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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.


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.

Srikaṇṭha

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Significance of Śrīkaṇṭha[edit]

Śrīkaṇṭha is one of the important ācāryas who have written commentaries on the Brahmasutras. He advocates a type of Śaivism as contained in the Vāyavīya-samhitā of the Śivapurāṇa. According to him Brahman is Śiva.[1] Prakṛti[2] and jīvas[3] are his parts as it were. Evolution of the world takes place as per his will and supervision. Though, he is the nimittakāraṇa or the efficient cause, he is the upādānakāraṇa or the material cause also since prakṛti is his part.

Ideology of Śrīkaṇtha[edit]

Śrīkaṇṭha considers that the performance of Vedic sacrifices and the prescribed duties without any selfish motive, prepares a person for the realisation of Śiva. Man or the soul is free to do good or bad as per his sanskāras carried over from the previous lives. However, Śiva the merciful, is ever eager to help him to do good and get liberation. The souls are the conscious knowers, both by way of the senses and by the manas.[4] By following the path of jñānayoga, the threefold impurities of the mind are removed and self-knowledge is fully manifested. It is almost like the knowledge of Brahman.

In the state of liberation, the soul has no body but enjoys bliss through the mind. If it wants, it can also create its own body and enjoy all happiness. It is never again brought under the control of karma. Śrīkaṇṭha’s philosophy may be termed as Śivaviśiṣtādvaita, because of its similarity to Rāmānuja’s system.

Commentary by Śrīkaṇtha[edit]

Appayya Dīkṣita[5] has written an excellent commentary called Śivārkamanidīpikā on the bhāṣya of Śrikaṇṭha. It is not known when exactly Śrīkaṇtha lived. Some scholars suggest that he lived in A. D. 1270 and was from Andhra Pradesh.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Śiva means Saguṇa-Brahman.
  2. ↑ Prakṛti means nature.
  3. ↑ Jīvas means individual souls who are atomic in size.
  4. ↑ Manas means superior mind, which is a special property possessed by them, different from the ordinary mind which is a product of prakṛti.
  5. ↑ He lived in A. D. 1520-1592.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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