Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children Book Cover.webp

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.


This book is the result of four years of rigorous research and academic peer-review, reflecting our ongoing commitment at Hindupedia to challenge the representation of Hindu Dharma within academia.

Avadhutagitā

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Avadhutagitā literally means ‘song of the Avadhuta’.

The Avadhutagitā is one of the 36 minor philosophical poems composed similar to the Bhagavadgitā. It is an independent treatise on Advaita Vedānta which preaches an uncompromising non-dualism. Its author was Avadhuta Dattātreya. Hence it is also called as Dattagītā or Datta-gitā-yogaśāstra. It is also titled, though rarely, as Vedāntasāra.

This small treatise of 271 verses is divided into 28 chapters. The first chapter deals with the nature of the ātman, which is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent; which has no birth, no death, no bondage and no liberation either.

The second deals with the proofs for the same. Duality is born out of ignorance of the real nature of the Divine one. Incidentally, even the great Avadhuta is hinted by the need for a spiritual guide[1] in realizing the ātman. The next two chapters deal with the inner nature of the ātman in highly poetical tones.

The fifth chapter advises a man to avoid all the lamentations, as the ātman is the same in all conditions. The sixth chapter negates all the kinds of distinctions whether of caste or family, of senses or their objects, of the mind or the intellect or their activities because none of these exists when looked at from the standpoint of the ātman. The seventh describes the state of the avadhuta. The eighth gives a definition of the word ‘avadhuta’ by interpreting each of the four syllables (a, va, dhu, ta) of that word.


References[edit]

  1. Avadhutagitā 2.23
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore