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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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Nakta, naktavrata

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Nakta, naktavrata literally means ‘vow connected with night’.

Scriptures, especially the dharmaśāstras and the purāṇas, insist that able-bodied persons must observe fasting on ekādaśī days.[1] For the sake of those who cannot fast completely, eating once in a day is permitted. This is of two types:

  1. Ekabhakta - In this one has to take his food in day-time, a little after noon.
  2. Nakta - It is 6 to 3 ghaṭikās[2] after sunset.

In observing nakta as a vrata,[3] one should take a small quantity of haviṣyānna[4] after bath, sleep on the ground and observe moral virtues like truth very strictly.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ It falls on the eleventh day after the full-moon and the new-moon.
  2. ↑ One ghaṭikā is 24 minutes.
  3. ↑ Vrata means religious vow.
  4. ↑ Haviṣyānna means plain boiled food without condiments and salt.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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