Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children PDF is now freely available.
Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children Book Cover.webp

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.


This book is the result of four years of rigorous research and academic peer-review, reflecting our ongoing commitment at Hindupedia to challenge the representation of Hindu Dharma within academia.

Asamprajñāta

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia
(Redirected from Asamprajnata)

By Swami Harshananda

Asamprajñāta literally means ‘ultra-cognitive absorption’.

Patañjali's Yogasutra is one of the popular darśanas since it gives practical methods to control the mind.

When a systematic attempt is made to control and eliminate the vṛttis or modifications of the mind through the practice of the various steps of yoga such as yama and niyama, it will result in ‘samādhi,’ total absorption in the object of contemplation. This samādhi is of two types :

  1. Samprajñāta - Cognitive. In this, the object of contemplation will be vividly revealed. In this state, though all other mental modifications are eliminated, that of the object of contemplation continues to remain active. Hence in the strictest sense of the definition of ‘yoga’ as ‘cittavrtti- nirodha’[1] (‘suppression of modifications of mind’) this samādhi indicates a lower state of yoga.
  2. Asamprajñāta - Ultra-cognitive. A higher samādhi is called asamprajñāta where all modifications of mind are eliminated, leaving only the sanskāras (latent tendencies) behind.[2] In this state, it looks as though even the mind does not exist, since there are no mental modifications to reveal its presence. This samādhi is sometimes called ‘nirbīja-samādhi’ (seedless samādhi) since the seeds of rebirth are eliminated as a result of this experience.

Intense vairāgya (‘paravairāgya’) or detachment is said to be the means of achieving this samādhi.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Yogasutras 1.2
  2. ↑ Yogasutras 1.18
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari

Explore Other Articles

Retrieved from "https://hindupedia.com/index.php?title=Asamprajñāta&oldid=133671"