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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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Antarāyas

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Antarāyas literally means ‘those which come in between’.

Yoga or union (yuj = to yoke) of the individual self with the Supreme Self can be attained through yoga or perfect concentration (yuj = to get samādhi or superconscious state). All attempts of controlling the vagaries of the mind which is constantly rising in the form of vṛttis or wave-like modifications are foiled by antarāyas or ‘intruders’ which are actually obstacles in the path of yoga.

Antarāyas in Patañjali[edit]

Patañjali lists them as nine in number[1] :

  1. Vyādhi or illness
  2. Styāna or languor of the mind
  3. Saṅśaya or doubt
  4. Pramāda or heedlessness
  5. Ālasya or laziness of the body
  6. Avirati or absence of dispassion
  7. Bhrānti-darśana or false perception and hallucination
  8. Alabdhabhṅmikatva or non-attainment of yogic states
  9. Anavasthitatva or instability of a yogic state when obtained.

Vikṣepa-sahabhuvah[edit]

There is a second set of such antarāyas[2] which ‘co-exist with mental distractions’ and are hence called ‘vikṣepa-sahabhuvah.’ They are classified into five parts :

  1. Duhkha or sorrow
  2. Daurmanasya or disappointment
  3. Aṅgamejayatva or restlessness of limbs
  4. Śvāsa or forcible inhalation
  5. Praśvāsa or forcible exhalation

All these disturb the mind and hence prove to be obstacles to the attainment of yoga.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Yogasutras 1.30
  2. ↑ Yogasutras 1.31
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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