I’ve spoken here about the reasons why I think the word “convert” can be helpful for people new to Hinduism. It’s a label that one often grows beyond, but in the beginning it can help to frame your experience when you’re learning and doing things for the first time. However, I have realized thanks to my friends on Twitter that the word “convert” is a sensitive one. It is so closely connected to the evil and underhanded schemes of some... Read more
A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with a relative who lives in a small town. She was talking about what a problem drugs are there and it sounded like people had turned to drugs not only to ease pain (both physical and emotional) but also maybe out of boredom? Hearing news stories filled with anger and violence erupting over tiny slights and how common depression is, it seems like a lot of people are struggling to find a sense... Read more
Someone I know was doing some research for a class and wanted to look at correlations between personality types and astrological signs. So I took the test she directed me to and I feel like the explanation of my results explains a lot of the types of criticisms I tend to get here on the blog! It’s so helpful to look at things like this to remind us that we’re different from one another and we have different strengths, goals, and interests.... Read more
We are doing a scripture study together: reading along through some scriptures and discussing the passages. This is the first post on The Bhagavad Gita. I selected this particular translation because it includes the original Sanskrit, a transliteration into English characters, a literal translation into English, and a poetic translation into English for every verse along with footnotes. From the Winthrop Sargeant translation of The Gita … Verse 1) Dhiritarashtra spoke: When they were in the field of virtue, in... Read more
You may have noticed that I talk about how long I’ve been a Hindu in different ways at different times. Was I born Hindu or did I convert? As with many things, it depends a lot on how you look at it and so I shift how I talk about it depending on context. I like to use the word “convert” because it expresses the unique challenges that come up for people who have cultural or racial barriers to the... Read more
The second book in our book club series is Eat, Pray Love. Is it a Hindu book? Not exactly, but it is very relevant to the experiences of non-Indian Hindus. The author has a Hindu guru (whose identity has been rather easily found out by those familiar with the world of Indian gurus). Julia Roberts after playing the author in the movie, claimed to have become a Hindu. So I think it will be worthwhile to examine the experiences and... Read more
In honor of it being National Novel Writing Month, I wanted to showcase some Indian authors. I haven’t read all of these yet, but they’re all on my list! Jumpha Lahiri The Namesake Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni The Palace of Illusions Amit Chaudhuri The Immortals Amitav Ghosh The Shadow Lines Anita Desai Baumgartner’s Bombay Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things Manil Suri The Death of Vishnu Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss Roopa Farooki Bitter Sweets R.K. Narayan Malgudi Days... Read more
There was a very interesting hashtag discussion on Twitter #BeingAWhiteMuslim and I enjoyed reading the thoughts people expressed (though darn it, I want cool Hindu hashtags! Can we get some of those please?). I could certainly see some parallels with my experience as a white western person in an eastern religion. One person linked to an article called The Problem with White Converts and it made some great points about the “universalism” that we’ve been talking about lately. I explained... Read more
When you watch “very special” episodes of TV shows and they try to address bullying I think the picture they paint misses nuance. In these stories the bullies are always children whose parents have catastrophically failed them and they lash out at others. I’m sure that does happen but it’s not the only kind of bully. Middle school age (10-13) is a time when children seem to be going through a developmental stage of experimenting with social behavior. They are... Read more
We are doing a scripture study together: reading along through some scriptures and discussing the passages. We are reading one of my favorite upanishads: The Katha. This is the story of a boy who chatted with the God of death. http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/awakening101/upani_katha.html 10 When the five instruments of knowledge stand still, together with the mind and when the intellect does not move, that is called the Supreme State. 11 This, the firm Control of the senses, is what is called yoga.... Read more
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