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Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children is now published after academic peer-review and available through open access.

In this book, we analyze the psycho-social consequences that Indian American children face after they are exposed to the school textbook discourse on Hinduism and ancient India. We show that there is an intimate connection―an almost exact correspondence―between James Mill’s ( a prominent politician in Britain and head of the British East India Company) colonial-racist discourse and the current school-textbook discourse. Consequently, this archaic and racist discourse, camouflaged under the cover of political correctness, produces in the Indian American children the same psychological impact as racism is known to produce: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a phenomenon similar to racelessness where the children dissociate from the tradition and culture of their ancestors

This book is an outcome of 4 years of rigorous research as a part of our ongoing commitment at Hindupedia to challenge the representation of Hindu Dharma within Academia.

Virāj, Virāṭ

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Virāj, Virāṭ literally means ‘one who shines in a special way;’ ‘the immense being’.

This is a technical term used in the Vedāntic works. If īśvara is the original creator of this world, Hiraṇyagarbha is his first evolute. From him emanates Virāj or Virāṭ. He is the cosmic being having the totality of the gross bodies of the world as his body. He is also called Vaiśvānara. Viśva is his manifestation at the individual level.

The declarations in the scriptures regarding Virāj and Virāṭ is as follows:

  • Kṛṣṇa declares in the Bhagavadgītā[1] that it is he who, as Vaiśvānara, digests the food in the bodies of all the living beings.
  • The Puruṣasukta[2] declares that Virāṭ was born out of the Ādipuruṣa or the primeval being.
  • The Mundaka Upaniṣad[3] describes his cosmic form having Agni or fire as his head, Candra and Surya[4] as his eyes, the dik or the quarters as his ears and so on. He is the antarātmā, the inner Self, of all the living beings.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Bhagavadgītā 15.14
  2. ↑ Puruṣasukta 5
  3. ↑ Mundaka Upaniṣad 2.1.4
  4. ↑ They are the moon and the sun respectively.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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