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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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Brahmacarya, gārhasthya, vānaprastha and sanyāsa are the four āśramas we find in the tradition. Among these, the fourth one is the most important because it deals with mōkṣa(a state where there is no sorrow or rebirth). In tradition, we find six types of it. We have an extensive detail in the 108 upanishads with commentary by upanishad brahmendra.
