Russel Peters is an Indian stand up comic and he’s got some great material. He discusses race a lot in his shows and the other day my friend and I were watching one of his routines and he started talking about how race and culture are different things. This was very interesting to me because I think I’m exactly the reverse of him. He says he felt like he was Indian until he arrived in India and it struck him... Read more
The comments on my Christmas post are getting to me. I’ll tell you why I’m offended: because I have a close connection with God. I feel God with me in every moment of my life and Christians like Avi do not think that’s possible because they have an exclusive “in” with God. They think they have to pray on my behalf (God: “I was going to send Ambaa to hell for all eternity, but I guess if you say she’s... Read more
As we’ve said here before, Hinduism as a word covers a huge number of behaviors and practices. It’s really difficult to pin down what Hinduism is because it is more a way of being than it is a particular code to follow. There were a number of religious traditions that got swept up into that one word when the British first came to India. These days there are still a lot of different traditions and schools of thought, but there... Read more
Each of the three Gods in the trinity also has a female counterpart/wife/consort. Lakshmi is the wife of Vishnu. It is said that she is his strength and when Vishnu takes a body as an avatar, that Lakshmi becomes his consort on earth as well and that she is both Sita and Radha. You can often recognize Lakshmi in pictures by the gold coins pouring from her hands. She is the goddess of wealth, both material wealth and spiritual wealth.... Read more
I thought it would be nice to read along through some scriptures and discuss the passages. I have a translation of the Upanishads done by Eknath Easwaran, a teacher whom I deeply trust and love. In this book there is an introduction before each translation with some insight from Easwaran. Here is a link to the Amazon page for the book I have: The second verse is as follows in the Easwaran translation… Thus working may you live a... Read more
I love Penny Arcade’s Extra Credits videos. They are always intelligent and interesting. They spend about ten minutes at a time exploring an aspect of gaming and story telling. (I’m a bit of a geeky gamer girl). The other day my boyfriend pointed out that they had a new video up about religion in games. Perfect topic for me! Check out the parts on religion and games: http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/religion-in-games-part-1 http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/religion-in-games-part-2 http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/god-does-not-play-dice It’s a fantastic little series. The creators put all their... Read more
The other enormous question that religion is responsible for helping us with is what to make of the “evil” that we see in the world. Why do bad things happen? Not just to good people but to any people. I was thinking about this because of the recent school shooting here in the states. It seems like every few months we’re hearing about another case of someone shooting into crowds of students. And our minds boggle to try to understand... Read more
Sometimes in life we see things really simplified. But rarely are things actually that simple. When we hear about someone who isn’t Indian, who grew up in America, and is now practicing Hinduism, our first thought is that person must have started out Christian or Jewish. We tend to think of the world divided between east and west and the west is all Christian and Jewish while the east is all Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist. But of course, we know... Read more
The final God in the trinity is Shiva. He is known as the destroyer. What he destroys is ignorance, pride, and anything standing in the way of enlightenment. There are many different forms of Shiva that you will see depicted. Sometimes he is meditating on a tiger rug, his hair wild. Sometimes he is the lord of dance, the Nataraja. A few years ago my cousin found a lovely gift for me at an art show, it is a mini... Read more
The idea of fasting comes up in several different religions which makes me think that there’s more to it than meets the eye. Ritual fasting in Hinduism seems to fall mainly into two purposes: pleasing the Gods and focusing the soul. A lot of the stories show the benefits of currying favor with the Gods. When people perform austerities to an impressive enough degree, they are rewarded with favors from the Gods. At the same time, the wise men suggest that these... Read more
The White Hindu
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