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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.


This book is the result of four years of rigorous research and academic peer-review, reflecting our ongoing commitment at Hindupedia to challenge the representation of Hindu Dharma within academia.

Yoga-Yājñavalkya

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Yoga-Yājñavalkya or Yogi-Yājñavalky a is a small work on Yoga attributed to the great sage Yājñavalkya. It has 506 verses spread over 12 chapters. In an assembly of sages, Gārgī[1] and Maiteryī[2] were also present. Gārgi prostrated herself before Yājñavalkya and requested him to teach the essence of yoga. The sage agreed and expounded its eight limbs as:

  1. Yama - ten disciplines like ahiṅsā or non-violence
  2. Niyama - ten disciplines like tapas or austerity
  3. Āsana - bodily postures of eight kinds
  4. Prāṇāyāma - control of breath with appropriate mantras
  5. Pratyāhāra - withdrawal of senses
  6. Dhāraṇā - fixing the mind on the object of concentration and is of five kinds
  7. Dhyāna - meditation
  8. Samādhi - super conscious experience

Other important points stressed in this work are:

  • Performance of actions enjoined by Vedic injunctions
  • Posture for controlling the prāṇic energy
  • Rousing of the Kuṇḍalinī power
  • Appearance of some psychic experiences indicating the progress in the path of yoga


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Gārgī is considered the best among the experts in the knowledge of Brahman.
  2. ↑ Maiteryī is Yajñavalkya’s first wife, considered as the best among married women.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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