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In this book, we analyze the psycho-social consequences faced by Indian American children after exposure to the school textbook discourse on Hinduism and ancient India. We demonstrate that there is an intimate connection—an almost exact correspondence—between James Mill’s colonial-racist discourse (Mill was the head of the British East India Company) and the current school textbook discourse. This racist discourse, camouflaged under the cover of political correctness, produces the same psychological impacts on Indian American children that racism typically causes: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a phenomenon akin to racelessness, where children dissociate from the traditions and culture of their ancestors.


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Śauva-udgitha

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Śauva-udgitha literally means ‘the udgitha revealed through a dog’.

There is an interesting incident mentioned in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad.[1] A sage named Glāva-maitreya had started searching for a suitable place to repeat and study the Vedas. He suddenly saw a beautiful white dog in front of him. Very soon few more dogs also appeared on the scene and requested the white dog to get them food because they were hungry by singing for the same. They were asked to be present in that very place the next morning. And they did so.

Now, as per the directions of the chief dog, they formed a continuous chain each dog catching hold of the tail of the dog in front of it, and started singing an udgitha[2] which was a prayer addressed to the deity Āditya[3] and requesting him for food. The dogs had actually imitated such a formation by the priests in a Somayāga during the chanting of the Bahiṣpavamāna hymn. This came to be known as the Sauva-udgītha, the udgitha revealed by a dog.

The white dog was a deva[4] or a ṛṣi[5] in that disguise. It had appeared before the sage Glāva-maitreya to teach him an udgitha by singing which one could get plenty of food. This had become necessary since the people, as per the previous section of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, were suffering from a famine. The dogs represent the mukhya or the chief prāṇa and the subsidiary prāṇas.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Chāndogya Upaniṣad 1.12
  2. ↑ The second verse, the most important part of a sāma chanting.
  3. ↑ Āditya means Sun-god.
  4. ↑ Deva means god.
  5. ↑ Rṣi means sage.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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