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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.

Dhāraṇā

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Dhāraṇā literally means ‘fixing the mind’.

It is an ambition of a human being to control the vagaries of one’s mind and concentrate on a particular subject. Patañjali,[1] the ancient teacher of Yoga, has given us enough reference material in the Yogasutras.

From the eight standard steps, he recommends dhāraṇā to be the sixth. Dhāraṇā is called as the fixing of attention on a definite locus, such as:

  1. The lotus of the heart - imagining a red, twelve-petaled, lotus in the region of the heart for purposes of meditation
  2. The light in the brain - imagining a brilliant light in the crown of the head
  3. On the tip of the nose or the tongue
  4. On an external object like the moon or the image of a god, etc.

Fickle minds get distracted and run away from their object of concentration. However, it should be repeatedly brought back through strenuous efforts until it develops into dhyāna towards the object.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Patañjali lived in 200 B. C.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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