Many are correctly pointing to a cause-effect relationship between President Trump’s dehumanization of minorities and the violence perpetrated in El Paso. We have evidence of this connection from what appears to be the perpetrator’s notes. We condemn these murders as deplorable acts of violence. However, not only are actions violent. We need to condemn dehumanizing and denigrating language as violence. In describing violence, many Asian religions speak of thought violence (manasa), word violence (vacha) and physical violence (kaya). Let us speak and protest vigorously against President Trump’s persistent verbal violence against minorities.
Read MoreI am very supportive of interreligious dialogue and cooperation, but religious traditions are required also be faithful to their teachings and not to assent to statements reflecting the views of other traditions that violate their own. We must not be fearful of affirming our differences. I believe that supporting measures denying legal equality to gay persons is contrary to fundamental Hindu teachings for the following reasons.
Read MoreNoncontradiction is a fundamental characteristic of valid knowledge in Hindu traditions. This places the teachings of the scripture in the wider stream of discourse about the nature of reality. A belief or proposition that is contradicted loses its validity. If a religious teaching contradicts a well-established fact of experience, it cannot be considered authoritative. You cannot prove, Śaṅkara said famously, that fire is cold or that the sun does not shine, by citing sentences from scripture. These are facts already established by other authoritative sources of knowledge and a scripture cannot reverse facts.
Read MoreThe Hindu tradition to which I have committed my life is not the servant of any state. Its flourishing does not require that it becomes the master of any state. It does not require me to become the foot soldier of any political leader. It transcends every historical nation and every political leader. My Hindu commitment is to a vision of life's meaning grounded in an understanding of the nature of ultimate reality. It is a commitment to human relationships of compassion and justice that flow from this understanding. This vision liberates me to question the policies of any state leader. It enables me to commend polices that are in harmony with my tradition's understanding of truth. This vision also requires me to speak out against those policies that contradict it. I will never cede this most precious freedom.
Read MoreThe sentence, “Matr devo bhava”, occurs as part of a graduation address given by a Vedic teacher to his students in the Taittirya Upanishad. These words are commonly translated as “Honor your mother as God,” or even “Mother is God.” Although the intent underlying these translations is noble, let us look at the sentence closely beginning with the word, ‘deva.’
Read MoreWhat is the theological understanding of the divine and of the divine-human relation that underlies this distressing decision? Isn’t Sri Venkateshwara the source, support and goal of every human being (“That from which all beings originate, by which they are sustained and to which they return (Taittirīya Upaniṣad). Is Sri Ventakeshwara not Ishvara, the one dwelling equally in every human heart? Is worship more acceptable to Sri Venkateshwara when offered by a priest coming from the so-called upper caste?
Read Morekham vayum agnim salilam mahim ca
jyotimshi sattvani diso drumadin
sarit-samudrams ca hareh sariram
yat kim ca bhutam pranamed ananyah
(Srimad Bhagavatam 11.2.41)
"One should not see anything as separate from the Divine. Space, fire, air, water, earth, planets, all beings, directions, trees and plants, rivers and oceans should be regarded as the body of the Divine. Seeing thus, one reveres all beings."
Read MoreHinduism has never given its blessings to involuntary poverty. It recognizes poverty to be a great cause of suffering. By including wealth (artha) as one of life’s four goals – along with pleasure, virtue and liberation – Hinduism recognizes the need of every human being for access to those material necessities, such as food, healthcare, shelter and clothing, that make life possible and that enable human beings to flourish and live with dignity.
Read MoreThe festival of Navaratri, currently celebrated by Hindus throughout the world, is a special opportunity for honoring the divine with the symbols and images of femininity. In a beautiful sequence of verses in the Devimahatmya, a text recited on the occasion of this beautiful festival, the Goddess (Devi) is praised repeatedly as the One residing in all beings (ya devi sarvabhteshu). She is present within us all as strength, forgiveness, peace, faith, beauty, compassion and tenderness.
Read MoreHoli is a beautiful festival, incorporating the celebration of nature with the religious. As a seasonal festival, Holi rejoices in the return of spring and the renewal of life. Spring comes to us with light and color and we welcome her with dance, song, and play with colors. We tell various stories from the Hindu tradition. One of the best known is the narrative about the child, Prahalad, and his tyrannical king-father, Hiranyakashipu.
Read MoreThe truth is that the many are not dependent on words for existence but on the one reality. In the absence of a name, an object continues to exist, but nothing exists without the One. It is in this sense that the Chāndogya text speaks of clay as satyam. It points to the dependence of the effect on the cause for the continuity of its existence.
Read MoreEvery Hindu song of devotion (bhajan) has a composer/s and every composer has a theology, a specific understanding of the nature of God and the meaning of the religious life that he/she wants to communicate. It is important that we be attentive to the meaning and implications of the theology communicated in these songs. Sometimes, the message is deeply problematic.
Read MoreWe invite all Hindus to join with us in this urgent task of advocating for and building communities that are free from caste. Let us work together to overcome the structures of inequality, injustice and indignity present in our tradition. Let us do so by celebrating the truth of God’s presence in all, conferring dignity and equal worth to every human being, and by practicising the virtues of compassion (karuṇa) and generous self-giving (dāna).
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