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In this book, we analyze the psycho-social consequences faced by Indian American children after exposure to the school textbook discourse on Hinduism and ancient India. We demonstrate that there is an intimate connection—an almost exact correspondence—between James Mill’s colonial-racist discourse (Mill was the head of the British East India Company) and the current school textbook discourse. This racist discourse, camouflaged under the cover of political correctness, produces the same psychological impacts on Indian American children that racism typically causes: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a phenomenon akin to racelessness, where children dissociate from the traditions and culture of their ancestors.


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Asmitā

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By Swami Harshananda

Asmitā literally means ‘sense of “I exist”,’ ‘egoism’.

The Yogasutras of Patañjali (200 B.C.) defines yoga as the suppression of the citta-vṛttis or the modifications of the mind. Among these modifications one group is called ‘kliṣta’ (‘the afflicted’). These ‘kleśas’ or afflictions are again listed as five, of which ‘asmitā’ or egoism is the second.[1] It has been defined as the false identification of the seer or the Self, called dṛkśakti or puruṣa, with the instrument of seeing viz., the buddhi (intellect or mind).[2] When the puruṣa who is really asañga or unattached and free, thus gets identified with the mind, he experiences happiness and misery resulting in bondage. Due to this reason asmitā is called a kleśa, an affliction, which is an obstacle to yoga.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Patañjali 2.3
  2. ↑ Patañjali 2.6
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari

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