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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.


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.

Bodhyagītā

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Bodhyagītā literally means ‘that which is sung by the sage Bodhya’.

The extreme popularity and importance of the Bhagavadgītā gave rise, in course of time, to a number of religio-philosophical tracts of varying lengths composed in verse form to which the title ‘Gītā’ was appended. The Mahābhārata alone contains sixteen of them, and the Bodhyagītā is one such scripture.

It is a short piece of only ten verses[1] and contains the teaching given by the sage Bodhya to the king Yayāti. The sage declares that he learnt great lessons in his life by observing the following persons and animals during the course of his wanderings as a mendicant:

  1. Piṅgalā- Piṅgalā was a prostitute. He learnt the spirit of renunciation from her.
  2. Kurara or osprey- It is a bird. He learnt that that the attachment leads to misery from it.
  3. Serpent- He learnt from a serpent that one should be homeless.
  4. Cātaka bird (Cucculus melanolecucus)- Cātaka is a legendary bird that lives on rain drops. From cātaka he learnt that one should live on alms without being a burden to anyone.
  5. Blacksmith- He learnt the concentration of mind from the blacksmith who prepared arrows.
  6. An unmarried girl- He learnt to live all alone to avoid quarrels and misunderstanding from an unmarried girl.

This Gitā seems to be a summary of the story of the Avadhuta with 24 teachers in the Bhāgavata.[2]


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Śāntiparva 178.3-13
  2. ↑ Bhāgavata 11.7-9
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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