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Lord Krishna Existed! School texts are wrong

"I used to think of Krishna is a part of Hindu myth and mythology. Imagine my surprise when I came across Dr Narhari Achar (a professor of physics at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, in the US) and his research in 2004 and 2005. He had done the dating of the Mahabharata war using astronomy. I immediately tried to corroborate all his research using the regular Planetarium software and I came to the same conclusions [as him]," Pandit says.

tags: history krishna

Christian Sadhus and Sastris: Shameless Conversion Games

Conversion activities have increased manifold in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the former ruled by the Congress and led by a Christian Chief Minister, and the later ruled by an atheist (read anti-Hindu) Dravidian-racist party. The deficient growth of Hindu organizations and lack of public awareness of the danger of conversions has helped the growth of churches in these states.

Christian missionaries, who were concentrating on the poor and downtrodden sections, have now started focusing on the upper echelons of society. The employees in media houses, workers in cinema and small-screen industries, and Hindus working in Christian institutions have become vulnerable to conversion attempts. Of late, special attention is being shown to the Brahmin community.

tags: christian-evangelism conversion

Sanskrit and the Technological Age

In ancient India the intention to discover truth was so consuming, that in the process, they discovered perhaps the most perfect tool for fulfilling such a search that the world has ever known — the Sanskrit language.

tags: history sanskrit

Indic Mathematics: India and the Scientific Revolution

The study of mathematics in the West has long been characterized by a certain ethnocentric bias, a bias which most often manifests not in explicit racism, but in a tendency toward undermining or eliding the real contributions made by non-Western civilizations. The debt owed by the West to other civilizations, and to India in particular, go back to the earliest epoch of the "Western" scientific tradition, the age of the classical Greeks, and continued up until the dawn of the modern era, the renaissance, when Europe was awakening from its dark ages. This awakening was in part made possible by the rediscovery of mathematics and other sciences and technologies through the medium of the Arabs, who transmitted to Europe both their own lost heritage as well as the advanced mathematical traditions formulated in India.

tags: history science

History of British Rule and Colonization in India

In 1835, Thomas Macaulay articulated the goals of British colonial imperialism most succinctly: "We must do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, words and intellect." As the architect of Colonial Britain's Educational Policy in India, Thomas Macaulay was to set the tone for what educated Indians were going to learn about themselves, their civilization, and their view of Britain and the world around them. An arch-racist, Thomas Macaulay had nothing but scornful disdain for Indian history and civilization. In his infamous minute of 1835, he wrote that he had "never found one among them (speaking of Orientalists, an opposing political faction) who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia". "It is, no exaggeration to say, that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in England".

tags: british-rule colonization history indian-education

The need for a new Indic School of Thought

During the Eurocolonial period, Indian history and civilization were distorted to fit European perceptions. A new school of thought is needed that will see Asian history and tradition with Asian eyes and thought, beginning with India.

tags: civilization dharma vamadeva-shastri

Missionary Activity and Secularism: Pope's Visit

As long as we hold that only one religion is true, that it must convert the world, and that other religions must be false we are not good citizens with respect for all, much less secular people. We are promoting an agenda of intolerance and violence that must cause conflict and suffering, even if we are doing so in the name of God. If we truly honor the Divine, we will recognize the Divine Self in all and will afford each individual their own perspective on truth and their own search for enlightenment, not to be circumscribed according to a church or a creed. If the West is so modern and enlightened it should stop exporting its intolerant medieval religions and become open to the great wisdom of the yogis and sadhus of India. Then a real basis for religious tolerance and spiritual growth could occur without obstruction.

tags: missionary-activity secularism

Hinduism: The Greatest Religion in the World

Hinduism is unique among the world's religions. We may boldly proclaim it the greatest religion in the world. To begin with, it is mankind's oldest spiritual declaration, the very fountainhead of faith on the planet. Hinduism's venerable age has seasoned it to maturity. It is the only religion, to my knowledge, which is not founded in a single historic event or prophet, but which itself precedes recorded history. Hinduism has been called the "cradle of spirituality," and the "mother of all religions," partially because it has influenced virtually every major religion and partly because it can absorb all other religions, honor and embrace their scriptures, their saints, their philosophy. This is possible because Hinduism looks compassionately on all genuine spiritual effort and knows unmistakably that all souls are evolving toward union with the Divine, and all are destined, without exception, to achieve spiritual enlightenment and liberation in this or a future life.

tags: hinduism

Effects of Colonization on Indian Thought

The theme chosen by this seminar is a very apt one. Having suffered the burden of two centuries of British occupation, India has, since Independence, tried to come to terms with the impact of that exotic presence perhaps diametrically opposed to her own temperament, culture and genius. If anything, this introspection has only intensified in recent years, as Western culture (if it deserves this noble name) aggressively spreads around the globe. But it stands to reason that for an effective “decolonization” to take place—even in order to find out whether and how far it is desirable—we should first take a hard look at the effects of this colonization, what traces it has left on the Indian mind and psyche, and how deep. That is what I have briefly attempted to do in this paper—briefly, because it is a subject as vast and complex as Indian life itself, and also because I am a mere student of India, not a learned scholar like those present among us today.

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A Hindu call for Religious Pluralism

Hinduism is the largest pluralistic religion in the world. It teaches that there are many paths, many sages, and many holy books and that no religion can claim any exclusive or final representation of truth. This does not mean that Hinduism does not recognize a unity to truth. On the contrary, Hinduism recognizes a total and profound unity but one that is broad enough to allow for diversity and to integrate multiplicity, like the many leaves on a great banyan tree.

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Western Monoculture and Indic Pluralism

Western civilization, in spite of claims to support diversity, is promoting a worldwide monoculture—the same basic values, institutions and points of view for everyone—which it calls ‘globalization’. Western commercial culture with its pursuit of markets and commodities eliminates all true culture, which is based on quality, not quantity. It creates a culture of money that submerges any true culture of refinement or spirituality, in which everything can be bought and sold, possessed or capitalized on.

tags: consumerism democracy globalization monoculture pluralism vamadeva-shastri

Idols and Icons: The Misrepresentation of Hinduism in the Press

There are a number of terms that are applied to Hinduism in the Press, not only in the West but in India itself, which foster a negative image of it. Hindus are routinely called worshippers of idols, polytheists, and various other denigrating stereotypes, which do not reflect any intelligent examination of the religion itself but what is often an intentional campaign of misrepresentation and distortion.

tags: vamadeva-shastri

Four-fold Menace - A Nexus of Enveloping Evil

In an era of 'Publishing abundance' unfortunately ushered in by our perverted democracy and technological explosion, looking for needles in hay stacks has become the full-time occupation of a conservative reader who still clings to the old-fashioned belief that quality is all, I don't feel ashamed to confess that I am a conservative in regard to my reading habits and I am immensely happy now that I have found 'a needle'.

An explosively revolutionary book entitled 'NGOs, ACTIVISTS AND FOREIGN FUNDS: Anti-Nation Industry' jointly edited by two fearless journalists and writers Radha Rajan and Krishen Kak has recently been published by Vigil Public Opinion Forum (VPOF) in Chennai. This forum came into being in Chennai in 1982, as a result of Shri Shivramji Jogelakar's visionary and persistent efforts to unite persons who wrote regularly 'Letters to the Editor' columns in the English and vernacular Press on various public issues from time to time. His whole life was committed to looking for and then bringing together people who are committed to public cause and who dedicated their time to serve a social cause. During the last 25 years, Vigil has emerged as a vibrant and courageous public opinion forum committed to the principle of establishment of truth at any cost.

This revolutionary book exposes the evil anti-national designs of some NGOs and activists operating in India.

tags: macaulayism marxism missionaryism mohammedanism nehruvian-secularism

India and her Problem of Secularism

Today Secularism is the fashion in India. It is the “in” brand. It is the brand to give oneself, lest one be called “communal”. Many Hindus who are born in Hindu families, who carry the seeds of their Sanatana Dharma in their blood and their consciousness, have become ardent and vocal secularists. This article is addressed to the Secular Hindus, and is an effort to engage their minds, in the hope that some of them may be open to a fresh evaluation.

tags: kalyan-viswanathan secularism

Hinduness for World Peace and Harmony

This article was inspired by the dialogue between two great minds of the 20th century. Albert Einstein approached Sigmund Freud to provide a psychoanalytic model for understanding the dynamics of war and peace. These deep thinkers struggled to find solutions to man’s preoccupation with wars and man’s engagement in repeated wars throughout the history of mankind. Today we can certainly say that the technology of war fuels the economy and is supported by billions of dollars. In contrast, the technology of peace is in its primitive state. The principles to be recognized as essential for attaining and maintaining world peace are yet to be discovered by the global thinkers, political scientists, economists, and sociologists of the modern world. The actual technology of peace is yet to be conceptualized. It is the thesis of this article that some of the same principles Einstein and Freud came upon as possibly providing the solutions for this problem of War and Peace are to be found in the Ancient Indian Concepts. These concepts include “Dharmasahishnuta” and “Sanskritization.” The article begins with the basic concepts illustrated by the Vedantic Mahavakyas and builds the thesis that these concepts are generic and globally acceptable as well as applicable. The major religions of today, except perhaps Buddhism, do not seem to be equipped to face the challenge for attaining world peace except to convert the entire global population to espouse their own faith. The practice of aggressive proselytization of some major religions present a potential threat to world peace. This article was presented at the interfaith conference convened by the Baha’i group on the Oklahoma State University campus. An attempt is made to identify some common principles that would lead to a confluence of Baha’i and Ancient Hindu schools of thought.

tags: dharma hinduness vedanta

Human Rights: The Indian Perspective

If we try to characterize the politico-socio-cultural spirit of last one and half century in one word, the most appropriate term will be 'rights'. 'Right' has become the most powerful idiom of our contemporary intellectual discourse and many of the influential political theories developed in last one and a half century have focused their attention primarily on this concept. The meaning, essence and the ultimate end of human existence is understood in terms of rights only, and man's relationship with society and his fellow human beings is defined primarily in reference to this notion. In fact, most of the political, social, moral, legal, cultural and even religious institutions of our present day society use 'rights' as the key concept, not only to define but also to 'justify' their existence. And in my view, the root cause of the major problems confronting our contemporary world lies in this right-centric world-view.

tags: dharma human-rights purusharthas svabhava svadharma svadhikara yajnas

Reimagining Religious Freedom

The doctrine of religious freedom is enshrined in the UN charter under the declaration of Universal Human Rights and also in article 25 of the Indian constitution. Both these declarations state that the right to “change” one’s religion is a universal human right. The Indian constitution goes further by including the right to “propagate” one’s religion as a fundamental right.

Since the right to “change” and to “propagate” religion is given to all individuals it is assumed to be universal, fair and neutral. We argue in this essay that there are at least two distinct viewpoints that come from different types of religious traditions. Religious freedom, as currently defined, privileges one view of religion over others. This privileging, enshrined in law, has real-world implications. It is proposed that more balanced definitions of religious freedom would better promote religious harmony and religious diversity.

tags: christian-evangelization human-rights religious-freedom

Decolonizing the Indian Mind

We have, by and large, broadly, entered into a relationship of intellectual subordination. The Indian academy is subordinate to the West — they are the theory and we are the data. So, that is the unfortunate effect and this is self-evident when we make comparisons with what Europe achieved through interaction with Indian studies in the nineteenth century and what we have done with Western studies.

tags: colonization macaulayism

Resurrecting India's True History

India's identity battles are nothing new; but recent archeological evidence seems to be unnerving quite a few of yesteryear history gatekeepers and their apologists, who have for long supported the establishment's political agenda and enjoyed its backing up until the mid-nineties. Now, under the new political order, the cultural nationalists insist that a revision of history closer to the truth is inevitable in view of widely available documentary and epigraphic records and steadily building archeological evidence. Their key argument that there is nothing wrong or novel about rewriting history, particularly when facts can be ascertained with the help of modern science resonates well with many people in India.

tags: colonization history secularism

Western Indologists: A Study in Motives

"When Indian literature became first known in the West, people were inclined to ascribe a hoary age to every literature work hailing from India. They used to look upon India as something like the cradle of mankind, or at least of human civilisation."

This impression was natural and spontaneous. It was based on truth and had no element of bias. The historical facts that were handed down by the sages of Bharatavarsha were based on true and unbroken traditions. Their philosophical doctrines delved deep into the source and mysteries of life and propounded principles of eternal value. When the people of the West came to know of them for the first time, many unbigoted scholars were highly impressed by their marvelous accuracy and profound wisdom and being uninfluenced by any considerations of colour or creed they were generous in their acclamations. This enthusiastic applause of the honest people of Christian lands created a flutter in the dovecotes of Jewry and Christian missionaries, who were as ignorant of the real import of their own Scriptures and traditions as those of Bharatavarsha and followed only the dictates of dogmatic Pauline Christianity which had made them intolerant of all other faiths.6

tags: colonization history indology