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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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Sāntapana

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Sāntapana literally means ‘that which causes great hardship’.

Sāntapana, a Type of Expiation[edit]

Prāyaścittas or expiations for sins is a common feature of religion. One type of such expiation is sāntapana. It is prescribed for the one who commits a sin and makes him lose his caste,[1] knowingly. It consists in subsisting on the pañcagavya mixed with water in which kuśa grass is soaked on the first day and fasting completely on the second day.

Types of Sāntapana[edit]

Two varieties of this expiation are also described:

  1. Atisāntapana
  2. Mahāsāntapana

Mahāsāntapana, a Rite[edit]

In the Mahāsāntapana, the sinner has to subsist on the six items individually for each day for six days and fast on the seventh. The six items used in this rite are:

  1. Cow’s milk
  2. Curds
  3. Ghee
  4. Urine
  5. Dung
  6. Kuśa grass

Atisāntapana, a Rite[edit]

In atisāntapana, the duration is trebled which includes milk for three days and so on.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Caste means jātibhrariiśakara.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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Deval Sancheti

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