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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.

Parikarma

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Parikarma literally means ‘means of refinement’.

Parikarma Definition[edit]

The Yogasutras of Patañjali[1] is a standard work on religious psychology. It deals with the normal mind and suggests the means and methods of raising it to super normal levels. Though it deals with the aṣṭāṅgas or the eight steps as the primary means of controlling the mind,[2] it also prescribes seven methods by which the turbulence of the mind can be controlled and peace and concentration can be attained. These are called ‘parikarmas’.

Types of Parikarmas[edit]

‘Parikarma’ means ‘that which refines or purifies’. These are:

  • Cultivating an attitude of friendship towards happy persons
  • Developing compassion towards the afflicted
  • Developing joy towards the lucky ones
  • Developing indifference towards the sinners
  • Prāṇāyāma or control of the prāṇic energy through the control of breath
  • Experience of supernatural smell, taste etc., through certain meditations
  • Seeing a divine light in one’s heart
  • Thinking of the state of mind of a person who is free from all attachments (i.e., a jīvanmukta
  • Remembering any divine or holy experience got in a dream
  • Meditation on those objects sanctioned or recommended by the scriptures

By these methods, the turbulence of the mind can be brought under control.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ He lived in 200 B.C.
  2. ↑ Yogasutras 2.29 to 3.3
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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Deval Sancheti

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