Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children is now freely available.
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.

Maitreyi

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

The Bṛhadāranyaka Upaniṣad[1] has immortalized Maitreyi by depicting her as a woman of high spiritual aspirations who cared more for mokṣa or emancipation than for the worldly wealth. She was the first wife of the great sage Yājñavalkya, the second being Kātyāyanī.

When Yājñavalkya decided to renounce worldly life and take to the monastic life, he called both of them and announced his decision of not only about his leaving the house as a recluse but also about the dividing his property between them. Though Kātyāyanī was happy with getting her share of the property, Maitreyi was more interested in the sake due to which her husband was renouncing the world. On hearing that he was doing so for attaining mokṣa or liberation from transmigratory existence, she begged him to teach the same to her also. She rejected the other offer of worldly wealth and possessions.

Then follows a long discourse by Yājñavalkya on the existence and attainment of the ātman for whose sake people love one another. These two sections of the Upaniṣad are known as Maitreyi Brāhmana.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Bṛhadāranyaka Upaniṣad 2.4 and 4.5
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Apurva Mahendra Bhangdia, Deval Sancheti

Explore Other Articles

Retrieved from "https://hindupedia.com/index.php?title=Maitreyi&oldid=134961"