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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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Mātṛkānyāsa

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Ritualistic worship and many rites associated with it are guided by the rules and regulations given in the āgamas and the tantras. One of the important acts in such rituals is the nyāsa. Literally ‘nyāsa’ means ‘keeping or placing’.

In mātṛkānyāsa, the various letters of the Sanskrit alphabet which are considered as ‘mātṛkās’ or ‘little mothers’ or as the aspects of the Divine Mother, are ceremonially placed on the different parts of the body thus destroying the sins and purifying the same. The ṛṣi,[1] chandas,[2] devatā[3] and bīja[4] for this mātṛkānyāsa are respectively Brahmā, Gāyatrī, Mātṛkādevī and all the letters of the alphabets.

Aṅganyāsa is also called as ṣaḍaṅganyāsa, antarmātṛkānyāsa and bahir-mātṛkānyāsa. They are the three aspects of this nyāsa. In all these, the letters of the alphabet adding anusvāra, m are used. For instance:

  • In aṅganyāsa, the process concentrates on am karh khaiṅ garh ghaṅi ṅam hṛdayāya namah and so on.
  • In antarmātṛkānyāsa, the process concentrates on the six cakras like svādhiṣṭhāna, maṇipura up to ājñā with appropriate letters barii bharh and so on.
  • In the bahirmātṛkānyāsa, the process of placing the letters is performed on the various limbs like the forehead, mouth, the eyes and so on.

There is also another nyāsa called pīṭhānyāsa wherein the various Śakti-pīṭhas are symbolically established on the different parts of the body thus purifying it.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ It means sage.
  2. ↑ It means meter.
  3. ↑ It means deity.
  4. ↑ It means seed.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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