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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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Bhoktṛ

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Bhoktṛ literally means ‘the enjoyer,’ or ‘the experienced.

Two words which are widely referred to in the philosophical works as applied to the jīvātman (the individual soul) are as follows :

  1. Kartṛ or Kartā - The doer
  2. Bhoktṛ or Bhoktā - The enjoyer,’ ‘the experienced

Though the ātman (the Self or the soul) is ever free, how he becomes bound as the jīvātman due to association with avidyā or ajñāna (nescience) or prakṛti (nature) is a question that can never be answered satisfactorily since our mind which raises this question is itself the product of that nescience.

Once the existence of the jīvātman which is a matter of our common experience is conceded, its corollaries too can be accepted. He is hence both the kartṛ and the bhoktṛ of actions. He experiences the results of all actions done by him. It is this fact of his being a doer and the experiencer of actions and their fruits that results in his bondage leading to rebirth.

Meditation on the ātman as his true Self, which is neither the kartṛ nor the bhoktṛ will ultimately lead to mokṣa or liberation from transmigration.

References[edit]

  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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