January, 1997 "$2.95 0'-­

c:=J.

Affirming Sanatana Dharma and Recording the Modern History of a Billion-Strong Global Religion in Renaissance

MITA (P) No: 245/04190

PPS 120J/4I96

Canada . ... . C$3.95 Fiji ... . .... FJD2.00 Germany .. .. DM4.5

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HINDUISM TODAY wns founded on January 5, 1979; by Satguru Sivayn Subrumunl· ynswnmi to strengthen all Hindu lineages. Published by.Himalaynn Academy, 107 Kaholalele Road, Kapaa, Hawaii 96746-9304 USA. Edilorial Office Ph: 1·8()8.822-7032. Subscriptions: 1·80S-822-3152 or 1-S0()'89().IOOS: advertising: 1-8()8.823-9620 or 1-800-850-100s. AU·department fax: 1·8()8.82.2-4351 USA subscriptions: " $3511 year, 565/2 years, S9513 years, S500/lifetime. Fbreign rates on request. Q 1996 Himalayan Academy. AU rights reserved. lSSN# 0896-0801. CORRESPONDENTS: Cowri Shankar & Anandhi Ramachandran, Madras: Chooda· mani Shivaram, Bangalore: Rajiv Malik & Mangala Prasad Mohanty, Delhi: VTin· davanam S. Copalakrishnan, Kemla: ShynmaJ Chandra Debnath, Bangladesh: Ar­chana Dongre, LOs Angeles; Lavina Melwan~ New York: Prabha Bhardwaj, Kenyn: Dr. Hari 80nsh Jha, Kathmandu: Parasram Ramoutar, Trinidad: Vetcha Rajesh, London; Ravi Peruman, San Francisco; Dr. Devananda Tandavan, Chicago; v.c. Julie Rajan, Philadelphia. Web Masters: Dew Seyon: Sadhunathan Nadesan.

PUBLISHER: Satguru Sivayn Subramuniynswnml ADMINISTRATIVE OIRECTOR: Acharyn Veylanswami EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Acharya Palaniswaml PUBLISHER'S ASSISTANT: Achnrya Ceyonswami DEPUTY EDITOR: Acharya Kumarswaml MANAGING EDITOR: Tyngi Arumugaswami GRAPHIGS DIRECTOR: 'I)lagi Natarajaswami PROMOTION/PRODUCTION: Tyngi Kathirswami MANAOING EDITOR'S AID: Tyngi Shanmuganathaswami ADVERTISING MANAGER: Sadhaka Jothinatha SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER: Sadhaka Haranandinatha EDITGR-IN-CHIEF'S ASSISTANT: Sadhaka Yuganatha DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR: Yogi Kasinatha SUMMER INTERN: Brahmachari Jothi Sendan

I JANUARY, 1997' . '1 I .. "7 '.

~~""d'-. .

. COVER: A father lifts his daughter to the heavens. This family of priests, with four generations under one roof, lives between Cochin and Kerala's capital, Jliru­vananthapuram. Such large joint families are now threatened. See pages 22-26. • '

, .

INTE.RN Nfl ON'AL Politics: Muslims Are Politicking to

Get Heard in America 17 Special Report: Joint Families, a Venerable

Tradition in Jeopardy 22 Literature: A Survey of Books by

'and about Hindu Women 28 , . Mpvemen'ts: Struggle Over a

Powerful Kerala Ashram 34 Liturgy: Women as Vedic Priests 40 Art: 'Crace Flows f~Hl His Fingertips 48 Refugees: Bhutan and Kashmir Camps 49 -Worship:'" A City of Ten Million Icons 52

tfFESTYLE Insight: IDndus View Death Differently 30 Str,iving: 72-Hour Marathon Dance 36

.Astrology: Hagpy Roman New Year 36 People: Peace Pilgrim's Worthy Walk 47

. ( O;PINION Publisher's Desk: My MOJ;lastic Order's

!Mission Is HINnUISM TODAY 6 Editorial: Great Drarture, Death '

8 Is Not the End .. My Turn: Being a Hnndu in Ireland 10 Q Letters 14 ~ , -.. Healing: Are Hospitals Healthy? 44 0

'" Minister's fIlessage: Personal Peace .,50 '" ... DIGESTS :sz . "

'" l-

Quotes &. Quips !g Evolutions 44 ~ ,. Dlaspora 11 Digital Dharma 54 .. Q Brlef!y 20 ..

"

bttp:! ' ... .HlnlulamTtdQ.kauaLhLusl

. PUBLISHER'S DESK

Chronicling Hinduism's Modern Experience How 25 penniless monks living on the world's most remote land mass are making history by forging the future

BY SATGURU SIVAYA SUBRAMUNIYASWAMI

JUST DAYS BEFORE WE WENT TO PRESS, THE ANCIENT RAJPUT

painting to the right was completed, greeting 1997 and preserv­ing HINDUISM TODAY'S quantum leap far into the future of fu­tures and beyond. The mathavasis in the painting are not from some distant yuga; they are the stalwart sevaks that produce

this magazine each month. Many reader's queries have come on my e-mail, and even through what they call snai\ mail, asking how and why HINDUISM TODAY appears in so many nations. Here it is. Everyone of my 25 monks is involved in its production, in ,ways small and large. Yes, they look and dress exactly like that, living simply, meditating and serving with me here in a tropical jungle on our planet's most remote land mass, the Island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. And, yes, the giant banyan tree, sacred river and natural waterfall are really here, too, along with par("ots and cows. When you visit some day, we hope not too long from now, you can meet and talk with some of my swamis, yogis and sadliakas.

A thousand years or more ago a great book was written, the M.ahabharata, recording the history of Bharat. Now revered as a religious scripture, it speaks of the glories as well as' the problems of that era and the wise solutions that dharma provides. Today in Bharat, India's official name in its constitution, this great religion still flourishes and h~s recently moved explosively into. nearly every country of the world with its temples, ministers, priests and holy men and women. HINDUISM T\t>DAY has for the past 18 years re€orded the history of this billion-strong religion in renaissance. It has b~en acclaimed by some, perhaps generously, as a mod~rn-day Mahabharata, once again recording the Hindu experience in a new era. The small multi-national team pictured here have beEJn the scribes and editors for a much larger group in the many na­tions where live Indian Hindus, Sri Lankan Hindus, Malaysian Hindus, Mauritian Hindus, Singaporian Hindus, South African Hindus, South American Hindus, Fijian Hindus and, yes, North American and European Hindus, too. The result is the living epic you hold in your hands. •

HINDUISM TODAY is just entering its 19th year of publication since its founding on January 5, lB79. My three successors, the acharyas seated just to my right in the painting, will carry it all on into the future of futures. Every Hindu order has its public ser­vice, be it a hospital, eye clinic, orphanage, school, ashram, feeding hall or priestly training center. This magazine is the primary pub­lic .service desigr:tated by me for our order-along with teaching children's classes, building and supporting temples and giving away money to worthy institutions. It was during a world tour years ago through Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius, Reunion, South Africa, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Europe that I realized Sanatana Dharma had no global voice and no network of communication.

6 HINDUISM TODAY. JA UARY , 1997

Hindus in Durban had no idea what was happening with Hindus in Canada. Those in London had no connection with their brothers and sisters in Kath­mandu. Hindus in India thought there were none elsewhere. Thus, I was divine­ly directed by inner orders from our Yo­gaswami Kailasa Parampara, by my Satguru in this life, to create a means to interconnect Hindus worldwiae.

The editorial policies I have laid down for the mathavasis are: to show both sides of every story; to put forward religious leaders of all Hindu sects equally, ac­knowledging their central role in the future of Dharma; to bring into the con­sciousness bf Hindus and onlookers the glories of this most ancient religion ~n the planet; to support tradition and its matu­rity into contemporary times; to maintain a strict nonpolitical point of view, mean­ing not taking sides; to give a voice to cultural, artistic and spiritual leaders as well as to 'the common woman, man and youth. In summary, our monastic order has committed itself to foster Hindu soli­darity as a "unity in. diversity" among all sects and lineages; to inform and inspire Hindus worldwide and people interested in Hinduism; to dispel myths, illusions and mis­information about Hinduism; to protect, preserve and promote the Hindu religion and to nUl;ture a truly spiritual Hindu renaissance.

It is the duty of my monastics to continue maintaining HINDUIS~ TODAY as our way of giving back an infinitesimal part of what this profound heritage has given us, to be a reliable voice, to speak to the ~any needs of all Hindus, to defend ahimsa, noninjury, to persist as a global presence, a resource of Indian spirituality, to bring forth the ancient Vedic arts and sciences and. promote the Vedas as the number-one scripture of Hinduism. By all this we may empower the next generation to come up strong in the rich­ness of theiF heritage, with well-defined metaphysics applicable to modern life, giving them security and faith in their work place, in the corporate office, factory, field, or as a small businessman, en­trepreneur, politidan or scientist. These are ambitious goals, but we have found and trained, as of 1997, over 100 skilled and articu­late lay people around the globe to help make it all happen month after month. Jai Vasara Hindutva, jai, jai, jai. ..

I I \

I

Satguru Sivaya Subramunlyaswaml at his Ha:*aii Ashram: to his right are Acharyas Veylanswami, Palaniswami, Ceyonswami, Kumarswami; then (clockwise) Tyagis Kathirswal11i, S/Ian1~uga-1Ia~lwswanu, Ska~clanatllQswa~nt,. DetJasw~l~t, ~atara)aswar/l1 , ~1.unL~aswa.mt Arumugaswami and Muruganatlwsu;ami. Standing behind (left to right, in yellow) arc Yogis Rishinatlw, Tapodluma, Vatraganat~la, Ekanatha and Kasina t/w. S'tting m front (left to n glIt, til w/"te~Sadhakos Yuganat/lO, Tyaganat/lO, T/lOndunatha, Hotranatha, Adinat/lO, Haranandinatha and Jothinatiia

TraCing an Evolution After 18 years as a newspaper, we've reincarnated as a magazine

1979: HINDUISM To- to new quarters; DAY, a quarterly, is adopts newspaper founded in Hawaii size, international as "a bridge between character. East and West."

, Monks trained in typesetting and the graphic arts.

1981, Oct: The in;;­house journal moves

I'

1985, Sept: Spot col­or added, and we start publishing every two motJ.ths.

1986, July: HT goes completelY digital

with i'nnovative Macintosh comput­ers, tossing out o15so­lete photo-imaging technology.

1987, July: ,,-- MacConnection

honors H.T for its 'innovativ:e Desktop Publishing. Big Bucks Award; well, $500 was a lot back then. ~ple Comput­er, impressed with HT's use of Mac

"empowerment tools," flies team to Kauai to capture first-ever pl1blica­tions network for a worldwide Apple training video.

1987: HT goes monthly, adds new features, more color.

1988, Oct: Nine1ust­invented Mac lIs added to enHance Hawaii's largest pub­lishing network.

, 1989, August: Unique franchise system developed to print paper in South

. Africa, Mauritius, UK, Holland, India and Malaysia.

1992: Wow! Full color explodes on the desktop.

1994: HT (and the Vedas) published electronically on the Web, hailed by Pub­lisher's Weekly and

Yopa Journal as con­tent-rich site viSited by thousands v.:eekly.

1995: HT acquires blazing-fast 9500 Macintoshes. Every monk has robes,japa mala and Power Mac.

1996, Dec: Newspa­per transforms into magazine. New jour­nalists and photogra­phers appear. Lots of gain, so where's the pain?

JANUARY , 1997 HINDUISM TODAY 7

\

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,

EDITORIAL

Great:" Departure .'

age of 32. Sankara, having conquered the mind, also died at 32. In Europe in the

Exiting life, so frequently fraught with fear and,trembling, can be an ex~lted experience

Middle Ages, life expectancy increased to 36 by the 18th century. By 1841 it was 40 for an Englishman, 42 for his wife. Today it is 70 for men, 75 for women. Hindu tradi­tion says a natural human life is 120 years; some hold this was once the norm in India.

Death may seem st§ltic, but it is changing. ' In modern times life-and death have both been extended. Life has gone from a few decades of vitality to many decades ending

BY THE EDITOR

fiENERAL. GEOR_\?E PATTON OF WORLD WAR II FAME, NO

stranger to personal reincarnational remembrances (he claimed to recall previous battlefield experiepces as Napoleon), once observed, "For Hindus deaclt is the most exalted experience of life." This idea is naturally hard for

nOI1-Hindus to grasp-all the more so for atheists facing Eternal Oblivion and those of Abrahamic faiths which define death as a punishment for man's sinful disobedience. To them, death is the ul­timate sign of man's spiritual failure, a belief which arouses in­stincts of denial and injustice. One may feel penitent and guilty, not to mention uncertain about the 'destination ahead.

No such thoughts attend the dying days of a Hindu. Of course, there is much sadness surrounding the passing of friends and fam­ily, but that is honest acknowledgement of our loving attachments. Inside we know death is OK, natural, that the soul, even if it was less than perfect in this lift?, is continuing its appointed journey across life's oceanic I1hep.omena toward Liberation and will, in time and without fail, reach the other shore. The Hip.du's pre­sumption of numerous births mitigates the tragedy of death, whether the passage is his own or another's. So, Hind~ call death by lofty names-,-Maha Samadhi, "Great Superconscious State" and Maha Prasthana, "Great Departure." To be near an awakened soul at the time he or she gives up the body is considered among the most blessed of opportunities. While ordinary people are remembered on ijleir day of birth, Hindus honor enlightened souls on the day of their departure, translated in' English as "liberation day."

If we view death as the opposite of life, life is good and death is bad. But :.: death is the opposite of birth, not of life. ~ Seeing life and death as collaborative : parts of a greater whole called samsara 0

(the cosmic evolutionary cycle of birth­death-rebirth), life is good and death is equally good, though the Vedas are clear that certain deaths, especially premature ones, are grievous.

The pious Hindu approaches death' ~s a meditation and a spiritu­al discipline. The body's impendmg demise compels him to prac­tice detachment, which is difficult to achieve amid life's tumult. Lord Yama's nearness compels new urgency to strive. No longer can he put it off No more excuses. No more distractions. Death's knock at the door reminds him of what is. transient and what is etffi-nal, and he knows instinctive'ly which to embrace.

Impermanent though life is, we are getting more of it these days. It is estimated that the average life span for prehistoric man was only 18 years. In ancient Greece and Rome it was 20-22. Alexan­der t~e Great, having conquered the world, died at the ripe 91d .

8 HINDUISM TODA); JA UARY 1997

with diminished health; death has changed from nature's swift reprieve to a man-made, slow-motion decline which ever mo.re fre-

quently exhausts the em~tions and resources~f families. Death's victims have changed, ~o, going from the very young a few cen- . turies back (when most died as children) to the elderly (over 80% of deaths in the US occur over 65).

Technological systems of life-support have introduced moral, le­gal and medical questions about what constitutes death; and peo­ple are struggling, literally at any cost, to stay alive. Our choice' for Most Bizarre: Americans having their heads removed and frozen (at great expense) in hopes future medical advances will conquer presently incura,ble diseases. Psychedelic guru Timothy Leary shocked many this summer by arranging after his death to have his head surgically removed as part of a filln shown at the Cannes Film Festival (some think it a hoax).

Where, how and with whom we die is also changing. Academic Geoffrey Gorer describes how death, once a socially recognized inevitability, has become an.embarrassing private trauma in which almost all outside solace, except from intimates, is deemed an in­trusion. Death, once the familys duty, has become the work 0'£ paid strangers. Today in North America 75-80% of all ~eaths oc­cur in hospitals, and 80% of those are "negotiated," shortened or extended ffi1tificially. Many terminal patients are under sedation, so

instead Of the conscious death Hindus esteem, there is a dim and drugged in­sensibility at the end.

In response to the exorbitant and me­chanical end-game played in hospitals, groups are organizing 'to regain control. People want to die at home, near na­ture's soothing presence, with friends having tea in the next room or listening to the bells from a nearby temple. They don't want to experience a social mini­death first, followed years later by the physical one. ,

Death is personified in most cultures. THe Greeks called him Thanatos, and ' to the Romans he was Mors. In India he is Yama, riding on a black wafer

buffalo, dressed in red. The pigeoIY and owl are his messengers. His weapon is a mace. He carries a noose, called kala-sutra, 0

"black thread," with which he snares the life force,,prana, and draws it from the body. He is also called Mrityu, "death," Kritanta, I "the finisher," Bhimasasana, "he of terrific decrees," Pretaraja, "king of ghosts," Kala, "time" and Dharma Raja, ''king of justice."

Hindu insights on death (see pages 30 to 33) include the hopeful message of awakened sage~ who conquered it by conquering life and knew the bogy's dissoiution as liberation into the Light, as a flowing of the finite into the Infinite. , For those surfing the Web for death resources, here's a good place to start: http://www.trinity.edul-mkearlldeath.html

IIJOTES A IIJIPS I

"As you would not bark back at a dog, do not waste your t~me arguing with foolis,h people."

Sage Yogaswami (1872-1964) to devotees in Sri Lanka

"Mind absorbed in God, no place to go." Poondyswami when asked by a HINDUlSM TODAY staffer why he sat for 10 years at a roadside shrine in South India without 17Wvingfrom his seat '

World-weary, a man took refuge at an ashram. The swami told him, "You can stay here, but you must observe a vow of mauna, . silence. You will be allowed to speak two words every six months." He practiced hatha asanas, pranayama, meditation and karma yoga for six months. Then, brought before the abbot and invited to speak, he said, "Bed haid." After another six months, he spoke again, "Food cold." Six more months w;mt by, and he informed the swami, ''I'm leaving." The swami replied, ''I'm not surprised. You've done nothing but complain since the day you arrived." ,

"Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living:beings, we are

TO BE MY PERFECT I'V\STER> A P£R.50N MUST FilL 1V\f() QUALIFICATIONS.

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HE MUST NEVE!? &ET /w&RY,

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still savages." Thoma~ A. Edison (1847-1931), American inventor

"I think it would be a good idea." Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) when asked what he thought of Western civiliza~on '

Even the ignorant will be reckoned wise, if they refrain from speaking in the presence of the learned. Tirukural, Verse 403

DID YOU KNOW?

Check, Mate!

1 HE EARLY WAR GAME OF CHESS WAS INVENTED BY THE

Hindus of India. In the BlJaisya Purana (550 BCE) it is described as a four-handed dice game. Originally called Chaturanga ("four parts" ), its strategies are based on the

four branches of the Indian army-elephant (now bishop), horse (knight), chariot

(rook) and infantry (pawns). Ponder the tactical minds of early India when your miniature army prevails over the enemy and you triumphantly call "Mate."

"In India from the beginning, in time of war, breastworks have been built of hQ!:el pillows. It was found that a cannon ball pould go thro' earth or sandbag, but when it hit a pillow it hit it with a dull thud and dropped to the ground." Mark Twain (1835-1910) commenting after his fou,r-month lecture tour and hotel stays in India and .Sri Lanka in 1896

AND HE MIJ5T L.OV£ f)lfRYONE ALL THE SAME,

!

WHAT I WANT }S AN EQlJAL O?PORTUNITY GURU·

f

JANUARY , 1997 HINDUISM T0DAY 9

/

I

Loving Ganesa by Satguru

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami,

at once simple, deep and

practical. teaches ever so many

ways that Ganesas grace can be

attained by sincere devotion, song,

prayer and meditation to bring

greater harmony. contentment

and spirituality into ones daily life.

An BOO-page illustrated resource.

$ 19.95 plus shipping (US $2,

Foreign $4). Also in bookstores.

1-800-890-1008

http://www.HinduismToday. kauai.hi.us/ashram/

LOVING GANESA

HIMAlAYAN ACADEMY PUBUCATIONS

I 07 KAHOIAlELE ROAD

KAPAA. HI 96746-9304 USA

BOOKS YOU CAN TAKE. SERIOUSLY

MY TURN , • I

It's Easier to be Hindu in .Ireland than l'ndia Years of self~depigration have created a crisis of religious confidence for NRIs

BY JAY KESHAVAPPA SHANKAR

IT IS EASIER FOR ME TO BRING

up my children to be Hindus in the West than it is in In­dia. My children here in Ire­

land have the freedom to ex­press their Hindu values and hJ~,ritage in a non-Hindu society wllere people are tolerant and eager to understand us. The local Irish people take part in programs of Bhajans. yoga, yaj­na and the like. Lately, vegetarianism is becoming popular among them-while Hindus arriving here are taking to meat eating. yve are fortunate to have contact with tIre present Avataras like Bhagavan Sathya Sai Baba and Mata Ainritan'anda Mayi and the many Hindu saints who come to the West to propagate Sanatana Dharma. Many of these saints are ridiculed and laughed at in India by "rationalists," whereas in the West they receive enor­mous respect.

I find the opposite situation in india in the midst of Hindu society. Everyth~ng there is colOI:ed by Western glamor.1>eople belittle long-held sacred values which not . only India need;;, but the whole world. In the fast-moving Indian society it is very difficult to bring up children as Hindus in a Vedic way. It is "uncool" tp have a Hindu, identity. Traditional culture is dying in -many big cities. Even in villages, a Hindu who openly displays his lifestyle or goes to the temple is laughed at. . . I was born in post-independen(India in a small village in Tumkur District of Kar­nataka to ~ Virasaiva (Lingayat) family. My parents never taught me abo~t our glorious Sanatana Dharma and, despite the fact that they did pujas and practiced rituals, they had no idea of the significance of these ancient practices. To them it was simply .a custom handed down without explanation. By the time it came to my generation, these practices were no longer handed

down. We were never encour­aged to read the holy books, scriptures, Vedas, Puranas or to perform pujas and rituals. The occasion to visit the temple only came on certain holy days. As a boy, I was told that religion was the affa1'r of old people. Nothing was explained to us about our glorious heritage. We were even actively discouraged from Hin­

du observances. My love for Hindu her­itage, if openly displayed, was ridiculed. I had to study holy books and other scrip­tures in secret because this attitude to denigrate Hinduism in India is very wide spread.,

Nehru and the Congress Party's idea of pseudo-secularism allowed the education system to give Muslims, and Christians free voice to practice and teach their religions freely even in state-fund~ schools. The indigenous religions-Sanatana Dharma and its branches-were prohibited from teaching religion in state-funded ,schools. In India, secularism became something for Hindus, but not for Muslims and Chris­tians. Hindu identity was scorned and made a mockery. of

The waves of-Hindu shame of our owp. h~ritage swept through even tiny villages. These deep-planted seeds of self-shame ru;e being reaped in present India, especjally among our youth, who ·haye no direction in life and are fast succumbing to Western influences. The indigenous and eternal religious heritage of India was neglected and misunderstood by its own practition- I

ers. The result is that it is easier today to be a Hindu in the West than it is in India. ! hope and pray Hindu Indians wiH realize their folly and regain their lost identity.

DR. JAY KESHAVAPPA SHANKAR, 47: is a consultant anaesthetist living with his wife and three children in Cork, Ireland.

DIASPORA

Dalai Lama at the Hindu Center: a blessed spiritual presence

SOUTH AFRICA

Buddha, Most Merciful

SOUTH AFRICANS WERE BLESSED WHEN THE DALAI LAMA paid them a rare visit in August. Guest of the World Con­ference on Religion and Peace, the political head of the Ti­

betan government in exile and spiritual head of millions of Bud­dhists addressed capacity audiences in Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg. Young Africans were enthused. One 20-year-old Christian, David Pascolo, said, "I find Eastern in­fluences very interesting and am sure to be spiritually enriched by the Dalai Lamas talk." Representatives from the Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Parsee faiths jOined the Dalai Lama at the University of Durban-Westville's Hindu Center. He emphasized the nonviolence of the Gandhian philosophy and voiced his aversion to conversion. "To me Buddhism is best, but that does not mean that Buddhism is best for everyone. It is better to follow your own religion rather than changing to a new one. No one has the right to impose a religion on another."

REI N'C A RNA T ION

Riding a Jaguar Journal was designed by bgilvy and Mather, one of the world's six top advertising agencies, I

with annual,sales of over 7.6 \ V fRAT VALUE DOES WEST- billion dollars. Targeting the W ern civilization place on a millions in America and others

Hindu theological concept? the world over who are aware Well, on October 3, Jaguar Cor- • of reincarnation, their creative poration spent us$300,000 for a design team followed an old single day's advertisement with Hindu tradition. Gods and the-this lead line: "Reincarnation ological concepts often "ride" occurs when an old soul enters symbolically on animals. In this a new - - ~ • case, rebirth "rode" mans most body." , ~ ... ~ elegant piece of hot rod engi-Their neering, the revolution-eigh;'page ary new $70,000 pitch in the Wall Street Jaguar XK8

J ~-G U.A r' JoguM'::~'I:g, CLOCk "WISE FROM TOP: RAJESH KANTILAL-HINDUISM TODAY, MARY DEAL, THE HINDU, RADHlKA SRINIVASAN, J~CUAR CORPORATION.

VEGETAR, IA N ISM

Holy Goat In Hawaii

IN HAWAII, MY NEIGHBORS

raise goats for food. I once ate goat, thirtx-five years ago. I've long since become a vegetarian and asked forgiveness. That conversion brought spiritual re­newal. I wear a golden O(n around my neck, proud to nev­er again eat animals. I feed the goats with leftovers. They love me now. I was stunned to find one female marked with a re­verse white image of the same Om I wear. In my source book of names I found-rMahesvari, Great Lady, and Viveka and named her Mahesvari Viveka.

MARY DEAL, HAWAlI

DANCE

Sacred Paths

SINGAPORE'S MARCH DANCE

production, "Sacred Jour­

I

Can plants produce petrol?

MODERN ALCHE!vIY

Herbal Hoax? nAMAR PILLAI, CLAIMS TO NJ.ave discovered a "petrol" producing herb. In September demonstrations in Tamil Nadu, he produced and burned the fuel for government officials. Other hydro-carbon producing plants have not yet been com­mercially 'viable, so when Ra­mar projected 10,000 litres a day at 5 rupees each, Indian of­ficials prepared to fund a plant. But, to their chagrin he failed to produce fuel under controlled conditions in October. One ~x­periment revealed a rp.ass in­crease from 1138 grams to 1422 grams as well as sulphur, lead and. oleofins in the final prod­uct-proof, said some scientists, that Ramar had surrepitiously introduced petrochemicals.

Malaysia:" Odissi dancer, Ajit B. Dasa, and renowned new Delhi-based vocalist and com­poser O.S. Arun on a uniquely Singaporean set designed as a HindulBuddhist mandala.

ney," hit a high­water mark in the new Hindu classical dance trend to "break out of over­worked legends and jaded rou­tines" such as Krishna and the cowherd girls. Producer Mrs. Radhika Srini­

Modern ; multilingual

With English narration, even non-Hindus were entranced by the portrayal of a dance stu­dent's fall from purity into the egoistic entangle­ments of per­forming arts and back to the spiri­tual path at the

vasan brought together Singa­pore's talented Bharata Natyam dancer, Priya Arun, I

center of the mandala, "strong enough to be humble and wise enough to surrender."

JANUARY , 1997 HINDUISM TODAY~1

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I

ARTS

A Raj put Jewel , IVING SHORT OF THE DIS­

Uinction he deserves, talent­ed Rajput artist, Mah~veer Swa­mi, perpetuates the precious, fading tradition of Rajasthani miniature painting. Several of his exquisite works grace Naveen Patnaik's (and Jackie Onassis') delightful book on Ayurvedic plants, The Garden of Life. Since 1988 Mahaveer has taught a handful of aspiring artists at his 250-year-old Bik;mer studio on the edge of the Thar Desert. "I can't keep my secret inside," he explains.

WRITE: JAMES J. WRITE, HUNT INSTIT.uTE, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, PITTS­BURG, PENNSYLVANIA 15213-3890, USA

Mahaveer with student Harish

NEW AGE

Hot NewZine "7\ 1996 ENTRY IN-TO THE J=\.New Age scene is touted as 'Jndias First Body-Mind-Spirit Magazine." Life Positive, Your Gtbi'de to Po.sitive Growth may well take a lead over similar magazines from the USA and Europe. The new "zine" has it all-outstanding design and a rich mix of articles. Its power heralds India's burgeoning New Age movement, deriving frotp a local5,000-year-old meta­physical culture.

Similar zines often struggle with unresolved editorial conflicts of interest between existen­tialism, Asian roots and attempts to paste a New l\.ge lifestyle onto a Christian -Judeo

COOL

Head South?

O N JULY 27, DR. LARRY Payne, a California yoga

teacher, completed a twelve­minute headstand at the North Pole. 'J\.fter 5,000 years, yoga ' finall}"made it to the top of the world," says Larry, who prayed for world peace during his

This 1987 Mumbai march did little to slow selective abortion

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

"Femicide" "7\ SEPTEMBER ARTICLE IN

J=\.The Hindu by R.P Ravin­dra explains the use of amnio­centesis and ultrasound for sex­selective abortion of gtrls. Despite new laws regulating prenatal diagnostics, he reports, not one Indian medical associa­tion stands against the practice. The sex ratio in some Indian states has dropped to 890 fe­males per 1,000 males. Ravindra

philosophy. Secure in Indias ancient wisdom and tolerance, Life Positive bdngs together Aurobindo, Rajnesh, Reiki, Silva mind control, Hazbat Imayat

, Khan and Paramahansa Yo­gananda. In an typical issue, we find a one-page an article on a Tamil tribal mid-wife fol­lowed by a feature on a US guru of positive thinking, Wayne W. Dyer, and the "new rishis on the block," like Guru Rishi Prabhakar. Alongside ever-popular cancer-cure sto­ries, ads on how to quit smok­ing and modern techniques on

contentment, one finds selections from ancient tradi­tion. It is a life positive indeed! Subscribe at: S-487 Greater Kailash I, New Delhi, 110 048, India. ,

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warns, "China, leading India in sex-selective abortions, faces a catastrophe. By the year 2000, 70 million Chinese men will be single. The result? Atrocities, forced marriages, prostitution and social turmoil." A deeper tragedy is the psychic damage to women and children. After one mother aborted two of their would-be sisters, three daughters committed suicide in despair when their "wanted" brother was later born. Law en­forcement is accruing a fore­boding karma. Beware.

HEALTH

Mad Cow Karma

THE "MAD COW DISEASE,"

wreakeCl. on the bovine species who were fed ground sheep and cattle carcasses, con­tinues to provoke global con­cern. In October the Swiss gov­ernment declined the World Hindu Federation's .

Dr. Payne's headstand at the pole

asana. He had b"een invited by the World President's Organi­zation to teach yoga aboard the Russian nuclear icebreaker, Ya­mal. Because of the lurching movements ofthe boat as it crashed through heavy pack ice, several new poses w~.e in­vented for stability, such as the "Walrus Wall Hang."

of concealing the figures for in­fected animals entering the food chain. Dr. Dealler, who has been studying the disease since 1988, says that on average every British adult has eaten 50 meals made from infected cat - . tle tissue. In the US an alert is on, as the practice of feeding dead cows and sheep to cows continues. The USDA says 7,500 US shee~have scrapie, the,like­ly source of mad cow disease.

offer to shelter in Nepal 230,000 Swiss cows due to be slaughtered. The Swiss cited the impossibility of airlifting so many cows and the need to con­tain the disease. Also in October, independent UK scientists accused their government Fifty meals per Englishman of mad-cow meat

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13

Media Kinships HINDUISM IS LIKE THE CENTER-OF-GRAVI­

ty..,doll which regains its equilibrium howso­ever it be disturbed. Wave after wave, of alien invasions have come and gone upon this sacred tenet, but none of t hem has real­ly succeeded in uprooting it. The Vedas, the wisdom of.God, revealed to four rishis in the beginning of re-creation, were fJJ.e basis of cljrily life and culture. As a community, we are facing problems everyday.' We continue to grow large in number, but our people continue to grow farther apart. If we did not have ethnic media, we would probably be cut off from each other. "

/'

, RAMESH KALICHARAN

JAMAICA, NEW YORK, USA

Is Sai Baba Beyond Hinduism? YGlU MAY PROBABLY WELL RECEIVE OTH­

er, more eloquent and complete, responses to the Sai Baba artide ("Sai: Hindu of Year," AWARDS, December '96), but I believe that the article does a great disservice to the community of Sai devotees. Sai Baba does not guide a Hindu organization. He was born and lives in South India, and must lead and follow in t,he Hindu traditions of that area, b1ft his teachings and organization are beyond culture and religion. Indians find it very difficult to avoid making foreign Sai Centers into extensions of the Hindu reli­gion, making it difficult for non-Indian, non-Hindu followers of Sai Baba. The cen­ters are not to ' be extensions of Hindu cul­ture. Sai Baba repeats over and over and o er agai]l that, he does not preach one reli­gion, and that he is not creating a religion. He often exhorts his folfowers to' become stronger in their own beliefs and practices. He has told the Western centers to sing bha­jans in their own languages. Many of us love to sing bhajans in Indian dialects, but this creates separation rather than inclusion whe)J. it comes to encompassing new follow­ers of Sai-as does this article telling Hindus that Sai Baba leads a Hindu organization! Sai Baba is the Avatar-flf our age for all peo­ple of all religion.

TIM WRIGHT \o,jwrignt@ball.com

V Hmmm! Let's see. Sai Baba was 'born to Hindu parents, raised in a Hindu communi­ty, took a Hindu name, wears the saffron­colored ve,stments of a H i1'(du sannyasin, and when he leaves this Earth will be honored by/Hindu funeni.l rites' He teaches the high­est form of FJ.indu philosophy, quotes from Hindu scriptures, urges mankind to follow Sanatana Dharma and directs an ' Clver­whelmingly Hindu follOWing to sing tradi­tional Hindu devotional songs. You say lie is an avatar, which is an exclUSively Hindu the-

~

14 HJNDUISM TODAY JANUARY , 1997

LETTERS ological c~ncept found nowhere else. Other than that, I have to agree he is beyond Hin­duism entirely. Signed, the Editor:

Mr: Wright replies: THANKS FOR YOUR THOUGHTFUL RE­

sponse to my diatribe. How can I possibly disagree with your points-they are all com­

'pletely accurate. I suppose wKat I took (take) issue w~th is the fact that Sai Baba is all that you say in terms of Hindu culture and religion, and yet much more beyond that. The Sarva Dharma symbol is placed conspicuously on entrance gates, buildings, publications, etc. that Sai Baba presides over. That Sarva Dharma symbol is a symbol of the unity of faiths, showing symbols of Hin­duism, Islam, Buddhism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism around its perimeter. This may be an indication that Baba is-beyond Hinduism alone.

Shedding Light on a Light Festival WHAT MAKES DEEPAVALI A UNIQUE NA­

tional event and perhaps the greatest socio- . religious festival of India? The popular in­terpretation that it marks the tUJiIl of the season,.-the advent of winter and the begin­ning ofa commercial year, etc., is far too su­perficial to justify the majestic solemnity of the Deepavali day. It is something far more ­sublime and profound than just a day of light. It is actually the story of the eternal conflict between darkness (which stands for ignorance, hate: falsehood and confusion) and light (which embotlies knowledge, love, trt.Jth and clarity-more of a cleanliness of heart than of house ). One of its many mes­sages is clearing away the cobwebs of confu­sion and purging out the inward dross with a rekindled light of ?ope and understanding.

M OHAN LAL GUPTA CAMBRIDGE, ONTARIO, CANADA

An Kiding Technology YOUR WORLDWIDE WEB SITE PROVIDES , exciting and vital information about my identity as a, !:Iindu. Hindus are a very in­timidated lot when it comes to verbal dia­logue or protest with the Muslims and Chris­tians. Hindus can't match' the aggression of

. these people while discussing facts about our precariOUs existence, or why these people ought to at least apologize to us for their mis­deeds'. B~t then, why would a winner con­cede to a loser who is ill-informed, mentally colonized and lacks the courage to talk about his identity ' with confid~nce and pride? Ironically, internet bodes well for Hindus, if they are willing to organize and unitt; themselves.

VIKASMOHAN "'mohan@-;-re.com

Quashing Conversion in Malaysia CI}RISTIAN MISSIONARIES ARE LURING

unsuspecting poor Malaysian Hindus into p hristianity. Alarming numbers of Hindus are converted, and I·am (as a Hindu) so con­cerned. Unfortunately, there is nothing con­crete that I can do. A small group of us here. managed to save some families from being converted. We go in and help these poor families bX giving monthly rations of food and some money for their expenses. Even the Hindu Sangam of Malaysia is quite up.­able to check this erosion. Hlndus here woui{! spend any amount of money on ceremonial affairs, but normally tUrn a blind eye toward ,the poor, unfortUnate and helpless Hindus.

In Equal Measure

K. THURUVAN SEREMBAN, MALAYSIA

MY HEARTIEST CONGRATULA:rIONS ON THE

eme~gence of HINDUISM TODAY magazine. I hope that it will attain even gFeater heights and become a valuable resource to Hindus of all persuasions. Wliile I deeply respect· the bent of its founder toward Saivism, it is critical that the new magazine maintain ap- '. propriate balance by devoting proper atten­tion to Vaishnavism, Saktism and other facets of our great faith, as in fact, millions of rank and file Hindus do.

DR. MUKUNDA RAO BUCKHANNON, WEST VIRGINIA, USA

V Agreed. That is our policy, !o give a pro­portioned voice to every Hindu lineage.

They Got it All Wrong . RECENTLY WE BOUGHT A 26-ACRE PARCEL

of land in Syracuse for our temple. We had a big article in the local newspaper. One re­porter came to see me regarding our project. I did some research from my big collection of HINDUISM TODAY and Grolier Encyclope­dia. I was not happy about the information , in the encyclopedia about our religion. They

" start with caste system, women being inferi­'or to men, sati practjce, etc. I want you to publish an article about these British authors' distorted image of our religion.

ANIL K. VERMA, MD CAMILLUS, NEW YORK, USA \o,akverma@sprynet.com

Letters with writers n~e, address and daytime phone number, should be sent to:

Letters, HINDUISM TDDAY 107 Kaholalele Road KAPAA, HI, 96746-9304 USA or faxed to: (808) 822-4351 or e-mailed to: letters@HinduismToday.ka.uai.hi.us

Letters may be emted for space and clarity and may appear in electronic versions of HINDUISM TODAY.

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: lim extremists use it to mean ''holy war." Kennedy used the word to de­scribe some Republicans as over­zealous and extremist.

Even Warner Bros. will edit its movie, "Executive Decision," hefore its release in some countries in the Middle East and the Far East after the company met with Muslim and Arab organizations that complained the movie contained imagery offen­sive to)slam.

Hooper said most political pro­gress is made from the bottom' up, however. So he's teaching Muslims ", new to this country to shed their fear of standing up for their rights which could lead to persecution in their native countries.

Taking a stand: Muslims'gather to publicly voice worldwide concerns in New York City

He encourages Muslim!) to partic­ipate in local radio and TV talk shows to explain their relfgion to .Americans and dispel S0me of the stereotypes and prejudices they face. He also encourages the com-

POLITICS munity to open up its mosques and centers to the larger community.

Ctetting Heard · ,n . America "When we get a call that a

mosque has' been firebombed, very often we find that the community was very isolated-which breeds suspicion on the part of the larger

Hindus can learn from Muslims' political activism , . community," Hooper said.

American Muslims are a diverse community-in addition to Afri­can-Americans, they include immi­

grants or descendants of immigrants from Asia and the Middle East. They don't vote as a homogeneous block. But Khaled Saffuri of the American Muslim "'Council said Muslims tend to vote overwhelmingly Republican be­

By DONNA ABU-NASR, WASHINGT~N (AP )

IBRAHIM HOOPER TRAVELS AROUND

the country to teach Muslims how to . . rhake th~ir voices heard, ~erican style.

For example, writing a letter to the edi­tor to criticize a government policy won't land them in jaiL Long-winded rhetoric will not help get their message across. ¥en who appear on TV talk shows ~ill have to wear make-up, and no, it's not a feminine thing.

Hoo!ier's work as national communica­tions director at the Council on American Islamic Relations is part of a nationwide drive by American Muslims to become more assertive socially and politically as an ethnic and religious group. "Muslim political ac­tivism is still in its infancy. We have a lot of work to do," Hooper said. "It's not something thats going to happen overnight."

Yet, already, the efforts are paying off The community, which American. Muslim groups say numbers about 6 million;'v.as gained vis­ibility and recognition from top leaders that

. it didn't have just a few years ago. Building on that progress will be a topic of discussion as the Islamic Society of NQrth America holds its 33rd annual convention in Colum­bus, Ohio, beginhing Friday under the ban­ner of "Muslims for peace and justice."

The Muslim community i,s beginning to

emerge now because of the influx of immi­grants in the '6Ds that brought Muslims not only from the Middle East but also from the Far East, said James Zogby, who heads the Washington-based Arab-American Institute.

U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, R­Va. , said, "They're getting a little bit more organized and we're starting to pay atten­tion, and I think in America that's the pathway to power throughthe ballot box."

In Ips speech at the Republi­can convention, House Speak­

cause they support conserv­ative stands on abortion, ho­mosexuality and the death penalty.

er Newt Gingri<;h, at the re­quest of MusliIns, added g "mosque" when he mentioneci ~ "churches and synagogues.'" ; Calling Islam the falitest-grow- ",< L-___ =.c.... ___ .!=:,;,oJ

ing religion"1n America, Hill- New York: Street prayers

Yet, he expects a "big shift" this year because the Clinton administration has shown "lots of respect" for . the Muslim community, in­cluding a visit by Vice-Pres­ident Al Gore to a mosque in Washington, D.G Davis said if the Muslim population "is smart they're going to have to play 'poth parties because you don1t want to get taken for gJ;anted by one party."

ary ,Rodham Clinton held a during a demonstration . celebration iI} February-the first of its kind at the White House-to mark Eid el-Fitr, the Muslim feast that en~s the fasting month of Ramadan. '

And Rep. JoseRh Kennedy apologized to the ~erican Muslim Council in February for his use of the word "jihad." This central Islamic conceRt means the personal struggle to make. oneself a better Muslim, but Mus-

He said politicians will pay more atten­tion to Muslims in the future "the more they become givers and become involved." •

This article is reprinted with permission of the Associate Press and is included here to inform and educate US Hindus on how they, too, can work effectively in the American political arena.

J ANUAR Y, 1997 HINDUISM TODAY 17

\

/

An Ancient God's Visible Grace It began on September 21,1995, when an image of Ganesa in a New Delhi temple began sipping milk. Then, this modern miracle took on global dimensions as, over several months, it was witnessed by millions, in temples, shrines and homes world­wide. How timely that, only days before, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami had finished his illustrated resource book, Loving Ganesa---800 pages of insights into this great God! Loving Ganesa is at once simple, deep and practical, and teaches ever so many ways that Ganesa's grace can be attained through sincere devotion, song, prayer and meditation, to bring greater harmony, contentment and spiritual­ity into our daily life.

Imagine yourself sitting crosslegged under a shady tree, the hum of insects and a gentle breeze coloring the background as you absorb the words of an im­portant teacher. Only a handful of religious texts have been able to convey such an overwhelming presence; this is one. -Napra Review

It is an important text for English-speaking readers and should remain as an all-you-wanted-to-know-but-were afraid-to-ask book about Ganesa, the di­vine and much-loved remover of obstacles. -Publishers Weekly

A majestic book oflove, peace and happiness depicting Ganesa as a friend and protector, generously accessible to young and old, expressed in intriguing mysticism for the world's oldest living religion. -Book Reader

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G~APATI PUJA IS NEITHER misc0.9duct nor grounds for discipline. So ruled a Kerala court in the case of a government employee who sought Lord Ganesha's blessings when his office was shifted to a new building. The court ruled that since the puja was paid for by the devotee, and no op.e was re­gpired to attend, the religious service did not violate the Government's secular status. "We have no doubt that secularism is not an anti-religious doctrine," the Court ruled.

LONDON'S ARCHWAY Murugan Temple glowed"; with devotion while six-flamed lamps were waved by six chanting pujaris as the Jaffna Tamil community observed the Nallur Charlot Festival from half a world away. In sympathy for Sri Lanka's ongoing blood­shed, devotees observed a 25-day Vew of strict vegetarianisrn..culminating with puja, Devaram singing and parading the Deity around the temple. "There was even a mo­ment of madness that marks a potent Mu­ruga festival, when an amma cried out in anguish for the plight of Jaffna's people, and Skanda's Vel di~solved her suffering. All was holy thts night," writes devotee Easan Katir.

THIRTY SACRED SIMIAN residents of Kathmandu's Pashupatinath Temple were buried with full Vedic honors aJter btfing electrocuted by a new hjgh-voltage barrier. Fifty-one chanting Brah­mins lay the shroud-wrapped monkeys, Nepal temple revered as incarnations of Hanuman, in a mass grave at Nepal's holiest shrine. Temple devotees watched in helpless horror as monkeys who rushed to the fence to rescue those just electrocuted were' themselves killed.

HINDU HUSBANDS seeking divorce in India must go through the civil courts, and are often ordered to pay alimony and child support, but not Muslim men. India's high­est court recently acceded to sharia, Islam­ic law, ill matters of Muslim divorce, which states that a man's obligation to his ex-wife and children lasts only three months. Hin­du wives daim many hus~ands are convert­ing to Islam to bypass divorce'court.

HUNDREDS OF MONASTERIES ill India are ill turmoil. In response, leaders have formed an ll-member board for the "control, 'main­tenance and all-around development of Hindu religious places," reports The Hindu. . ) 20 tlINDU~SM TODAY JANUARY , 1997

The board is headed by Puri's Shankar­acharya, Swami Adhoksbjanand, and only dharmacharyas, Shankaracharyas and saints can serve on it. "Of India's 50,000 monasteries, 30,00Q are reportedly finan­cially sound, but 720 are involved in inter­nal disputes. We intend to ask the~ to re­solve their disputes within two months; otherwise the board shall intervene and in­stall the right person there," the Shankara­charya resolved.

SPIRITUALITY ISN'T USUALLY part of a West­ern doctor's curriculum, but North Caroli­na's Wake Fores't University is now one of six US medical schools to receive a $10,000· grant to teach tomorrow's physicians how to incorporate spirituality into patientc are. "It's as important as good nutrition and ex­ercise. Contemplative meditation IS like a good drug; the body was made for prayer," said one instructor, an ordained minister.

MORE TEMPLES MAY MEAN fewer youth stray- . ing from their· religion. That!> how Hindus in Toronto are approaching the dil~mma of kids' growing away from-not into-their heritage. While the community supports five temples, "there are not enough temples in consonance with the growing number of Hindus," said'Dr. Bhudendra Doobay, Pres­ident of the Vishnu Hindu Temple. Ontario recently granted $750,000 toward a new $2.5-million Gujarati Community Centre.

MADRAS IS NO MORE-at. least not officially. Following the lead of Mumbai, once Bom­bay, the Tamil Nadu government obliterat-ed 300 years of Christian colonial influ­ence by renaming India's fourth-largest city Chennai. The name is believed to be short for Chennapatnam and traceable to the 16th-century regional ruler Chennappa Naic'ker. Ironically, it was he who, in 1693, sold the village to the British. The govern­ment plans to establish Tamil as the official language of ¢is southern state, all of which was known as Madras until 1967 .

A BACKROAD TO . Godhead-par­

don the! lUn-was inaugurated on Janmashtami at Bhaktivedanta Manor just north of London.

. ,

Amid Vedic Bhaktivedanta Manor chanting and ' with help from cinema star Rishi Kapoor, the opening of the new driveway ended a

,-ten~year legal battle with the local Hertsmere Council over ISKCON'i; use of t he land for a publio Krishna temple. The alternate access road, which now bypasses the village of Letchmore Heath, was com- , pleted in just four weeks. Villagers had complained that the crowds would spoil the environme~t of the local green-belt.

THE FEARED AND REVERED tiger is quickly ap­proaching extinction, reports the World -: Wide Fund for Nature. Two-thirds of the world's estimated 4,600 wild tigers live ill ,India, the rest in a dozen other Asian coun­tries, but not even governments can stop the decline caused by habitat destruction and poaching. And the demand for tiger parts, used in certain Asian tradltional medtcines, is on the rise.

THERE GOES THE timeline .. . again. Archaeologists say rock art en­graved on stone monoliths iIi Aus­tralia's tropical Northwest is be-lieved to be Aborigine rock painting 75,000 years old, while artifacts found at the base of the stones date back to 176,000 years. One the­ory holds that an Ice Age land bridge might have allowed migration between Australia and Indonesia 140,000 years ago-far earli­er than previous theories allowed.

FIJI'S CONSIDERATION of a settlement abol­ishing constitutionally guaranteed political advantages for indigenous Fijians may win that nation's readmittance to the British Commonwealth. Ethnic Indians comprise about 45% of Fiji!> population. A racially­biased system ensuring ethnic Fijian politi-

..... cal dominance was adopted in 1990, result­'ing in the islands' exg,ulsion from the Commonwealth. The proposal wiTI.require approval by two-thirds of Fiji's parliament.

INDIA'S HISTORY includes a venerable tradi­tion of higher education, and from Taksna­shila to Valabhi to Q.dantapuri to Benares much of its scholarly past is outlined in a new text, World famous Universit·ies of Hindus by Arjan Lal Sharma, 41 Bowrons Ave., Wembley, Middlesex, HAO 4QS, u.K.

BRIEFLY is compiled from press, TV and wire-service reports and edited by RAVI

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Filial unity can bring prosperity: Four happy generations of Harilelas at their Hong Kong mansion; (inset ) George Harilela,family elder - ./

SPECIAL REPORT

Joint" Family 'at Risk Individualism has brought In{lia's traditional f~ily to the brink of extinction

. ./ By CHOODIE SHIVARAM, BANGALORE

CURRENT TRENDS CONTINUE, THE

of the 21st century may witness "A'.H~'_U"'H of one of society's most

and influential establishments, joint family. In India, the joint

family is a sacred institution deeply rooted in Hindu h~itage. It has been

heralded as the cultural stronghold that has berne Sanatana Dharma intact through In­dia's inimical dominations. Lately, its pres­tige has plummeted. Though extended fam­ilies exist in most parts of rural India and some cities, Joint families are harder and harder to fhid. _

A joint family consists of many relatives

22 H'JNDUISM TODAY JANUARY , 1997

living under: one roof and sharing one kitchen and often a single bank account. Ex­tended families include ·memMrs who live in other dwellings or locales, near or far.

. With the nuclear age's nurturance of nuclear families-;:most joint families have complete­ly disintegrated. Many that have stayed to­gether haye independent kitchens, check­books and lifestyles, conditions contrary to the oldest customs .•

Few people welcome this trend t6ward dis­solution. But they don't lament, either. Most simply call it inevitable. However, religious lead~rs, elders and members of functioning joint families are apprehensive, knowing that this family structure, better than any, pre-

,,-serves Hindu values and attitudes.irrespec-tive of the moral turbulence that may rage outside the home's walls. To lose this safe haven of Vedic culture, they feel, would be a body blow to dharma.

The joint family f9Jms a veritable domestic fortress, aptly symbolized in India by the gi~ ant banyan tree, .whose every branch grows roots which in turn support and feed the main trunk. Joint families insure not only the biological continuity of the human race, but also the cultural continuity of society. They successfully transmit ideologies, customs, traditions, beliefs and val1es from generation tp generation. Individuals may come and go, but the family stands as a unit. Members are

Fami,ly Matters

R. PREM SARAl OF IOWA,

USA, is an authority on the Hindu joint family. His years of study were '

largely motivated by the desire to keep his own family togeth­er. Below, he succinctly sum­marizes for HINDUISM TODAY the basic structure and duties.

Membership: Father and moth­er; sons and wives; daughters until married; grandsons and wives; granddaughters until married; great grandsons and wives; great grandda~hters until married.

Head of the family: Father with support of mother. In the abs'ence of the father, the most capable elder SOil with guid-

I i Mar;r[ed sons 00 and spouses MMar;ried grandsons

and spouses MMarried great-grandsons

and sp0uses

Staying Together: A fully developed

1 0int family com­prises at least four generations

I t§nmwried

~sons

ft Unmarried

~~ Unmarried ~tl~ Um:: rried grandsons gr

grands0ns

Q daughters ~nmarried ft~ft Un.married

granddaughters Q 9 grreat

! granddaughters

ance of his mother and support of spouse. Ifi the absence of the elder brother, a competent younger brother takes over. '

Distribution of duties: The. head of the family assigns ml(mbers according to their abilities and availability. The mother is responsible for nurtu­rance, clothing, household ac­tivities, gift giving and acceptance of gifts. She con­sults her daughtersoin-law and wives of younger brothers arid

L-__ ~=-________ ~

educates them fer proper deci­sion-making in her absence.

Religious ceremonies: The el­dest son is to perform all these duties. His spouse joins' him. Others share and cooperate as they are able. •

Basic principles: 1. Every member sees that others get the best and most of resources. Each person himself asks for the least, and last. 2. All are willing to endure to relieve t.he oth~rs' burdens.

3. No one owns anything. Each. is a trustee for-t he joint family, • extended-family, society and the nation. 4. Everyone\; voice and opinion has value and importance. 5. Everyone\; conduct is stIch that intentions can never be questioned. This includes hen­oring the traditions and fulfill­ing spoken and unspoken expectations of'the extended family, society at large and the venerable principles of Sana1ana Dharma.

publicly known more by family name than individual identity. The socipl security, both material and psychological, that a joint fami­ly provides is unique and inestimable. Shared responsibilities result in minimal concern ever the basics of life­money, food,. shelter and clothing.

with each other and be prepared to sacri­fice- the essential principles of every lasting commmunity. .

Failing families: I grew up in a joint fami-

miss those evenings after dinner when grandfather would collect all the "grandies," tell us a story and show us the various con- ' stellations in the sky. As I recall it now, it

, _ SucE' concerns typically become all-consuming in a nuclear fami­ly; a single husband, wife and their children living together.

The Harilelas of Hong Kong (left) are living proof of the joint . family 's value. Naroomal and De­vibai Ijarilela came to China from Sindh in the early part of this century. In the 1930s, their family was penniless. The six brothers sold newspapers on the street to make a living. Continu- ~ ously encouraged by their mother ~ to stick together, they advanced i in their profession to eventually : join Hong Kong\; most successful " businessmen. Their Harilela g

'" Group today owns hotels, res(au- " 1:.-.._= rants, travel agencies, real estate ', Helping hand:

. and stores. They have always lived as a joint family- now numbering 50-and have for many years occupied a palatial mansion in Hong Kong, defined by separate quarters, and common dining, puja and gathering space's. Their mother taught them to pool their resources, work ~ard, be patient

ly in Karnataka, surrounded by 13 U'ncles, four aunts, grandparents and other live-in relatives. The joys and pleasures of'growing up in suS;h environs are unbounded. I carry with me most wonderful memories of child­hood, filled with fun, affection and care. I

, ,

\ seems like a bygone dream. Our family disintegrated for all the reaso~s that a socjology text would enumerate. It's s~d, but breaking up was ine~itable.

Many joint families in cities have fragmented. Even the Pnibhat family, featured in HINDUISM l'ODAY [May, 1995], has decided to part. The rea­sons are many. Glaringly evi­dent are disagreements over property and assets. After the -head of the j amily expires, the brothers dispute their Shares. "This is because the elders have not inculcated the right values in the family. Growing materi­alism drives them te crave for more. It is;.as if they were wait­ing for the head of the family to die. It's , disgusting when you hear of such instan€es, which are common now," laments Mr.

Raman, a retired engineer. "Most joint families disintegrate when the

elders lose moral authorit~~' says Mr. A.V Subba Rao, an advocate. ''Also, there is a common tendency for the head of thefami-ly to be "partial to certain children and '

J AN UARY , 1997 H I'N DUISM TOD AY 23

"

/

instances are common. grandchildrE)n. Often, a glaring favoritism is shown towards the daughters and daughters­in-law. Secondly, some children ar~ ellploit­ed, while others are coddle'd. This differen­tial treatment breaks down the relationships rather than bringing aQout unity."

Often it is the eldest son who selflessly supports a large family, scicrificing many of his own ambitions. Sadly, however, his sov­ereigntY, may be rescinded by younger mem­bers once they settle down independently. They fail to acknowledge his service. My fa­ther suffered immensely, both emotionally and monetarily, because of this trend. Such

Geetha, a young lecturer, moved out of a small joint family simply because she could not get along with her sister-tn-Iaw. "My mother-in-law favor,s her kids," she com­plained, while the' employed sister-in-law said, :'She would never lend a helping hand in the kitchen." These petty differences event~ally led them to part.

two sons live separately with their wives, but visit their widowed mother frequently.

Even functional joint 'families are being transformed. One distinct trend in liberal families is the mother's use of the joint fami­ly as a day-care center to look after her chil­dren while she pursues studies or a career. The Nanis are a well-known family of theatre artists in Bangalore. After marriage, Bhargavi jOined the Nani joirl:t family of four genera­tions living together. "They were traditional, and there was discipline we had to abide by. For instance, a daughter-in-law had to wake up early and dress in a sari with kumkum on

"With education and employment, women . have become more independent, and grow­ing individualism attracts them towards nu­clear families," opines Mrs. Sh~karan, who lives alone in ~er Bangalore bungalow. Her

One Dynasty Thrives Many helping hands make for light work

EFYING ALL NOTIONS

of disintegration, the Narasinganavar family

demonstrated to the world that the undivided fami­ly is still viable. Abdut 25 km from the city of Dharwad, Karnataka" in the .small village of Lokur, 170 kinfolk have lived harmoniously for seven genera­tions. They are bound together by their Jain religion. "Why

. should we fight," exclaims 72-year-old Lokappa, punctuating his point with a perky fist. "God has given us everything, and we are happy. ,Together­ness is our strength, and coop­eration is our support." I Their mansion, Jaina Bhakta Nivas, is the nerve center for . all..activity" It is where the women and children are housed and where food for all is prepared and served. They have another house for mar­ried couples, a granary and their own Jaina temple.

This fantastic family's so- I

-'journ began when Narasingap­pa migrated to Lokur from Hathangalada, Maharashtra, 400 years ago, with hIS broth­ers and children. There have been no fights ~r disputes over property in their history. Now,' l'arasanna, Lokappa and Bhee­manna, the three brothers, live with their uncles, cousins, cliil­dren and grandchildren. The oldest is their maternal uncle,

gO-year-old Annappa. The youngest is Bheemanna's year­ling grandson.

Being educated, the respon­sibilities of finance and deci­sion-making were entrusted to Bheemanna by his elders from early on. Now, at age 68, all . directives are issued by him. The elders may collectively decitle on issues, but Bhee­manna's word is faithfully fol­lowed by all, including elder Annappa. This solemn disci­pline and mutual respect is the secret of their unity. "Mutual

24 HINDUI S M TOD A.Y J ,\NUARY , 1997

Agrarian kindred: (Left and clockwise) 1,000 Tons are pre- . pared daily in the Narasingavar kitchen; gathering in the fields fo r: tomato harvest; family portrait in mid-October

love and affection is . what has kept us

going," avers Bheemannp.. FUll control over the finances

remains in the hands of Bhee­manna, who makes the neces­sary' purchases and investments. Clothes ~e bought for the en­tire family at Diwali and new year. "Money is a corrupting force and the root cause of all trouble," avowed Lokappa. "Everyone in our family is con­tent because all needs are pro­vided for. No one has an individual savings. No one is rich or poor. All are equal. There is.no greed, selfishness or

jealousy." Agricult.ure is their occup,a­

tion and source of income. The family owns 200 acres of cul- ' tivable land, a dairy of 69 cows and buffalos, a flour mill and a fertilizer and pesticide shop. All requirements of food, grains; vegetables, milk; edible oils, etc., are produced from their / own efforts. All that they pur­chase from outside are clothes, soap and tea. "We had a mere 60 acres 40 years ago," certifies Lokappa. "Every year the prof­its are invested on purchasing land or equipment for our agri­culture. We do not distribute

her forehead. None of the elders objected to my being employed. They took care of my children. I had no worries on the home front. They would even allow me to act in plays," says go-year old Bhargavi. "I enjoyed living in this family immensely. It did call fm; a lot of I adjustments, but the advantages outweighed the disadvantages," she affirmed. '

too individualisfic. You cannot impose your views on them. You have to be broad-mind­ed and make a lot of compromises."

joint families," asserts Mr. Venkatesl"i Murthy, a professor of mathematics. "But we cannot say we did not .want industrializatio]J.. People are now more concerned with their rights than auties. The personal self has become all imp,ortant. No wonder joint families are on their way out!"

Today the Nanis continue to live as a joint family with their two sons, daughter-in-law and their children, but a basic shifrhas oc­

. currfjd in family protocol. "Those days we , adjusted to our elders. Now we adjust to the youngsters," Bhargavi revealed. "They are

Why won't you stay? As the sun of mod­ernization has risen, the inconveniences of a joint family now seem to eclipse its merits. The head of the family, with absolute power, may disallow an individual the liberty to ex­press opinions or pursue creative desires. Members with such aspirations can feel con­stricted. If their desires exceed the cQmmit­ment to family duty or the will to resolve dif­ferences, their departure is assured. "Indus­trialization shattered the very foundation of

Joint families all-too-often treat women as non-entities, relegating them to the four walls of the kitchen. My mother would rarely step out of the kitchen or socialize with fam­ily members apd relatives. My aunts, on the other hand, had freedom to socialize. When my mother had an opportunity to talk, she

Bheemana: Respected leader

the profit among ourselves or buy fancy items. WhateveMve buy benefits the entire family." .

Being Jaina, they are strictly vegetarian. The women pre­pare over 1,000 rotis a day, with 40 ladies taking turns four to five at a tirn~ They begin at 5AM and continue till late after;

/

noon, only to begin again by evening. They use no modern mixers, grinders, cookers or gas stoves. This to me seemed like the most strenuous aspect of their chores, but they seemed perfectly cheery. They sing while working, chat when free and share each others! saris and jewelry. There is no boss­ingaround.

In fact, fear and punishment are not found in this family. . "Mistakes are very rare. No one oversteps their limits"each one

, knows his duties and abides by the codes of the house. If someone errs, we stop talking to him for a while and shun him. With that, he realizes his fault and makes amends," ex­plains Thimmappa.

This family is an efficient example of division of labor. Each member is entrusted with a definite responsibility, such as operating the flour mill, maintaining the edible oil extracting unit, textile shQP, fertilizer shop or repair of ve­hicles and implements. The family is totally seItreliant and self~sufficient. Not once during my visit did I come across someone lazing around. All,the women were continuously engaged in household chores. I could see that every member contributes his or her might. These are tireless wor](ers.

The Narasinganavars' life is peaceful and simple~ Tradi­tions continue. Elders serve the family selflessly and lead an austere life, setting fine standards for the others, as Bheemanna veriRed, '1\11 that we know is to worK hard, be sincere and live an honest life."

Another Breaks Up How one-:congenial clan called it quits

Chandrasekar: "No ill f eelings"

I HE REDDY FAMILY HAD

lived as one unit for four generations in a. village near Kaiwara, about 80KM

from Bangalore. The men worked in the fields. Some women assisted, but most han­dled the household chores and took turns in cooking-a sub­stantial task at 50 kgs of rice . and 100 ragi balls each day! The family lived comfortab1y. Why, then, did they divide?

Mr. Narayanaswamy Reddy\; young daughter, Susheela, con­fided: "Out of the 50 men, only 10 or 15 worked. The others simply lazed around, taking life for granted. This inequality led to the breakup."

Distraught by the split is . Narayanaswamy's mother, 70-year-old Chok'kamma. She was working in the fields when I met her. She related that, at barely eight years old, she entered this huge house of 60

members and grew fond of the family. "I advised them not to break up, but who listens now­a-days? They have fought and parted," she said dejectedly.

It was gO-year-old Sonappa, the eldest male, who had man­aged all family affairs. 8radu­ally, as he started losing hold on the men, his responsibilities were transferred to Chandra­sekar and Narayanaswamy.

Womenfolk are commonly blamed for the breaking up of a family, but this family attrib-. ., utes c.ollapse of their dream to the men's conscious decision "to make lazy men responsi­ble." "The women never brought in differences. In fact, they wanted the system to go on. Even now they get along famously," says Chandrasekar.

Upon break-up, their land holdings of 80 acres fragment­ed. Each got 9Ply 3/4 of an acre. "But everyone is doing very well now, even with this small piece of land. Those men who never worked are now hard workers and are reaping go09 harvests from their fields," says Susheela.

"We had no differences, and we wanted to continue as one unit. Even to this day we feel like one big family. There are no ill feelings," maintains Chandrasekar. But Susheela laments, "We visi~ each other, but it can never be the same."

J A NU A R Y, 1 997 HI N D U ISM TODAY 25

,

/

" would do so ~hylY'from behind the door. Ed­ucation and women's liberation have beck­oned women to break free of such ~hackles.

As the rural class finds new avenues to ex­plore, enticed toward urbanization, the urban fan;J.ilies give way to grpwing individualism and self-reliance. Want of privacy and con­sumerism induce a cert~h selfishness that leads towards a nuclear family syst~m. The accelerated growth of metropolitan cities and Wester~ influences fuel this trend. .

yearn for togetherness. Usually, these are in­dividuals have no family of their own or whQ live far from their birth family. Their common desire for a safe neighb'orhood and secure home environment with .friendly, caring faces binds them together as a new family. The elders adopt the younger mem­bers and Decome their grandparents, while they i~ turn are looked after and given spe­cial care -as they grow old.

ily, they have had to face the pain o£ death of family members, divorce between some cou­ples and the loss of severhl who have left the group. Yet, some say they like their foster family better than their birth family.

Reforming family: Ironically, the West may be approaching the other end of that materialistic road. Members of an "inten­tional family" essentially adopt each other and live together as a j<'lint or extended fiffil­ily. They may have been to~al strangers be­fore .their merger, but they instinctively

It began in tile early 1970s, a time when many felt that families we!"e breaking dowp, a time of loneliness and isolation The idea of forming new families with people who bare­ly knew each other was a risky proposition. But many of these families survive today. Cliildren who have grown up within these kinships are now parents. Like a nOFmal fam-

Wherever we look, the continuance of the joint family seems precariously perched on the aspirations arid allegiance of each of us. Are we out to fulfill our own interests? Or, are we willing to sacrifi~e a little of ourselves for the greater whole? Tradition tells us such sac­rifice reaps rewards in excess of that which was forgone. It also confirms that we each learn in our own time, at our own pace. "To keep a joint family, a spirit of selfless service, tolerance and broad-rmndedness is a must. In

-modern living, to find these virtues is ex-tremely rare," concludes Murthy. ...,.;

.I

One City's Successful Family . Sagacity and self-sacrifice "~pell affluence in Bangalore

H aDERN STRESSES, CITY strains-and nilTlpant I

materialism conspire to make urban joint fami­

lies irrelevant or even extinct. Many city-dwellers feel that the Narasinganavars (see page 24) have achieved their rare

" uccess only because fhey live in a village, with agriculture as their occupation. But the fami­ly of M.M. Krishnamurthy has been living jOintly for four generations in the 'midst of bustling Bangalore. They even run a family business.

Krishnamurthys 40-member fanrily is known as the "MM Industries family," MM indus­try being the family business. Septuagenarian Krishna­murthy, second. of four broth­ers, is the head. He rejoices in joint living, he told me, "I can­not explain the joys of living t

"'together. One has to live and experience it. It requires so much adjustment and patience. It teaches you so many things."

KTishnamurthys father, Mu­nivenkatappa, and uncle Mal­lappa, who live.d together alon&,: With their parents, started the business in South Bangalore. Their children still live together and continue the family enter­prise which today is a local

Garden City: ,Where the MM Industries family blossomoo together I

landmark. "We prosper only ~because of our unity. Everyone in the family is expected to do their own job," Krishrramurthy told me.

The men were educated at Ramakrishna Vidyasala of the Ramakrishna Mission in Mysore, where their culture and discipline have their roots: At home, upon rising, every member first goes to the puja room and only after praying comes for breakfast. They cele­brate Ganesh Chaturthi and Janmashtami on a grand scale, and host a spiritual retreat at . their house, preSided over by

the RK swamis. The family maintains aston­

ishil)g harmony and together­ness. The ladies share housework equally and get along well. "No one is jealous of the other. Everyone has what they want,) find that the ladies often exchange their saris' and jewelry. They take a rare joy in this," reveals Krishnamurthy.

Girls in the MM family are allowed to study as much as they want, but they are not permitted to work. "It's agffinst the family tradition," states Krishnamurthy. The women visit their relatives and attend

26 HINDUISM TODA.Y J ,\NUARY , 1997

family functions. Viewing movies is very rare.

How does the family adjust to the inevitable problems? "The secret of staying together is a lot of sacrifice and compro­nlise. Ori'e magic tha1 works here is to overlook and ignore petty nlistakes. We turn a blind eye. But if a member continues to err, I correct them once and' recall ten nlistakes of theirs in a row. There is no . ' scolding or punishment. Si­lence is our secret agent. Soon, tlJey realize their mistake and fall in line," Krishnamurthy explained. Talking back to elders and disobedience are absent here. 'The elders by their exemplarx concluct have paved the way for unity.

''All the earning members contribute a portion of their income to a common finance pool. All family expenses are met by this account. A perfect recorq of all expenses is kept with .vouch~rs," says Krishna, murthy. Youngsters are not given pocket money-Only the earning members handle .I money. All requirements are filet by the elders. '(outh can­not go out without the permis­sion of their parents or elders.

To me, Krishnamurthy di­vulged two secrets of a suc­cessful joint family, "To live together like this, every~)lle must contribute to the family, not just money, but also shar­ing the work equally. .lAnd there must be a strong leader, a kind of benevolent dictator."

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L I ·T ERA T U R E

Books pouy Up' Hindu Women ,

Delving into the domain of dharma's daring women, past and present

By V G. JULIE !\AJAN, PHIL~ELPHIA F A SUDDEN, A BURGEONING IN'.rEREST

in the status of Hindu w'omen has pro­duced a multiplicity of books. The re­sultant field of study is vast, with works

of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and prose by both Hindus and non-Hindus. Fresh titles fo-/ cus on the inspiring lives of women saints conveying the pinnacle of feminine po­tential-to be the '1iving Goddess." Others garble Hinduness and Indian­ness, or leave religion out all together. But virtually all present the traumas and triumphs of Hindu women in some fashion, whether they be crises of the past or advancements of the present.

To understan.d the struggles and progress of the Hindu woman, you need a feel for her historical relationships with so­ciety, religion, politics and eco­nomics. India's being a multi-reli­gious, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic country, its women often share the same concerns as her compatriots of other religiOJils. Even in the Indo­Pakistani region, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh the concerns -of women are oftentimes the same, only slight­ly altered by religion. Thus, readers often must study the status of Hindu women indirectly, through the "Indian" or «South Asian" woman.

M;my nonfiction books delineate the gen­eral 'Concepts. However, A.S. Altekar's The Position of Women in Hindu'Civilizatil;m (378 pages, Motilal13anarsiaass, Delhi) is a well­rounded text, targeted towards the relation­ships between Hindu women and society. This interesting and informative work spans almost four-thousand years of experience.

Position of Women is superbly organized according to the principle divisions of a woman's life, taking one through discussions of issues such as "The P0Sition of the Wid-­ow," "Dress and Ornaments," "Marriage and Divorce" and "Proprietary Rights." Al­though the author's study relies on surveys, his own voice and opinions lie latent in the text. Not all women will share his viewpoint. With this in mind, however, Position of Women offers thorough, clear and thought­provoking infoI'mation.

28 HJNDUISM TODAY JA NUARY, 1997

To be frank, an analytical app1;oach such as Altekar's can be tedious reading. The an­tidote for this pedantry is Timothy Conway's Wonien of Power and Grace (351 pages, Wake Up Press, $16.95). With lucid and lilt­ing diction, Conway reveals the nature of

the heroically spiri­tual woman by de­

tailing the ex-

periences of nine souls who gave up their lives to serve God through charity or mysti­cism.· Out of the nine, four are Hindu, and five are saints of Christianity and Islam. The author not only contrasts ideas of saint­hood, but also compares the stature of woman saints of various faiths. '

C'onway is generous in his unbiased praise. The love emanating from Hinduisms Amma Mata Amritanandamayi is as carefully told

,

as the passions experienced by Christianitys Saint Ther@se Neuman, offering readers an inspirational study into the lives of profound-ly religious women. '

Should your concerns center. more on tl1:e political and economic forces that have af­fected the Hindu woman, try Recasting ,Women: Essays in Colonial History, edited by Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (372 pages, Kali for Women Press, $14.00). This

study offers a rainbow of readable essays covering the cultural, social, re­

ligious and economic challenges faced by Indi­

an women during British Christian rule, when pa­

triarchy strongly imposed its precepts on all women in

India. As each essay is writ­ten by a different author, Re-

casting Women gives a com­posite view of the struggles

and changes in status of fudian women during the Raj.

The essays range from broad topics such as "Marginalization of

Women's Popular Culture in Nine­teenth Century Bengal" to the

more case/specific issues in "Rural Women in Oudh 1917-1947: Bab

Ram Chandra and ' the Women's Question. " Such studies provide a de­

tailed accounting of actual confronta­tions of Hindu women who found their

rights and respeG:t repressed,. Fiction is an even richer world, discussing

woman's emotional and thought processes, a level that carmot be plumbed by even the

..-deepest historical or sociological study. Fic­tional works disclose ~ocietys perceptions of her, as well as her picture of herself, in some­times blushing blatancy.

A brazenly contemporary approach to lit­erature is voiced in Our Feet Walk the Sky (372 pages, Aunt Lute Books, $12.95), offer­ing South Asian wO!Jlen a release from mod­ern social restricti'Ons, allowing them tc;> forge spiritual qonnections within them­selves and with each other. This interna­tional collection of short stories, poems and analytical studies from female authors at­tempts to blend both the conventional and individual experiences of all South Asian women. The first collec?ion of its kind, the editors and writers should be commended for their boldness in printing in black and

white the controversial ideas of sexuality and revolution that are often forbidden.

As a second generation Indian woman in the US, I could relate to most of the offer­ings, 'put a few simply disturbed me, being a raw collection of raunchy ideas echoing lit- , tle of my life or the lives of of my friends. The crude nature of these entries make this book strictly for adults. Just when the book seems to be street -smart, we are assailed by long, cerebral essays equally out "9f sync

. With/the common South Asian experience. . That being said, Ou.r Feet Walk the Sky will allow you a glimpse into what it is like to be a worldly-wise Hindu woman today.

Arranged Marriage by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (307 pages, Anchor, $21.00) fo­cuses on the challenges of women in ar­ranged marriages. These fictional stories for adults offer a glimpse into the relationships of Hindu women struggling to reconcile the transposition of tradition into modern life.

Although fiction, the images, characters and their reactions evoJr;e a strong chord of reality. Rather than harp on the cliche topic of arranged marriage versus love marriage, the author has created elev~n plausible

.5

women's lives 'which evade stereotypes. We not only observe the wife's feelings against her cheating husb81).d, but we also see how these feelings af-fect her relationships with oth-er females and males of her world. These are the bonds that consti­tute so significantly a part of the identity and soul. Qf the Hindu female's life.

Banerjee opens with challengeS-: faced by women, framed in ' the more traditional situations of In­dia, and towards the end depicts women struggling in the fantasies of the modern and traditional makeup of their very soul. I like this book.

Buyers be Wary~ Before you rush'out to buy your next book on Hindu women, examine the wide-ranging options. You'll discover devotional of­ferings and dane ~d sometimes egregiously irreligious renderings. But that, avid readers, is Hinduism today. . ~

Donnish Delights /

\

Winnowing the world of words on women .J

"Women and Reli­gion in India," by Nancy Auer Falk (New Issues Press, Michigan) . An impressively com­prehensive armotat­ed bibliograppy of 1,015 English liter­

-ary wprks from 1975-1992. Approximately 650 are by long-term residents of India: Topics range from legal,provi­sions of Hindu law codes, to ritual, to the transfor­mative experiences that have inspired some women to re­nounce all ties with family and world. Subjects range from wealthy women to the poorest poor, from women considered living Goddesses to housewives, and young girls caught up in prost;itution. A must-have in alllililraries.

! )

/

"Women's Struggle: A History of the All India Women's Conference

from Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism,

1927-1990;"' by Aparna K. Basu and Bharati Ray (Manohar Publi­cations, New Delhi). This fact-filled book details the instigation,

i WOMEN'S i STRUGGLE

ChristiaNity, Judaism and Sufism. This work is unique in its discussion of the position of

i :~: so ...... , ,:n,,< .. t .::~"

, development and achievements of tKe AIWC and its efforts, through 63 years of service, to make the voices and powe~s of

women in India -known. Extensive appendices make the book a rare reference on the subje6t, in­cluding short biogra­phies of 46 eminent women . .

"Women Saints of East and West" (Ra­

makrishna Vedarlta Centre, " London). A collection of bi­

ographies of women saints

women in each of the religions.

"Women in the Vedic Age," by Shakuntala Rao Shas­tri (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay). An intrigu­ing and rev~aling study of the status and obset­vances of women as indicated, and in some cases stipulated, in Vedic literature. The relationship of wife to

. husband and the rites bf family and ~arriage constitute the primary focus, but you'll discover fascinating detail and verses you are not likely to have heard before.

Publishers I

MOTILAL BANARSIDASS, 41 U.A. BUNGA· LOW ROAD, JAWAHAR NAGAR, llO 007, NEW DELHI, INDIA

THE WAKE UP PRESS, 222 MEIGS ROAD, SUITE #8, P.o. BOX 24156, SANTA BARBARA, CA 93121-4146 USA

KALI FOR WOMEN PRESS, A 36 GULMO­HAR PARK, NEW DELHI, llO 049, INDIA

AUNT LUTE BOOKS, P.O. BOX 410687, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94141 USA

DOUBLEDAY (ANCHOR BOOKS), 1540 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10036 USA

NEW ISSUES PRESS, COLL'EGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES , WESTERN MICH. UNIV., KALAMAZOO, MI 49008 USA,

MA'NOHAR PUBLICATIONS, zl6 ANSARI ROAD, DARYAGANJ llO 002, NEW DELHI, INDIA

RAMAKRlSHNA VEDANTA CENTRE, UNITY HOUSE, BLIND LANE, SL8 5LG BOURNE END, BUCKS, UK

SOUT~ ASIA B9>OKS (BHARATIYA VIDYA .BHAVAN), P.O. BOX 502, CO·

LUMBIA, MO 65205 USA

ADVAITA ASHRAMA, P.O. MAYAVATI VIA LOHAGHAT, 262 524,

PITHORAGARH, U.P. INDIA

Julie Rajan, a Madurai'-bom Hindu living in Philadelphia,

strengthens the distaff staff at HT, joining Lavina, Archa~ Choodie, Prabha and Madhu. She broke our Pat Robertson story in 1 ~93.

"Great Women of India," by Swami Madhavananda and Ramesh Chan­dra Majumdar, editors (Advaita Ashrama, Almora). A scholarly and in­.;!epth look .at women and their

contributions to Indian cul­ture, religion and history through essays written by Indian female scholars. This book is more expansive tpan Women Saints of East and West, being thoughtfully di­vided into large sections, such as "Women in Sanskrit Litera­ture," "Wome!} in Buddhism and Jainism" and "Women'ln

the Modern Peri­od." There is a welcome reliance on the wealth of Ij.indu scriptures. And chapters such as "Great Indian Women of the Nineteenth Centu­ry" provide ample

chronicles of women's lives and balance out the historical themes. Buy the~ all and enjoy.

J ANUAR Y, 1997 HI'NDUISM TODAY 29

/

.1

INS LG H T " .

:'Death' "and, ',Dying" QUI' faith .guid~s o~r transiti0n from this ' world,. offerinK solace to ~he suffering and those facing th~ foreboding c-ertainty' of de.atl)

EAD .ME FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT, FROM

death to ,immortality," This famed "vedic prayer proclc;rims the hurrian urge to survive,

to conquer death and to know the joys of ........ _ . illu'minated consch:>usness, People oftEin pilgrimage to an isolated place in expectation of a vision, be ita jungle of'faun,a .an<;l. foHage' or ce-. m€nt and glass,. Every per$on is on a vision quest. But for all 'souls, at the time of the great depar.­ture, m.ahap~asthana, a vision comes' as a tunnel of light at the 'en? of which: are beings . of aivine

nature. Many having had th€ near-death experience have sworn their testimony of such transforming encounters. An American W0man who "died" durip.g o~ildbirth, but wa~.bro1.lght ~aGk'to'life by quick medical action, recounted: "It was.an incredible energy-a light y.ou

. wouldn't believe. I almost floated in it. It was feeding my conscious­ness feelings of unconditional love, complete safety and complete, to­tal perfection. And then, and then, a piece of knowledge came in­it was that ·I was immortal, indestructible, I cannot be hurt, cannot be lost, and that the worlei'is perfect." Hundreds of people'repor~ similar experiences, affirming what Hinduism has ·always taught-. that death is a blissful, light-filled transition from one state to an­other, as simple and natural as changing clothes, far from the mor- . bid, even hellish alternatives some dread. A Vedic fvneral hymn .intones: "Where eternallu'ster glows, the realm in which the light di; vine is set, place ,me, Puritler; in that deathless, imperishable world. ;;: Make me immortal in that realm where movement is accordant to ~ :vish, ih the third region, the third heaven of heavens, where the ~ worlds are resplendent" (Rig Veda, Aitareya Amnyaka 6-11). , ~ . Most often, before our own death, we encounter its reality in the Z

passing of friend~ or- family. OUl: thoughts during the rites, termed an- ~ tyesti samskam in Sanskrit, rum to God. We witpess the end of an- ~ others life and ask, "What am I going to do with the remaining years of my own life?" All that is said during thes~ timesTeminds ps that life qn earth is temporary. All our possessions, power, ego and learni,ng will end. Seeing this truth. we turn the mind toward God, toward lifes ultimate goal, moksha, liberation, and toward the path Of dharma that will take us tnere. We do this not in tn,!pidation, but in assurance, faith and gratitude for the opportunity to progress spiritually in this physicai incarnation. .

Death is defined differently according to wnat people believe ' • themselves to be. If they are only the body and brain (as with hu­

manists or atheists), then death is the end of sensory experience, of self. If we live once, death ends our only ?ojourn on Earth and is naturally dreaded. If we are born again and again, it loses its dread in ,light of the souls pilgrimage to eternity. NO'matter how ill, how in.-

30 HINDUISM TODAY JANUARY, 1997

firm our condition, there is'a serene afld consoling center of our be­ing to which we can adjourn, the SOHrce within, It is more us than our body, more us than our mind and emotion. It will not die: It does not hurt or fear. As physical debility and death draw near, we seek this center, whether we eall it Paramatnia, God, Self or Divin~ Con- ' sciousness. In the Krishna Yajur Veda, Katha Upanishad" Yama, Lord of Death, explaiI}$: "Death is a mere illusi~:m whi~h appears to those who cannot grasp Absolute Reality, The SOUllS immortal, self-existent, self-luminous and never dies," •

It is the soul's subtle bogy,.linga sharira., that stores the "thought­energy" experiential impressions oflife, called samskaras. When the

• body dies, this nonphysical sheath continues 'g.s a constellation of subtle elements-dispositions, memories,.desi'res, etc. It is within this.

subtle body that the soul, if. needed, reincarnates, as described in fhe Shukla Yajur Vep,g., Brihadamnyaka Upanishad (4.4.5-6): "A man acts according to t4e-de,sires to which he clings. Aft~r death he goes t6 ilie riext world bearing in his mind the subtle impressions of his de~ds; and after reaping there tilie harvest of his deeds; he fe.turns. again to this w@rld of ~otion, Thus, he. who' has tlesires continues sun-­ject to rebirth," Death"according to Hinduism, is not the contradic­tion bf life. Death' and birth are two si~es 'of life's ,cosmic cycle. The culmination of that cycle is liber:ation .. As the venerable S~tguru Yo­gaswaII,li 0'£ Sri. Lanka taught: ":By getting rid @f desire, man cli? put

, an end to birth altogether." . Resorvlng the Karmas: Many who have lHid a near-death experi­

ence-speak ofha~g com~,ba.ckto complete unfinished obligations to children, parents or friends. It is a great blessing to know of one's im-

pending transition. A Hindu approaching deg.th works diligently to finis):! all his "business" of this lifetime, the alloted portion of his total . karma carried into this birth to face and ~s01ve. If death comes while loose ends remain (misunderstandings unres@lved, misd.eeds una­toned for or ooligations U1lfulfilled), another lifetime may be reqUired .to expire that karma. Thus; an aging or ailing HiRdu will be seen go­ing around' to' friends and enemies, .giving love, help and blessings, working to resolve (:;onflicts and differences, offering apologies and fulfllling all known obligations. Ideally, he executes his own will, dis­tI;ibuting his preperties and duties to heirs, charities and endow-ments, n.ot leaving such t~ks to oiliers. .

Th~t done, he turns to God, reads scriptures, attends temple and amplifies meditation and devotion . .He may pjJgrimage to sacre'd spots

or' retire to ' a seoluded place to practice japa'and yoga sddhanas, The faJ:TIily takes c;rre not to disturb these efforts, !lor his retirement from social obligation or interaction, realizing h,e has entered life's final stagej that of ilie renunciate, or sannyasin. . . Maldng, the Transitiun Conscious!y: Knowing -that a conscious

death is the ideal, the Hill(;\u avoids excessive drugs or mind-numbing medical: measures. He- cultivates detachment as death aRProaches, knowing that loss is not sufferea. wh~n something is given up volun­tarily, only when it is'taken from us by force. He is grateful for life, but not angry with or fearf'ur of.death. Dyin~ is not u~like falling asleep. We have all experienced death many tirpes in past lives. The astral body separates from the physical body, just a~ jn sleep. The differ­ence is that the silver cord connecting the two breaks at the moment 'Of transitio'n, signaling the pt>int of no re!urn~ _

Scriptures speak of leaving the bQ(;\y through one chakra or an­other, departing in a level of c~:msciousness of a particular chakra, which then determines where in the' inner worlds a person wiil find himself after death. Those who depart full ofhatred·aiJ.d resentment go to the world of those who also died in lower consciousness. Those with lov.e ill their heart enter a world where abide others with sim­ilar attainment. Therefore, during,transition a person must strive to be in the highest pbssible state of consciousness, cO{l@entrating on the t013 of th~ head and holding'to lofty thoughts as he succumbs. A wt;lman in California narrated: "Shortly before my husband died, he held my hands and asked me to recite the Lalitha Sahasranama and to say, the mantra we were initiated into. He repeated after me in a loud voice' when suddenly his face began to shine with a luster, and

. he became overjoyed and beaming. He started almost shouting in joy that he was seeing the temple and the Deities-;-Siva, Ganesha and- Muruga-smiling at him. In t4is glowing way he passed away shortly thereafter whpe I recited the mantra in his ear."

Those who die suddenly, through accident or murder, have no time to prepare. Tracl.itionally, full death rites are not performed af- . ter such deaths, because rebirili is expected almost immediately. For • the same reason, rites are not accorded children who die youn~, be­fore adolescence .. In India, bodie's of accidental-death victims and -children. are buried in ~ cpmmon grave or put in a river. Since nei­ther is possible ,in Westernized countries, cremation is accepted.

-Funeral and Memorial Rites: Hindus traditionally cremate their dead, for swift~r, more complete release of the soul. Burial, which ,Preserves the bond, is generally forbidden. Death's anni3iersary is c'alled Liberation Day. For saints, if is celebrat'ed rather than the day of birth. To some extent, the funeral rites serve to nofify the depart­ed soul that he has, in fact, died. It is possible for a disoriented soul, not understanding that he is on the other side, to linger close fo the physical plane. Be can still see this material world, and even observe his own funeral. Some of ilie ritual ch~ts address the deceased, urg­ing him to relinquish attachments ana. continue the journey. The rites are also for the living, allowing the family to say a respectable and dignined "farewe~," to express grief, loss and the mosaic of emo­tions they 'J;laturally encounter. The d~epest significance of the fu­neral rites lies in their yoKi.ng the inner and outer worlds, Bhuloka and Devaloka, and their recognition that a family consists not just of its living generations, but its anoestors as well, Often a group of souls will sequentially incarnate into the same extended family, so that, for example, a grandson may be the returned soul of the father. In this

, way collective karma and dharma are. worked through, Those in the inner worlds help relatives living in the outer world. When their turn comes in the outer world, they strive to attain spiritual progf~SS that is only possible in physical incarnation. Ceremsnial uniting of the deceased with his for~fathers and yearly honoring of.ancestGrs keep open the inner communication which makes the family pros­perous and preserves its longevity .

The Vedas proclaim, "When ~ person comes to \Yeakness, be it through old age or disease, he frees himself frsm ~ese limbs just as 'a mango, a fig or a berry releases itselffrom its stl!lk" (Sukla' Yajur Veda, Brihadharanyaka Upanishad: 4.3.36), ..

.R·ites of Transition body to tJ:1e b~ck porch, remove the clothes and drape it with.a w~te clGth .. (If there is no potch, the hody can be sponge bathed ' , and prepared where it is.) Each applies sesame 'oil to the head,

INOU OE~IfH RITUALS in all traditions f0110w a '

uniform patter.n from theVeqas,

'Variations accord­ing to sect, regioP, caste ahd family traclitio~. Most. rit~s are fulfilled by the familY., all.of whom participate, ipcluding·the children, who need not be shielded from the death. Oertain dies are traditionally performed

.' by' a; priest but may also b~ per- . formed by the family if no priest . is available. Here is a simple out­line of rites that CaJIJ be per­formed by Hindus.in any locali­ty'Yariations are no.ted and suggestions made for Hindus i,n Western countries.

1. As Death Approaches Tra<ditionally, a Itndu.dies at home. Nowadays the dying are increasiRgly kept lin hospitals, even when recovery is dearly not p0ssible. Knowing the mer­it~ of <dying.at home among loved' ones, l;Iinqus bring the ill home. When death is imminent,

, kindred are.notified. The per­son is placed in his room or in the entrYWay of the house, with the bead facing east. A lamp.'is . .

. • lit near' his head and he is urged l0 conc.entr;:1te on his mantra.

· Kindred keep vigil until the • great depwture. singing hymns: praying and reading scripture. If he 'calmot corne home: this hap-

, pens at the hospital, regardless '. of institutional objections; ~

• 2. The Moment of D'eath If the dying persop. is U:-nco.n­scious at eiepartiUfe, a fariJily member chants the mantra sott­ly in the right ear. If ll(me is known, '~um Nqrno Narayana" or '~um Nama Sivaya" is in­toned. (This is 8lso done for sud­den-death victims, suGh as on a battll'lfreld 9f. in a s:ar accident.) Holy ash or sandal paste is ap- . plied to the forehead, Vedic verses are chanted, and a few·

· drops o£ftnilk, Ganga or other boly ~ater are' trickled irlto the mouth. After death, the body is

. laid in the homes entryway, with the head facing sOl}lh, on a

· 09t or the ground-:reflectihg a rElturn,to t~e lap of Mother; Earth. 1lle lamp is kept lit n~ar . the head and incense burned. A doth is tied undeu the chin and over the top of the head. The thun;lbs are tied together, as pre . ,

Kasi, the Holiest Place to Die: A man awaits f1,is.gr..eat·deparliure; at . the moment of d:eath Ganga water is trickled into the mouth at the Mukti Bhavan free hospice; oremamo1t grounds; women in mourning.

th~ big t0es. In a hospital, the family has the death pertiTicate . signed immediately and trans-

· po~fs the bady home. lJnder no circumstances shouIU the body he embalmed or 0rgans re-' move<;l for use by others. Reli­gious pictures are turnlfd·to the wall, and in. some traditiops nllrr . roES are covered. Relatiye:;'are

· beckoned to bid farewell and sing sacred sonw at the side' of

· the body •

and the bodY'is "bathed with wa-ter £.rom the nine kutnbhas, dressed, placed in a coffip (or on a pal~quin) and carried to:.

. the homa shelter. The young children, holding small lighted stick~, encirde the body, singing hymns. The women 'then walk rarouno the body and offer puffed rice into the mouth to nourish the deceased for the journey ahead. A widow will plac'~ her tali (wedding pen­dant) wound her husbands

3. The Homa Fire Ritual / If available, a &'pecial funeral priest'is .calied. In a shelter- built by the.family, a fIre ritual (homa)

, is performed to bless nine brass 1Wonbhas (water-pots) and..onl'l clay pot. Lacking the shelter, an appropriate fire is<IDade-in 'the ~ home. The "Gruef mourner" , leads fhe rites. He is the eldest son iLl the,case of the father's death and the y~ungest son in

• neck, signifying her enduring tie to him. The coffin is then closed. If u~able to bring the 'body home, the family arranges ' to clean and dress 'it at the mor­tum;y rather than leave these

the case of the mother's. In · some tradihlons, the eldest son

serves for_ both, or .the wife, SOLl­in-law or near~st male relati..;-e. •

.4. Preparing the Body The chief mourner now per­forms arati~ passing an oil lamp over the remains, ·then offering flowers. The male (or female, ' . Clepending on the gender of the deceas~d) relatives cm;rY,the

duties to strangers. The ritual homa fire· can be made at home or kindled !it the crematorium.

5. Cremation Only men go to the cremation site, led by the chief mourI!-er. T\,'Io pots are carried: the cl!l-y kumbha and another'containing burning.embers from the homa. The body is carried three times counterclockwise around the pyre, then placecd upon it. All circumambulating, and some arati, in the rites is counter­clockwise. If a coffIn is 1!lsed, the cover is now removed. The men offer puffed rice as the

. women did ear.lier, cover the te~ples, visit swamis, nor ' take . body with wood and offer 'in- part in marriage arrangements. cense and ghee. With the clay Some observe this period up to. pot on his left shoulder; the . one year. For the death of chief mOUFner'cirGles the pyre friel'lp's, teachers or students, ob-while holding a fire brand' be- servanc~s.are optional. While . : li,i.nd his back. At each turn mourning is neve~ supp'resseq. or aroU1)d the pyre, ~ relative ,detljea, scriptures admonish , knocl$s a hole in the pot with. a against excessive lamentation

8. FIrst Mjlmorial On the 3rd, 5th, 7th or 9th day, . relatives gather for a meal of the deceaJied's favorite foods. A por­tiar/ is offered.beforehl.s photo 'and htter.ceremonially left at an

, abaml.Qned pla~e-, alOI]g with some lit camphor. Customs fo];

. this period are varied. Sdme of-knife, letting water ('Jut, signify- . alxd encourage joyous·re-

. rng.lifes leaving its vessel. At the lease. The departed'soul end of three turnS, the chief . ' is acut~ly conscious of

, fer pinpa (rice ~alls ) .daily for ~=___ nine days. Otbers corribine all

these offerings with tfue fol- ' lowing sapindikarana rituals

for ·a few days or one qay of ceremonies: ,

next world. The pindas are fed to' the crows, -to a cow or ·thrp'wn in a river for the fish. Some per­form't;his rite on the nth day af- ' ·ter cremation. Others perfo.rm it ·twice: on the' 31st day or (11th, 15th, etc.) and af~ei one year. Once the 'first sapindikarana is 'completed, the ritual impurity enps. Monthly repetition is"also common for' one year.

mourner drbPS fue pot. Then, ' emotional forces direct-without turning to ·.f;:1ce the ' ed. at him. Prolonged body, he lights the pyre and ' grieving can bold ' leaves the cremation grounds. hi~ in earthly con- ~ The others folloW: At a gas-fu- . sciousness, inhibit-

. ele@ crematorium, sacreej. wood .. ' ing full transition . and ghee are placed inside the to the heaven

.' . coffin with the body. Where ' worlds. In Hindu 1?ermittecl., the body is car.ried Bali ,' it is sharne- ~

". around the 'chamber, and a ful to cry for ~ .small pre. is H.t in the coffin be- the dead. z,

fore it.i;:; consigned to the ~ flames. 'The cl,"emation switch 7,lIone-Gathjlr- ~

9. 31st-Day Memorial On the JIst day, a memorial service is helcl.. In some tradi­tions it is a repeti­tion of the funeral htes.'At.home·, all thoroughly clean"

the house. A

10. One-Year Memorial At die yearly anniversary of the death (according to the moon

.. cruendar ), a' priest conducts the shraddharites in' the home, of-

then is engaged 'by the chief ing Ceremony " About 12 hours

Yama: Lor~ of Doot.h · priest purifies . • '. the home, and .

, fering pi,{da to the' ancestors. ' This ceremony. is done. yearly as long as the sons of the deceased are alive (or'fm a ~pecified peri- . od). It is now common in India to observe shrail1J.ha for ances­tors just prior to the yearly Navaratri festival. This time is also appropriate for cases where the day of death is unknown. mourner.

. . 6. Return Home; Ritual Impurity Returning home, all bathe' and share i~ cleaning the Muse. A lamp and wat~( pot are set ~here the body lay in state. TI,le water is changed. daily, and, pictures ' remain turned to the wall. The shrine room is closed, \:V1th white cloth draping all icons. .

,During these days of ritual im­purity, family and close relatives do not visit othel's' homes, though neighbors and relatives, .­bring daily meals to relieve the

. burdens during mourning. Nei­'ther. do they attend festivals ~d

. aft~r cremation, family men re- , turn to colleft the remains. Wa­ter is sprinkled on the ash; t1].e remains,we collected on 'I- large tray . .At crematoriums the family can arrange to personally gather. the l'emains: ashes and small pieces 'of white bon~ «?iled "flowers." In crematoriums these are ground to dust, and. arrangements must be made to preserve them. Ashes are car~. ried or sent to India for deposi- . .tiOlJ.in fhe Ganges or placed,. them in an auspicious river or the ocean, along'with gm:lands and flo"Yers. ·

performs the sapindikaranq;, making on~ large pinna (repre­senting the deceased) and three small, representing the father, grandfather and greatgrandfa- . ther. The large ball is cut in tnr;ee' pieces and JOIned with' the small pimdas to ritually unite the soul with the' ance.sfors in the

ffindu funeral rites. cap be sim; pIe or exceecli.ngly complex. These ten steps, devotedly com­pleted' according to the customs, means, and abi'lity of the family, ' will properly conclude one. earthly sojoum of any Hindu soul.

·Rec,ommended.ResGurces·: Caring for Your o~n Dead, Lisa Carlson. Upper Access Publi~her.;, PO Box 457, Hinesburg. Vermont 05461. Dialogue with Death, Eknath !';aswaran. 1>Iilgiri Press, Box 477, Petaluma, California 94953. Funeral and othe~ Sacramenis After Death, Jnana Prabodhiili. 510 Sadoshiv Petha. Pune 411.030; India. Qrihya Sutras, Sacred Books of the East Series. Motilal Ban=idilss. Bungalow Road, Jawaharnagru; N,,,,. De!hi 7, India. Hindu Samskaras, pro Raj Bali Pandy,.Motilal Banarsidass. Life Af­ter Life, Raymond A. Moody, B.mtam Books, 1540 Broadway. New York. New York 10036. Medl'tatlon and

. the Art of Dying, Pruidit Usharbudh Aryo. Himalayan Institute, Honesdale. Pennsylvania 18431. The Transi­t ion Caned Death, Charles Hampton, Theosophical Publishing House. 306 WesfGeneva Rd. Wheaton, illi· nois 60187. Dilemmas of Life and Death, S. Crorn,well Crowley. SUNY Press, Albany; New York 12246.

<-'" " ;; . < ~~ ______ ~2-~~~ ____ ~~~~~

Sarada Temple: Mountaintop center of Sree Narayanct-Guro movement that changed all of India's Southwest state of Kerala ., .

MOVEMENTS

Kera~aControve~sy ...

Narayana Guru's ashram stabilizes after violent power transfer By VRINDAVANAM S. GOPALAKRISHNAN

I HE KERALA POLICE ANTICIPATED RE­

sistence when they made their move to enforce a court -ordered transfer of ad­ministration at the Sree Narayana Guru

ashram at Sivagiri in SepteIllber, 1995. So tRey came in plain clothes, surrounded the main buildings and took the supporters of Swami Saswatheekananda by surprise at the six-acre ashram. But a handful of renegade monks backed, iIJ.credibly enough, by 500 members of the radical Muslir'n People's De­mocratic Party, refused to relinquish the SB:arada Madam, the ashram's main temple, and pelted officers with stones. The police in turn charged with upraised 'canes. When it was over an hour later, 66 police and 75 demonstrators, including some monks, were injured, and windows of the temple broken.

34 HINDUISM TODA.Y J NUARY, 1997

Devotees of Sree Narayana Gur.u, virtual patron saint of Kerala, were shocked. The great swami had worked from 1870 to nis mahasamadhi in 1928 to uplift the low-caste Ezhavas, 50% of Kerala's people. The 52 monks of his ashram contr9lled dozens of temples, schools, monasteries and".a hospital. It was an outrage and contrary to expecta­tions that some monastic descendants, in whom he entrusted the movement, would, in 1995, do pitched battle with police.

"A monk who held the reins of power for two terms and became heavily involved in politics and malpractice is responsible ,for the predicament," stated Swami Prakasha­nanda, the newly and' duly-elected presi­dent of the governing trust. The monk in question is Swami Saswatheekananda. Dur-

ing his ten-year- term as pontiff, he wa~ ac­clJ.sed of autocratic rule, misappropriation of funds (leaving many of the trust's instit\{­tions bankrupt) and unseemly involvement in local politics, especially through exploita­tion of caste prejudice, the very curse Nara­yana Guru fought against. Swami Prakasha­nanda told HINDUISM TOD;.\Y that fear of exposure forced Saswatheekananda to op"­pose a proper transfer of power when his term ended. • Complaints of mismanagement led to nu­merous court cases in efforts to wrest con­tro1 of the extensive spiritual institution from Saswatheekananda. On repeated or­ders from the court, Swami Prakashananda climbed the flight of steps of Sivagiri thir­teen times to take over the reigns of the Sree

Narayana Dharma Sangham Trust. All these efforts were thwarted by Saswatheekananda. His followers claimed the coUrt 9rders did not apply to them .

. They even enlisted the PQP (the Muslim People's Democratic Par-.. ty) on their side, whose cQ:air­man, Abdul Nazar Madani, said, "There should not be another Ayodhya in Kerala, so the PDP in­tervened in the Sivagiri issue." The PDP was banned by the Ker­ala government after the incident.

Swami Saswatheekananda de­nies wrongdoing and complains, "Even the British police re­frained from attacking such pro­testers during the independence ~ Narayana Guru [1856-1928] str:uggles." He says the board ~ '--________________________________ ---' cannot assemble, as such a meet - . ing must be called by the out-go­ing president, who is-himself "They have come to power vio­lating the bylaws and rules," he

. . argues. -Tile cominunity is generally

relieved . . The trust's oversight State Body is firm!>, in sUfPort of the new administration. An Ezhave elder said, "The change of power is aPl?reciated by the people." Prof M.K. Sanu, a fol­lower of Narayana Guru, told HINDUISM TODAY, "Had the po­lice not intervened in time, Siva-

, giri ,,"ould have become a land of sin. It is the blessing of the Lord

"The goal of qIl reli­gions is the same. Once'riv.ers reach the ocean, is there difference like shal­low and deep? Reli­gion has the role of creating in humans the trend to ascend."

that they came in." The great reformer: During

his lifetime, Sree Narayqna Guru

- SREE NARAYANA GURU

was responsible for the-social and religious transformation of the Ezhava commvnity, who today constitute 50% of Kerala's 20 mil­lion Hindus. In his day, the "untouchable" Ezhava -Caste was barred entry to the tem­ples, and could not approach the outer walls closer than fourteen feet. Narayana Guru plotted a strategic response. He chose not to agitate for temple' entry, given the area's abysmal caste relations (Swami Vivekanan­da had characterized Kerala as a "lunatic

. asylum"). Rather, he quietly installed a Siva­linga at Arupuran and then at other places around the state. The brahmin el"te chal­lenged his right to encroach upon their pre­rogative. He merely responded, "What is the concern? I have only installed an Ezhava Siva." He also saw to the training of an Ezhav.a priesthood for the temples by estab­lishing a Brahma Vidyalayam at Sivagiri. He eventually founded more than a hundred Ezhava temples with non-brahmin priests­bypassing upper-caste social controls.

Nararyana Guru frequently proclaimed, "One caste, one religion and one God for

man." Asked to explain what he meant by one religion, he replied, "If this war 'ofreli­gions should end', with self control all have to learn about afl religions. Then it will be­c.ome clear that, as far as basic tenets are concerned, there qre no substantial differ­ences. The religion which thus evolves is the 'one religion' that we advocate." He did not believe in conversion and countered the ex­tensive Christian and Muslim influence in the area by direct action and preaching.

Philosophically, Narayana Guru was an advaitan, but he denied the illl!sory nature of the world as taught by Adi Shank!!ra. He emphasized the presence of God every­where: "What's known as this man or that, when probed, is in this world, a Primal Self Form." He was a devotee of Siva (as are most of Kerala's Hindus), influenced by Saiva Sid­dhanta, but did not propound that philoso­phy's intricacies. .

Later in life he stopped the construction of new temples and focused on social action, coining aphorisms such as, "Educate to be free; organize to be strong; thrive through

industry." He implemented these ideals through establishing centers of education in each of his temples. He reformed the mar­riage rituals to make them simpler and less .costly, dictating, for example, a maximum of ten guests. In a famous incident, Narayana Guru arrived at a follower'S home just in time to summarily terminate an overly elaboratt; family celebration. Through his efforts, the Ezhavas are today a respected community.

Swami Dharmatheerth, a direct discple, summed up, "Narayana Guru created a rev­olution before/ anybody knew its exact na­ture or consequences, without antagonizing anyone or demolishing any doetrine or at­tacking any sect or creed. No other teacher ever accomplished his mission so peacefully."

Swami Saswatheekananda has virtually exh'austed his legal options, and Swami Prakashananda anticipates no serious threat to hisnew administration. Already several of the monks who supported Saswatheeka­nanda have rejoined the governing board. So, perhaps once again the mission of this great saint will proceed peacefully. _

JANUARY , 1997 HINDUISM TODAY 35

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Roman calendar: Early breakthrough; pegs mark month (left), day (top ), year (right)

TIME-KEEPING

Happy Roman New Year flail to Janus; the Cod of January!

I

,

ODAY'S WORLDWIDE CIVIL CALENDAR

was actualiy the making of 'the Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar, derived from Egyptian, Greek and Roman culture

and calculations in 46 BCE. Under the ad-

Janus is listed first in prayers and invoked when beginning new activities. His blessings were sought at the beginning of every day, month and year. The main temple of Janus at the Forum in Rome has two doors, one facing !he rising sun, the other the setting sun. Inside, the statue of Janus has one face looking out each door. Wlien the Sabines captured Rome, they were kept out of the Forum by fountains of boiling water that miraculously gushed from the temple's stat­ue of Janus.

vice of an Egyptian astronomer, Caesar reengineered the calendar, instigated the leap year and 'added 90 days to bring the year back in step with the seasons. In addi­tion, he ordered the New Year moved from March to the first day of J anuarius. The new first month was named after the Roman God Janus, whose t\'iO faces look both back­ward and forward in-time. As God of begin­nings, gates and doorways, He is strikingly similar to Lord Ganesha. Just like Ganesha,

STRIVING

The following month, Februarius, came from Februa-the period of purification, and a time to make offerings to the 'dead. The original first month of the year, Martius

72-Hour Marathon Dance HAT DRIVES A MARA­thoner to go the extra

mile? When Vidya Chandra Sekhar set a

new world record for dancing

father, Sankarnarayan Chan­dra Sekhar, who died of heart disease in 1992. With blistered feet and pure exhaustion set­ting in, Sekhar, 27, held onto that love to see her through her three-day sadhana.

(March) , was dedicated to Mars, the God of war, also identified with the Hindu God, Muruga. The following m'onth, Aprilis, was in celebration of the Goddess Venus, or Aphro­dite, Goddess of love and beauty. Next was Maius, from Maia, "the great one," Goddess of spring. Then came Junius from the prin­ciple Goddess of the Pantheon, Juno, God­dess of marriage and the well-being of women. The remaIhing months kept their Latin numbers from the fifth to tenth: Quin­tilis, Sextilis, Septembris, Octobris , Novem­bris and Decembris. The count began with the original first month: March. Hence De­cembris means the tenth month. After Cae­sar's assassination, tl1e fifth month was re­'named Julius; the sixth month was renamed after his grandnephew and heir, Augustus.

Christian nations would not accept the 1

New Year change from March ~o January until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII de­clared it official and made a few minor ad­justments in the leap-year calculations to compensate for an error of 12 seconds per year. This error had caused the calendar to gradually fall 10 days behirid the seasons again, so Pope Gregory simply deleted the extra days. Thereafter, the Julian Calendar became known as the Gregorian. But apart from that, the calendar was and is Roman­Pagan, not Christiap.. While most of Europe adopted the changes, Protestant nations re­jected them and kept to March 25th as -their New Year for some time. Great Britain and her colonies held out until 1752. By then they were II days behind the rest of Europe. When the American colonies finally made the switch from Julian to Gregorian, Ben . Franklin wrote: "It i~ pleasant for an old man to be able to go to bed on September 2, and not have to get up ~til September 14."

It is interesting to reflect that since our present civil calendar began with Caesar, 1997 is really the year 2041! 1 ..

Fortitude: Sekhar, a danCing dynamo

The American Heart Association was "a great help" to Sekhar during her fathers illness. With tears of joy running down her face, ex­hausted after the event, she pleaded with the audience, "My tears are for my father, I can't bring him back But you can love your fami­

in May, 1996, she was guided by the strength of her late fa­thers love. She danced 72 hours and 10 minutes of non­stop Bharata Natyam for the American Heart Association and the Bharatiya Temple of Troy, Michigan. The program raised $25,000 in honor of her

Approximately 600 people watched this iron-willed daughter perform the fmal dance. She had injured her left knee the previous Sunday night and was finding it diffi­cult even to stand between

dances. "Talk about stamina," said J.P. Cartmill, Sekhars co­worker from Syntel, Inc, "I can't believe she's standing, let alone dancing!"

lies. Stay close, love them and please, exercise and watch your health. Take time for the little moments, that is all I ask"

BY JENNIFER M. FLAKER

36 HINDUISM TODAY JANUARY , 1997

Peace Ycijna in Puttaparthi, India

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dewelry

Highest quality astrological gems, amulets, custom jewelry, crystals,minerals. For infor­mation and catalog visit http://www.rfl.com write: joan@rfl.com or call 1-888-779-JOAN (USA).

Affordable jyotish gems/jewelry. Vedic astrolOgical prescriptions filled. Paramahansa Yogananda bangles. Meditation beads. Free in­formation. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Order by mail from King Enterprises, 1305 N. H StlA-289-T, Lompoc, CA 93436 USA. Call 1-805-693-0911 (business hours).

Music and Art

Devotional Paintings from India. Catalog: Lakshmi International 411 Madison St., Boonton, NJ 07005, USA. http://www.lakshmi.com

Exquisite Vedic paintings done to order at very reasonable prices. Call Pushkar at 904-462-0144. PO Box 1094, Alachua, FL 32615 USA.

East Indian instruments and gift items. Giant selection of instruments: harmoniums, tabla daggas, kirtan instruments, audio/video tapes. Also incense, spiritual books, etc. For a beau­tiful catalog, send $1 to Encinitas Imports. PO Box 230419-H, Encinitas, CA 92023 USA. Tel: 619-436-9589.

Devotional sculpture: Classic stone-cast murthies of Hindu deities for your home or temple. Ganesh, Shiva, Laxmi, Sarasvati, Durga. Height: 2 ft. (61 cm) or 4/5 ft. (1.211.5 m). Commissions available. Catalog: tel: 1-800-608-8632 or 1-515-472-8115. Vedic Sculpture Studio, 607 W Broadway #144, Fair­field, IA 52556 USA.

South Indian classical music tapes for sale. Write for complete 25-page catalog: Raju A., Box 26406, Barrigada, Guam 96921 USA

South Indian Chola-style bronzes-Natraj, 48", US$25,000. Parvati, 36", US$10,000. Siva, 38", US$10,000. Exquisite wooden carvings: Ganesh, 84", US$7,000. Krishna, 72", US$6,000. Saraswati, 60", US$3,500, etc. Call Kim, 1-718-274-5053 (USA).

Publications

Amar Chitra Katha for children. Illustrated col­orful tales on Hindu mythology Discounts to schools, distributors. ACK Agency, PO Box 1414, Los Altos, CA 94023 USA. TeVfax: 415-961-7878

Sri Aurobindo books: Complete works of Sri Au­robindo, the Mother, Shri Madhav Pandit. A.d­ditional titles on Yoga, Philosophy, Ayurveda and Alternate Health. Exclusive distributors for Samata Books Classical Spiritual Texts. Free Catalog: Lotus Light, Box 325HT, Twin Lakes, WI 53181 USA.

Reach out to Hindus worldwide. Your classified or display ad in Hinduism Today will reach out to more than 100,000 Hindus in over 120 coun­tries every month. Tel: 1-800-850-1008/808-823-9620, fax: 808-822-435.E-mail: ads@Hin­duismToday.kauai.hi .us (USA)

Palani Panchang 1997. Trivedis American Pan­chang available in English or Gujarati. US $9 (+$2 s/h). In 3 versions for NY, Chicago, SF times. 510-490-1533. Devendra Trivedi, 4831 Piper St, Fremont, CA 94538-2521 USA.

Auromere: Sri Aurobindo books, classical spir­itual texts, ayurveda books, children's books from India, ayurvedic products, incense, and much more. Free catalogs: 1-800-735-4691 (USA).

Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata, children's books. Low prices. Free catalog. Contact: Hindu Spiritual Books, 1085 Bathurst

1-416-588-7767.

New Book! Mystical Delights. Share the mysti­cal experiences of 50 famous poets, ancient to modern from around the world. Inspiring quo­tations, beautiful poems and a revealing com­mentary describe meditation, spiritual growth, enlightenment, celestial perception, kundalini, etc. Fascinating! Hardcover, $19.95. Tel: 1-800-356-9315, 1-802-482-2988. Fax 1-802-482-3125. E-mail: upperaccess@aol.com Website: http://www.frontsys.comlbooks

Hindu children's course with professional . teachers' guide. An intelligent, non-violent tra­ditional text for children 6 yrs and up. Saivite

wanted

Unusual news items, quotations and pictures by and about Hindus in every country of the world are needed for Hinduism Today: Call Arumugaswami at 1-808-822-7032, x 227.

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The Holy Geeta

• Religious Books: Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity and other modern faiths.

. • Religious Statues: wood, stone, metal, crystal-l in. to 5 ft. • Pooja Items: incense, dhoop, floral oils, beads and malas. • Clothing: kurta pyjama sets, silk saris and punjabi sets, pooja

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Catalog: Moneesh • 467 Brickman Rd., Hurleyville, NY 12747 USA. Tel: 9l4-434-8990 • Fax 914-436-5878.

Commentary by Swami Chinmayananda. A handbook on daily living for every­one. Chinmayananda's interpretation makes Lord Krishna's message of dharma and moksha relevant to modern man • $20 plus $3.75 postage. (888)-CMW-READ or (215)-396-0390 http://www.chinmaya.orglpublications Chinmaya Publications 560 Bridgetown Pike Langhorne, PA 19053 USA

India Currents

THERE IS NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT! The Complete Indian American Magazine

~

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"The magazine has continued to blaze its way to high quality and comprehensive coverage. It also plays an invaluable role as a link between the community of Indian origin and Americans inter­ested in India and in South Asia. "

Kishan Rana Former Consul General of India

Your true voice ... like never heard before.

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INVESTING IN THE FUTURE OF HINDUISM

Fiery prayers: The late Shri Shan~arrao Thatte, who began training program in 1975

LIT.URGY ,.

Women Priestesses A shortage of male! celebrants prompts the training of women to pe.rform the priestly ' arts .

By VL. MA1"JUL, 'PUNE • Not unexpectedly, orthodox male priests

I HE CITY OF PUNE, IN WESTERN INdia, and s~stris of Pune have criticised and op­has not only been a prominent cultural posed the trend, claiming it is against Vedic ~enter, but has also been swift to assim- ~aw. Ac~ord~?g t~ tQem, this is. the first time llate modern trends. It was here in Ma- m the VedIc Hmau religion that women

harashtra state, for example, that many_first have assumed the priesthood: came forward and called for the education Dr. T. H. Dharmadhikari, a well-known of women and for widow remarriage. shrauta pandit, told HINDUISM TODAY

In 1975, one ranking harbinger of social there is no precise mention disallowing change, Shri Shankarrao Thatte, began the women to recite Vedic mantras. There is training of ladies in priestly duties. At his certain evidence of womens pe;forming the r~si~ence he initially established two mar- thread ceremony, but there is no clear Vedic nage,halls where he tutored a small group of sanctioI?- one way or the other. 1q to 20 ladies in various stotras and pujas. ,. These ladies are said to be more honest He also trained them in the intricate and 'and pious than thejr male counterparts. mystical kno:.vledge of Sanskrit mantras, Sri While male priests today may oot under­Rudram, Mahima, sacrificial tantra, mar- stand the meaning of the mantras they re­riage rituals and thread cere:monies. The cite, the ladies are trained to offer explana­distaff priests began to perform yajnas 'to tions. Day. by day there is a growing

. the various Deities. After a few years, hav- shortage of priests in our society, while peo­ing grac!'uated 8 to 10 groups, Shri Thatte pIe are becoming wore and more religious. arranged a trip for them to demonstrate Some have begun to "depend on modern their liturgical prowess to Indian and Hindu technol~gy suc~ \is tape recordings of pujas·. residents in England and Germany. The ladles are taking responsibility for these

Since his death .in 1987, his wife, Mrs. religious families, who express satisfaction Pushpabai Thatte, has advanced"'-his work with their sacred duties. under the name of Shankar Seva Samiti. It Communities outside India are also dis­has:now spread to all parts of Maharashtra. qovering the value of competent priestesses. The .idea of Hindu priestesses has been ac- In South Africa and Tri1idad, for example, cepted by I?ost educated people, welcomed the Arya Samaj panditas are much in de­as a revolutionary step in Indian society. mand for ceremonies and ministry. fI

Young people find friendship and spiritual answers at an ISKCON retreat.

Giving the Best to Our Kids ost of us spare no means to provide the best

Mfor our kids. We shuttle them back and forth endlessly to school, sports events, friends'

homes and the mall. We work hard to buy them what they need, and push them to gain entrance into the finest universities.

Preparing one's kids for the world has been im­portant throughout history. The great sages of India admonished us to fulfil our parental duties, but they also challenged us with a broader vision of the task.

"One should not become a father, mother, teacher, or king;' the Vedas say, "unless one can deliver his de­pendants from the cycle of birth and death."

In other words, we shouldn't just give our kids the best that money can buy. We must offer them the best that life has to offer.

Young people need a world view that focuses not just on earthly success, but spiritual fulfillment. Without a deeper under­standing of one's self, God, and the purpose oflife, it's tough to avoid peer pressure and the allurements of drugs, casual sex, and selfish materialism. Today kids don't just do things because their elders say so- they

want to know WHY. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada understood how important it is for young people to have a solid cultural and religious foundation. That's why he translated and published 60 Vedic texts, like Bhagavad-GWi As-It-Is, making

the ancient wisdom available in 90 modern lan­guages for people young and old.

He opened temples, now numbering 400, where young people can visit,

have darshan, eat sumptuous prasa­da, have their philosophical ques­tions answered, and dance and chant happily with their family and peers.

In London, for example, mem­bers of ISKCON'S Manor Youth Forum hold regular weekend

get-togethers, spiritual retreats, and discussion sessions to help them bal­

ance the pressures of growing up­without forgetting God. Throughout 1996 people of many faiths

and traditions will celebrate the centennial of Srtla Prabhupada, Founder-Acarya of the International So­ciety for Krishna Consciousness. You are invited to join in saluting the life and work of this great soul.

Thanks to Srila Prabhupada ... Vedic culture is preserved for generations to come

For more information please call ISKCON Communications at (301) 299-9707.

South Asia Books Your path to India for 28 years. 4,000 titles in active stock.

Newest titles in stock (Prices net and include shipping)

• Mahadevan. Hymns of Sankara. rep. • Griffith. Hymns of the Rigveda. • Pandey. Hindu Samskaras. • Hiriyanna. Essentials of Indian Philosophy. • Monier Williams. Sanskrit-English Dictionary • Singh. Siva Sutras. • MacDonell. Vedic Grammar for Students. • Miller. Hindu Monastic Life. revised edition • Wade. Music in India, Classical Traditions. • Whitney. Atharva Veda Samhita. 2 vol. • w.J. Wilkins. Hindu Mythology. pa. rep.

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We offer a wide selection of Sri Chinmoy's inspirational and instructional written works, including essays, poetry, plays and extensive answers to questions asked by seekers.

Music includes soul-stirring audio and video perform­ances by Sri Chinmoy and his students on instruments from allover the world.

Just published-Sri Chinmoy's long-awaited trilogy, Commentaries on the Vedas , the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita: The Three Branches of India's Life-Tree and a 4-CD set of selections from Sri Chinmoy's fifty Peace Concerts offered in honor of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.

Call or write for our free catalog!

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Books by K. N. Rao We carry a complete collection of books by K.N. Rao as well as many books on Vedic Astrology, Ayurveda and Vedic texts in general. Call or write for our free catalog or visit our web site on the Internet: http://www.hway.netiwebcity/Default.htm

21st Century Books. PO Box 702 HT • Fairfield, IA 52556 USA Tel: 515-472-5105 • E-mail: books2lst@aol.com

The true story of one man's quest for the pure Self with­in. Relive with him his years with Paramhansa Yogananda in the monastic order of Self Realization Fellowship. Expe­rience with him incredible visions and encounters with extraterrestrials and beings of other dimensions, culmi­nating in a meeting with a living Being of Light called I am that I am.

"Here is one of the most im­portant documents of our time" -John Michell, Author of The ':iew ~ver A~lantis . "Norman Paulsen is a man whose bemg shines WIth the hght of cosmic consciousness. He is an articulate spokesman for the role of near death experiences in human evolution and planetary regeneration"-Kenneth Ring, Ph.D., author of Heading Toward Omega and Life at Death "To Norman, dear one: May your birth bring happiness to many spiritually, may your birthdays be filled with God­Consciousness. With unceasing blessing."-February 3, 1951 Paramhansa Yogananda, author, Autobiography of a Yogi

Soft cover. ISBN #0-941848-05-1· 496 pg'/illustrated, 8 color plates. US$25 including postage. Builders Publishing Company 1305 North H StlA-289-T • Lompoc, CA 93436 USA

HEALING

Hospital ,Hopes And kJ8ZMds Patients face inadequate insurance, hospital diseases, poor food and excessive tests

BY DR. DEVANANDA: TANDAVAN, M.D.

I ISTORICALLY THE HOS­pital has been an institu­tion created as a central place to give nursing care,

expert medical trea~ment and to study and treat acute and chron­ic illnesses. Today every hospital also has a teaching and mon~tor­ing responsibility for the health aild wellness of its community. The larger teac}ling hospitals harbor specialists in various disease cate­gories and are elaborate structures for teaching every phase of the medical profes­sion. Hospitals now 'range from the barely adequate to the best there is to offer.

Commonly, the cost of running the hos­pital continues whetlier or not there are empty beds. Hospitals are the most con­hp lled illdustry in the USA by federal} state and local regulatory agencies. These agencies, as well as the hospital commit- . tees, put constraints upon the quality of medical care, mortality, morbidity and medical 'ethics. The most recent invasion is by insurance companies, which pay most of the patient's bills, but deny certain ch~es, often without any good clinical reason-all in order to keep their payouts as low as possible. They dictate the maxi­mum length of hospital stay, regardless of the clinical condition of the patient.

The hospital's stated mission is the preservation of life. This often means that in spite of "living wills" (orders to not resuscitate) the patient may be put on life-support machines, contrary to his wishes or those of the family. Once on the machine, removal is alm~t impossible, even though costs are mounting and no benefit is derived by the patient.

The greatest hazard is nosocomial (hos­pital acquired) infections from the many germs, viruses, toxins and allergens that do not exist at home. The patient is suscepti­ble to massive new infections since he has

I

44 Bj NDUISM TODAY JANUARY , 1997

no natural immunity. Indiscriminate and often unneccesary antibioticS' are given-often with serious consequences and without the desired testing and matching of the antibiotic and the offending organism. Frequently this is without patient consent and considered part of the blanket permit signed at admis;;ion.

TheEutritionists do not understand the concept of vegetarianism, and a patient cannot get a good vegetarian meal. Other food is also often inadequate, and it has been said that malnutrition is very com­mon in the modern hospital without sup­plemental and very expensive feeding.

The current litigious nature of our soci­ety encourages excessive testing-merely to satisfy medical and hospital protocols­especially the latest and most expensive techniques.

The patient can control many of these "errors" by insisting that he be an active participant in every decision that his physi­cian makes and demanding that some thin~s be treated on an outpatient or hos­pice basis. He has the right of a second and third opinion and to know his disease and th~ options of treatment. Most hospitals do not allow alternative methods of treatment and deny to patients the options of allopa­thy, homeopathy, ayurveda, hert)al medi­cines, acupuncture, laying on of hands,

. Reiki or even chiropractic adjustments. Many ..... other issues are contrary to the

patient's interest in the modern hospital, but we must admit that we have the most sophisticated treatment in the world today.

DR. TANDAVAN, 76, retired nuclea( <physi­cian and hospital staff preSident, lives in Clvi'cago, where he specializes in alternative healing arts. Visit his home page at the HINDUISM TODAY Website.

. ,

EVOLUTIONS BORN: Medicine Wheel, a silvery-white buffalo calf on a South Dakota, USA, ranch, May 9, 1996. Native American Indians regard the one-in-ten million birth as a good omen equivalent to weep­ing statues or Lord Ganeshas drinking milk. Medicine men say the white calf is a sign "to begin to mend life's sacred hoop."

DIVA TO DEVI: VIrtuoso European opera singer Astrid Van Heiden, initiated as Kaalikamaba Swami by Sri Ganapathi

Sachchidanan­da, recorded an audio-cassette of healing Sanskrit bhajans. She has dedicated her life and prodi­gious voice to healing people

Sop ranD with guru through song.

VINDICATED: The US Equal Employ­ment Opportunity Commission ruled that Bruce Anderson, a vegetarian bus driver fired in June for refusing to hand out coupons for free hamburgers, was discriminated against by his Cali­fornia employer. He may return to his job as well as receive attorney's fees and back pay. Yea, dharma prevails.

LIBERATED: Swami Bhashyanandiijl, 79, on October 4th, former head of the Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chi­cago, of heart failure after a long ill­ness. He was born in India in 1917 and earned degrees in English and Sanskrit before joining the Ramakrishna Mis­sion Order at age 20. He served in various capacities at Indian RK centers and was sent to the US in 1964. A dynamic religious leader, he was in­strumental in developing the Chicago Society and the Vivekan.anda Monas­tery and Retreat in Ganges, Michigan, as well as founding many Vedanta groups in the US and Canada. We at HIN­DUISM TODAY fondly remember his visits with us in Hawaii. Bhashyananda

ffiN6UISM=-~ ~'="

Dharma Graphics CD For the Mac. Reg. $249. Special offer for HT readers, only $199

~500+imagesrenecDng India's rich traditions and spiritual culture

Patterns & Borders

Nothing lends a sense of Indian-ness to a design better than traditional borders and patterns.

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Here it is-the Hindu art CD of the decade. Trek into the heart of mystic India with this spectacular collection of imagery drawn from the treasurehouse of Hindu spiri­tuality. This CD contains a wealth of clip art, Aums, pat­terns, textures,sacredsym­boIs, borders, fmished graphics and some rare Raj­put scans. Great graphics for an ashram bulletin, a yoga book, Web page or multimedia presentation.

~ums & Illustrations

M any images are or­ganized in

themes, like nature, Deities, people, borders, symbols, etc. Use the Fetch browser to get a quick overview, then double clic on a page for a detailed preview.

Pictured is our featured product-of-the-month from our assortment of aroma­therapy massage oils. These are rare Indian fragrances from ingredients carefully selected for their therapeutic value and for being natural and non-animal in origin.

"Male Skin Toner" A blend of hardy oils and fragrances needed to penetrate rough or dry skin. Sesame seed oil, ashwagandha, turmeric, geranium and other natural flower essenses and essential oils.

This extraordinary new book is authored by H.D. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, founder of the International Society of Divine Love, Barsana Dham and Shree Raseshwari Radha Rani Temple.

This is but one from our over 225 Ayurvedic products imported directly from India. Buy directly from the USA's largest bulk importers of Ayurvedic products. For the past 25 years, our buyers have been traveling to India 3 or 4 times a year to insure our herbs are up to import regulatory standards.

The Divine Vision of Radha Krishn is a Divine gift by Shree Swamiji. It is a practical guide for all who sincerely desire to experience the loving Bliss of Radha Krishn or any other form of God as described in our scriptures. It fulfills the de­votional quest of everyone, from a highly educated open­minded aspirant to a simple-hearted devotee of God who is longing to receive His love and vision. • It incorporates the philosophy and theme of more than 400 scriptures and gives a crystal-clear view of the path to Supreme God. • For the first time in hundreds of years, such a book in the English language has been published that reveals, in extensive detail, the true Divine form of Radha, Radha Krishn, Divine Vrinda­ban and raganuga bhakti. • 464 pg. • $30 • Available from:

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The International Society of Divine Love, Barsana Dham, 400 Barsana Rd., Austin, TX 78737 USA. Tel: 1-512-288-7180.

Aotbology oftbc Vedas fo~ Modern Mall aod COD temporary Celebration

SACRED ANTHOLOGY

HIMALAYAN ACADEMY PUBLICATIONS

107 KAHOLAlELE ROAD

KAPAA HI 96746-9304 USA

BOOKS YOU CAN TAKE, SER I OUSLY

For centuries, the West has enjoyed beautiful translations of

the Upanishad, known as the Vedanta, "end:' or "oulmination"

of the Vedas. But, alas, the other three major parts of the

world's oldest scripture have, as a rule, been pOQ)l'ly rendered.

We at Himalayan Academy c0wld hardly lDelieve our eyes when we stumbled on this thoughtful aPithology of tfie

Samhitas, Brahmanas, AranY<ilkas, Upanishads an61 01iher ma­

jor scriptures. This Vedic epiphany tells the :St0ry of the

rhythms of nature, history and man. Translation and com­

mentary are the work of the brilliant renaissance thinker, Rai­

mon Panikkar. It is the fruit of twelve years of sadhana on the

banks of the Ganga in Varanasi, living in a Siva temJ5lle; I:le-

tween 1964 and 1976. Scholars consid€r it perhaps bis most

significant contribution to the liter-ary wor.ld.

Chapters on: 1. Dawn and Birth 2. Germination and Growth 3. Blossoming and Fullness

4. /rail and Decay 5 . Death and Dissolution 6. New Life and FreedoliYl 7, Twilight

Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1977, smythe sewn, e/oth bound, 5 112" x 8 1/2", 1 ,.000 pages. US$35.00. + slh $3.50 in US; $7.00 outside US. Tel: 1-800-890-1008 ext. 238, Outside US: 1-808-822-3012 ext. 238; Fax~ 1-808-822-4351

With this knowledge firmly in her heart and mind, she walked as a prayer and a chance to inspire others to pray and work for p~ace, averaging 25 miles a day. She wore navy blue shirts and slacks, and a short tunIc with pockets all around the bottom in which she carried her only worldly posses­sions: a comb, a folding toothbrush, a ball­point pen, copies of her message and her current correspondence. She carried no money and would walk until offered lodging or food. At times she would miss a few meals, but generously complained, "My real problem is everyone wants to overfeed me!"

Her travel was not without danger. On -­one occasion a disturbed youth started to beat her. "I bathed ,his hatred with love even while he hit me," she said. 'l\s a result, the hitting stopped, and this boy was never vio­·lent again." Another time she accepted a ride from an unseemly character. She woke after a short nap to find the man crying and confessing he meant her harm, but simply could not touch her. Such incidents were rare. "No one walks so safely as those who walk humbly and harmlessly with great love and great faith," she said.' She did spend a few nights in jail, but was always released when the police understood her mission.

Perfect peace: Th1s self-proclaimed American renunciate lived like a Hindu sannyasini

After walking 25,000 miles, which took 11 years up to 1964, she stopped counting miles, and speaking became her first priori­ty, though she continued her daily trek. She met with people on city streets and dusty roads, in ghettos, suburbs, deserts and trucks tops. She became a popular and revered figure often interviewed by the TV, radio and press, invited to talk at schools and churches across the country. LIFESTYLE

-J I

'USA's "Peace Pilgrim" Peace Pilgrim believed we hav~ entered a

, crisis period in human history, "walking the brink between a nuclear war of annihilation and a golden age of peace." She felt it was her calling to arouse people from apathy and get them thinking and actively working fOr peace. She encouraged people to seek the Her life's march was both medium and message

--

IENUNCIATION IN INDIA IS ARDUOUS

enough, even though there it has been the most esteemed spiritual path since before recorded history. In America,

it is even harder, where striving to live a homeless renunciate's life could well result in ridicule and arrest for vagrancy. Yet, from 1953 until her great departure in 1981, an extraordinary silver-haired American wo­man lived this life to perfection. She gave herself the name "Peace "-Pilgrim" and vowed: "I shall remain a wanderer until man-

. kind -has learned the way bf peace, walking until I am given shelter, and fasting until I am given food." Walk she did, criss-crossing the United States many times. She refused to reveal her preVious name, or be identified in any way other than "Peace Pilgrim."

What she taught will strike the Hindu as

real source of peace within. pure Veaanta, but her spiri- Once relentlessly ques-tual awakening was com- tioned by a reporter about . pletely spontaneous, tied to her "tru~ identity," she re-no organized religion, East sponded, "This clay garment or West. She was not a is one of a penniless pilgrim Christian, never even en~ journeying in the name of tered a Christian church un- peace. It is what you cannot til" she was 16, and then only see that is so very important. to attend a friend's wedding. I am on,e who is propelled by

"It came to me that God is the power of faith. I bathe in . a creative force," she re- the light of eternal wisdom. I vealed, "a motivating power, am sustained by the unend-an over-all intelligem:e, an ing energy of the universe . ever-present, all-pervading the Road: Her This is who I really am!" spirit-which binds every- ho1[W wandered with her Friends of Peace Pilgrim thing in the universe togeth- will send a free book on her er and gives life to everything. That brought I life anywhere in the world.' Write to Peace God close. I could not be where God is not. Pilgrim, 43480 Cedar Avenue, Hemet, Cali­You are within God. God is within you." fornia 92544 USA. __

J ANUARY , 1997 HINDUISM TODAY 47

"One God, One World" will be

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Temple, Americas first all-stone

traditional Siva temple. In 1991

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craftsmen and their families who

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to be shipped to the Garden Island

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"ONE GOD, ONE WORLD"

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KAPAA. HI 96746-9304 USA

A TEMPLE BUILT TO LAST 1. 000 YEARS

ART

Dexterity. to the Max One grown-up artist's take orr fingc;r painting

Fing~rnail Creations: Tavkar in front of etche~ egrets and a dancing Ganesha

By LAVINA MELWANI, NEW YORK

IF GANESHA IS EVERYWHERE - EVEN IN

a grain of rice-He is surely in the tip of the fingernail-especially Suhas Tavkars fingernail. How else to explain the mag­

ic that this New York-based artist cern create with his bar~ hands? Take away his paints, paint brushes and pencils, and he can stin give you exquisjte art. For many years, he has been creating elaborate Lord Sivas, Ganeshas and Hanumans, ballerinas and Grecian sculptures. All he requires is a piece of paper, a keen eye and his low-tech but highly skillful fmgernails.

Tavkar, who hails from Gujarat in India, is the third generation in his. family to prac­tice this unusual art. He draws ~s inspira­tion from ancient temple sculpture. He can trace his family name back to the 14th cen­tury, but doesn't know how this unusual art came about. He recalls: "My father was an engineer and did this for fun. I wanted to turn this hobby into commercial art."

Currently, Tavkar works at the Grey .Ad­vertising Agency in New York, and this unique skI'll often come's in handy. He's hop­ing his daughter, an art student at the pres­tigious New York Fashion Institute of Tech-

nology, will eventually,continue in the fam­ily tradition.

A graduate ofBombay'~J.J. School of Art, he uses blind embossing even at work to make mock-ups of clients' logos. Employing the carefully filed nails of his right thumb and index fingertip, he embosses a design on paper or foil by painstakingly etching the pattern into the paper to the appropri­,ate depth. The r:esult is an intricate sculp­tural rendering· made. without tools. Ju~t as other artists keep their pencils sharpened and paint brushes clean, he does the s~ with his nails.

Says Tavkar: "It's a demanding technique. If a line or/impression fails to satisfy me, it can't be undone." Recently his ballet-related artwork was exhibited at the New York City Ballet Gallery. He also uses his fingernail' art to produce special braille cards which are sold at the Lighthouse for the Blind. Others may praise Ganesha with words and song, but Suhas Tavkar does it through his wOhderful fingernail ar.t. He etches not only Hindu Gods, but images of other reli­gions. He says art is universal, and, being a Hindu, he is open to all faiths and sees the good in all religions. ..'

Will They Ever See the Valley? I

Pandits' persistent plight

OF PANDITS RETURNED TO Kashmir Valley in early October

from the bleak camps of Jammu in which they have languished for six

years. It was a largely symbolic event in a situation which, for the Hindu pandits, has changed little since 1990 when 700,000 fled the Valley in fear for their lives. This elite group is.thought·to have lived in Kashmir for the last 5,000 years. HINDUISM TODAY re­ported on their plight in 1994, and staffers took an opportunity in early 1996 to visit the Purkhoo and Geologi<;al Survey of India (GSI) camps a short distance from Jammu. The situation at the camps is unchanged. There are below minimal living facilities, no schools and zero birthrate. Families live in political limbo, classified by the government

. as "voluntary migrants," not refugees, and ignored internationally. Each family re­ceives US$42 a month plus a food ration of rice and dal. A few are employed.

The Purkhoo camp of ragged army tents sits on a desolate open river bed; blazing hot in summer and freezing cold in winter. A single well serves 3,00d people. The GSI group of.1,100 are better off, having com­mandeered the unfinished GSI building. FamIlies partitioned off the multi-story con­crete structure with sacks and sheets into makeshift living areas 12 by 20 feet.

Those who permanently leave the camps for jobs are seen by those remaining as giv­ing up on any possibility of a return to their ancestral Valley home and, therefore, as abandop.ing the thousands-of-years-old pan­dit tradition. Certainly it appears more could be done to help the uprooted refugees, especially to see to the education of the chile dren. Nevertheless, for now, no one is coming forward. ..'

Home sweet home: Boys play in front of a tailor shop refugee camp for Bhutan Nepalese

REFUGEES

Booted O.ut of Bhutan 100,000 flee Buddhist nation's ethnic cleansing

By DR. HARI BANSH JHA, NEPAL ELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL PERSECU­

is alleged to have forced 100,000 Hindus from Bhutan, the tiny 18,147 sq. km. Buddhist kingdom situated in

the eastern part of the Himalayas. Today the refugees, most of Nepalese origin but claim­ing Bhutanese citizenship, are settled in nine camps in southeastern Nepal. Hindu Nepalese have migrated to Bhutan since the mid-nineteenth century, and by the 1980s had conl'e to account for 25% of the nations 1.2 million population. Fearing a threat to their ethnic identity, Bhutan took measures to limit the Nepalese presence, one of which was to force the relatively recent arrivals to

return to Nepal. · ./ I had read that the conditions

at Goldhap camp were abom­'1nable, but when I went to the Sanischare camp on July 1, 1996,

Nepalese people. One teen-age girl, Sita, said the food provided the deportees was not ad­equate. Another lamented that the days were difficult for therh, and they were not allowed to seek employment. Nearby, men were playing cards. Others sat by idly.

The Nepalese have greeted the newcom­ers with mixed reactions. Some residents near the camp told HINDUISM TopAY die refugees were living "like pampered chil­dren." Gayatri Devi said, "The refugees have been given so much aid that even many of the Nepalese have benefitted from this. . Twenty-five percent of t.he nonnatives have married locally and acquired Nepalese citi­zenship. Quite a few are in service and busi­ness. They are not going back to Bhutan."

Others expressed concern for the people. Sunil Chaudhary reported, "Many refugees have been converted t.9 Christianity. Luth­eran World Service, noted for conversion, is very active among tl}.e Bhutanese."

Jammu: Pyare Lal (left) head of Purkhoo camp and residents

\ I found a different story. I saw food, good schools, houses, a well, health facilities and small variety stores. I noticed tnat the children of the refugees were well fed, though their' clothes were unkempt. Overall, the con­ditions of the Bhutanese refugees seemed better than those of local

Talks between Nepal and Bhutan are at a stalemate. India is suggested as an interme­diary-refugees must pass through India to get to Nepal. But internationalizing the problem could lead to major complications between Nepal and Chin~ over Tibetan refugees who similarly passed through Nepal on their way to India. WI

J ANUAR Y, 199 7 HI NDU ISM TODAY 49

, MINISTER'S MESSAGE

Personal' Peace Leads ~ U~iversal ' Peace Practice daily meditation, express love, find peace within, then the world will change

I

listens to the teachings of nature becomes a wise pe~son.

We must love nature abd our fellow man, Love is lacking in the world, and this is what the holy ones are giving to the people. By giving this love to the people, they are elevating them to higher spiritual conscious­ness. This is very 'important. The love which the holy people give is very clear and full of pmity. It'is crystal clear. There is no pollution at all in their love of mankind.

BY

Knowledge without compassion is not enough. Just speaking knowledgeably is not enough. We must be very kind and very simple. We must have .that pure and com­passionate knowledge 'which gives the great

K A RUN A MAY ( SRI V I,J AYE S WAR IDE V I -quality of forgiveness, forgiving others. ' , When we have only half-knowledge, with-

Ny WISH IS UNIVERSAL PEACE, TO BE ACHIEVED

through the cultivation of individual peace. If each person is at peace in his home, in his city, in his country, there will be peace in the whole world. Why is there discord and unrest in this world? It is selfish­

ness which perpetuates mortality and sensual life which leads to hell. Wisdom, dimJa prema, divine'love qpd forgive­ness all lead to immortality.

All religions should be honored. They all teach truth, and they all seek to realize divinity. In following the teachings of their own religIons, diose followers should lead a very simple and very peaceful life. Whatever has been said in their scrip­tures is what they must'practice in their daily lives. They must cultivate universal love and self control. This will make their lives peaceful and happy. .

The lifestyle we see everywhere in the world now is--very color­ful, but when we look closely and examine it carefully, it is com­pletely empty. The emphasis on the material is why there is so much frustration and tension in daily life, and why people cannot find peace. To avoid such unnappiness is why a person must be­come spiritual. Only then will he aohieve inner peace.

He who has intens~ desire for God, who has the inner vision, only he understandN he universe. Your heart must be pure. When you have inner vision, you can righ~ly understand the universe and know what life is. This is the goal of life and to achieve that state of ab~olute consciousness, that poorna pragna, the seeker s~eks. ThaNs why holy people from all religions come down to the level of ordinary human beings-to elevate them to that awareness. I

Body, mind and spirituality-these are three cages. A spiritual seeker will go beyond all these cages. In his natural state, samadhi, the entire unive'rse is nothing but his Self. Whatever he enjoys in this world is nothing but Self; time is Self only; wisdom is Self only. He realizes he is not this body. In fact, when he achieves that highest state of absolute conscjousness, he 'sees no differences at all. He sees everyone the same, and he sees the whole world as his own, knowing that the entire u~'verse belongs. to him: the rivers, the mountains, the trees, the birds, everything belongs to him. He sees nothing as separate from himself. He knows that he belongs t6 nature, and natur~ belongs to him.

We must love and serve nature. Nature teaches us so much and giv.es every thing. But in return we do nothing for nature. So we mbst not pollute. Not only physically. Pollution goes beyond the visible and the material. It includes impme thoughts. Negative thoughts will pollute nature, th'erefore our thoughts must always be pure. When thoughts are pure, nature also will be pure. Nature has to be saved and respected. One who loves nature and who .

50 HINDUISM TOD AoY J <\NUARY , 1997

out understanding, we will be very strict and intolerant. We will always be commanding people. .

Many people come for spiritual solace. They ask, "What must we do to overcome all these miseries of life?" I tell them that meditation is the only method which can give us a balanced mental state. Start with at least 15 to 20 minutes early in the morn­ing. The brahma muhurta hour is ideal, between 3:30 and 4:30AM. If you're not able to do that, at least meditate before the sun rises, not after s.unrise. Gradually in­crease the meditation to one hour. Start the

day with meditation and end the day with meditation. As we . .f>ro­ceed on the path of constant meditation, bad qualities.such as anger; jealousy and hatred will be reduced. External worship in­volving man.y rituals and requiring ;many things may be a bit hard for everyone. That doesn't mean that it is not important, but that it is different from meditation which does not require externals.

Amma's blessing is meditation. The meditation I give is the Saraswati Mantra meditation, which is so pow~rful. It is the bijak­sharas ("seed syllables") which inspire and enric~ the mind. They grant memory, the power of concentration and give the mind peace. This meditation is a very simple process. You have to be like a baby iNfant who has no thoughts at all. The meditation state is also without thought. Silently, closing one's eyes, one turns the mind inward, concentrates and does the meditation by chanting the Saraswati Mantra. There is a lot of difference between prayer and meditation. In prayer we are always, talking with God. But in meditation, God will be speaking to us, ,

Liillguage is for sharing feelings with each other in this world. But in absolute silence is the connection with the entire universe . without any disturbance. This is how, directly, soul to soul, goly people transfer divine energy and elevated feelings without even open,ing their mouths. They transmit their feelings in silence. Silence is the language of Divinity. I like silence very much.

KARUNAMAYI SRI VIJAYESWARI DEVI, 38, considered an' embodi­ment of the Divine Mother, lives at her forest ashram in Andhra Pradesh. After years of tapas, she now travels and teaches globally.

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. WORSHIP

City of 10 Mil'lion Icons A prodigious project for world: peace

BY"CHOODIE SHIVARAM, BANGALORE

IAMMASANDRA WAS JUST AN OBSCURE

town 100 km from Bangalore until Sri Samba Shivamurthy Swamiji decided to propagate the greatness of Siva

through the consecration of many Sivalingas dedicated to world peace and the welfare of Bharat. When I visited the town, now called Kotilingeswara, "City of Ten Million Icons," all I Gould see were rows and rows of Siva­lingas ranging in size from a few inches to a 108-foot Linga-shaped building. Over 500 devotees were present, many performing the ritual of prathishthapana, installation of a Sivalinga, with a priest's assistance.

in India: Stone, pillar-shaped icons, 3.5 million so far, adorn every available nitch

Sivalinga means "mark or sign, of Siva." It is one of India's most prevalent and highly revered temple' icons, a rounded, elliptical, aniconic image usually set on a circular base, or pitha. It is the simplest and most ancient symbol of Siva, especially of Parasi­va, Reality beyond all forms and qualities.

The temple compl~x is situated on 20 acres of land. Besides th~ 108-foot-tall Sivalinga

METAPHYSICS

and a 12-foot-tall Vrishabeshwara, shrines fill the area for Sri Manjunatheshwara, Tri­murthi, Ashta-Lakshmi, Subramanya, the Navagrahas and many other Deities. The maiR attraction is the entrance from the highway to the central courtyard. The cylin­drical icons line the colonnade, perch upon rooftops and stand as sentries around every shrine and building. In some places they are packed so tightly that one cannot walk be­tween them. Most are traditional in shape; others have square bases. One is uniquely five-sided with five spouts.

"Koti" means 10 million. That;s the goal.

E-mails from Heaven? ediums-persons able to go into a trance and speak out messages from the Gods, devas

receiving messages through telephones, answering ma­chines, radios, computers and TVs. The admittedly contro­versial developments have a substantial following, especial­ly in Europe and America.

So far, 3.5 million icons have been placed here by devotees fulfilling a vow or seeking a beon. Pilgrims seeking the blessings of in­stalling an icon can do so for a fee. Acharyas and politicians alike (including late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi) have done so.

Kammasandra is mentioned in the Ram­ayana as a yillage Rama's horse blessed as it wandered the land during the Ashwamedha Yajna [horse sacrifice]' People believe the oppulent Kolar gold fie}ds nearby are the re­sult. The area is also cited in the Puranas as a place where a fabulous ceremony was per-formed by Dakshabrahma. ~

or people "on the other side"­are common in Hinduism, in both villages and big cities. Few Hindus are probably aware that the West also has a long tradition of channelers, who are now going hi-tech. In a recent development, modern research laboratories in Eu­rope are reporting extended, two-way communication with spirit colleagues almost daily,

The quietly growing field, called Instrumental Transcom­munication (ITC) currently involves two dozen researchers in eight countries who work, they say, with a team of more than 1,000 spirit beings (in­cluding ThoJIlas Edison, Madame Curie and Nikola

The late Juergenson: From beyond the grave; in life

The TV image, left, was recorded by Adolf Homes of Germany. He says it is Friedrich Juer­genson, a spirit re­searcher who died in 1987. At the mo­ment the image was projected, a mes­sage from Juergen­son appeared on Homes' computer saying, in part, "We are able to enter

52 HI N DUISM TODAY JANUARY , 1997

Tesla). These beings are quickly mastering the art of manipulating the energies of our modern technology-an interaction giving direct physi­cal evidence of life after death.

your structure in various ways. I am sending you again a pro­jection of myself" More mes­sages and images are being re­ceived on TVs and PCs at the research lab in Luxembourg.

Experience of a Life~ __

II •• If I were asked under what sky the human mind fully developed and has found solutions to some of the

greatest problems of life, I would point to India ... 11

- Max Muller

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BeamwO'rk to your boss

in a cubicle 100 yards down the hall from the boss," says one US news­paper. We're not talking about low-end data en­try either. The same re­port says, "Highly trained engineers and technicians in Banga­lore, India, will pump out computer software code for a fraction­sometimes one-tenth-of the salaries of their Western counterparts." Fast software production is beiIlg done by matched teams in the US and India who work during each other's night on the same project.

Four cartoon characters guide yol).r jou:mey CD - ROM

Let's Tour India!

CONGRATULATIONS TO PADMINI MULTI­

media Ltd. for this wonderful interac­tive CD tour of India. The quality of graphics, sound and photos is first

class. Four animated guides are introduced by Surya, the Sun, talking from your computer. Each scene is narrated and accompanied by sonorous Indian music. The digital sound effects are so good, the lion's roar may cause the bravest among us a moments pause. The first character, Lalloo, tours you through India's major cities and all of the states, introducing eleven domestic and wild animals. Raj helps you meet different people and attend diverse Hindu festivals. Bhim travels with you from present-day Bharat back through histo­ry to 2500 BCE. Lastly, Munni invites you to visit monuments, listen to music, see works of art, view vignettes of Indian dancers and clips from Bollywood films. Along the way are games and puzzles to play. Any member of the family from four years old and up can learn much about the vastness that is India. Available for Windows (no Mac version) for US$29.95. Order: Multisync Trends Inc., 540 Gotham Parkway, Carlstadt, New Jersey 07072 USA.

' MEDIA

I ndia Press Online

I NDOPHILES CAN AL­

most weekly find a new Bharat magazine or newspaper on line. One ne.ed no longer spend $50 and up for a "snail mail" subscription-and ' get the news two weeks late in the bargain. Up­to-date links to electronic editions of Indian Ex­press, The Hindu and Deccan Herald newspa­pers, as well as Outlook and The W eek magazine, One of the on-line media can be found at http:// ugweb.cs. ualberta.cal -srinivaslindial. The presenta­tion is stylish at these sites. Articles are frequently accompanied by color pictures. Back issues are archived and provided with e8$y-to-use search func­tions. Recently, the popular almanac, Kalnimay, was added at http://www.indiaworld.com.

RELIGION

Parishes Online

C ATHOLICS WORLD­

wide are wasting no time putting the Internet

from the pope and a guided tour of Vatican art. Most ambitious is a plan to set up 19,500 AmericaQ Catholic churches with their own Web home page. Hindus would benefit from simi­lar comprehensive plans

Take a net tour of MichelangelO's Sistine ceiling

to use for their faith. Al­ready available are vast Catholic resources, in­cluding weekly messages

to put every temple and ashram on-line, plus en­gineer easy web access to Hindu wisdom and art.

Tt-Iat frQm which beings are bQrn,

THat by which, Qnce bQrn, they live,

Tt-Iat intQ which, Qnce dead, they enter, is Brahman. KRISHNA YAJUR YEO;1\., lAlTfIRIYA UPANISH;1\.O III, 1

/