threat:
“If you don’t believe what we tell you, you will be
killed”, was not only the hissing of a snake. It was a
deadly bite. Christianity stopped killing in the name of
God only some 250 years ago and Islam is still at it,
with ISIS or Boko Haram being examples of inhuman
brutalities in the name of Allah.
Why would they do this? Do they really believe that it
is God’s command? I don’t know. But I guess that ultimately it is about power and big money and not about
“saving souls”, as claimed.
The strategy to claim divine approval for the demands
of a small group had mind boggling results. After some
2000 years for Christianity and 1400 years for Islam, 2
billion human beings consider themselves as Christians
and 1,5 billion as Muslims. Imagine, Christianity started
with a small group in Palestine and later in Rome, and Islam started with a small group in Mecca and later in Medina. These huge numbers are no doubt extraordinary.
However, it was paid for with a heavy price by countless individuals who felt not convinced by the dogmas
and behavior of the clergy, but had to conform if they
held their lives dear. Further, societies under the sway of
Christianity and Islam were neither free, nor happy.
One’s own conscience needed to be suspended in
favour of the religious doctrine. I learnt it in catechism
class as a child: ”If there is conflict between one’s conscience and what the Church says, one has to follow
the Church.”
This demand is serious and shows that not all is well
with those religions. Is conscience, supported by sound
reason, not our moral barometer? Is freedom of conscience not guaranteed in the Declaration of Human
Rights? Is it not dangerous to demand suspension in
favour of an ideology that may promote, apart from
good, also unethical behavior? Should such ideologies
that demand blind allegiance not be intensely scrutinized in the interest of humanity?
ISIS terrorists are a case in point. Have those youngsters
no conscience? Or has it been silenced by the Quranic
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injunction to wage Jihad for Allah? They brush away any
human feeling and justify their worst, violent instincts.
Do they really believe they will be rewarded with paradise for slaughtering other human beings in whom the
same one life and love is throbbing?
There Are Other Features Of The Dogmatic
Religions That Don’t Stand Up To Scrutiny:
For example the claim that the creator – God or Allah – is watching us from ‘somewhere’. He (alleged to
be male) is not our essence according to the dogmatic
religions. To claim, as Indian traditions do, that the
cause/ creator is permeating the whole universe, and we
are in our innermost being one with That, is considered
heresy. Several Christian and Muslim mystics were killed
for expressing their experience of being one with the
Whole.
Another doubtful claim is that human beings have only
one life, and on the basis of this one life, eternity will
be decided – either heaven or hell. Simply by reasoning, this seems unlikely. Then there are many cases (over
3000 are documented in the archive of the University
of Virginia, USA.) where persons remembered their past
life and gave details about their previous life that nobody could know. Moreover, the law of karma makes
much more sense when it is stretched over many lives.
Another point is the attitude towards animals and nature. Man is considered as the crown of creation and the
rest is there for his service. It is clearly a harmful attitude
and the west is in the process of changing it. Butchering animals on a daily basis by the millions can’t be the
‘right’ of man. It demeans him. Vegetarianism is, at least
in theory, seen as a solution to many problems.
Extremely harmful is also another attitude: Arrogance
towards those, who don’t belong to one’s religion, as
they are damned by the Highest himself. “Don’t think
about truth” is told to children and adults. “Man can
never know the truth. God had to reveal it and he has
revealed it only in the Bible”, claims Christianity or “only
in Quran”, claims Islam. And they assure their flock:
“You belong to the chosen ones. You are very lucky”.
Unfortunately, this claim caters to a weakness in human
beings. Who doesn’t like to feel superior to others, and
more so, when it is divinely ordained? Further, to belong
to a big group of like-minded people gives a sense of
strength. The only requirement is ‘blind faith’ in return.
It may seem a small price, but it is huge. It undermines
one’s integrity and humanness.
Christianity stopped killing those who dissent with the
dogmas of the Church, but “conversion” of heathen is
still considered the sacred duty of every good Christian. Muslims, too, have to bring the whole world to
worship only Allah and obviously, the agenda is still
unfinished. “Conversion” has necessarily an element of
coercion – allurement, deception or threat – because
believing unverifiable claims as absolute truth does
not come naturally. Both religions didn’t grow to those
huge numbers by convincing arguments, as there are no
convincing arguments. They grew by conversion and by
indoctrination of small children born to those who were
converted. Every sane, liberal person should welcome a
ban on conversions by coercion.
Westerners are gradually getting out from the grip of
forced Christianity. Theirs was a joyless religion and
many are tired of it. They don’t believe anymore that
only one way leads to truth; they consider rebirth
as possible and become vegetarians. They are influenced by Indian thought and those who visited India
are almost envious of the joyful, sacred atmosphere of
spiritual India. Just attending for example Ganga Arti or
Ramayana Parayanam induces automatically a feeling of
awe, wonder and joy.
“We are all Hindus now” was the title of an article in
Newsweek a few years ago that summarized the preference among many Americans for Indian insights that are
based on reason and intuition, instead of blindly believing in Christian dogmas. This does not mean that those
Americans stop praying to Jesus or won’t sing Christmas
carols, but they don’t swallow the whole belief system
anymore. They use their conscience and intelligence,
and refuse to believe incredible dogmas, like that heathen go to hell. This means, they are more like Hindus.
Westerners become more Hindu and persons with
Hindu names shout on Indian TV that Indians that were
converted must continue to wear their straightjacket
and must not be allowed to come back to their eternal,
joyful Dharma. Further, these same persons have no
objection that Christians and Muslims continue their
conversion agenda by dubious means and plenty of
money. The strangest thing: these people claim to be
liberal, secular and progressive. Can someone please
make them see light?
Source: Maria Wirth Blog. Author: Maria Wirth is a
German who came into contact with India’s ancient wisdom during a holiday in India. She was so impressed
with Indian culture that she wanted to stay on and
learn more about it. Thirty-three years later, she is
still in India, sharing her insights into Hindu Dharma
through articles and books. She is an ardent defender of
Hindu Dharma. contact [email protected]
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IN MY OPINION
DO SOME INDIANS
PURPOSELY MISUNDERSTAND SECULARISM?
By Maria Wirth
(Dehradoon, India)
Do you remember the frenzied appeals to the Indian
electorate before the elections in May 2014 to vote
“secular”? They came
from all quarters –
from Bollywood, from
“intellectuals”, and even
from American universities. The foreign press
had already given up.
They were certain that
the electorate would
make a big mistake and
vote communal instead
of secular.
They all had underestimated the Indian
masses. They did not vote communal. Grudgingly, even
the foreign press now acknowledges that the voters did
not make the big mistake they had predicted. However,
several intellectuals and Christian and Muslims in India
still feel that the electorate did vote “communal” and not
secular. Those people clearly don’t understand the concept of secularism, which basically means that religion is
ignored by the state.
Let me explain, since secularism is a western ‘invention’:
contrary to the perception of some Indians, secular is
not the opposite of communal. Communal as such is
not objectionable either. It simply means ‘pertaining to a
community’.
Secular is the opposite of ‘religious’ and means worldly.
Now ‘religious’ in this context refers to Christianity – to
a well-organized, dogmatic religion that claims that it is
the sole keeper of the ‘truth’ and that it was revealed by
God Himself.
Now this truth does not make sense as such, but has to
be believed blindly. In short: some 2000 years ago, the
creator-God had mercy on ‘sinful’ humanity, and sent
his only son Jesus to earth to redeem us by dying for
our sins. However to be able to get the benefit of Jesus’
sacrifice, one must be
baptized as a Christian,
otherwise one will be
singled out for eternal
hell on Judgment Day.
Such claims did not
appeal to Europeans
who used their brains,
but for many centuries
they had to keep quiet
or risk their lives. The
reason was that for long
the Church was intertwined with the state,
and harsh laws made sure that people did not question
the ‘revealed truth’. Heresy was punished with torture
and death.
Significantly, those centuries, when Church and State
were intertwined, are called the dark ages. And the time
when the Church was forced to loosen its grip, is called
the age of enlightenment. Scientific discoveries, which
could no longer be brushed under the carpet, played
a crucial role for putting the Church into place. A new
idea took root in the west: Reason, not blind belief,
should guide society and this led to the demand for
separation between State and Church. Such separation
is called secularism. It is a recent phenomenon.
In India, however, the situation was different. Here, the
dominant faith never had a power centre that dictated
unreasonable dogmas and needed to be propped up by
the State. Their faith was based on insights of the Rishis,
reason and direct, inner experience. It expressed itself
freely in a multitude of ways. Their faith was about trust
and reverence for the One Source of all life. It was about
The Golden Rule: not to do to others what one does not
“As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.”
PAGE 16
— Chanakya
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want to be done to oneself. It was about having noble
thoughts. It was about how to live life in an ideal way.
However, this open atmosphere changed when Islam and
Christianity entered India. Indians, who good- naturedly
considered the whole world as family, were despised and
ridiculed. Under Muslim rule they were killed in big numbers only because they were ‘Hindus’. Indians did not
realise that dogmatic religions were very different from
their own ancient Dharma. For the first time they were
confronted with merciless killing in the name of God.
Guru Nanak left a testimony how bad the situation was,
when he cried out in despair: “Having lifted Islam to the
head, you have engulfed Hindustan in dread…. Such
cruelty they have inflicted, and yet Your mercy remains
unmoved…” (Granth Sahib, Mahla 1.360 quoted from
Eminent Historians by Arun Shourie).
In spite of the ruthlessness of the invaders, Hindu
Dharma survived in India, whereas the west succumbed
to Christianity and over 50 countries to Islam in a short
span of time.
Though Hindu Dharma survived and never dictated terms
to the state, ‘secular’ was added to the Constitution of
India in 1976. And indeed, since Independence, several
non-secular decisions have been taken which favoured
the dogmatic religions. For example, Muslims and Christians pushed for special civil laws and got them too.
However, after adding ‘secular’ to the Constitution, the
situation did not improve. The government continued to
grant benefits specifically to the dogmatic religions.
This was inexplicable. Why would ‘secular’ be added
and then not acted upon? And the strangest thing: ‘secular’ got a new, specific Indian meaning. For decades it
meant: giving in to demands by those two big religions
which have no respect for Hindus and whose dogmas
condemn all of them to eternal hell.
and communalism meant the motto by which Modi had
tried to govern Gujarat: “Justice for all and appeasement
to none”. So the people of India voted overwhelmingly
for Narendra Modi.
Yet media and several politicians still try to peddle their
wrong understanding: They still call political parties that
represent a religious group, ‘secular’, instead of ‘religious’. Why would they do this? Do they want to give
Indians first-hand experience of the dark ages that had
haunted Europe when the Church wielded power or of
the experience when Sharia ruled?
However, western secular states are not role models
either. There is a lot of depression, drug abuse, alcohol
and people are generally not happy in spite of doing
everything to ‘enjoy life’. Here, India has an advantage.
Her rishis have left a great heritage of valuable treatises
not only dealing with how to live life in an ideal way,
but also how to conduct economy, politics, diplomacy,
etc. If those guidelines are considered, and if India
becomes a state based on her ancient dharma, she has
good chances to regain the lost glory as the wealthiest
country in the world whose citizens are open-minded
and contented.
Source: Maria Wirth Blog, posted on 7 November
2014. Author: Maria Wirth is a German who came
into contact with India’s ancient wisdom during a holiday in India. She was so impressed with Indian culture
that she wanted to stay on and learn more about it.
Thirty-three years later, she is still in India, sharing
her insights into Hindu Dharma through articles and
books. She is an ardent defender of Hindu Dharma.
contact [email protected]
It is an irony. Islam and Christianity that have gravely
harmed Indians over centuries, got preferential treatment
by the Indian State, and their own beneficial dharma
that has no other home except the Indian subcontinent,
was egged out. And to top it, this was called ‘secular’!
The Indian electorate, however, understood that secularism in India meant ‘favouring Christianity and Islam’,
“People who work sincerely are the happiest.”
— Chanakya
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A MUST-READ FOR HINDU PARENTS
Keep Dharma Alive In Canada
“Meeting The
Challenge: A Guide for Raising Hindu Children
Overseas” (seen left) provides some very useful tips and
This comprehensive booklet, entitled
hints to help Hindu parents develop loving relationships
with their children, and raise them as well-balanced,
informed Hindu-Canadian citizens with pride in their
Hindu heritage.
TO RESERVE YOUR COPY TODAY, CONTACT:
Ajit Adhopia, Volunteer Editor,
Canadian Hindu Link
[email protected]
905-273-9563
PAGE 18
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WE ARE PRIVILEGED TO BE HINDUS
By Akshaya Radhakrishnan
What is Hindu dharma? It’s the path of righteousness and
living our life according to the Hindu scriptures. In short,
the moral laws and values we Hindus live by. Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose are
dominant examples of influential leaders who candidly lived
by the Hindu dharma. Hinduism is recognized as the most
ancient and practical.
Freedom of thought, faith and worship are the main plus points of Hindu
dharma. Unlike many other cultures we
are able to question our religion and
construct our own form of worship.
We are allowed to disagree and evolve
and as Mahatma Gandhi quotes, “No
culture can live if it attempts to be
exclusive.” This is the main reason for
our religion to have survived a tremendous amount. We are particularly inclusive and people don’t realize that we
don’t preach to others to become Hindu.
I mean, have you ever seen a person
trying to persuade someone to give up
another religion to become Hindu? Our
goal clearly isn’t on increasing numbers;
instead we focus on genuine people who
want to be part of our culture.
I respect all the ten disciplines; Satya (truth), Ahimsa (nonviolence), Brahmacharya (celibacy, non-adultery), Asteya (no
desire to possess or steal), Aparighara (non-corrupt), Shaucha
(cleanliness), Santosh (contentment), Swadhyaya (reading of
scriptures), Tapas (austerity, perseverance, penance), Ishwarpranidhan (regular prayers). I find it impulsive how our people
don’t follow these basic values, but are so ritualistic and claim
to be “connected to god.” Some of our hearts are filled with
so much toxic waste that we try to do business with God.
Believe it or not, people go to God for selfish reasons and it’s
preposterous! We all need to start understanding this quote,
“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It
is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in
prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”
To clearly understand the status of women in Hinduism, we
need to be able to differentiate religious philosophy and what
was merely social philosophy in the ancient times. The Rama-
PAGE 20
yana says that the highest dharma of the woman is to worship
her husband, but two halves also make a whole. So is one
half superior to the other? Swami Vivekananda metaphorically compares male and female as to wings of a bird. Each
wing is equally important. A bird doesn’t favour one wing.
This is probably the only thing I dislike in the Hindu dharma.
The fact that the social philosophy in the
ancient times affects what we do today.
People interpret this as a religious custom
(the husband is like the god for the wife).
We need to understand there is a difference between the two. The reason
for women to have such low power was
because women weren’t as educated
as men. If you want to keep someone
under your thumb you obviously don’t
educate them. My point is proven if you
look at slavery in America; slaves weren’t
allowed to be educated which was the
reason for them to remain slaves. Now
women are educated as never before and
have learned to stand on their own feet,
but chauvinism still does exist amongst
us today. This isn’t part of the Hindu
dharma, but this is how some people
interpret it.
As I mentioned before, there is nothing personally that I
dislike about the Hindu religion, but I dislike the way some
interpret it. According to Sri Aurobindo,”India is the meeting place of the religions and among these Hinduism alone
is by itself a vast and complex thing, not so much a religion
as a great diversified and yet subtly unified mass of spiritual
thought, realization and aspiration.” I would like to convey
that we are privileged to be blessed with such a treasure and
we must cherish it to the very end.
Author: Akshaya is a grade 10 student at the Woodlands
School in Mississauga. She wants to be a medical doctor
with a focus on global health, and work in India to treat
poor people. She has a burning desire to change India.
She enjoys camping, running, reading about Hinduism,
learning Indian vocal music from a Guru. Akshaya is
also an army cadet; she is on the Executive Committee of
the MedLife club at school, and participates in the DECA
business program.
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HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF SANSKRIT
Sanskrit is truly a fountainhead knowledge, if one surveys
three thousand years of its existence. The story of the
evolution of Sanskrit began right from the Vedic age, sailing through the post-Vedic years and centuries till today.
The Aryans collected the mass of hymns, rituals and
poems about their gods in the four Vedas (10th century
BC) documented in various dialects and brought them
to India (but that wasn’t the Sanskrit we know of today).
From Punjab, where the Aryans settled first by about
600 BC after they came from Central Asia, their speech
spread along the east as far as present day Bihar. Obviously this Vedic or Old Indo-Aryan language mixed
with the language of the Dravidians (who were then not
restricted to just the southern regions) and Austrics. The
result was Prakrit or Middle Indo-Aryan dialect which
soon engulfed the whole country in the north, east and
the centre. The Aryan invasion was moving towards
completion.
Meanwhile, the ‘pure’ Aryans in Punjab were very unhappy about their sacred language getting ‘defiled’. So
between 8th and 4th century BC, they came up with
Classical Sanskrit, based on the old Vedic speech. However for all practical purposes, the origin of the language
is taken to be the old Vedic Sanskrit.
Modification in the Language
Prakrit dialects were already on their steady journey of
spreading and mixing. Buddhists picked up one of these
dialects around the 6th century BC and developed it into
Pali. The process of simplification of the dialects continued throughout the Middle Indo-Aryan stage, culminating in the Apabhramsa stage in 600 AD. Further modification of the regional Apabhramsas during 600-1000
AD gave rise to the New Indo-Aryan languages of the
present day.
Sanskrit Remains the Supreme Language
Even while other languages were taking shape, Sanskrit
continued to be the vehicle of creative and all other
scholarly work. The sheer volume of work in Sanskrit
is formidable. With the Vedas was laid the foundation
stone of Vedic literature and all Sanskrit literature thereafter. From religion and philosophy to grammar, phonetics,
etymology, lexicography, astronomy, astrology, sociology, sex, politics, arts and aesthetics, Sanskrit ruled. Sanskrit is also the language of India’s two most talked about
epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The Puranas
are perhaps the most interesting collection of works in
Sanskrit. There are 18 major books, the Bhagavad Gita
being among them, along with numerous minor ones.
The Puranas contain all the fodder for stories about the
Hindu gods and goddesses.
Literary Activities
Literary activities burst forth with the playwright Bharata’s (200 BC) Natya Shastra, the Bible of dramatic criticism. The earliest plays were those of Bhasa, but were
soon overshadowed by Kalidasa’s Shakuntala, a model
for ages. History tells us that Kalidasa was the greatest of
fools in his early years. He is known to have hacked the
very branch he was sitting on! Anyway, Shakuntala was
a heroic play, while Shudraka’s Mrichchhakatika was a
play of the social class. Bhavabhuti (circa 700 AD) was
another well-known figure, his best being Malatimadhava and Uttaramacharita, the latter based on the story
of the Ramayana.
Foremost Sanskrit Works
The great Sanskrit poems are five in number – Kalidasa’s
Raghuvamsa and Kumarasambhava. Kiratarjuniya of
Bharavi (550 AD), Sishupalavadha of Magha (7th century
AD) and Naishadhiyacharita of Sriharsha (12th century
AD). All of them draw from the Mahabharata, a source
for many writers even today. Shorter poems of great
depth were composed on a single theme like love, morality, detachment and sometimes of grave matters. The
earliest and best collections of such verses called Muktakas are those of Bhartrihari and Amaruka.
Much of the early prose work in Sanskrit has not survived. Of the remaining, some of the best are Vasavadatta of Subandhu, Kadambari and Harshacharita
of Bana (7th century AD) and Dasakumaracharita of
Dandin (7th century AD). The Panchatantra and Hitopadesha are collections of wit and wisdom in the Indian
style, teaching polity and proper conduct through animal fables and aphorisms.
With a glorious life of over 3000 years, Sanskrit continues to be a living language even today, cropping up
during Hindu ceremonies when mantras (ritual verses)
are chanted, and though restricted, is still a medium of
literary expression, but ‘great works’ have long stopped
being written.
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A NEW FEATURE
INDIA
VARANASI
17th Century Ramayana Manuscript Under
Lock And Key After Theft
August 10, 2014 (The Hindu): On December 22, 2011
when the only original pandulipi (manuscript) of Sri
Ramcharitmanas (also referred to as the Ramayana)
dated Samvat 1704 (1648 AD) and a few precious articles of its writer, Goswami Tulsidas, were stolen from
the Hanuman temple in the Akhara Goswami Tulsidas
on Tulsi Ghat, the Mishra family was shocked. Its then
Mahant or head priest, a noted environmentalist and
professor at IIT-BHU, Veer Bhadra Mishra, had to face
charges of theft conspiracy.
Source: www.thehindu.com posted on Hindu Press International on Jauary 19, 2015
NEW DELHI
Post Office For Letters To God
January 1, 2015 (India Today): A temple in Kerala on the
foothills of the holy city of Sabarimala has a post office
that works only during the special Sankaranti season.
But what makes this post office stand apart is that it
receives letters to God. People write their wish and
prayers, hoping that God is reading them. Most of the
mail is wedding invitations and shop openings.
This post office is offering a unusual service which is
attracting a lot of attention. A post office dedicated to
Lord Ayappa. Located near the famed Hindu temple at
the Sabarimala hills, the post office comes alive when
the peak pilgrimage season of the Ayyappa shrine begins
on the first day of the Malayalam month in November,
and the period ends towards the middle of January.
Source: Hindu Press International, January 10, 2015-01-11
NEW DELHI
Government Announces Concessions For
Hindu Refugees From Pakistan & Afghanistan
PAGE 22
Modi Government today announced a number of concessions for Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan and
Afghanistan as part of which it also introduced relaxations in the procedure for granting them Indian citizenship. Home Minister Rajnath Singh approved a proposal
for manual acceptance of applications for granting of
Indian citizenship to minority community nationals of
Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India prior to
December 31, 2009.
Narendra Modi had during campaigning for the Lok Sabha
polls said at rallies in West Bengal and Rajasthan that Pakistani and Bangladeshi Hindu refugees would be treated
like other Indian citizens if he became Prime Minister.
There are about 400 Pakistani Hindu refugee settlements
in cities like Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jaipur. Many
Sikh refugees live in Punjab, Delhi, Haryana and Uttar
Pradesh. There are about one lakh minority community
refugees from Pakistan and Afghanistan living in India.
Source: The Economic Times; posted on World Hindu News
Reporter
GERMANY
The town of Hamm is home to Europe’s largest Hindu
temple. Tens of thousands of worshippers come here for
important religious celebrations close to a busy highway.The temple, which is also popular with worshippers from Belgium and the Netherlands, was founded
by Tamil refugees when they came to Germany in the
1980’s
UNITED STATES
Democrats & Republicans Support Initiative
The initiative of Diversity-USA asking for President
Obama’s help has received massive support from all political circles across party lines. The democratic support
was led by Rep. Peter DeFazio, the senior most member
of the US Congress from the state of Oregon. He told
the President in a letter that his constituents including Dr. Jagan Kaul were concerned about the plight of
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religious minorities of Kashmir and therefore, he urged
the President’s consideration for taking up the issue with
Prime Minister Modi during his visit to India. The support of the Republican side was highlighted by the fact
that Mr. Shalabh Kumar, Chairman, Indian American
Advisory Council, House Republican Conference, US
Congress is one of the sponsors of this initiative. Now
that both the houses of the US Congress are controlled
by the GOP the Republican support on this initiative
becomes equally significant.
California-based clothing brand, Teeki, is in the eye of
a storm where their newly launched yoga pants depict
images of lord Ganesha.
The now-controversial pants — Ganesha’s Dream Hot
Pants and Ganesha’s Dream Bell Bottoms — are raising
eyebrows, and offended parties have urged online retailer, Amazon.com to yank the ‘objectionable’ pants off
the site, immediately. While Teeki and Amazon haven’t
responded, The GUIDE spoke to Indian designers for
their take on this godly dilemma
AFGHANISTAN
KABUL
January 14, 2015 ( Rawa News): Rawail Singh, a leader
of Kabul’s Sikh community, is a big supporter of recently sworn-in President Ashraf Ghani. But despite Mr.
Ghani’s pledge to make Afghanistan more inclusive,
Mr. Singh says he worries that his tiny religious minority
could disappear as more Sikhs and Hindus leave their
homeland because of persistent discrimination. “If the
new government of Afghanistan doesn’t pay attention
to this issue, obviously one day there will be no Sikh or
Hindu left in Afghanistan,” he said.
VICTORIA, SEYCHELLES ISLAND
February 4, 2015 (Seychelles News Agency): Hindus from
all over the world celebrate the annual Thaipoosam Kavadi Festival, and the island archipelago of the Seychelles,
located in the western Indian Ocean, is no different.
Devotees of the Hindu Deity Lord Muruga flocked into
the streets of the nation’s tiny capital, Victoria, on the
main island of Mahe on Tuesday to partake in the colorful
event to the fascination of onlookers. The Seychelles, with
its population of 90,000, has a small minority (around
four percent) of permanent Indian inhabitants. The Indian
community is among some of the earliest settlers of the
Seychelles islands, mostly from southern Tamil Nadu and
some from the north-western province of Gujarat.
The Hindu Kovil Sangam, the local religious organisation for most Hindus in the country, invited the public
to participate in the procession, which ended off at the
Navasakthi Vinayagar temple dedicated to Lord Muruga,
the warrior Deity followed primarily by Hindus of Tamil
origin. The festival is observed in countries where there
is a significant presence of Tamil people, including India,
Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Mauritius, South Africa, Singapore,
Guadalupe, Reunion, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar.
SWITZERLAND
Swiss Festival Honours Cows
September 22, 2012 (Swiss Haywards): The traditional
Alpabfahrt festival in Schupfheim, Switzerland celebrates
bringing the cows down from the high alps to their wintering grounds. The festival occurs all across Switzerland
this time of year. The farmers and rural community are
very proud of this tradition. They are also very proud of
their cows.
PAKISTAN
ISLAMABAD
Supreme Court Orders Government to Introduce Hindu Marriage Act in Two Weeks
January 13, 2015 (Pakistan Christian Post): HPI note: The
issue here is difficulty for Hindus obtaining government
certificates recognizing their marriages, especially in
Sindh Province.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Supreme Court Honorable Nasir-ul-Mulk, while hearing
a case on the non-implementation of the 19th June
detailed Supreme Court Orders for the protection of
Minorities Rights, has ordered Federal and Provincial
Governments to ensure meetings with Patron-in-chief of
Pakistan Hindu Council Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani to
discuss minorities security situation and submissions of
minutes of meetings in this regard during next hearing
on February 11.
“Officials representing federal and provincial governments including five IGs, four Chief Secretaries, Advocate General, Attorney General and Chairman NADRA
appeared to the Supreme Court to present reports on
this issue”, Dr. Ramesh informed adding that five percent quota in government jobs, Hindu Marriage Act and
the Task Force for the Protection of Minorities Worship
places were the key issues under discussion during the
hearing. The Supreme Court has ordered the Attorney
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General to ensure to pass the Hindu Marriage Act Bill,
as recommended by Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, from
the Federal Cabinet within two weeks.
MALAYASIA
Malaysian Hindus Mark Thaipusam
February 3, 2015 (Bangkok Post): More than a million Hindus thronged temples throughout Malaysia on Tuesday to
celebrate Thaipusam, a colorful annual religious festival.
Celebrations in the capital Kuala Lumpur centered, as they
have for 125 years, on the spectacular Batu caves complex on the city’s outskirts, which many Hindus walked
up to ten hours to reach in an annual pilgrimage.
Bearing gifts for the Deity Murugan, countless yellowrobed devotees carried milk pots or coconuts -- the latter of which are smashed as offerings. Others took part
in the 9-mile procession of a silver chariot from a temple
in the city centre to the caves -- an important religious
site for Tamil Hindus -- capped by the final 272-step
climb to a temple in the limestone outcropping.
Source: HPI News
United Kingdom
Diocese Backs Church Over Turning Away
Yoga Class
February 11, 2015 (Christian): St. Michael and All Angels’ Church who made a decision last year that ended
a yoga class’s use of its hall because the activity’s roots
are “incompatible with the Christian faith” has received
support from its diocese.
Source: Hinduism Today magazine, staff reporter
Youngest Hindu Donor Gives £100,000 to
Gandhi Statue in London
Vivek Chadha, a 26 year old UK-based follower of
Mahatma Gandhi has become the youngest donor so far
to contribute £100,000 to the Gandhi Statue Memorial
Trust.Vivek Chadha, Director of Nine Hospitality Ltd is a
hotel owner, residential developer and major commercial investor in UK real estate. Vivek graduated as a civil
engineer in 2010 from University College London where
Mahatma Gandhi was part of the University alumni.
Chadha has been interested in Mahatma Gandhi from
an early age, and even had his picture in his room at
home, to inspire him in his schooldays
Source: World Hindu network, posted on February 20, 2015
PAGE 24
MUSIC REALLY DOES
SOOTHE THE SOUL
By Robin Miller, MD
If I told you there is something that could reduce
chronic pain, improve your mood, decrease blood
pressure, help stroke recovery, lower your heart rate,
calm you down, boost your immunity and enhance
your ability to learn, would you be interested?
What if I told you that it is free and does not involve
medication? Now I have your interest! There is something that will do all of the above and is also quite
enjoyable. It is music!
Studies in England have found that music can reduce chronic pain from diseases such as rheumatoid
and osteoarthritis by 21% and depression by 25%.
Research in Italy reveals that listening to Celtic, classical, or Indian (raga) music for 30 minutes a day can
significantly lower blood pressure. Researchers in Finland found stroke victims who listened to music for 2
hours a day showed marked improvement in memory
and attention span.
In another study, researchers found that students’ heart
rates synced up to the speed of music they were played
-- regardless of the musical style and their interest (or
not) in it. If the music was lively, their hearts sped up.
If the music slowed down, so did their heart rates.
Slow music, then, can produce an additional calming, immune- and mood-boosting effect by lowering
cholestorol levels and increasing hormones that improve the immune response and raise endorphin levels.
If that’s not enough good news about music, here’s
more: Have you heard about the Mozart effect, where
listening to Mozart’s music enhances learning? Baroque
music, with a 60 beat per minute pattern, particularly
activates both the right and left side of the brain. This
enables the brain to process information more easily. It
also improves recall of information when a particular
tune is used during studying and then replayed.
Music is a universal language appealing to all of us
while enhancing learning and healing. And it’s a bargain! As medical costs continue to skyrocket, it is nice
to know that there is something enjoyable and therapeutic we can do -- in addition to our regular preventive evaluation and treatments -- to improve our health!
“I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive
expression of humanity. It’s something we are all
touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.” ~ Billy Joel
Source: www.sharecare.com/health/alternative-medicines
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CANADIAN HINDU LINK | VO L U M E 7 . I S S U E 2
REJUVENATION BY YOGA
Yoga helps in the rejuvenation of the body. Resistance,
observances, posture and pranayam have a major role
in rejuvenation. Practice of Yoga maintains the functioning of all physical and mental organs in their natural
condition. It is needless to say that functioning of organs
in their natural state is the key to good health.
Health obtained through artificial means cannot be
said to be stable. Excessive use of medicines make the
organs not only sensitive but also completely end the
chances of their functioning in a natural condition. A
medicine that is taken to control one particular disease
gives birth to another. These physical ailments produce
mental disorders.
Different actions in Yoga – Asana, pranayam, austerity,
mudra, bandh, shatkarma etc. are used to purify blood,
the nervous system and vital life. All faecal matter is
eliminated from the body, which is the main cause of
diseases and disorders. The chariot of life moving on
the basis of good food, sleep and celibacy never deviates from the path of good health. Yoga philosophers
had fixed the form of the first two steps of Ashtanga
Yoga, namely resistance towards passion and observances, as actually the basis of healthy people and
healthy society. Resistance towards passion includes
not harming anyone, being truthful, not stealing other’s
things, celibacy, not collecting unwanted things that
contribute towards building an affluent society on the
one hand and on the other hand, observances like
cleanliness, satisfaction, austerity, study of religious
books and deep devotion towards God which represent
personal development.
It should not be considered that non-violence and other
observances are not with the purpose of personal development. Finally, the acceptance of people maintains the
discipline of society. Whereas non-violence and observances except celibacy are relevant to society, cleanliness etc. is relevant to an individual. Saint Patanjali
claims the observances as most important vows on this
very basis. Patanjali’s views are clear that the practitioner of Yoga should not follow nonviolence in the pretext
of nation, time and circumstances, although, nation,
time and circumstances could be suitable in respect to
cleanliness, austerity and self-study of religious books
etc. The word ‘austerity’ used in reference to observances has a broad scope in Indian literature. Saint Patanjali
has given a very brief concept in the form of kriya Yoga,
self study of religious books and deep devotion towards
God along with austerity which is an important part of
it. It is clear that austerity is the final outcome of physical and mental energy and consciousness, not exploitation of physical organs. Saint Patanjali considers tolerating dilemmas as austerity. He says that a person has the
capacity to bear two kinds of dilemma, namely logic at
mental level and energy at physical level.
Indian sages have recognized the dilemmas that occur
at physical and mental levels as thirst-hunger, cold-heat,
happiness-unhappiness, loss-gain, fame-infamy, victorydefeat, etc. The capacity to bear problems is tolerance,
which is known as the basic quality of personal, family,
social, political, religious and spiritual life.
Austerity has been explained further in some religious
texts. The factors of resistance towards passion and
observances have been included in physical, verbal
and mental types. Actually pretentious luxurious life
style destroys the moral strength of a person at a very
fast pace. A person who gets used to a comfortable life
style cannot imagine living without these comforts. A
person leading a luxurious life feels handicapped in the
absence of comforts and luxuries. The body becomes
a bundle of diseases due to this tendency. At this point
nature appears to be an enemy. Austerity is the invitation
to sacrifice a luxurious life style that is away from nature.
Asana or posture is the most popular branch of Yoga to
maintain a balanced physical structure. Saint Patanjali
has given a very simple and easy definition of posture.
He says that sitting in a comfortable position is posture.
Different writers have different views with respect to
number of asanas. One of the interesting views has
been expressed in Dhyanbindupanishtkar. According
to him, the number of postures are uncountable. It is
necessary to strengthen the nerves and muscles in order
to lead a healthy and long life. The nutritional elements
taken in the form of food reach different parts of the
body through pranayama. In the absence of this, the
body does not develop properly. Posture and light exercises strengthen our respiratory system. The yog asanas
are a successful treatment for various diseases. Easy and
effective treatment for different types of diseases that
occur in the stomach, back, neck and knees, are possible through asana.
Source: www.indiadivine.org
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VIEWPOINTS
IS THE PK MOVIE REALLY ANTI-HINDU?
By Amol Yadav (USA)
I agree with all comments against the PK movie, but
I wanted to turn the tables and show how PK is antiIslam or anti-Christianity. Here is my humble attempt. I
know I am treading on a thin line here, but my attempt
is to present a counter-offensive perspective.
I understand how PK could be considered anti-Hindu,
but it seems more anti-Islamic or anti-Christianity to me.
Aamir says that one should not blindly follow managers
of God and should seek a direct connection with God.
Now, this statement challenges the very foundation of
Islam and Christianity, which are based on message of
God that comes down via prophets. Hinduism already
seeks a direct connection with God via meditation and
yoga, so the alien in the movie seems to be closer to
Hindu or a Sufi.
The movie makers have taken advantage of the tolerance and the potential to critique that exists in Hinduism to shoot at the core tenets of religions that involve
blind faith. Of course, they cannot depict symbols of
Islam or Christianity with the same passion and to the
same extent as Hindu symbols are depicted in the
movie because there is not much scope for critique in
these faiths. They have to be followed as prescribed by
some higher authorities that manage the ins and outs of
these faiths. No common man, let alone famous filmmakers would dare to live under the constant threat of
fatwas or being labelled as anti-minority.
The critique of Hindu traditions and practices depicted
in the movie is nothing new. Many enlightened Hindu
gurus have spoken against some of these. In fact,
adherents of Bhakti yoga have spoken against Dhyan
yog and vice versa. Atheist Hindus critique the theistic
schools of thought and vice versa. Many religions have
critiqued the karmkand and murti pooja in Hinduism,
but the philosophical debates in support of these practices are quite strong and robust. So, a movie like PK
seems to challenge Hindu practices but this critique is
only superficial. Deep down, it hits the core tenets of
history-centric- revelation based religions very strongly
(Read Rajiv Malhotra’s ‘Being Different’ for details). I
am surprised that none of these faiths paid attention to
the blasphemy espoused in the movie which is intelligently and subtly disguised in small pockets throughout the movie.
PAGE 26
When the alien advises to establish a direct connection with God, he promotes Hinduism, because both
in Islam or Christianity a direct connection with God is
not possible because God according to their theology
does not reside in the cosmos. Only an immanent and
transcendent God or Brahman or Infinite Consciousness can be realized, which forms the basic metaphysics of all Hindu practices like murti-pooja or rituals i.e.
karmkand. A detailed tradition of specific practices and
methods to reach higher states of consciousness and all
supporting philosophical explanations have been succinctly laid out by various Rishi and gurus throughout
times immemorial, making Dharmic faiths both experimental as well as objective. So, by exposing that JudeoChristian faiths neither have a philosophical thesis for
reaching God nor an experimental method, the moviemakers have almost got away with blasphemy.
When the alien warns people against fake gurus trotting
around as enlightened beings, what he is subtly saying
is that only Hinduism allows you to independently decide using your own rationality, whether a Baba is fake
or real. It intelligently brings out the practices of canonization of saints that exists in other religions where
an individual follower has no say in who qualifies to
become a saint. It is like saying, fake websites can only
exist on an open internet and not on a closed exclusivist
network. You have the right to visit the site, reject it or
ignore it, but a closed, institutionally managed network
will never give you that right of judgement.
In all, I feel this movie hits Judeo-Christian faiths more
that it hits Hinduism. Hinduism is a continuously evolving dynamic philosophical tradition and as they say, it is
always hard to hit a moving target
Editor’s Note: This author is an active participant in Dr.
Rajiv Malhotra’s cyber discussion group. This viewpoint
was expressed in response to opposition to the PK movie.
Source: Author is a PhD candidate in the Dept. of
Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, USA
researching on Brain Machine Interfaces under neuroscientist Dr. Miguel Nicolelis. He was President of
Graduate and Professional Student Council at Duke
University for the academic year 2013-14. His interests are neuroscience and Hindu-Buddhist philosophy.
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CANADIAN HINDU LINK | VO L U M E 7 . I S S U E 2
VIEWPOINTS
OF THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE: HINDUISM AND PK
By Pravin Singhania
I am a practicing Hindu. I am also educated in English
medium and have pursued science as a matter of personal
interest. I would like to think that I am a rational human
being plugged into the modern world. And finally I would
like to think I have a mind open enough to allow pertinent
questions raised on my belief systems, and strong enough
to remain unperturbed on issues that try to dent my convictions; convictions borne out of my own experience, understanding, scholarship, openness and, I dare say, wisdom.
I came out of the theatres after watching the very violent
Ghaniji, another Aamir Khan starrer, I was scared! I was
scared that a) Criminals rule the roost and any ordinary citizen can become a victim at any time, and b) unless a person
survives by divine intervention from the attack and then
goes on to acquire superhuman abilities he can do nothing
about the assault and injustice and c) There is no rule of law.
Imagine the effect of that movie on the collective consciousness of the country. But, this is not about Aamir Khan.
So, as I watched the latest Aamir Khan starrer PK, I distinctly remember feeling consternation and indignation
and at the same time dismay and disdain.
Admittedly, there are two sides to this value argument: A)
Movies in India do affect the collective consciousness of
people and hence play the part of a major force for social
evolution, and B) Movies are meant for entertainment; creative expression, poetic license and humor convert many
things into the acceptable, and it is up to the wisdom of the
audience to take what they want from it and reject the rest.
“The world shall always ridicule the stupid. Why are you
stupid? Why are you weak? Why have you failed to build
your faith on a solid bedrock of spiritual insight and practice? People prefer magic to effort towards spiritual evolution just as people prefer a lottery win to enterprise. Such
people deserve to be slapped about by all and sundry.”
Such, and other thoughts were gushing through me. Expectedly, the fringe hue and cry is getting bigger, if not with
understanding of core issues, out of a herd mentality and
an expression of solidarity. Also, they hope to win through
the power of numbers. But will that really be a win?
But the storyteller also mesmerizes, and can hence skew
public opinion in favour of A or B as he wishes, or at least
hopes to. Which is why, in the Aamir Khan starrer Fanaa,
attempts were made to make the audience empathize with
a hard-core terrorist simply on the basis of his having a lovestory with a young blind girl who only wanted to get laid.
This was achieved through an ample sprinkling of romantic scenes and feel-good songs that the public laps up. At
the end of the movie, a majority of the audience was not
interested in the broader message of the movie, and yet the
protagonist still remained ‘a hero’.
So what is wrong with the movie PK? Well, for starters, it
resorts to using a simpleton alien with magical powers to
deride - guess what? - simpleton faithfuls being suckered
by a most blatantly conning godman. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it uses the most blatantly conning
godman to deride people’s matters of faith not just relating directly to the godman, but everything else associated
with the religious practices of a faith that the godman also
seemingly belongs to. This is important to put in perspective: the caricatured godman is not being bashed here; he
is only the tool. Symbolisms, pictures and images, idols,
anthropomorphic gods, feeding of cows, temple-going,
placing faith on rustic shrines, endowments, gurus, penances, rituals, nothing is spared. Again, let us be clear: For
the audience, the message that the godman is a fake and a
con artist is clear in the very first frame. Not even the most
vulnerable superstitious would have any doubts about
that. For a large part of the rest of the movie it is all about
making everything associated with religious practices look
farcical and ridiculous through superficial observation,
meaningless extrapolation and carefully designed ploys.
And all this is justified because the protagonist happens
to be a childlike alien and does not need to take a deeper
look into the epistemology, thoughts and feelings behind
these practices. For some degree of political correctness
and also as a feeble defense of secularist agenda, some
other religions also get passing mention. However, and
without a doubt the target religion remains Hinduism.
Let us admit it, Bollywood has a huge sway over the national
consciousness. That is the reason a few years ago when
It so happens, that a large portion of the population is
not really religious. It mostly happens to have a religion
There are archetypes and stereotypes. There are superheroes and the invincible. There are caricatures and over-thetop villains. Funnily enough there are stereotypes of every
shade of gray in-between. And these are the tools that we
employ to tell stories and to convey messages. From Vyas to
Buddha, from Shakespeare to Bollywood, storytellers have
employed these devices. So, Shakespeare uses ‘a Jew’, and
Bollywood has employed stereotypes of ‘a Madrasi’, ‘a Marwari moneylender’, ‘an evil Saas’, and so many others.
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CANADIAN HINDU LINK | VO L U M E 7 . I S S U E 2
by virtue of being born into it. However, an equally large
portion of the population is perfectly happy to let religious
symbolism and practices remain sacred for the practitioners.
It is this large, perhaps agnostic population that this movie
affects deeply. This it achieves by showing the superstitious
and faithful in bad light.
There have been, and are fake, miracle-vending, self-aggrandizing godmen in India (and in the world, in all religions).
There are also spiritual leaders and teachers. There are Yoga
and meditation preceptors. There are heads of religious
centres. There have been celebrated saintly reformers and
spiritual beacons like Swami Vivekanand and Maharshi
Aurobindo. There are new-age gurus in all hues from utterly
pedantic to overtly elitist. There are also millions of ascetics,
monks seekers and seers who descend on the Kumbh mela
from their retreats every year. Sooner or later, the fake conmen have been exposed and ridiculed, even reprimanded.
Sooner or later, the stalwarts have been celebrated, studied
and followed. And more often than not, the renunciates have
been left alone to their devices. There exists a self-cleansing
and balancing mechanism in society. A movie like PK does
nothing path breaking in this regard.
What it does achieve is attack the very foundations of religious practices from outside, without so much as to get into
rudimentary analysis, empathy, respect or understanding. In
this manner, it should not be surprising that it evokes strong
indignation in many quarters.
As a practicing Hindu I have educated myself enough to
know some of the core values and the associated practices.
In the first place, it is not a religion in the Abrahamic meaning of the term in that it has no single and final messenger of
God and no single book. It considers all paths valid, including meditation, devotion, worship, service, knowledge, logic,
rationalism, materialism, spiritualism, atheism, agnosticism,
polytheism, monotheism, paganism, dualism, non-dualism,
and so on. It does not conquer, proselytize or destroy native
cultures. It has its own approach to metaphysics, wisdom and
aesthetic, and valuable at that considering the rich heritage
that it has gifted the world. It considers the entire creation
as a sacred expression of the supreme truth, and is therefore
very much in tune with modern concepts of environmental
conservation. Many of its esoteric and exoteric practices can
be explained within the realms of reason, or at least historicity. It can be as simple and superficial, or as complex and
deep, as a practitioner chooses based on his inclination. It
can evolve, it can reject, or it can add to itself organically.
As a person born and brought up in India, I am also aware
that many Hindus are mired in superstition, shallowness,
bigotry, and hypocrisy; that practitioners often seek miracles
and use it for commercial, social and political benefit more
than for establishment of a personal spiritual connect. Much
of the same can be said about any religion, even in the
modern times. However, this observation is not made in
defense, rather this is a proud admission that Hinduism can
evolve and so can its practitioners. Attacking and ridiculing
the sacred is NOT one of the valid ways to do so.
VIEWPOINTS
PK MOVIE AGAINST HINDU SENTIMENTS
By Jaya Kumar
With all due respect to the opinion expressed by Amol Yadav.
I have to disagree with it. I have personally experienced similar blind beliefs at dargahs: people sell powders and taveez
which offer cures for everything from VD to passing exams
to solving all the problems of life. At one dargah the person
offered me dirty water after cleaning the tomb stone - which I
drank in order to avoid offending the caretaker at the site - he
said that it had miraculous powers.
is an allusion: 1. the chasing away from the mosque, 2. the
train explosion where there is a voice over on taking revenge
or some such. Incidentally the train explosion is parodying
Samjhauta express - allegedly by Hindu perpetrators - they
could have used any other example if they were actually
showing generic terrorism - you have christian terrorism in
Tripura, north east, or terror carried out by adherents of other
religions all over India.
The movie could have been shot giving exactly the same
message using the Christian evangelism or Dargah activities
as a backdrop or the main frame, and would have conveyed
the same message. Using the Hindu religion as a constant
backdrop is because we do not stand up and demand that the
treatment be even handed.
Essentially, if you cut out all the scenes involving other religions - there is no impact to the main story line. That shows
how critical or important those scenes are to the movie. They
are very clearly introduced to tick off “being secular” as a line
item by the movie producer/director.
Please observe carefully the events shown for Islam - there is
not a single activity shown which actually clearly portrays the
identical blind beliefs that exist in that faith. Every example
Watch Shah Rukh Khan in movies like Mohabbatein - he is very
careful in what he says about Hindu gods and you can rarely,
if ever find any of the Khans actually bowing and praying to
Hindu gods, while laughing all the way to the bank of course.
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CANADIAN HINDU LINK | VO L U M E 7 . I S S U E 2
THE FOUR FEMALE INTELLECTUAL GIANTS
OF THE VEDIC PERIOD
Women of the Vedic period (circa 1500-1200 BCE), were
epitomes of intellectual and spiritual attainments. The
Vedas have volumes to say about these women, who
both complemented and supplemented their male partners. When it comes to talking about significant female
figures of the Vedic period, four names - Ghosha, Lopamudra, Sulabha Maitreyi, and Gargi - come to mind.
Soon afterwards, the sage realized his duties towards
his wife and performed both his domestic and ascetic
life with equal zeal, reaching a wholeness of spiritual
and physical powers. A son was born to them. He was
named Dridhasyu, who later became a great poet.
Maitreyi
Vedic wisdom is encapsulated in myriad
hymns and 27 women-seers emerge
from them. But most of them are mere
abstractions except for a few, such as
Ghosha, who has a definite human
form. Granddaughter of Dirghatamas
and daughter of Kakshivat, both composers of hymns in praise of Ashwins,
Ghosha has two entire hymns of the
tenth book, each containing 14 verses,
assigned to her name. The first eulogizes the Ashwins, the heavenly twins
who are also physicians; the second is
a personal wish expressing her intimate
feelings and desires for married life.
Ghosha suffered from an incurable
disfiguring disease, probably leprosy,
and remained a spinster at her father’s house. Her
implorations with the Ashwins, and the devotion of her
forefathers towards them made them cure her disease
and allow her to experience wedded bliss.
The Rig Veda contains about one thousand hymns, of
which about 10 are accredited to Maitreyi, the woman seer and philosopher.
She contributed towards the enhancement of her sage-husband Yajnavalkya’s
personality and the flowering of his
spiritual thoughts. Yajnavalkya had two
wives Maitreyi and Katyayani. While
Maitreyi was well versed in the Hindu
scriptures and was a ‘brahmavadini’,
Katyayani was an ordinary woman.
One day the sage decided to make a
settlement of his worldly possessions
between his two wives and renounce
the world by taking up ascetic vows.
He asked his wives their wishes. The
learned Maitreyi asked her husband if
all the wealth in the world would make
her immortal. The sage replied that
wealth could only make one rich, nothing else. She then
asked for the wealth of immortality. Yajnavalkya was
happy to hear this, and imparted Maitreyi the doctrine
of the soul and his knowledge of attaining immortality.
Lopamudra
Gargi
Ghosha
The Rig Veda (‘Royal Knowledge’) has long conversations between the sage Agasthya and his wife Lopamudra that testifies to the great intelligence and goodness of the latter. As the legend goes, Lopamudra was
created by sage Agasthya and was given as a daughter
to the King of Vidarbha. The royal couple gave her the
best possible education and brought her up amidst luxury. When she attained a marriageable age, Agasthya,
the sage who was under vows of celibacy and poverty,
wanted to own her. Lopa agreed to marry him, and left
her palace for Agasthya’s hermitage. After serving her
husband faithfully for a long period, Lopa grew tired of
his austere practices. She wrote a hymn of two stanzas
making an impassioned plea for his attention and love.
Gargi, the Vedic prophetess and daughter of sage
Vachaknu, composed several hymns that questioned the
origin of all existence. When King Janak of Videha organized a ‘brahmayajna’, a philosophic congress centered
around the fire sacrament, Gargi was one of the eminent participants. She challenged the sage Yajnavalkya
with a volley of perturbing questions on the soul or
‘atman’ that confounded the learned man who had till
then silenced many an eminent scholar. Her question
- “The layer that is above the sky and below the earth,
which is described as being situated between the earth
and the sky and which is indicated as the symbol of the
past, present and future, where is that situated?” - bamboozled even the great Vedic men of letters.
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WHY MIRACLES HAPPEN
By Pramod Pathak
Miracles are those phenomena that defy logical reasoning, the events or incidents not explicable by natural or scientific laws. But that they do happen is a fact
of life. One definition of a miracle is that those events
which seems impossible but happen anyway. Usually
they are those incidents that work out to the benefit of
human beings or even animals and the probability of
their happening is low, rather nil. In other words the
miracles cannot be explained by the known laws of
nature. In scriptures and religious texts one may find
many such incidents that may qualify being called a
miracle. For the believers these incidents are divine interventions which prove that God is active, caring and
responsive. Philosophers have also acknowledged miracles as those events that are inexplicable. However,
they suggest that miracles are also a part of the natural
law which human mind cannot understand. But these
discussions are matters of academic interest. The fact
is that miracles happen and defy the logical reasoning.
Whether transgression of law of nature or following a
law that is beyond the comprehension of human mind,
these miracles have one interesting feature. They usually happen when the protagonist intensely desires for
them to happen.
In puranas or religious text these have been found
to happen when someone in desperation invokes
the divine power to intervene. A glaring incident
was that of Draupadi being put to embarrassment by
Dusashana in Mahabharata. Duryodhana asks his
brother Dushashna to dishonor Draupadi by disrobing
her. Draupadi requests, appeal to reason and begs to
pandavas and all the so called reasonable men of the
kauravas like Bhisma and Dronacharya. But they all
express their helplessness. It is then that she invokes
Lord Krishna who intervenes by creating an unending roll of sarees which finally tires Dushashna to give
up. Another incident from the Vishnupurana is of the
intervention of Lord Vishnu’s intervention to save the
elephant king Gajendra from the jaws of the crocodile
Makar and is popularly called Gajendra moksha.
All these incidents are examples of divine intervention
to solve problems of living beings, human or animals.
Since these are given in religious texts many may be
skeptical of veracity of these claims.
However, in our lives such incidents happen which
apparently seen improbable yet take place. If one
looks around his life he may find many such examples.
These though are not those tricks of the so called
Godmen who in order to create an aura around themselves, play with the help of science. Try to figure out
if such incidents actually took place in your life and
under what circumstances. You will find many. Only
you didn’t make note of it or rather took them to be
chance happenings. But are they? Probably, not. These
are miracles in every sense of the term. All that is
needed is to observe those happenings carefully. This
columnist also has experienced many such incidents
that under normal circumstances should not have
happened. But that they actually happen is what is
reassuring as it proves that there is some force, above
every force, that acts, intervene or interferes when it
comes to the crunch. The one common element is
all such miraculous happening is the intense desire to
wish them happen and complete faith in the divine. It
is the faith that makes miracles happen.
Author: Pramod Pathak, PhD in Stress Management
is a professor in Management at Indian School of
Mines, Dhanbad, India is a Behavioural Scientist
who writes on social, cultural and ethical issues and
contributes columns on spirituality and well being in
several leading National Dailies/ periodicals. He can
be reached at [email protected]
“If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed
some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life,
and has found solutions, I should point to India.”
— Max Mueller, German Scholar
PAGE 30
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CANADIAN HINDU LINK | VO L U M E 7 . I S S U E 2
HOW SIKHS AND HINDUS BECAME
THE BEDROCK OF MIDDLE BRITAIN
A typical Middle Briton has been laid bare in wideranging research published yesterday. Analysts discovered a social group ¬living in semi-detached suburbia
and worrying about how to pay the mortgage. And
while many of the findings ¬reinforce the stereotype of
a middle-class family, some of the research is perhaps
more surprising.
Salwar/Kameez-clad women make their way down a
street in London. The survey found that long-established
Hindu and Sikh families now have an above average
likelihood of being classed Middle Britons. The Berkshire town of Slough – known as the setting for Ricky
Gervais’ sitcom, The Office – has been revealed as the
social group’s heartland.
The research was carried out by analysts at Experian,
who examined nationwide data ranging from income
and housing type to favourite internet sites and shopping
habits. It identified more than 400 social and economic
factors to define Middle Britain and has produced a
detailed ¬picture of the country’s largest social group,
accounting for 13.1million people, or one in five of the
population. Today’s Middle Britain has an average annual household income of £47,300, which is 10 per cent
higher than the national average. However the study
revealed a social group beset by economic worries.
The so-called ‘squeezed middle’ class said they were
worried about meeting mortgage payments, rising bills, reduced pension values and whether their children could afford to get on to the housing ladder. Less than a third said
they were ‘financially comfortable’. Middle class Britain’s
outgoings were higher than the national average because
of increased income tax and mortgage commitments.
Data about spending habits revealed the average household spent £610 per week on bills and shopping, with
transport and groceries as the biggest expenditure. The
average Middle class Briton is aged 36 to 45 and 40 per
cent have children, compared to a national average of
28 per cent. Almost a fifth have one child, 17 per cent
have two and 5 per cent three or more. A majority own
their homes – 87 per cent compared with the national
average of 67 per cent. These are 2.5 times more likely
than the national average, to live in a semi-detached
property. In fact, more than half of Middle class Britons
– 52 per cent – live in a semi and 88.5 per cent have a
garden. Just over half said they were happy with their
standard of living, but 57 per cent admitted they struggled to find enough time and juggled between work and
family life.
Time pressure meant internet shopping was popular, 50
per cent saying they preferred to do shopping online.
Almost a third of Middle class Britons said they preferred
to communicate using the internet rather than the telephone. Facebook was the second most popular internet
site after the search engine Google.
Middle class Britons are more likely to spend money on
computers, technology and other gadgets, according to
the study, including paying for services such as highdefinition television.
Socially, they are more likely to spend time at home
than other groups, and enjoy watching sport, property
programmes and science fiction shows. Time away from
home includes going to the gym or cinema, and family trips to local parks. Nigel Wilson of Experian, said:
‘Middle Britain is often discussed yet it has rarely been
examined in a meaningful way. ‘Past attempts to define
it have focused on income or social class. We have used
our data to define Middle Britain across a range of factors. ‘It is much more than having an average income, or
being middle class. More of us are members of Middle
Britain than we might think.’
Source: www.worldhindunews.com
“The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity is of wonderful structure,
more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin
and more exquisitely refined than either.”
— Sir William Jones, British Orientalist
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THE CHRISTIAN MISSION A COMPLETE FAILURE
SAYS FATHER AUGUSTINE KANJAMALA
“The Future of Christian Mission in India” by Father Augustine Kanjamala which recently released in
the US has stirred up quite a hornet’s nest in the church even before its release here. Yogesh Pawar spoke
to the priest about some of the contentious points he raises about conversion, exclusivism and the question
mark he puts on the very relevance of the Christian mission.
Excerpts From An Interview
You say in the introduction to your book that the
Christian mission in India is not relevant any more.
Yes. The Christian mission has been a complete failure
both in India and across the world. The traditional
concept of the Christian mission is just not relevant any
more, definitely not in Asia at least given the ground
realities. After nearly three to four centuries of Christian
Faith arriving in Asia less than 3% of the population has
accepted it. After so much time money and effort as
many as 97% of the population has rejected the concept
of Christianity.
Aren’t you worried taking such a stand since you’re
yourself a part of the clergy? Did you get your work
vetted before publication?
Why should I? I am merely making a logical argument.
Asking the mission to introspect and correct itself can’t
be wrong. As for asking anyone to vet my work, I don’t
think that is necessary according to rules.
Are you discounting the good work the church has done?
I am not saying that. My book argues that thought it has
failed spectacularly quantitatively, qualitatively it has
achieved a lot. And I am not merely talking only about
institutions created for healthcare and education but
also about a more fundamental Hindu mindset change.
This led to socials changes like the rejection of socially
ill practices like sati, child marriage and castration of
young children. The religious identity many marginalised
caste and community groups found with Christianity,
has helped them find a voice to question their oppression and exploitation and assert themselves.
But has the church really been successful in breaking
caste? In Kerala, your own state, you have seen many
denominations in keeping with the caste hierarchy.
PAGE 32
How can you say that when 2/3rd of those who converted come from Dalits and tribals?
But even within the church and within the clergy why
do we then see that its not these 2/3rd but the 1/3rd
from the upper castes who wield significant influence?
There are some tendencies like that, I agree. But you
cannot take away from the fact those from the Dalits
and tribals who converted are doing better socially and
in terms of quality of life, than those who didn’t.
Since there is such a hullaballoo over conversions right
now, what is your take on conversions which are incentivised – financially and otherwise?
First of all, this din over rising conversions is factually
wrong. The latest census figures show the number of
Christians reducing from 2.6% to 2.3%. Historically, I
know there have been some human rights’ excesses in
the name of conversions during the Portuguese rule.
Some of these new fangled churches outdo the aggression of marketing companies when they reach out to
people for conversions. That is bringing bad name to
the entire community. This is especially unfair given the
good work that the Roman Catholic Church has done in
India both in healthcare and education.
Would you agree that some of the problems are also to
do with the exclusivism that the church propagate?
You know when I was secretary of Bishop’s conference
we conducted survey of over 15,000 nuns, priests and
members of the laity to find out what they felt about
this. A whopping 85% of them said that irrespective of
their religion, if people lead a life of conscience, then
salvation will be available to them as well. Only 15%
even in the Catholic church held on to the traditional
belief that only Christ could lead to salvation. The
church is changing its ideas too. It now believes that it
should evangelise and civilise simultaneously.
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How can the Church which has itself indulged in acts
like burning people at the stake, take a condescending
stand saying we are bringing civilisation to people?
When the church says civilisation it doesn’t mean it an
offending way. We are simply brining education and
awareness to people. You cannot deny that there are
some communities less developed and some who have
not seen any development at all. Surely there can be no
problems with the asking for equitable development for
all. You may have semantic problems with the way this
is put forth. But you have to agree that where evangelisation has failed, civilisation has not. It has helped people.
Many accuse the church of fomenting dissent among
poor tribals by exploiting them, some even going on
to point out how powers like the US use the church to
serve their own geo-strategic interests.
We have to see who is making these accusations. We
all know members of the BJP government at the Centre
make these kind of statements from time to time. This is
part of the set pattern as this was the refrain even where
the BJP is in power in various states. You know many of
these states have passed the anti-conversion bill. So this
is purely political. And I make the point in my book that
conversion will have political consequences because
people link it to the way people vote. One of the outstanding ideologues among them is Arun Shourie.
You and Arun Shourie go a long back, don’t you?
Yes. When I was secretary of the Bishops conference I
invited him to a national consultation on evangelisation
in Pune around 20 years ago. I told my superiors that
instead of getting people who will only say good things
about us, let us get someone who is against us. Accordingly I proposed Shourie’s name and he came spoke for
an hour and participated in the discussion that followed.
Within a month of the conference he wrote Missionaries
in India which many bishops did not like.
And that wasn’t the only book?
Yes. Shourie was later invited to publicly debate the issues he had raised a few months after the book’s release.
He and me had an over three-hour-long debate. Later
that too was brought out as a book. It is not surprising
that Hindu ideologues like him keep attacking the church.
Many voices from the US and Europe who aren’t Hindu
ideologues like author Iain Buchanan have voiced
similar concerns about the church.
Yes. I’m aware there are some people within the church
are increasingly uncomfortable with the traditional understanding of the Christian mission and particularly take
poor view of what they call ‘aggressive zeal’ shown by
some missionaries.
Some people have reservation about such aggressive
missionaries being turned into saints and deities.
I know there must have been lot of appreciation for St
Francis Xavier for the number of people he got converted during the early 16th Century but I argue in my
book how in today’s times he is unacceptable. I think
the church needs saints like Mother Teresa not Francis
Xavier. Unfortunately for us, there will always be the
small but powerful conservatives in every religion and
they will take a long time to change. But the future belongs to secular rational thought.
Christian groups have raised concerns about the intentions of the Modi government vis-a-vis the community
in light of the recent Good Governance Day.
The government is wrong if it thinks all Hindus are with
them. Many Hindus have opposed this move. I don’t
think its right to generalise all Hindus in one way. This
mindset is only reflective of a miniscule right wing.
Majority Hindus do not subscribe to such fundamentalism. Yes they’ve come to power on their own steam but
let us not forget that the parliamentary elections saw BJP
get only 31% of the vote. Even these 31% may not be
fundamentalists but just angry with the Congress.
A Texas-based magazine Gospel for Asia says: “The
Indian sub-continent with one billion people, is a living example of what happens when Satan rules the
entire culture... India is one vast purgatory in which
millions of people... are literally living a cosmic lie!
Could Satan have devised a more perfect system for
causing misery?” How do you react to this?
This is both saddening and to put it mildly, most unfortunate. One can even ask in a reverse way if the people
espousing such views are not agents of Satan themselves. Creating division and hatred even in God’s own
name cannot be God’s work. I’ve lived in the US. I find
them the least-informed people. I wonder if the people
writing this can even find India on a map.
Source: www.dnaindia.com posted by Yogesh Pawar on
28 December 2014
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YES, THIS CAN HAPPEN TO YOUR CHILD!
EDUCATE YOUR CHILDREN ABOUT HINDUISM
At a coffee shop in Delhi, Kanika thought she was spending
just another afternoon passing time with her childhood friend
Jo Jo, avoiding the heat and the crush of people outside. But
there was something different in the way Jo Jo approached
her that day. He had a special question for her: Do you know
what is happening to your soul when you die? Kanika had no
idea, and that worried her.
Surprisingly, in their twenty years of friendship, Jo Jo, an
Indian Evangelical Christian, and Kanika, a
Hindu, had never discussed their religions.
That day at Costa Coffee though, Jo Jo
started a long discussion, scribbling Christian themes and images on the napkins
scattered around him. Kanika collected
the napkins and poured over them that
night in bed.
In the weeks to come, Kanika began talking to other Christian friends and considering a conversion. She knew hardly anything about Christianity and had grown up
in a devout Hindu family, but the question
of life after death remained unanswered
for her.
Now, four years later, at 24, Kanika is at a
crossroads. She has become an Evangelical
Christian in secret, and her family disapproves of any reference she makes to Christianity.
There are an estimated 24 million Christians in India, or 2.3
percent of the population. In Delhi, less than one percent of
the population is Christian; 82 percent are Hindu. Throughout
India, Christians have faced violence and had their churches
destroyed, but Delhi residents have largely avoided persecution. It is a point of city pride that so many different religions
can coexist: Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists, Christians, and even a small Jewish population. But coexisting
doesn’t mean the lines between the faiths are blurry.
“Hindus worship the animals, the plants, the trees, the rivers
— idols, I mean they would do a lot of crazy things. I do not
get what they do and why they do it,” she said. In worshipping Manasa devi, Hindus avoid using heat. They cook food
the day before and don’t use hot water. They’ll also leave
food in the road as an offering to the goddess. Kanika could
barely walk down her street because it was covered with offerings. In her view, it’s all part of “worshipping a weird kind
of ugly looking idol.”
At first, Kanika told her mother not to
wake her, but in the middle of the night
she changed her mind. This would not
be a battle she would take on. “I realized
I should go with my mom and witness
what people do and pray for them.” She
secretly told the idols: “‘Okay, people
worship you, but you are not God.’”
It had been a long time since Kanika
had gone to temple with her family. She
stopped practicing in the midst of her
conversion. Jo Jo gave her a Bible, took
her to his church, the Delhi Bible Fellowship, and introduced her to more Christian friends. When her parents caught on,
they limited her contact with her Christian friends. When they found her Bible and a notebook filled
with letters from Kanika to God, they threw them away. “It
is a difficult thing because you cannot share with them, and
they will not even listen to you.” Kanika was saddened, but
not deterred.
Kanika’s parents want her to marry a Hindu from her caste, or
social designation, the Marwaris, known as business people
or shopkeepers. She can choose a man who fits those criteria
or they will choose a husband for her. “I do not want to hurt
my parents by going against them but I have been praying
about it because I want to get married to a believer.” It’s a
dilemma, but Kanika is turning to prayer for an answer.
Kanika’s parents are not happy with the changes they’ve seen
in their daughter. In many ways, their household resembles
that of any with a young adult still living at home but testing
the limits. Daily life involves regular battles over Kanika’s participation in Hindu worship. Often, Kanika finds herself “not
telling a lie, but not telling the truth.”
Kanika’s family is devout. Her grandmother attends temple
everyday for at least two hours. Her parents go every Tuesday, at the least. They also worship in a special room in their
home, filled with images and statues of gods. Before every
meal, they take some food to the temple as an offering.
Recently, her family planned to rise at dawn to join long
lines of practicing Hindus waiting to worship Manasa devi,
the goddess of snakes, which is thought to cure chicken pox,
among other things. Her parents thought it natural that Kanika
accompany them on their 5 a.m. journey to the temple, but
Kanika resisted. At this point, Kanika is embarrassed and
dismissive when she explains Hindu customs.
“They would definitely disown me if they knew I was a Christian, ” Kanika said. There are struggles ahead, on both a daily
level — whether to appease her parents by going through the
motions of Hindu worship — and on a more monumental
level — how to marry a Christian of her choosing. Kanika is
calm though. “I strongly believe that if you believe in Christ
you do not need anybody to depend on…ever. Yeah, he’s our
best friend, he’s our first love.”
PAGE 34
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