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The Stupendous Bhagavad Gita

At 5:30 on the morning of July 16, 1945, in a desert area known as the Jornada del Muerto in the Alamogordo air base, a stupendous white flash tore apart the sky, dazzling and blinding a small group of scientists ten thousand yards away. At this very moment, an apparently incongruous incident took place: Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and prime coordinator of the atomic experiment, began to hum some stanzas he had read years before when he was studying Sanskrit: 

Divi surya-sahasrasya bhaved yugapad utthita
yadi bhah sadrsi sa syad bhasas tasya mah’atmanah 

If the radiance of a thousand suns
Were to burst into the sky
That would perhaps be like
The splendor of the Mighty One. 

An imaginative description of a possible nuclear explosion? Far from it; in fact, it was a poetic rendering of the explosive nature of mystical ecstasy written thousands of years ago on the banks of the Ganges: the Mighty One, emanation of the Godhead, grants an awe-struck Arjuna his first staggering insight into the mysteries of the inner Self. 

As the gigantic nuclear cloud mushroomed up to the stratosphere followed by a doomsday roar, Oppenheimer continued with the verses in which the Mighty One reveals Himself: 

I am become death
The shatterer of worlds. 

Then and there, Oppenheimer symbolized a most extraordinary conjuction – the juxtaposition of Western civilization’s most terrifying scientific achievement with the most dazzling description of the mystical experience given us by the Bhagavad Gita, India’s greatest literary monument. 

Ironically, this scientific accomplishment destroyed one of the basic premises that had started Western scientific thinking on its course some twenty-five centuries ago in Greece: the integrity and indivisibility of the atom. In splitting it and releasing its inner energy, Western science did more than devise man’s most awesome weapon; it also symbolized the destruction of the psychological assumptions on which the Greek philosopher Democritus and, much later, Isaac Newton based their view of the universe – the existence of a material, indestructible and eternal atomos as fundamental building blocks of the material universe. 

The juxtaposition of Western civilization’s most terrifying scientific achievement with the most dazzling description of the mystical experience given us by the Bhagavad Gita, India’s greatest literary monument. 

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Oppenheimer’s spontaneous conjunction of a Hindu mystical poem with a nuclear explosion was of great symbolic significance. Nowhere in Western literature could he have found an almost clinical description of mystical rapture that also fits the description of a nuclear explosion in the outer world. 

The Bhagavad Gita gives us a perfect example of this predominance of the subjective outlook. This stupendous “Song of the Blessed” depicts the battlefield of Kuruksetra where two armies stand face to face on the eve of the battle. Arjuna, one of the commanders, drives his war chariot between the lines and, horrified at the thought of the forthcoming slaughter, wants to call off the battle. Lord Krsna, the “Mighty One, “ who assumes temporarily the role of charioteer and incarnates Transcendental Wisdom, urges him to fight regardless of the “objective” consequences, and his speech is the essence of the Gita’s message: Arjuna must fight with serenity and total detachment because it is his duty as a professional warrior, because he is bound by the karma of his past and has to go inexorably through the mysterious labyrinth of his appointed duties, however evil the consequences may seem to others. The Mighty One emphasizes the point by saying to Arjuna: “You sorrow for men who do not need your sorrow….Long since have these men in truth been slain by Me; yours is to be the mere occasion….Slay them then – why falter? Lord Krsna then adds: “Consider pleasure and pain, wealth and poverty, victory and defeat, as of equal worth. Prepare for the combat. Acting in this way thou wilt not become stained by guilt.” 

The immediate message: there is no such a thing as objective reality. And the ultimate message: “Give thought to nothing but the act, renounce its fruits (phalatrsnavairagya)….For him who achieves inward detachment (tyagin), neither good nor evil exists any longer here below (vigatakalmasah).

(source: The Eye of Shiva: Eastern Mysticism and Science - By Amaury de Riencourt  p. 13 – 14 and 72 - 73). For more refer to chapter on Hindu Scriptures and Quotes21_40).For more by Amaury de Riencourt refer to chapter on Quotes301_320).

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Hindu leaders see "alarming" growth of religious minorities

New Delhi, Sep. 07 2004 - Hindu groups in India are expressing alarm that the country's Muslim and Christian populations are growing, while the Hindu population declines. Venkaiah Naidu, president of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said the "imbalance" in the growth rate of different religious communities is "not good for the country." Naidu's reaction follows the release of statistics showing a breakdown of India's population by religious affiliation. The figures showed a decline in the rate of population growth among the country's Hindus, who now account for 80.5 percent of the population-- as opposed to 82 percent at the last national census in 1991. Muslim population has grown at an increasing rate in India, so that Muslims now make up 13.4 percent of the overall population-- against 12.1 percent in the last census.

The ratio of other smaller religious minorities like Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains has remained static in the 2001 census. Vishwa Hindu Parishad, described the increasing growth rate of religious minorities, and particularly Muslims, as "alarming." The Hindu group said this was a "conspiracy to convert the Hindu-majority India into Muslim-majority."

(source: yahoo.com and seattlepi.com  and deccan.com).

It took the Registrar General of India four years to prepare the Census 2001 report. But the UPA government took only 48 hours to “set right” the figures and projections of the report. In just two days, the Census Commissioner, under Congress pressure altered the figures of the Muslim rate of growth by juggling statistics from one table to another. Magically, the Muslims, who were reported to be growing at the rate of 36 per cent, actually had a growth rate that was slower than before. It is another matter that even then, their rate of growth is far ahead of the Hindus.

World over, Muslims multiply at supersonic rates in countries where they are in a minority. However, the minorities in Islamic countries shrink by the day, till the non-Muslim population becomes almost non-extinct. The classic examples are our two neighbours—Pakistan and Bangladesh. Hindus have been driven away, converted or killed, bringing their number to a miniscule.

While the “abnormal” growth of the Muslim population in India has grabbed a lot of attention, some important demographic changes occurring in some north-eastern states are receiving little notice. Nagaland now has 90 per cent Christian population, followed by Mizoram with 87 per cent and Meghalaya, 70 per cent. It is to be noted that the birth rate in these states has not risen drastically, pointing to a high rate of religious conversions.

(source: Census politics with Muslim numbers - By Vaidehi Nathan - organiser.org).

New census data in India show an increase in the proportion of Christians in that country-- and a much more marked increase in the number of Christian women. India's 24 million Christians now account for 2.34 percent of the country's population-- up from 2.32 percent at the last previous census in 1991. The rate of population growth among the country's Christians also rose slightly, from 21.5 percent to 22.6 percent.

(source: India's Christian population creeps up-- especially among women). Refer to Joshua Project: Bringing Definition to the Unfinished Task- Country India - http://www.joshuaproject.net/countries.php?rog3=IN and to chapter on Conversion.  

Refer to VINDICATED BY TIME: The Niyogi Committee Report  On Christian Missionary Activities - Christianity Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee 1956 and The Sunshine of Secularism.

Hindus have long had a latent fear that the Muslim community will exterminate it from its homeland through demographic aggression in the form of over-breeding and illegal immigration. There is a secret dread, articulated by former Director General of Police, Mr RK Ohri (Long March of Islam, 2004), that Hindus in India will meet the fate of the Christians in Lebanon and parts of the Balkans, where sharp demographic changes over a span of a few decades reduced the majority community to minority status. The warning is not without merit. The population of indigenous religious groups in the country has steadily fallen in percentage terms over the past 110 years, from 1881 to 1991, and this trend has accelerated after Partition. The present controversy over Islamic injunctions against family planning has only added to Hindu discomfort.

(source: The demographics of politics - By Sandhya Jain - dailypioneer.com - September 20 2004).

That the Muslim population in India is moving ahead of the rest is undeniable. Whether it is rising by 36 per cent in a decade or 29 per cent, that is the question. That all others - Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists put together - have risen only two-thirds as fast, too, is undisputed. The result: Continuous decline of those adhering to Indian religions. Plain arithmetic tells us that the numbers of those adhering to Indian religions are going down decade after decade. From 87.24 per cent in 1951, the followers of Indic religions came down to 86.87 per cent in 1961; 86.60 per cent in 1971; 85.86 per cent in 1981; further down to 85.09 per cent in 1991, and now even less at 84.21 per cent.

Just five decades back, the Hindus lost a third of their territory because of changes in the religious demography of undivided India. Yet the idea of religious demography still remains alien to the Hindu DNA. Religious demography is the theological manifest of Christianity and Islam and is so natural to them. They invented the critical idea of head count in religion, something which the Hindus never knew and have never understood. Yes, given their experience, Hindus have a reason to feel greatly concerned by this trend. For Hindus, India is the only geography left on earth. Muslims populate 16 countries totally and in as many and more, they dominate. A non-Muslim cannot practice his faith with honour in these Islamic states.

For, secularism cannot survive without a dominant Hindu majority. A nominal Hindu majority will not be able to protect secularism. Only a secure Hindu majority will trust secularism, an insecure Hindu majority will abandon it.

(source: Census and Hindu sensibilities - By S Gurumurthy - dailypioneer.com - September 22 2004).

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Satyagraha against academic defamation of Hinduism - By Rajiv Malhotra  
Flying the flag of Colonial politics on Hinduism

Mahatma Gandhi explained the importance of studying the world’s religions as a way to better understand our fellow humans.

Gandhi specifically wanted us to use the insiders’ perspective to study each faith: 

'If you read the Quran, you must read it with the eye of the Muslim; if you read the Bible, you must read it with the eye of the Christian; if you read the Gita, you must read it with the eye of a Hindu. Where is the use of scanning details and holding up a religion to ridicule?'

Religious Studies in USA:

Unfortunately, the approach in the western academy has been very different than Gandhi’s vision. Yet, most Indians do not understand either the rules of the Religious Studies game, or the strategies deployed by various players who dominate it. There are over 12,000 members of the powerful American Academy of Religion (AAR), making it one of the largest and fastest growing academic disciplines in the west. Contrary to Gandhi’s views, the academic discipline does not concern itself with a sympathetic understanding of a religion. Rather, it gives the scholars virtually unlimited power to determine the theories that they may use - i.e. the lenses with which to interpret a religion - and thereby privileges the scholars over the practitioners, spiritual teachers and exemplars of a tradition.

Who controls Hinduism Studies?

The academy’s authority over religious interpretation and discourse has worked especially against Hinduism. Western and Islamic societies have had an unbroken history of institutionalized academic study of their respective religions, giving them a defensive shield against hostile interpretations. But indigenous Indian centers of learning were destroyed or dismantled over several centuries. Even after independence, India’s policies have disregarded Gandhi’s advice, and secularism has been misinterpreted to abolish the study of religion in the education system.

Therefore, other major religions supply practitioners who populate the academic discipline, so as to ensure that the insiders’ view is adequately represented. But Hinduism is the only major world religion whose academic study is mostly done by those who are not practitioners of the religion, even though they may claim sympathy towards it to varying degrees. While most Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism academic scholars are members of those respective religions, less than 20% of the academic scholars specializing in Hinduism Studies publicly claim a Hindu identity. This lack of self-representation, combined with the massive power given to academicians to overrule the practitioner’s interpretations, has had a devastating effect on the image of Hinduism. When a nasty book gets written about Judaism, Christianity or Islam, there are plenty of insider-scholars and who quickly refute it to restore balance. But when major Hindu symbols and practices are denigrated, no refutation may take place for years, or any such the refutation gets marginalized.

Unlike in the case of other major religions, American Hindus are not in control over the leading academic journals, conferences, university chairs, programs, and school textbooks pertaining to their religion. In other words, Hindus have lost control over the portrayal of their own religion in the US media and education systems, and their kids are mere consumers of whatever is dished out by outsiders. For example, while Greek Classics are studied with great reverence, Indian Classics are often ignored or used to denigrate Indian culture as being primitive, exotic, irrational and lacking in ethics and morality. Positive contributions of Indian civilization are not taught, while problems are blamed on indigenous culture and are over-emphasized. The colonial mindset continues in the subtle use of language and theories.

Over the past two years, the Hindu Diaspora has started to contest the western academic biases. Wendy Doniger, arguably the most powerful professor of Hinduism Studies, was taken to task for calling the Gita ‘a dishonest book.’ Other academics who are her followers were challenged for depicting Sri Ramakrishna as a homosexual child molester of the young Swami Vivekananda, and for interpreting the Hindu Goddess as a sex-starved wicked creature.

(source: Satyagraha against academic defamation of Hinduism - By Rajiv Malhotra  - India Abroad. December 12, 2003. Page A30. Rajiv Malhotra is with The Infinity Foundation, a non-profit organization in Princeton, New Jersey).

Refer to Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America - By Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and Aditi Banerjee.

Taking Back Hindu Studies - By Dr. Srinivas Tilak

Under colonialism, Indians had to reconcile with the western inspired studies and history of India. While a few struggled against the received version of India and Hinduism, most Indians complied with the dominant western view of Hinduism and its history. Hindus allowed the history of their religion to be told to them and, in the process, became alienated from it. They became outsiders as they heard and read a contrived version of their religion and its history. The system of education that the British introduced into India was directly implicated in this process of alienation from Hinduism.

Hindu concepts of yoga and spirituality, which Christianity and western scholars of Hinduism first attempted to destroy, then to appropriate and then to claim, are therefore critical sites of resistance for Hindu scholars. The values, attitudes, concepts and language embedded in beliefs about spirituality represent, in many ways, the clearest contrast and mark of difference and Otherness between the Hindu and western worlds. To date, Hindu spirituality is one of the crucial aspects which the West could not decipher, understand and therefore could not control.

When Hindus become the researchers and not remain mere research subjects or the researched, the activity and direction of research on Hinduism will be transformed.

(source: Taking Back Hindu Studies - By Srinivas Tilak - sulekha.com. For more refer to Call For An Intellectual Kshatriya - by Rajesh Tembarai Krishnamachari and Washington Post and Hinduphobia - By Rajiv Malhotra - sulekha.com and Alerting Naked Emperors in an Age of Academic Arrogance - By Narayanan Komerath - Swaveda.com and Protestant Pedagogues Peeved at Protest Against Porn-Peddling - By Narayanan Komerath - indiacause.com). For more on Gandhi refer to chapter on Quotes1_20). For more on this debate refer to chapters on European Imperialism, FirstIndologists and GlimpsesIX). Also refer to The Post and Manufacturing Consent - By Sankrant Sanu - sulekha.com).

When Indian academicians want an authority on Hinduism, they usually have to go to a western scholar. (Arindam C, once narrated at a meeting how he was sitting in some discussion on Hinduism in India. To resolve a deadlock on definitions of Indic categories, it was suggested that they should call Chicago to get the answer! 

Hinduism Studies is filled with not only former missionaries but actively practicing missionaries. Go to RISA (Religion In South Asia) events and you will find out. A prominent example is John Carman, who recently retired from Harvard where he headed Hinduism Studies, and who is regarded amongst the most important authorities in academic Hinduism Studies. After retirement, he has returned to his family’s mission – his family is third-generation Christian missionaries in India. 

(source: Is Hindutva The Indian Left's 'Other'? – By Rajiv Malhotra - outlookindia.com). Also Refer to Indic Challenges to the Discipline of Science and Religion - By Rajiv Malhotra).

Refer to Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America - By Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and Aditi Banerjee.

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What is the 'political' agenda behind American studies of South Asian Tantra? - By Rajiv Malhotra
(David White’s book undermines claims of Indian Spirituality) - strange and slanted scholarship

Scholars’ intellectual products appear harmless at first, but eventually work their way through the distribution systems of knowledge and opinion into the hands of evangelists and other Hinduphobics. The Aryan theory was once just an academic theory but later got deployed politically to cause divisiveness in India . Caste started as a colonial census system of classifying the subjects of the Empire to be able to administer rule over them, but was often biased by forced mappings and imagined linkages. Over time, the earlier flexible Indian jâtis got rigidified into a permanent hierarchy, by force of law. Once labels and classifications get institutionalized (which the West has the power and experience to do), the category-grid becomes a tool over others.

A common trope for scholars is to claim to be “saving” Hinduism from past distortions, when, in fact, they are merely applying a new coat of their own brand of distortion on top of the previous layers. To make this strategy work, the scholar first starts off by severely criticizing colonialists and others for their biases, and this serves to gain credibility among the gullible desis [‘native’ Indians of the ‘brown’ variety… the ‘red’ being long since saved from themselves by ‘Whites’!

(source: What is the 'political' agenda behind American studies of South Asian Tantra? - By Rajiv Malhotra). Refer to Hindus and Scholars - By Arvind Sharma).

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Why the East is superior to the West

Within the religious fanaticism you will find a basic lack of understanding of other religions. A comprehensive study of various religions would support the broader view that one supreme and caring Intelligence has expressed itself to different people at different time and in different ways.

Fanaticism comes to people who feel insecure. This broader view gives a sense of belongingness while still allowing people to be well-founded in their own tradition.

There are ten major religions in the world, six from the far east and four from the Middle East. In the Far East, Hinduism is the oldest. Then came Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Shintoism and Sikhism. From the Middle East, Zoroastrianism is the oldest, and then came Judaism, Christianity and Islam.Three of the Middle Eastern religions are rooted in the Old Testament: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. In the Far East Shintoism and Taoism have completely separate sources. Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism have roots in Hinduism.

The six religions of the Far East have peacefully coexisted and intermingled over the centuries. Buddhism and Taoism have so completely accepted each other that you can find statues of Buddha in Taoist temples. Hinduism accepts Jainist and Buddhist thought.

Contrarily, the religions of the Middle East with a common root have warred with each other. The brothers of the same house fight while friends live with each other in a coherent manner.

And we can find a model in India also. Within one family you will find Jains and Hindus and Sikhs. Individuals are free to choose whatever representation of Divinity they wish. They are not expected to adhere to the choice of the father or mother. This coexistence can happen when we put values first and symbols and practices second.

(source: Why the East is superior to the West - chinadaily.com). 

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

God Wars: The triumph of the jealous Gods
The Battle for Humanity's Soul

Today, there is an unfair bias in the contest of conversions because the two largest, best-financed and most widespread faiths—the "Jealous-God" religions of Christianity and Islam—got that way by conquest and persecution. The monopoly that Christianity has on the Americas, Australia, and much of sub-Saharan Africa and Europe is a strength for that faith—they can keep these areas free of competition with little effort while pouring their propaganda and "charity" into targeted regions where other religions struggle to emerge and recover from the impact of European colonialism and forced conversions. Islam’s dominance of the Middle East, Indonesia, and North Africa is a similar fortress.

(source: God Wars: The triumph of the jealous Gods). For more refer to chapter on Conversion.  

Refer to VINDICATED BY TIME: The Niyogi Committee Report  On Christian Missionary Activities - Christianity Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee 1956 and The Sunshine of Secularism.

Polytheism embraces pluralism
Monotheism blamed for history's bloodshed

Jonathan Kirsch blames the leading monotheistic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — for much of history's bloodshed. The reason, he maintains, is monotheism's traditional claim to exclusive possession of absolute truth.Too bad Julian the Apostate, the Roman Empire's last pagan emperor, died young in battle, says Kirsch, author of God Against The Gods: The History Of The War Between Monotheism And Polytheism. Had Julian lived longer, he might have succeeded in reinstating classical Greco-Roman polytheism, which was marginalized when Emperor Constantine the Great institutionalized Christianity's ascendancy — and world history might have turned out more benign.

Polytheism, the belief that there can be more than one god, was the ancient world's dominant religious system. Today it survives chiefly in Hinduism, in tribal traditions, in Afro-Caribbean faiths, and in Wicca and other neo-pagan movements that are growing in North America and Western Europe. Polytheism's core value, is theological pluralism, a stark contrast to traditional monotheism's penchant for insisting that the "One God" demands theological conformity.

(source: Monotheism blamed for history's bloodshed - thestar.com).

Refer to Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America - By Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and Aditi Banerjee.

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The city of Ayuthaya in Thailand

The city of Ayuthaya is located about 70 km north of Bangkok. King Ramathibodi who named it after the birthplace of Lord Rama founded it in 1350. He envisaged "Ramarajya" for his Kingdom, as the King was "Devaraja" or "God King", particularly Vishnu incarnate. Ayuthaya was a glorious, wealthy and flourishing island-city located at the confluence of three rivers, the Chao Phraya, the Pasak, and the Lopburi. It was the envy of not only its neighbors but also visiting and trading Europeans. It housed a population of 1 million comprising not just Thais but people belonging to some 40 nationalities. The French visitor Jean de Lacombe has recorded in awe that the palace of the King, Lord Rama Incarnate according to the Thais, "Is a dwelling worthy of an Emperor of the whole world". In its heydays it has been recorded by outside observers that Ayuthaya city was so magnificent that London at the time seemed a mere village in comparison.

Even though Ayuthaya was razed to the ground, neither did the religious fervor of the Thais suffer nor was there any damage done to the legacy of Rama. On the contrary, the Thais believe the "Chakri" (or Vishnu Chakra -"Wheel") dynasty has given them an unbroken succession of Rama incarnates so that they may be ruled over by his divine blessings. 

King Rama IX’s residence is named Chitralada. The Thai national and royal emblem is the Vishnu vahana of Garuda.

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King Rama IX’s residence is named Chitralada. The Thai national and royal emblem is the Vishnu vahana of Garuda. It is interesting to note the pervasive influence of Hinduism in Thailand even today. The Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu are worshipped with unrelenting reverence. Vishnu and his avatar of Rama are obviously the most revered of all. The walls of the magnificent Temple next to the King’s Grand Palace have mural scenes from the entire story of Ramayana painted on them. This temple was modelled closely on the destroyed Ayuthaya temple. Rama’s Sita has not been forgotten either. In the "Royal Field", north of the temple, that is the traditional site for royal cremations and for the royal ‘Ploughing ceremony’, a statue of Mae Thorani ("Mother Earth") stands on a white pavilion. As the original manuscript containing the Ramayana was burnt in Ayuthaya’s carnage, King Rama I wrote the Thai version of Ramayana called Ramakien in a poetic format. His son, Rama II, penned a much shorter adaptation of it. It is this story that is the main feature in classical Thai dance-drama to this day.

(source: Ayuthaya - outlookindia.com). For more refer to chapters on Hindu Scriptures.

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

Jakarta - name is derived from Ayodhya Karta

Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The city’s names is derived from Ayodhya karta. Central Java cherishes temples of Shiva and Vishnu reminiscent of Indian architecture in the city of Kancheepuram in South India. And what is breathtaking is the gallery of bas-relief sculptures depicting scenes from the Ramayana. The ancient city of Prambanan is also the venue that attracts artists in dance-drama style to present tales from the Ramayana.

(source: indoprofile.com). 

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India Plans to Restore Afghan Hindu Temples 

The years of war in Afghanistan has damaged or completely destroyed ancient temples in the country. For instance, the Shor Bizar area of old Kabul -- once the Indian heart of the city -- is now in ruins. And the area boasts of a 500-year-old Shiv Mandir. Jitender Sharma, the priest, succeeds his father and grandfather, who have been pujaris at the temple. "It is a Bhaironath temple. Religious threads used to be tied here and kirtans used to be sung, but for years all that has stopped," said Jitender Sharma, priest. The temple was destroyed by the forces of the northern warlord General Dostum in the mid 90s. But there is renewed hope for the temple, as it will soon be re-built by the government of India. "The government of Afghanistan has approached us for help in the reconstruction of places of worship of all faiths and we are responding positively to that," said Vivek Katju, Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan. But it's not just places of worship. Shor Bizar used to be the old Indian quarter of Kabul and as many as 60,000 Indians once lived in the area. Now, there are less than 20 families and they fondly remember the days when the area was known as the Hindu Guzar.

(source: India Plans to Restore Afghan Hindu Temples  - msn.co.in  - Kabul, Afghanistan.December 28,2003 - For more on Afghanistan refer to chapter GlimpsesII).

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India and Ling Yin Temple of China

Lin Yin Temple of China is home to the 19-metre-high Golden Buddha statue. Inscriptions found in the temple say the statue came flying from India.

Fei Lai Feng - Peak Flown From Afar (also named Ling Jiu Feng), stands next to Lin Yin Temple and is a must-see in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. There are many legends about the peak's name. A well-known legend states that an Indian monk named Huili arrived in the valley 1,600 years ago and was surprised to see a peak so dissimilar from any other one in the valley. He believed that the peak had flown over from India because the shape, although unique in China, was common in India. However, he did not know why the peak would have flown to this spot so far from his country.

Inscriptions found in the temple say the statue came flying from India.   Big Wild Goose Pagoda - Dayanta - Sanskrit scriptures he had brought back from India.

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Big Wild Goose Pagoda (Da Yan Ta - Dayanta) which was built in 652 AD in the Tang Dynasty. Xuanzang, a prominent Buddhist scholar of the time, planned to have a huge stone pagoda built to house the Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures he had brought back from India to China.  It contains a large volume of Buddhist scriptures which were obtained from India by the eminent monk Xuanzang. The pagoda was modeled after the one in India. It was given the same name in memory of Xuan Zang in praise of Buddhism.

(source: Ling Yin Temple and travelchinaguide.com and visitchina. For more refer to chapter on India and China).  

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

Chinese New Year and medicine

Dates from 2600 BC - A complete cycle takes 60 years, divided into 12 year elements. Each of these 12 years is named after an animal favored by the Buddha. Chinese medicine, was influenced by Ayurveda, and similarities include the extensive use of natural herbs.

(source: China welcomes the New Year - BBC and Balm from the East - By Jenny Hontz - LA Times). Chinese 60 year cycle has strong resemblance to Tamil Calendar and Indian Hindu Calendars. For more refer to The Tamil Calendar).

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'Mahabharatha part of Indonesia's culture, too' - says Salahudi M Salam

Mahabharatha and Ramayana are part of the culture of not only India but also that of Indonesia , says Salahudi M Salam, a Deputy Minister from the south-east Asian country.

'Mahabharatha and Ramayana are part of our culture and India is my home country and not a foreign country to me'.

The Java language had most of the words with Sanskrit roots. The husband was called 'Swami' and the wife as 'Stree'. Further, the symbol of the big university in Indonesia was Lord Ganesha and the 100 Rupia currency had Ganesha's picture in it, he pointed out. 

(source:  Mahabharatha part of Indonesia's culture, too - newstodaynet.com).

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Does South Asian Studies Undermine India? - By Rajiv Malhotra

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James Laine's Controversial Book, Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India - By Balchandrarao C Patwardhan and Amodini Bagwe

Some of the remarks made by James Laine, Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, Macalester College, in his book, Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India, seem more like willful, calculated sensationalism than honest scholarship.  

To suggest that Shahaji was not Shivaji's `biological father' is implausible, incredible and outrageous! Unlike lax norms of familial or marital propriety that characterize `civilized' Western societies, loose speculation about someone's ancestry is a very serious matter indeed even in contemporary Indian ethos, not to speak of conditions three centuries ago when societal sanctions must decidedly have been immensely more rigid and consequences of their transgression, all too tragic. A scandalous event like the one implied in the book could scarcely have escaped immediate detection, judgment and censure. Anybody indulging in such conduct would have courted severe social stigma, especially someone like Jijabai who both hailed from and was married into aristocracy. The progeny of an allegedly `unholy' relationship would never have been accepted as king by a tradition-bound people who looked upon the monarch as an incarnation of Divinity! On page 93 of the book, Laine states what could be described as out-and-out hearsay: "Maharashtrians tell jokes naughtily suggesting that his guardian Dadaji Konddev was his (Shivaji's) biological father"! The ordinary reader may well wonder whether seemingly casual inclusion of naughty gossip is a convention in serious cross-cultural scholarship! As a matter of fact, love and adoration of Shivaji is the bottomline truth, and we have never come across such a motivated rumour until Laine's book was published!

On page 91, Laine asks with an unnecessary soupçon of dramatization, "Can one imagine a narrative of Shivaji's life in which, for example: Shivaji had an unhappy family life? Shivaji had a harem? Shivaji was uninterested in the religion of bhakti saints? Shivaji's personal ambition was to build a kingdom, not liberate a nation? Shivaji lived in a cosmopolitan Islamicate world and did little to change that fact?" Had he really read and gleaned anything from the references listed at the end of the book, such considerations would not have emerged to perturb him. For instance, it was practically de rigeur for men of status in Shivaji's time to have more than one wife. To go much further back, let us recall that Lord Rama's father too had several queens. The custom had nothing whatsoever to do with practices prevailing in a "cosmopolitan Islamicate world". However, isn't having several legally wedded wives very different from keeping a harem?

Also, as Shivaji's biography reveals, he was surrendered to sages like Sant Ramdas and the pre-eminent bhakti poet, Sant Tukaram, of which well-known fact Laine feigns such complete ignorance! With adequate answers to each one of Laine's questions easily obtainable in his references, is his pretence indicative of a deeper, sinister motive to compromise, restrain and perhaps even destroy the extraordinary reverence in which Shivaji is held? The learned author, in spite of his protracted contact with the region since 1977, failed to realize that the "Shivaji story", as narrated in every Maharashtrian home, has far more significance and enjoys immensely greater credibility than all the `history' taught in academia. Shivaji was the first Indian leader in relatively recent history to contemplate political self-determination and successfully put it into practice at a time when all others were blissfully unaware of both the existence and possibility of such a thing! Such visionary quality alone elevates Shivaji to a pioneering `national' stature, head and shoulders above all his peers and contemporaries. 

Indeed, since it takes a foreigner to convince us of the greatness of things indigenous, it would be pertinent to quote Bamber Gascoigne: "He (Shivaji) taught the modern Hindus to rise to the full stature of their growth. So, when viewed with hindsight through twentieth century glasses, Aurangzeb on the one side and Shivaji on the other come to be seen as key figures in the development of India. What Shivaji began Gandhi could complete ……and what Aurangzeb stood for would lead to the establishment of the separate state of Pakistan." 

Shivaji Maharaj                                            Sant Ramdas

"Shivaji) taught the modern Hindus to rise to the full stature of their growth. So, when viewed with hindsight through twentieth century glasses, Aurangzeb on the one side and Shivaji on the other come to be seen as key figures in the development of India. What Shivaji began Gandhi could complete ……and what Aurangzeb stood for would lead to the establishment of the separate state of Pakistan." - says Bamber Gascoigne

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Most Indian historians and writers, including justice M.I. Ranade and B.G. Tikak, laud him as the father of Indian nationalism and a liberationist. Ranade portrays Shivaji as the architect of Maratha independence, who promoted religious tolerance and the egalitarian status of women. Leaders such as Lala Lajpat Rai, Tilak, Annie Besant, Aurobindo Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru, eminent historian Sir Jadhunath Sarkar, Indira Gandhi, and poet Tagore have paid eloquent tributes to Shivaji as a great national leader and the builder of the country.

Refer to Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America - By Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and Aditi Banerjee.

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Laine's dissertation the same intellectual chicanery attempted through the purchase by British colonizers (for a princely sum of £3000, paid in easy installments, may it be noted!) of Max Muller's erudition a century ago with the studied intention of demoralizing a whole nation by denigration of its antiquity, pre-eminence, culture, religion and history? Laine mentions in the Acknowledgments (p. viii) that his "scholarly home has been the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune" where he "profited from advice and assistance", and goes further to thank Marxist historian - Asghar Ali Engineer – whose interest in the Shivaji story is a new revelation to us…...  

Laine concludes that Shivaji used pan-Indian symbols and not regional ones - if that is so, the case that he was a nationalist is strengthened, not weakened. If he used Maratha symbols exclusively, then he would be a Maratha nationalist and not an Indian nationalist...Refer to Shivaji: Portrait of an Early Indian By Dosabhai Framji Karaka.  In the preface Karaka explains that in using the phrase early Indian" in the title his purpose was to show that three hundred years ago Shivaji was thinking in terms of India as a national unity. In the book Shivaji is portrayed as a national rather than a regional figure. It concludes with the following passage:

" ...by birth a Hindu, by caste a Maratha but by his own inclination [Shivaji was] an early Indian who fought to preserve the native heritage of the people of the land from the foreign invaders, at that time Moghul and Muslim, but to Shivaji's way of thinking, it could have been anyone else" (Karaka 1969: p. 167).

It is up to Laine to inform his readers as to how and where he dug up this disgusting rumour casting aspersions upon the character of Shivaji's mother, who is herself a figure of great veneration to all. She was a single mother of great character and substance: the fountainhead of inspiration of Shivaji's life's work. The body fabric of a resurgent India, and particularly that of a progressive state like Maharashtra, can well do without such vicious 'scholarship' inflicting upon it further damage.