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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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Snāna

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Snāna literally means ‘bath’.

Significance of Snāna[edit]

In the life of a person, even ordinary acts like snāna or bathing, needed to keep the body clean and pure are considered a sacrament that elevates one spiritually. A bath is compulsory for persons of all the varṇas. It is to be taken in a river, a big tank, the tank attached to a temple or from the water drawn from one’s own well or even a public well.

Denotation to Each Varṇa for Snāna[edit]

The brāhmaṇa householders are expected to take bath twice, before sunrise and at noon, whereas a brahmacārin is to take it only once. A sanyāsin should bathe thrice, the last one being before sunset. The bath should always be accompanied by the chanting of Vedic mantras such as Rgveda,[1] Taittirīya Samhita[2] and Ṛgveda.[3]

Types of Snāna[edit]

When a person is unable to take bath as prescribed with all the formalities and mantras shortcuts are permitted such as invoking river-goddesses into the water and sprinkling the same over himself. Some of the purāṇas and smṛtis[4][5] give a list of six varieties of snāna. They are:

  1. Nitya - Nityasnāna is the one already described.
  2. Naimittika - Naimittikasnāna is occasioned by a nimitta or a special reason like the birth of a son or the completion of a sacrifice or an eclipse and so on.
  3. Kāmya - Kāmyasnāna[6] is undertaken in a place of pilgrimage or at any other place.
  4. Kriyāṅga - Kriyāṅgasnāna is resorted to as a part of a religious rite.
  5. Malāpakarṣaṇa or abhyaṅga - Malāpakarṣaṇa snāna is actually an oil bath undertaken on certain auspicious days to get prosperity.
  6. Kriyā - Kriyāsnāna is the bathing done at a place of pilgrimage to get the merit and performed as per the procedure prescribed.[7]

Types of Gauṇasnāna[edit]

The dharmaśāstras have also enumerated six kinds of gauṇasnāna.[8] They are:

  1. Mantrasnāna - sprinkling water over oneself with certain mantras
  2. Bhaumasnāna - smearing the body with loose earth
  3. Āgneyasnāna - applying holy ashes
  4. Vāyavīyasnāna - taking on or exposing the body to the dust raised by the hoofs of cows
  5. Divyasnāna - wetting one’s body in a shower of rain accompanied by sunshine
  6. Mānasasnana - repeating the name of God in the mind


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Rgveda 10.9.1-3
  2. ↑ Taittirīya Samhita 5.6.1.1, 2
  3. ↑ Ṛgveda 10.190.1-3
  4. ↑ Sañkhasmrti 8.1 to 11
  5. ↑ Agnipurāṇa 155.3, 4
  6. ↑ It is the bath for some desired object.
  7. ↑ Sañkhasmṛti 9
  8. ↑ Gauṇasnāna means secondary baths.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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