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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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Sañkṣepa-śāriraka

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Sañkṣepa-śāriraka literally means ‘condensed version of Brahmasutras’.

Śaṅkara lived in A. D. 788-820. Though he laid a firm foundation of Advaita Vedanta, his works do not deal with all the aspects of advaita in detail. This task was ably fulfilled by the post-Saṅkara advaitins. Among them, Sarvajñātmamuni[1] also was the one. He is said to be a disciple of Sureśvara.[2] Nityabodhācārya seems to be his another name. Sañksepa-śāriraka is his magnum opus. Two other treatises, Pañcaprakriyā and Pramāṇa-lakṣana are also attributed to him.

Classification of Sañkṣepa-śāriraka[edit]

According to another version, he was the disciple of Śankara and adorned the Kāmakoṭipīṭha,[3] a monastery of advaita tradition. It is said to have been established by Śaṅkara as its second pontiff. The Sañksepaśārīraka closely follows the commentary of Śaṅkara on the Brahmasutras. It is in four chapters, written in verses of different meters as follows:

First Chapter 563 verses
Second Chapter 248 verses
Third Chapter 365 verses
Fourth Chapter 63 verses
Total 1239 verses

Contents of Sañkṣepa-śāriraka[edit]

  • The first chapter describes Brahman as the pure and ultimate cause of everything through ajñāna.[4] It rests on the pure self, operates on it as its viṣaya or object, covering its essential nature and creating illusory appearances. It is in the suṣupti or the deep-sleep state that pure bliss, untainted by sorrow, is experienced.
  • The second chapter further elucidates the doctrines dealt with in the first and a refutation of other schools like Sāṅkhya and Nyāya.
  • The third chapter deals with the sādhanas, or means of destroying ajñāna and prepare oneself for the knowledge of Brahman.
  • The last chapter describes the nature of emancipation.

Commentaries on Sañkṣepa-śāriraka[edit]

There are eight commentaries on this work of which the Tattvabodhini of Narsimhāśrama[5] and the Sarasañgraha of Madhusudana Sarasvati[6] are more well-known.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ He lived in A. D. 900.
  2. ↑ He lived in A. D. 800.
  3. ↑ Kāmakoṭipīṭha is now at Kāñcīpuram.
  4. ↑ Ajñāna means nescience.
  5. ↑ He lived in A. D. 1500.
  6. ↑ He lived in A. D. 1490-1580.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Deval Sancheti

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